<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[TypicalSaint.com]]></title><description><![CDATA[Articles]]></description><link>http://typicalsaint.com/</link><copyright><![CDATA[Copyright TypicalSaint.com]]></copyright><generator>sNews CMS</generator><item><title><![CDATA[Freedom In Christ]]></title><description><![CDATA[  I woke up this morning thinking about the subject of our salvation. I have often struggled with articulating the Gospel that I believe is understood by so few people. Some questions that came to my mind are:  
  (Please answer these these question as you read through them.)  
  
  Why did Jesus die?  
  What sin did Jesus die for?  
  If Jesus died for your sin, why would God still punish you for your sin by sending you to hell for them?  
  Is there an unforgivable sin?  
  Is there a sin Jesus could not die for?  
  What would be the implication if that sin was not unforgivable but instead Jesus paid the price for that sin?  
  

  I want to answer those questions and you can see how different my answers are from yours. 1.) Jesus died for my sins. 2.) He died for all my sins. 3.) God won't send to hell for my sin because Jesus already paid the price for them. 4.) Yes, there is one (1) unforgivable sin. 5.) Yes, Jesus could not die for the sin of unbelief. 6.) The implication would be people could not go to hell for unbelief because Jesus would have paid for that sin. That means people would be in heaven who do not believe.  

  I hope my thought process is beginning to make some sense. There is only one unforgivable sin - unbelief. Hebrews chapters 3 & 4 tell us the reason for the people of Israel not being allowed to enter the promised land was because of the "sin of unbelief". We're then told to make every effort to enter into that rest by not hardening our hearts. "Today if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts." If you understand this subject you begin to see why we're told that there is freedom in Christ. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. It's because our righteousness, our salvation is not dependent upon us or our ability to keep from sinning. It's based solely upon the   finished work of Christ upon the cross  . Our righteousness is based on what Jesus did, not what we do. I need not worry or be concerned with any of my failures and sin causing me to loose my salvation. I only need to be concerned with believing and trusting in Jesus the Christ and what He did for me.  

  Once again I quote Martin Luther:  
  
  Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly for He is victorious over sin, death, and the world. As long as we are here in this world we have to sin. This life is not a dwelling place of righteousness.  
  ]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 05 Feb 2009 06:14:41 +0000</pubDate><link>http://typicalsaint.com/christianity/freedom-in-christ/</link><guid>http://typicalsaint.com/christianity/freedom-in-christ/</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[Sin Boldy, Enjoy Christ]]></title><description><![CDATA[  This past years has been one of the greatest years of my life. I've struggled more in this past year than at any other point in my life; but God has been so good to me. I know people are very aware of many of my failures, but there are far more than they see. Truly I am the chief of sinner; I am no better than the murders, rapists and child molesters in our prisons. I have fallen so short of what I should be and my sin grieves me greatly. I am constantly reminded of my failure many times every day. But Praise be to God who continues to love me.  

  The story of my life is a sad one, but praise God there is Good News! It finally hit me and I realized that my sin, my failures, regardless of how great they are or how often they come can never separate me from the love of God that was shown to me in the person and work of Jesus Christ. They can never cause me to loose my salvation; they can never condemn those who are in Jesus Christ. It is not the sinful acts, or the abominable things I struggle with daily that separate me from God; they will never cause me to loose my salvation. The only thing that separate me from God is when I choose to reject the righteousness offered too us through faith alone in the person and work of Jesus Christ, and attempt to do good and earn my own righteousness through my own effort.  

  I don't like who I am, or what I've become; I don't like my sin. I know I do thing I shouldn't and it seem as if I am never able to do those things which I know I should. I am always doing those things I don't want to do. I know my flesh loves to sin, my human nature constantly desires to do evil things; but my spirit does not. This controversy, this war between my flesh and my spirit can become very exhausting. It will cause you to want to give up in surrender. If, there is an   "if"   in this reality;   if   you attempt to overcome those sins and struggles. This does't make sense humanly speaking. This idea that you should make no attempt to overcome your sin just doesn't make sense. Humanly speaking we say, if you are struggling with a sin then do everything you can to stop. If you struggle with alcoholism then don't go near bars, don't go in the isles where they sell alcohol and join an accountability group. If you struggle with pornography then get rid of your computer, use internet filters and stay away from porn shops. We have all kinds of ideas of how to deal with this or that   sin  . We try and memorize scripture, we try and read our bible more, we try and become more involved in church in an attempt to overcome the sins that plague us so that we can become more like God; so that we can become righteous. The problem is that at the end of the day we say, "I overcame this or that sin by reading my bible more and praying more and avoiding this or that place. I over came my sin by becoming apart of an accountability group and confessing my sins." In short, we became righteous or at the very least   more   more righteous by doing those things. This is where the problem is at because God will share the Praise, Glory and Credit due Him with no other. It must be all about the work of Jesus and nothing else. It is all about what Jesus did with no exceptions to that word     all    . Is all about Jesus and when all is said and done, it's still all about Jesus.  

  So what does all this mean? It means this, stop trying to overcome your sin; stop trying to overcome your arrogance, your temper, your addictions and do nothing. Again, this doesn't make sense. How can it be possible that God doesn't want us to make an effort to overcome our sins? What are we suppose to do then? The answer should be Good News to everyone struggling with sin. The answer is to do nothing and believe that even as you are, even with all you daily sin you are righteous because of what happened about 2000 years ago when a sacrifice was made for your sins. When Jesus, the Lamb of God was slain for your sin. It doesn't matter if I never overcome my sin and continue to struggle with them until the day I die, I am still righteous. It's not something I'll become or am in the process of becoming, it's something I already am.  

  This is why Martin Luther said:  
  
  Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly for He is victorious over sin, death, and the world. As long as we are here in this world we have to sin. This life is not a dwelling place of righteousness.    

  The good news is do nothing, rest in Christ, sin boldly knowing the price has been paid and enjoy life in Christ. Enjoy living at the foot of the Cross where there is no longer any condemnation.  ]]></description><pubDate>Mon, 22 Dec 2008 03:54:06 +0000</pubDate><link>http://typicalsaint.com/personal/sin-boldly-enjoy-christ/</link><guid>http://typicalsaint.com/personal/sin-boldly-enjoy-christ/</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[Do Nazarene&#039;s believe in speaking in tongues?]]></title><description><![CDATA[  This is a question that is asked all the time and it's probably one of the most misunderstood topics in all of Christianity. I'll explain briefly what the Church of the Nazarene and most other non-Pentecostal churches believe about speaking in tongues.  

  There are two major differing viewpoints about speaking in tongues. The traditional view held by virtually all of Christianity from the time of the Apostles is that "speaking in tongues" is where a person is supernaturally empowered by the Holy Spirit to speak the foreign language of another people (such as Arabic, Chinese, French, etc). The Pentecostal view is that "speaking in tongues" refers to a heavenly language designed primarily for private prayer and God is the only one who can understand it. Within each group there are minor differing viewpoints but those are the two major distinctions. The church of the Nazarene and most denominations that existed before the early 1900's does not agree with the Pentecostal view of speaking in an unknown tongue as a private prayer language and believes it is nothing more than an counterfeit and/or distraction of the true Gift.  

  We can learn a lot about this topic by reading what has been written by Christians throughout history. When we look at the writing of people like Augustine we see they too disagreed with the modern Pentecostal view. It's incorrect to say that Nazarene's don't believe in Speaking in Tongues because we do, we just don't believe in the Pentecostal view of speaking in an unknown tongue. Nazarene's and many non-Pentecostals are not dogmatic on whether or not Speaking in Tongues as it relates to the traditional view is in existence for today. We are very firm on the belief that the Pentecostal view is completely false.  

  To see a complete explanation of my personal view so speaking in tongues with quotes from Augustine please check out   Is Speaking In Tongues Biblical    ]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 15 Nov 2008 22:20:44 +0000</pubDate><link>http://typicalsaint.com/home/do-nazarenes-believe-in-speaking-in-tongues/</link><guid>http://typicalsaint.com/home/do-nazarenes-believe-in-speaking-in-tongues/</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[I Surrender All]]></title><description><![CDATA[  All to Jesus, I surrender;  
All to Him I freely give;  
I will ever love and trust Him,  
In His presence daily live.  

  I surrender all, I surrender all,  
All to Thee, my blessèd Savior,  
I surrender all.  

  All to Jesus I surrender;  
Humbly at His feet I bow,  
Worldly pleasures all forsaken;  
Take me, Jesus, take me now.  

  
All to Jesus, I surrender;  
Make me, Savior, wholly Thine;  
Let me feel the Holy Spirit,  
Truly know that Thou art mine.  

  All to Jesus, I surrender;  
Lord, I give myself to Thee;  
Fill me with Thy love and power;  
Let Thy blessing fall on me.  

  All to Jesus I surrender;  
Now I feel the sacred flame.  
O the joy of full salvation!  
Glory, glory, to His Name!  
]]></description><pubDate>Sun, 10 Aug 2008 23:53:09 +0000</pubDate><link>http://typicalsaint.com/christianity/i-surrender-all/</link><guid>http://typicalsaint.com/christianity/i-surrender-all/</guid></item><item><title><![CDATA[What Should be our Primary Focus]]></title><description><![CDATA[  Friday I had the opportunity to listen to a couple speak about their experience in ministry and how God was working through them. To my surprise they attend a church I have been very critical of, going so far as to label the pastor a false teacher and a heretic. The meeting took place over a nice BBQ with some good friends and the idea was that we would come together for fellowship, good food and listen to this guy tell us about his experience in ministry and thus be encouraged in our own ministry. He began by telling us where he was from and immediately a red light came on in my mind saying, "Oh no, is he from that church" and then he had to say it...he had to go and say "I go to the Bethel church".  

  I can't tell you what went through my mind at that moment because words cannot express how shocked I was to be sitting there listening to a guy firsthand talk about the very things I have been criticizing. I listened to every single word and I honestly was looking for something to show me that all my accusations and thoughts about the Bethel church might be wrong because I never want to be in the place of hindering or criticizing the true work of God. This man, who is just a few years younger than me, proceeded to tell us how much God is working in the Bethel church with story after story after story of how people are being healed physically. The pain in people's bodies disappeared, a person had a missing chunk of their tongue grow back, cancer was falling off and the stories continued to get more amazing as we heard of one guy that had an anointing to melt metal from people's bodies and when he would touch people the metal would just come out and end up in their hands or fall on the ground.  
  
I know many people are wondering why I have such a problem with this because after all isn't this a non-essential issue? I thought about this for a long time and kept coming back to one thing that I refuse to compromise. If I'm wrong about these "miracles" and they are real and people are truly being healed, regardless of how amazing it may be, it's nothing in comparison to what Christ has done for us by saving us from our sins. One is temporary and the other is eternal and yet these miracles are the primary focus in the lives of the Bethel church congregation. As I sat and listened to this guy speak, I never heard a single story of how someone’s life was changed by putting their faith in Jesus Christ. I believe anything less than an absolute primary focus on the redemption of the soul from sin and hell is to cheapen make the death of Christ meaningless. We can always recognize the true move of God because it will always bring us back to cross of Christ where we find redemption from sin through Christ’s atonement. This is how we can know if the prophecy, miracles and teachings of the Bethel church are true. We must always ask, where is this taught in scripture and does it point me back to Christ. The answer is an emphatic NO when it comes to the Bethel church.  ]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 09 Aug 2008 23:35:57 +0000</pubDate><link>http://typicalsaint.com/christianity/what-should-be-our-primary-focus/</link><guid>http://typicalsaint.com/christianity/what-should-be-our-primary-focus/</guid></item></channel></rss>
