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Showing posts with the label Holy Spirit conviction

Conviction Can Be Healthy

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Conviction is not God telling us that there is no hope. Conviction is often God showing us exactly where we need His help . It is like the light coming on in a dark room. When the light comes on, it does not create the things that are already there. It simply allows us to see what was there all along. God's Word does the same thing. It can bring something into the light that we did not see before, or something we may have seen but did not want to acknowledge. Sometimes God's Word comforts us. Sometimes it encourages us. Sometimes it strengthens us when we are weak. And sometimes it corrects us when we are wrong. We cannot decide that the Word is good only when it tells us something we want to hear. If we believe God's Word is truth, then we have to allow it to tell us the truth about us too. There is no shame in discovering that something in us needs to change. Every one of us has things that God has had to correct. The shame would be in knowing that God has shown u...

The Sin That Cannot Be Forgiven

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What Did Jesus Really Mean? Few passages in the Bible have caused as much fear and confusion as Jesus' words about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, in Mark 5 . Many sincere Christians have wondered if they committed this sin years ago without realizing it.  Some remember saying something foolish before they were saved.  Others think back to a time when they doubted God or questioned the Bible.  Still others have heard preachers speak about the "unpardonable sin" in such frightening ways that they have spent years wondering if there is any hope left for them.  Yet when we carefully read what Jesus actually said, and especially why He said it, we discover that many of these fears come from misunderstanding the passage rather than from understanding it. Whenever we come to a difficult passage in Scripture, we should remember that the Bible interprets itself. First, we look at the definition of the words being used. Second, we examine the context by reading the v...