Source of Pain: Truth and Error

We cannot believe what is true, and then hold onto what is not true at the same time.

We cannot believe that we are forgiven all of our sins, then turn around and confess our sins in the hopes that God will forgive us.

All of this activity on our part makes no sense whatsoever.

I had wrestled with a great deal of this when I was younger.

I never understood why I had to confess my sins in order to be forgiven, if I had been forgiven of all my sins because of what Jesus did for me at the Cross.

The pain for a great deal of my life, then, was resolving in my mind two different accounts.

I was forgiven, yet I had to be forgiven.

God is taking care of all my needs, yet I have to do my part.

What?

For the last week, I have started to understand to a greater extent the pain and hurt.

I was believing two things at once.

I was surrounded by people who either told me that I could believe whatever I wanted to do, or that I had to work Twelve Steps.

All of this is totally wrong.

It really frustrates me, it really angers me to find that many parents are not training their children in the way to go.

What does the Bible say?

"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." (Proverbs 22: 6)

The impetus of this verse speaks more to what a child does, but who a child is. "Train" can also mean "dedicate". Parents are called to dedicated their children to the Word of God, not the meandering pandering of men. Twelve Step programs are all about man focusing on himself.

There is no life or hope there.

We need life in another. We life need in Himself.

This is the truth of God's Word. We do not vacillate between truth and error, but we rest in the truth of God's grace, and we stop playing "Yeah, but" with all that Jesus has done for us.

"13Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;" (Ephesians 4: 13-14)

If the Bible says: "I will be a God to you" (Hebrews 8: 10-12), then it's time for us to take God at His Word.

Why do we not take God at His Word/ Because we are trying to reconcile two accounts, which are fully opposed to each other. Either we believe that Jesus died for us, or He did not. Either He is our Savior, or He is not, and thus we seek/attain salvation through someone else.