FRESH STEPS WITH GOD
Thank you for visiting our website. At Adirondack Baptist Church, we realize that people are drawn to a church website for different reasons.
- Are you a visitor to our area looking for a church to worship with?
CLICK HERE for our service times and calendar. - Have you recently moved to the area and are looking for
a new church home?
CLICK HERE to see the many ways we seek to serve. - Perhaps there are reasons that have led you to consider changing
churches.
CLICK HERE for some perspective on that difficult decision. - Or perhaps you desire to reconnect with God in a meaningful way. We invite you read the article below. We hope the information will be helpful to you. Please contact us with your questions and to speak with someone about your spiritual journey.
A Fresh Start with God
Why do people lose their inspiration for
walking passionately with God?
While there are many popular
answers to this question today, the biblical answer is sin. As long as
we call what kills our passion for God by any other name we will not
experience the cleansing and transformation God has for us.
It’s true, people discourage and disillusion us at times, but failure to face that and forgive them is sin. Yes, we sometimes get busy and fail to prioritize the spiritual disciplines that cause our faith to flourish, but James 4:17 exhorts that if we know the right thing to do and fail to do it, it is sin.
Only sin clogs the spiritual arteries and keeps the life-giving flow of God’s Spirit away from our souls. Though often neglected in the pulpits of our day, sin is the culprit for which Christ and His Cross are the cure, not just in conversion but in every step of our spiritual journey to completeness in Christ.
It’s true, people discourage and disillusion us at times, but failure to face that and forgive them is sin. Yes, we sometimes get busy and fail to prioritize the spiritual disciplines that cause our faith to flourish, but James 4:17 exhorts that if we know the right thing to do and fail to do it, it is sin.
Only sin clogs the spiritual arteries and keeps the life-giving flow of God’s Spirit away from our souls. Though often neglected in the pulpits of our day, sin is the culprit for which Christ and His Cross are the cure, not just in conversion but in every step of our spiritual journey to completeness in Christ.
How can I keep from letting my Christian
life become routine and stale?
Scripture reading, study and meditation, acts
of humility and generosity toward the poor, bold witness for Christ
and service in His kingdom, fasting, prayer, heartfelt worship
personally and in a believing church—each of these is a source of
spiritual vitality. If they are neglected, the heart becomes first
dry, then cold and finally hard. That is why the Scripture so
regularly exhorts us, “Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not
your hearts.” (Hebrews 3:8, 3:15, 4:17).
If through these acts of faith we are drawing near to God, He will draw near to us (James 4:8). If you are reading this now, and are experiencing a dryness in your walk with God, you can be in dynamic fellowship with God if you sincerely draw near to God with a ‘no limits’ approach.
God is not reluctant; the “routine and stale,” as some put it, is of our making not God’s.
If through these acts of faith we are drawing near to God, He will draw near to us (James 4:8). If you are reading this now, and are experiencing a dryness in your walk with God, you can be in dynamic fellowship with God if you sincerely draw near to God with a ‘no limits’ approach.
God is not reluctant; the “routine and stale,” as some put it, is of our making not God’s.
What does it mean to return to the Lord?
To say it succinctly, ‘returning’ is the biblical
concept of repenting. We have lost that in many of today's churches. We
have substituted a superficial confession for genuine repentance.
Everyone knows that “confession” according to 1 John 1:9 means to say what God says about our sin. However, it is pretty difficult to say what God really says about our sin until we see what God sees.
Repentance is the process of moving from something sinful I have rationalized in myself and seeing it as something that I regret and am repulsed by. When biblical repentance is happening in a human heart, genuine confession to God flows easily. Without genuine repentance, confession is just a surface makeover. That is why so many Christians are trapped in an endless cycle of “sin/confess, sin/confess, sin/confess.”
True repentance is what breaks that cycle and is the centerpiece of returning to the Lord.
Everyone knows that “confession” according to 1 John 1:9 means to say what God says about our sin. However, it is pretty difficult to say what God really says about our sin until we see what God sees.
Repentance is the process of moving from something sinful I have rationalized in myself and seeing it as something that I regret and am repulsed by. When biblical repentance is happening in a human heart, genuine confession to God flows easily. Without genuine repentance, confession is just a surface makeover. That is why so many Christians are trapped in an endless cycle of “sin/confess, sin/confess, sin/confess.”
True repentance is what breaks that cycle and is the centerpiece of returning to the Lord.