Real believers have a new identity in Christ. Embrace your new identity, and don't be labeled by accusers

[JamOn]

You seem to pick and chose who you listen too, may one day a donkey will have a chat with you.

 

[JamOn]

From my experience there’s no one in This world I can’t learn from

 

[JamOn]

If anyone had gone to a AA or NA meetings surely they know this prayer.

 

[UnitedWithChrist]

Sometimes God doesn’t take away/heal the physical addictions for reasons, alcohol and other type of drugs are physical addiction as well as mental, the Neurotransmitters of the Brain have altered for the rest of their lives.

Not saying some are healed of those damaged neurotransmitters, but some are not that’s doesn’t mean you can’t learned something from either.

I'm not sure how this figures into any remark I've made.

I have said that believers have a new identity, and that they should not live according to their old identity. However, if they fail to put on Christ in some area, they still have their new identity.

I have said that I would not go to a person who had been divorced multiple times for advice on marriage. I think that's pretty self-evident. I wouldn't give advice if I had been divorced three times either. Something is wrong with my discernment in that area if so.

 

[UnitedWithChrist]

If anyone had gone to a AA or NA meetings surely they know this prayer.
View attachment 204690

Sounds like a bad prayer to me, if they are admitting defeat.

And, another issue is, if a person is united with Christ, the resources they have extend beyond "the things I cannot change". Christ shares their burdens and they can draw upon the indwelling Christ in those areas.

But maybe I'm viewing their statement wrongly. I doubt they are coming at it from a fully Christian approach.

 

[UnitedWithChrist]

I’m not challenging, it seems prideful and arrogant to say you can not learn from people who are not perfected as you are.

I'm not perfect. Like I said, I rely on Christ as my identity.

 

[JamOn]

I'm not sure how this figures into any remark I've made.

I have said that believers have a new identity, and that they should not live according to their old identity. However, if they fail to put on Christ in some area, they still have their new identity.

I have said that I would not go to a person who had been divorced multiple times for advice on marriage. I think that's pretty self-evident. I wouldn't give advice if I had been divorced three times either. Something is wrong with my discernment in that area if so.

I didn’t like you bashing the AA and NA organization they help people to get clean, and surely God has lead people to attend them.

 

[JamOn]

I'm not perfect. Like I said, I rely on Christ as my identity.

And you throw everyone else’s out the window, some of those who attend those meetings are Christians who are there to help others.

 

[JamOn]

Sometimes God has to go to the places that no one else will, to worried about of having a identity conflict.

 

[Magenta]

Yeah..I don't think that long-term self condemnation will result with older believers, and it is mostly baby believers I'm concerned with. Maybe that's what Jesus was referring to, when he mentioned offending a little one..or at least part of it.

Matt 18:5 5“Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, 6but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin,a it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

"receives" has to do with acceptance and not rejection.

Matthew 18:3-6

 

[JamOn]

Sounds like a bad prayer to me, if they are admitting defeat.

And, another issue is, if a person is united with Christ, the resources they have extend beyond "the things I cannot change". Christ shares their burdens and they can draw upon the indwelling Christ in those areas.

But maybe I'm viewing their statement wrongly. I doubt they are coming at it from a fully Christian approach.

Yes that is what they do, they are powerless over their addiction, that’s one of the sickness of addictions thinking its all under control when it’s far from the truth.

that’s a bad prayer, that’s sad that you condemn a prayer.

 

[Magenta]

If anyone had gone to a AA or NA meetings surely they know this prayer.
View attachment 204690

Serenity Prayer

 

[JamOn]

Serenity Prayer

Thank you Magenta for post the full prayer, it’s a nice picture too

 

[Magenta]

Thank you Magenta for post the full prayer, it’s a nice picture too

You are welcome I attend both AA and NA, and while I understand that there are Christians who do not understand the identification process, questioning why we call ourselves an addict or an alcoholic, I could say it is no different than still identifying as a human being who needs the power of God operating in my life to help me, because if I were to take a drink or a toque, it would not stop there. In fact, openly acknowledging that I suffer from a physical allergy and a spiritual malady and a mental disorder helps others come to grips with the truth about their lives, and where our true source of power lies, which is not in self, but God

 

[crossnote]

The Freedom and Power of Forgiveness, John MacArthur.


I am Reformed, am not charismatic/Pentecostal, not KJV Only, not dispensationalist,...

Isn't MacArthur still Dispensational, or did he switch from that too?

 

[JamOn]

You are welcome I attend both AA and NA, and while I understand that there are Christians who do not understand the identification process, questioning why we call ourselves an addict or an alcoholic, I could say it is no different than still identifying as a human being who needs the power of God operating in my life to help me, because if I were to take a drink or a toque, it would not stop there. In fact, openly acknowledging that I suffer from a physical allergy and a spiritual malady and a mental disorder helps others come to grips with the truth about their lives, and where our true source of power lies, which is not in self, but God

we are just humans that are fallible and the power of God can make us infallible, and that power has been manifested in you and your testimony to another about what God has done in your life. that can be just what the good doctor ordered to warm another heart who also struggles with addiction

Paul said he had a thorn in his side, addictions might be of a similar feeling of a thorn in the side.

 

[Magenta]

we are just humans that are fallible and the power of God can make us infallible, and that power has been manifested in you and your testimony to another about what God has done in your life. that can be just what the good doctor ordered to warm another heart who also struggles with addiction

Paul said he had a thorn in his side, addictions might be of a similar feeling of a thorn in the side.

Alcohol and drug addiction take a lot of people down, some so far they end up under ground. Best to get to them before they go there! I had been attending meetings for years before I first got clean and sober after crying out for help to that God in Whom I did not believe. I consider losing the desire and obsession to use nothing short of a miracle

 

[maxwel]

The OP sounded biblical and reasonable to me.

 

[JamOn]

Alcohol and drug addiction take a lot of people down, some so far they end up under ground. Best to get to them before they go there! I had been attending meetings for years before I first got clean and sober after crying out for help to that God in Whom I did not believe. I consider losing the desire and obsession to use nothing short of a miracle

I’ve known a couple of people who went under ground because of addictions to drugs, one guy I knew was a high school football player very talented but got wrapped in heroine, his so called friends left him in his car in the parking lot of a hospital having a over dose and didn’t even tell no one in the hospital.

 

[Nehemiah6]

Sometimes God doesn’t take away/heal the physical addictions for reasons, alcohol and other type of drugs are physical addiction as well as mental, the Neurotransmitters of the Brain have altered for the rest of their lives.

This kind of belief will put people on a slippery slope. There is absolutely no biblical basis for claiming that addictions are more powerful than the working of the Holy Spirit within genuine believers. The new creature in Christ is also expected to walk in newness of life. Which means walking away from all addictions.

ROMANS 6
1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.
8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:
9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.
10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. [NOTE: ADDICTIONS ARE SIMPLY LUSTS]
13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.

No one should be encouraged believe that even though they are a new creature in Christ, they can justify their old addictions.