Posted on 12/04/2021 10:08:03 PM PST by Pilgrim's Progress
“His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins" (Proverbs 5:22).
There are some people that whenever they are cornered about something, they will lie every time. It’s not even a conscious thought whether they should or should not; they no longer have a conscience about lying under certain circumstances. There are some people that will steal or sneak something, given the right circumstances. They will do certain things when they think they're alone and nobody's watching them and nobody's going to know. You need to be careful of that stuff.
“In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will" (2 Timothy 2:25-26).
See, some oppose themselves. Sometimes it's worthwhile in counseling to tell somebody, “You are your own problem.” We don't hear a lot of that anymore. You don't get that too much from Jim Dobson. You are your own problem. Look, no problem that you have is your mother’s or father’s problem. There comes a day when a man is no longer 16 or 18 and becomes a 24 or more-year-old man. When you were young and immature, there's some things that can be blamed on mom and dad, maybe. When you turn 25 years-old, you can't blame things on mom anymore.
You need to get your life straightened out, or else you're going to be a wreck. You are going to have to take responsibility for how you behave at 25 years old or else there is no hope for you except some drug-induced state.
“if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth,” see, there is an acknowledging that God has a part in that thing. That is not a sovereign, Calvinistic thing. That is God giving somebody grace or strength to pull out of a bad situation. How many of us were total wrecks when we got saved? How many of us were drunks? How many of us were drug addicts? how many of us were any manner of messed up and if left to ourselves, we were not going to pull out of it; just left to ourselves. This is not some weird Calvinistic thing. It’s acknowledging that you had to have help from God, and He gave us the grace to recover ourselves “out of the snare of the devil, who were taken captive by him at his will.”
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I didn’t surrender til’ way later in life and God carried me all the while. A mazing. I left the space intentionally. All Glory to God.
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