P.S. I am missing out on your video postings even though I am subscribed. Is YT throttling your posts? I had no idea that you had been putting up videos over the past three weeks. I know that CZcams has a history of censoring things with which they do not agree. Is this why I haven't been receiving notices of stuff you are putting up here?
Luca: (I hope that you remember me through our intense discussions.) As I think and pray through some deep things, I had a thought and was wondering about what you may think about one of my conclusions. "Sin is who we are, not what we do". What I mean by that is that we sin because in a semantical sense,as well as an ontological sense, we are sin. We don't say it that way; we say that we are sinners. As unregenerate creatures, we don't really see ourselves as fallen or broken or sin(ners) unless the Spirit reveals us to ourselves as such. But even after being born of the spirit, it is a difficult admission to realize and accept that we are as sinful as we actually are. It is difficult for us to admit that we are, in a sense, sin. I think that this is why Paul teaches that in our flesh, in our being dwells NO good thing. Without the transforming grace of God, we are inapable of practicing any righteousness, we are incapable of being who and what God, who is Holy and Pure and Perfect, desires , even demands that his creatures be. I think that this is an accurate understanding of scripture and helps me to comprehend what it means to be truly transformed as far as my (broken) sexuality, and indeed, as far as ALL of my brokenness. I see that scripture, especially in the details of Romans, shows us the dual natures we have when we are regenerated, born of The Spirit of God. One nature, our sin nature CANNOT ever be what we must be. That's why that (sin) nature must be put to death. And our sin nature cannot destroy or put itself to death. This death to sin, to my sinful self, can only be a work of the Holy Spirit. This is why I failed to ultimately stop being homosexual and subsequentlyfell again into homosexuality after years of living as an abstinent, celibate Christian man. I was attempting to transform myself; my dead, sinful self was trying to deaden my dead sinful self. I could at best "white knuckle it" and at worst, experience the futility of that "approach" and do what i ultimately did, which was to fall back into homosexual sin. I don't believe that I ever grasped this, or maybe I was never truly "born again" or born of The Spirit, or regenerated by the Holy Spirit prior to just over this past year; I really don't know. I have a history of Christian pursuits, but I am beginning to see that maybe all of that was simply my "flesh" desiring God, but never really experiencing the truth of being born again. Jesus said "Marvel not that I say to you that you must be born again. What do you think of my thoughts, especially vis-a-vis the homosexual struggle(S)?
www.givemn.org/organization/agape-first-ministries
P.S. I am missing out on your video postings even though I am subscribed. Is YT throttling your posts? I had no idea that you had been putting up videos over the past three weeks. I know that CZcams has a history of censoring things with which they do not agree. Is this why I haven't been receiving notices of stuff you are putting up here?
Luca: (I hope that you remember me through our intense discussions.) As I think and pray through some deep things, I had a thought and was wondering about what you may think about one of my conclusions.
"Sin is who we are, not what we do". What I mean by that is that we sin because in a semantical sense,as well as an ontological sense, we are sin. We don't say it that way; we say that we are sinners. As unregenerate creatures, we don't really see ourselves as fallen or broken or sin(ners) unless the Spirit reveals us to ourselves as such. But even after being born of the spirit, it is a difficult admission to realize and accept that we are as sinful as we actually are. It is difficult for us to admit that we are, in a sense, sin. I think that this is why Paul teaches that in our flesh, in our being dwells NO good thing. Without the transforming grace of God, we are inapable of practicing any righteousness, we are incapable of being who and what God, who is Holy and Pure and Perfect, desires , even demands that his creatures be. I think that this is an accurate understanding of scripture and helps me to comprehend what it means to be truly transformed as far as my (broken) sexuality, and indeed, as far as ALL of my brokenness.
I see that scripture, especially in the details of Romans, shows us the dual natures we have when we are regenerated, born of The Spirit of God. One nature, our sin nature CANNOT ever be what we must be. That's why that (sin) nature must be put to death. And our sin nature cannot destroy or put itself to death. This death to sin, to my sinful self, can only be a work of the Holy Spirit. This is why I failed to ultimately stop being homosexual and subsequentlyfell again into homosexuality after years of living as an abstinent, celibate Christian man. I was attempting to transform myself; my dead, sinful self was trying to deaden my dead sinful self. I could at best "white knuckle it" and at worst, experience the futility of that "approach" and do what i ultimately did, which was to fall back into homosexual sin. I don't believe that I ever grasped this, or maybe I was never truly "born again" or born of The Spirit, or regenerated by the Holy Spirit prior to just over this past year; I really don't know. I have a history of Christian pursuits, but I am beginning to see that maybe all of that was simply my "flesh" desiring God, but never really experiencing the truth of being born again.
Jesus said "Marvel not that I say to you that you must be born again.
What do you think of my thoughts, especially vis-a-vis the homosexual struggle(S)?