Unconfessed sin can be very dangerous to the spiritual walk of a believer. Sin is when we do something that displeases God. We are all guilty of sin, and deserve to spend eternity separated completely from Him. He has promised to forgive us of our sins, but only if we take initiative and confess them to Him. Although Jesus died on the cross to pay our debt in full, there are still consequences when we sin against a holy and righteous God, and we don’t ask for repentance. We must acknowledge that unconfessed sin in the life of a believer will damage our ministry, take away our joy in Christ, and ultimately make us feel separated from God. When we are living in sin, we will eventually stop seeing results in our ministry. Our relationship with God becomes broken, and we no longer have a strong desire to read and study His word. When we are not pursuing a constant relationship with Christ, then we are unable to understand what His plan is for our lives. Our understanding of His word becomes vague, so we can’t clearly communicate it to others who are trying to grow spiritually. We begin to have the wrong motive behind ministry. It becomes something we do because it’s a good thing, not because we desire to share Christ. We don’t have the heart to serve anymore. This is especially true when those in leadership of a church are harboring a secret sin. The church starts to slide down a slippery slope, and no one seems to know why. Eventually, the sin of that individual will come
Christian counselors have found that sin, in the life of the client, is a very common reason for the client’s guilt, depression, etc. (psychological problems) whether the negative emotions are attributed to internal or, external reasons (p. 160). Therefore, sin management is not a viable counseling model, for Christian counselors, because sin represents more than bad behaviors; it is an integral part of man’s fallen nature, thereby, making all men part of a universal community that shares in sin, guilt and shame
Secondly, if his heart is not fully going to be in the sermons then what he says is in vain. Sermons do require practice, but also sermons require the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is going to work at the heart of the hearers of the sermon and the preacher. If the pastor’s heart is not tender to God’s Word before he preaches, the congregation will not receive the sermon. Preachers must have boldness, pure hearts, and clearness when he is preaching (2 Timothy 2:15)! Along with the preaching, pastors are to have a heart for service outside the pulpit. The list includes meetings, church events, small groups, visitations, funerals, and community events. Pastors are to be salt and light unto the world and for his flock (Matthew 5:13-16). It is not good enough to be a body at the events, he must be invested in the people in everything. Many times, the heart wants to isolate a believer to do their own thing (Proverbs 18:1). As a pastor, he cannot afford to give up his opportunities to serve! God uses pastors as a “figure head” of what Christ is. No, it does not mean he is above everyone else, but the pastor is a shepherd of his flock (1 Peter 5:1-4). Pastoral ministry cannot be viewed as a job because it ruins the heart of the ministry.
God gave men the free will to elect their own salvation. There is no sin until it is actually committed. Sin was now considered a voluntary act. It also consists of a change of heart, which revived the concept of limited atonement. Christ did not die for only a select few predestined elect, but for whosoever will accept God’s offer of salvation. Personal commitment also involved an active and useful Christian life in which individual action brings the kingdom closer.
Sin makes us, " hide from God out of fear and flee his call. " ( CCC 29 ). Sin is a very scary thing that hurts our relationship with God. We feel rejected from God and lose the desire to be with him. When I sin, I feel as if God isn't with me. I get distracted by material goods which causes me to forget about God. Many people including my self believe that when you sin God doesn't love you anymore. We lose the desire for God because We feel as if God doesn't love us. We become so scared that we run away from him. It's like we lose our connection to him. What we all forget is that we have the most merciful God. He is so merciful that he gave his son so that we could live. No matter what, God will forgive us. We should never hide from God and flee his call, we should always stay with his plan cause he knows
A church whose pastor and others in leadership have failed to put in place a proactive plan for discipleship for Believers is usually a “growing” church — growing stagnant, growing cold, growing spiritually immature Christians, and eventually, many growing closed. Patte said, “There is much at stake in accepting or rejecting the challenge of discipleship…” When a pastor or a church makes a conscious decision to make discipleship of Believers a primary focus in their
As a prose romance, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter sets characters up in opposition to each other to illustrate extremes of human experience. Dimmesdale is presented as the ultimate hypocrite, preaching moral righteousness to the Puritan community whilst being an adulterer himself. Hester, on the other hand, is painted in stark contrast to Dimmesdale: although shunned as an adulterer by the Puritan community, she lives out her life honestly, taking care of her illegitimate daughter Pearl. The forest is a place of liberation from oppressive social norms and a place of revelation for Hester and Dimmesdale, where they are able to reveal aspects of themselves that they
Sin-management theology leads us to believe that we must earn God’s love and grace through our works and actions, which contradicts the whole purpose of Jesus coming to the earth. Those living under the law showed that man could never earn God’s love and grace through works because of man’s fallen nature. Therefore, it causes humanity to live in a broken state that results in hiding and disregards the righteousness given to us by God.
When Reverend Pastor Patrick Dennis stood in the pulpit on Sunday mornings and preached from the gospel, he did it knowing that the very words he spoke condemned him. Yet, Sunday after Sunday he got up there and shared the Bible with a congregation that not only knew his sin, but sometimes participated in it.
Hi Roneshia. I enjoyed reading your thread, as it had touch various interesting points explaining the presence of sin in the modern culture. Indeed, the lives of human now around can revolves around technologies, and through technology, information can reach more people than ever. Nevertheless, if used negatively, this can cause human to behave immorally. The media had manipulated the belief of people repeatedly through the news and stories. The role models of many people, the celebrities, sometimes also commit immoral actions. Moreover, one of the components that strongly shape a person's world view is the culture. As time change, culture change along with it, and the view is shaped by the majority of people. If the dominant number of people
Would you betray your country for the sake of your friendship? This is not an everyday question that you come across. We make choices that could affect us in the future in a bad or good way everyday. In the passage “Sin,” the author, Agnes Repplier, looks back when she was twelve on the time she had to make a risky decision. She decides to lie to her mother in order to save her friendship with Lily.
We are meant to live in the love of God. "Keep yourself in the love of God" (Jude 1:21). Paul says we should stay 'rooted and grounded in the love of God' (Eph 3:17). You see, it is God's love that produces faith in us -- it's love that causes faith to work (Gal 5:6).
The connection here really is more vital than what many people give it credit for. Many modern pastors focus more on the heart reaction so they preach towards the spiritual vitality and offer encouraging words of hope, grace and love, but seldom reflect on sin, consequences, or suffering as shown in Scripture; you cannot adequately have one with the other. Spiritual vitality without theological integrity is much like having a table without legs. It is saying that we believe in God, but not really know who God is.
It is not an easy task to carry out public leadership, you have to know almost everything, counseling marriage on the verge breaking down, baptizing dying babies, administering Holy Communion for dying individuals, leading marriage ceremony with unusual and complicated scenario. It is also not easy to accept ministry as God calling rather than as job placement or vocational opportunity. It is tough to accept the people, their culture, tradition and the whole identity. God called us to ministry so that we will be able exercise his full authority (Matt 28:16-18) with full humility (Philippians 2:6, 2Cor 8:9, Rom 5:6-8). We have to deny ourselves and follow the footsteps of Jesus our Lord (Luke 9:23).
Once we recognize God’s true love for us and see the need of looking to Christ to change our hearts rather than trying to do it on our own, we see our need of repentance, which involves a change of direction, turning our back on previous intentions and actions, and seeking new direction in life. Instead of making excuses, blaming circumstances or others, repentance means taking full responsibility. King David, after committing murder and adultery appealed to Christ: "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me" (Psalms 51:10). He accepted his guilt and asked for a new direction – from Christ.
If we use the Weslyan definition of sin we find that there are four elements that lead to sin a personal voluntary act. The first of these is to use God as a standard. He is perfect and flawless, as we should strive to be. The second is man as a free personality. God gave us free will to decide our own actions; He did not just make us drones. The third makes sin a live option. It is something that is always there and we can always choose to do what God would have us do or go against His will. The fourth is a deed committed. This goes back to the third one. Sin is a willful act against God. We must choose right or wrong.