Wanting to dig deeper

Greetings

Ginnyrose you posted in another thread something that I really wanted to dig deeper in. I am beginning a new thread because I did not want to get off topic on the marriage divorce thread.

Ginnyrose wrote:Frankly, I am very cautious of any preacher who works to make me feel good, who would not challenge me to a closer walk with the LORD, who is too timid to challenge sin on a person's life. In this regard, Washer is passionate about holiness without which no man will see the LORD. Simple as that. Are we passionate about being holy? Sometimes? How about ALL the time?

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This is right in line with what Father has been putting on my heart as well. I was thinking about the passage "If you love Me, you will obey Me.”
I have actually been thinking on this passage for some time. I am wondering what this means to some of the brothers and sister here on sermon index?
if we love Him shouldn't we truly be ready and desire to surrender all, self? family? friends? work? time? thoughts? emotions? daily living? Doesn't loving Him and demonstrating that love for Him mean walking in the reality that we no longer have control over our lives, He does.
"If you love me you will obey me." Doesn't this mean in all things, even when it hurts us deeply to give something up, or even someone up, will we willingly do so to demonstrate that love we profess to have for Him? There are many of us who profess with our mouths that we are willing to live in submission to Him in all things even unto the point of death but what about today, what about the day to day right now? What does that look like?

Just some the thinks that Father has been pressing on my heart lately.

God Bless
Maryjane

I'm right there with you on that! I want to give Him my all, my everything! And I'd like to think that I am willing to do that. No matter what it is! I know this may seem small, but I gave up coffee. I love(d) coffee. I would drink maybe three cups, sometimes more, a day. It would pep me up. I drink water other than the few cups of coffee, so I don't get much caffeine. So naturally it gave me a boost. Well, I started to feel the nudge of the Holy Spirit leading me to quit drinking it. So I did. May I say that it was not easy. It was very hard. Caffeine should definitely be labeled as a drug, because it is very addictive. I asked for prayer while I was "getting off of it." And thank God, He helped me. I was ill-mannered and not really pleasant to be around for the first day or so. But now I have been coffee-free for almost 2 weeks now. 12 days to be exact. Sure, I still want it, but I know that He doesn't want me to have it, so there you go. I'm hoping that He is preparing me for the bigger picture. I know that this walk with Him is a day by day walk. And I'm really praying that He will continue to purge this flesh that my spirit resides in. I'm trying to lean totally and completely on Him. And I say trying because flesh gets in the way sometimes and thinks that it can deal with the situation without any help. When that happens I must get on my face and cry out to Him. I'm glad to see that others feel the same way! And Ginnyrose I don't want a preacher who makes me feel good either. I want someone to step all over my toes and knock me over the head with "Thus saith the LORD..." Hallelujah!!!(I like Paul Washer's sermons! He's one of my favorites!)
In Christ,
Wendy :-)

I'd like to add a note...I don't think that drinking coffee is a sin. I was drinking it more or less to "pep up." I was relying on it to give me energy and to pick me up when I was down, so to speak. Well, I don't need coffee to do that! I've got God and He can pick me up better than any ol' cup of coffee can! So, if you read this and you drink coffee, I am not condemning you! I was putting it before God and that's why I think the Holy Spirit was nudging me to quit!
:-)

I CORINTHIANS 10:31 Our lives are for the glory of God that is why we are here. That is why Christ came. He lived His life for the glory of God, that is the work of the Father. If you are a christian this is your heart for the Spirit dwells within you. For it is in Christ that we find our strength and not of our own strength PHILIPPIANS 4:13. Without His strength we can do nothing. When we give all to Him it is living in the strength of christ in which we can do all things. Justification and imputation of righteousness happens at once; ROMANS 5:1, but each day anew we give all to Him, live in His power by His Spirit GALATIANS 5:16. He is reforming us to Himself and He lives this life out thought us. We are His and not our own, and as christians we find great joy in this fact. God is good.