Falling away

Hmm falling away - can we fall away from God?

This has been the probably one of the most debated questions of all time and one which I guess each of us has our own definition.

From what I have read and gleaned out of Gods Word there are two main thoughts on this subject (probably there are heaps more when you think about it).

It is certainly not my intention to try to convince anyone either one way or the other - rather just to give a few thoughts about both ways of thinking.

I will say though that if you are thinking you  have 'gone beyond' what God is willing to forgive and that you have committed sins so grievous there is absolutely no hope for you - then that is a pretty good  pointer that the Holy Spirit isn't finished working in your life yet.

The Holy Spirit is so long suffering, He will not give up easily. So if you are so concerned about your sins and feel you are falling away yet you still have that desire to repent and live all out for Jesus then  I implore you to come back without delay.  For no one can can draw us to Jesus except the Holy Spirit.

Is falling away from our faith a danger to Christians?

Hebrews 6: 4-6 says "It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit who have tasted of the goodness of the Word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subject Him to public disgrace."

Throughout the entire book of Hebrews we are warned that falling away from or abandoning our faith in a dangerous possibility.

So, can people drop out of their faith where there is no possibility of returning?

Some believe that you can very much lose your faith and turn your back on Jesus. They support their view by observing that these people had indeed a relationship with Christ - they had escaped sin's consequences and the desolation of a life without Him.

Then, they have returned to a life of total sin entanglement and end up worse than they were before being converted in the 1st place.

In Matthew 7: 22-23 Jesus spoke and said "On the Judgement Day many will say to me 'Lord Lord! In your name we spoke God's message by Your name we drove out demons and performed many miracles.' Then I will say to them "Depart from me I never knew you - get away from me you wicked people".

They believe that these people are those who genuinely joined themselves with Jesus for the benefits of salvation and purely out of a motive of personal  gain.

They also point out that God in His holy just way is the only one who knows when enough is enough and that their total disobedience will come to the point where there is no hope for their salvation.

On the other hand other Christians point out that when you come to Christ - you are eternally secure and cannot fall away from God's awesome grace and all of the above are aimed fairly and squarely at those who have merely dabbled in the Word and have never taken it seriously enough to commit to it full time.

They see salvation as an irrevocable gift and can't be taken away - they believe that these people who "fall away" just appear to be saved - they know 'about' Jesus and their lifestyles change but such changes are only cosmetic and superficial.

God's Promises and assurances such as Hebrews 13:5 where the writer states "I will never leave you or forsake you" and again John 10: 29 "My father, who has given them to me, is greater than all: no one can snatch then out of my Father's hand."

God's promises and assurances are there - Contradictory? certainly not - these are given to us to warn us about falling away.

Whichever way you wish to interpret, those of us who do 'fall away' are not those who stumble. We all have times of weakness and lapses in faith and doubt the very saving grace of Christ.

But then it is that very same grace that brings us back time and time again and each time we can get closer and closer to God our Heavenly Father.

Those who do 'fall away' and if I can put here "permanently'  are those who remain unrepentant and persist in open rebellion against God - knowing they are deliberately sinning and yet have no desire or intention of coming back to God.

They are likened to the very ones who crucified our Lord and are indeed crucifying Him again and again.

So Did you come to Christ because of your love for Him or because of personal gain?

Are you living contrary to what pleases God, overlooking it, justifying it and just getting on with life.

Are you using the name of Jesus but not really having any other association with Him?

If we really love God we promptly obey Him - Give Him everything, show Him absolute reverence and show humble gratefulness for his myriad blessings.

Also loving Jesus would mean that you would lay your life down for Him no longer living for yourself but living only for Him.

Groans and Moans

WOOHOO - what did we do without all of our modern gadgets - How did we manage??

Its so hard to imagine our world fitting into the world of the late 18th and early 19th centuries - without all of our communication aids - How did those people manage? - it must have been an extraordinary world, no mobile phones, iPods, iPhones,and computers - not even a Fax machine - amazing.

Our incredible God speaks to us so directly - and He has been doing that since creation - no need for any sort of technology - His voice can be strong, caring, sensitive, disciplinary or even a gentle whisper - all we have to do is to listen.

It is so interesting and as pointed out by the none other than Charles Spurgeon himself that in Matthew 11:25 the verse starts by saying "And Jesus answered" BUT it doesn't say who He was answering??

Jesus had such a close Communion with His Father God that he answered Him - and what did He answer "I thank you O Father" .

No one else heard anything - suddenly Jesus says "I thank you O Father" which just goes to show that He had constant and close fellowship and Communion with God His heavenly Father.

Jesus was born as a helpless baby - human - just like us - bone and flesh and blood - and yet here He is being so close to God that He answers Him as if He were having a face-to-face D&M.

So this simple statement in Matthew can teach us something - what?

We can have the same close relationship with our heavenly Father as we can have with other people.

Sometimes when God speaks it will be to convict us of something not right in our lives - we may need to confess whatever it is that God's Holy Spirit have convicted us of and in so doing to re-open the communication pathway.

God is so willing to speak to us - and we need to be willing to speak to Him.

Once we have accepted Jesus as Lord - confessed our past to Him and asked Him to rule our lives then by prayer we have an instant communication line to the Father - it is truly amazing!

Romans 8: 26-27 says "That in our weakness, the Spirit of God helps us because we don't know how to pray as we ought, and so the Spirit intercedes for us with wordless groanings."

The passage goes on "God the father - the one who searched our hearts - knows the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit prays for us according to God's will."

That's a pretty amazing verse - God, through the Holy Spirit knows what we need before we ask - and even when we don't know how or what to pray for - The Holy Spirit knows our hearts and motives and intercedes for us to God.

So in times when we are in stress - life seems to be getting the better of us - our little boat is swamped with mountainous waves and we are all bailing for our lives - God through His Holy Spirit can interpret even our groans and is there for us.

Sometimes we can't put words to how we are feeling - that's happened heaps of times in my life!! - yet God in His mercy and grace can interpret our minds, thoughts, motives and heart aches.

Although, before we can have any communication with our Creator God we must put things right with Him and with anyone else that we have hurt or we feel have hurt us.

Unforgiveness and taking and giving offence will alienate us from Him - and there will be no communication at all, zilch, zero, none!

We need to put things right - ask forgiveness and then keep those lines open to the only one that has the answer to everything.

It just makes me amazed that our Heavenly Father - the great God of Creation, Jesus the son and God the Holy Spirit loves me so much that He is yearning to hear my prayers.

Each time my heart aches, He knows - When I grieve, He knows - and more than that He cares. He cares for me and He cares for you - He hears our groans and moans - our praises and our laughter.

He knows our hearts desires and our motives and our secret sins.

He knows that there are going to be many bad things that happen to us in life. There is going to be much suffering. There are going to be hard times but through it all He hears our "Groanings."

He knows and understands and because of that I personally have a deeper understanding of what prayer is all about.

Prayer is more than a shopping list of wishes!!

Prayer is the open communication between a puny little guy and the King of the Universe - extraordinary!

So when we are deep in the 'puzzle' of life - the ups and downs - the despair - the worry - the deep concern - the joy - the happiness - Be assured that our God does care and does listen to prayers even if we no idea what we are praying for.