From: Jacob
Sent: Friday, February 17, 2017 7:27 PM
To: The Path of Truth
Subject: Hurting Christian
Greetings
I really don’t know how to start or how to say this but I believe God has been working on me for the past year and a half or so to find the real truth. I’m not sure if you are familiar with the International Church of Christ(ICOC) but whether you are or not I was raised in this church and never liked going growing up and preferred to indulge in myself but at this church right when get into high school you can study the bible with the teen leader and if you go on some of the icoc sites you might be able to find their study series.
Anyway I went through these series and it seemed that it was up to ME and not God to save myself and that required denying myself, giving up things, being willing to talk of God, always reading the bible everyday and praying. They also heavily agree with water baptism and if you aren’t water baptized, you can’t be saved or receive the holy spirit and anybody who isn’t water baptized is going to help and we NEED to convert them. I was baptized 6/02/13 and I thought it was the start of something great but your website has shown my hunches and guiding of the spirit to be true that this church relies on the flesh and not the spirit and it worships the bible and man but not God.
So I hated my life on the inside for a few years growing further and further from God(though I never knew him in the first place) but I just had no desire to do anything spiritual then around the start of my senior year I was in my room and had my bible and flipped it open to luke 9 where if I don’t deny myself and carry my cross I cannot be his disciple and after I read that God told me I wasn’t a Christian and I agreed and I wanted to be one and so began my journey to true Christ living and some weeks or months later I truly felt the power and love of God coursing through my soul and I would seek God day and night, in scripture and in prayer. I truly loved him more than anything but the I would question the doctrine of my church often because the spirit was telling me something else than they were feeding and they would always have excuses and I believe this to be my fault but I eventually let their ways get to me and I settled and so I lost the power of the spirit in my life but it was very subtle(sometime this past May) and until just a few weeks ago God hadn’t really spoken to me and I was wondering where the heck could he be.
Also I would like to add that I’m on a mission team at Kent State University and it is my first year and so I found your site a few days ago and I knew it to be of the Lord because no where else have I found so much truth that it is I overwhelming and the holy spirit is back alive in me or so I believe, at this point I don’t know what’s true and all I can trust is God and my whole reason for writing all of this is what advice would you guys give because now that I have seen the truth their is so much to learn and test myself in and submit to God in and this church is known to be a cult and God has shown me that it is and I’m following God in how to escape and I am deep in this works based church and my roomate is one of the church that repulsed me at this point because he acts like a pharisee and I’m not anxious but more uncertain of what to do and what will happen next and if I am truly with God and if I am not I would like to know how I speak with him all day and my spiritual been hurting these past few days because of all the hypocrisy I see.
I live in Ohio and in Kent if that even matters, but I just want to be able to get together with people who truly are part of the kingdom. Sorry it’s so long I believe you needed the background to get where I am coming from. I trust you based on what you post. Please help
From: Paul Cohen
Sent: Friday, February 24, 2017 7:39 AM
To: Jacob
Cc: Victor Hafichuk
Subject: Re: Hurting Christian
Hi Jacob,
What advice would we give, you ask? What have you already heard from God on our website? Is it mere advice, or life and death instructions you should be following? We know that we speak for life, if you believe and obey. Otherwise, death and hell will hold sway. That’s the way things work.
“But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the saving of the soul” (Hebrews 10:39 WEB).
There is always a cost to obeying the truth. Following the Lord Jesus Christ, The Truth, demands the highest of costs – your life.
“And calling near the crowd with His disciples, He said to them, Whoever will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever will save his life shall lose it; but whoever shall lose his life for My sake and the gospel’s, he shall save it” (Mark 8:34-35 MKJV).
Read:
The Cross – Only the Death Sentence Will Avail
So You Want to Walk with Jesus
The Case for Coming Out
How One Is Saved
Obedience
“And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed” (Hebrews 12:13 MKJV).
It’s all about the Risen Living Lord Jesus Christ, Almighty God and Only Savior of all men. We can only know Him by denying our lives and taking up the cross to follow Him. It’ll cost you everything, Jacob, but that’s okay because everything adds up to nothing when you compare it all to Him.
“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom also we have had access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:1-2 EMTV).
Paul and Victor
www.ThePathofTruth.com