Is the carnal christian a heresy? Or does he exist?

[J. Jump]

So dying to the flesh means not doing what your flesh wants, right?

To an extent. Your flesh wants to eat, but that's not necessarily a sin. So by denying the flesh you are denying evil fleshly desires such as unrighteous anger, fornication, lying, gossiping, adultery, murder, speeding, disobeying your parents, etc. etc.

But does this mean that I can also die to myself if I'm hungry and I resist eating something?

That is exactly what one does if they are engaged in a period of fasting. Especially if it is of any length of time. But for others skipping one meal would be a challenge.

But you wouldn't want to do that for long although it is possible. Your body needs food to continue its existence (of course I'm not telling you anything you didn't know already). But if one wanted to they could resist the body enough to kill it by not eating I'm sure.

Not a big expert on buddhists or any other non-Christian religion.

Some great advice that I was given was find and study the truth and the counterfeit will show itself immediately. No reason to study other religions in light of the Truth of Christianity.

 

[xdisciplex]

Have you ever fasted for a longer time? What happens afterwards? I wonder if you really notice a difference. I mean when the flesh really gets weakened this way then this would mean that after fasting you're less likely to get angry and such.
But can deprivation of food not make a person angry more than ever? When I am hungry then I am less patient.

 

[J. Jump]

But can deprivation of food not make a person angry more than ever?

When you deny the flesh you open up opportunity to be more tempted yes, because in denying the flesh you are basically caging an untamed, wild animal.

The longer it has been caged the more vicious it can become when it gets loosed.

If you want a good read on fasting find God's Chosen Fast. I can look up the author if you need it.

 

[xdisciplex]

Thanks but I'm not so interesting in fasting that I would read whole books about it. There are more important things right now.

 

[Marcia]

But if somebody steals your parking lot and you become angry then isn't this a sin? What do you do if you simply become angry very easily? Do you already sin in the moment where you become angry and get vile thoughts? Is this already a sin?

It would be normal to get angry if someone steals your parking space (is this what you are saying?) or your car or anything else. But what do you do after that anger? Do you curse, shout swear words, hit someone? Those would be sinful responses.

A thought is not a sin but a bad thought can give rise to sin by acting on it.

If you have a problem with thinking "vile" thoughts, you need to spend more time reading the Bible and asking God to help you with your thoughts, but you should not become obsessed over it.

A lot of problems you talk about having seem to come from not reading the Bible a lot. How much do you read and study it?

 

[xdisciplex]

Not as much as I should.
Reading and trying to study the bible alone simply isn't that good.
It's not that I'm not interested but I don't get very much from it.

 

[Marcia]

Not as much as I should.
Reading and trying to study the bible alone simply isn't that good.
It's not that I'm not interested but I don't get very much from it.

Better to read and study alone than not at all! Do you understand that God's word is your spiritual food? if you don't read the Bible, it's like starving. And it's worse than that even.

Whether you get something from it or not doesn't matter - just discipline yourself to read for 20 minutes a day, at least. Start with a book you like, or one of the shorter books like Philippians, and start at chapter one, verse one, and make yourself read. It's a habit you need to form.

 

[J. Jump]

God's word is your spiritual food? if you don't read the Bible, it's like starving.

Great point!

I was listening to a show the other day and it was talking about eating breakfast and how important it was and the question was asked well should I feed my child a pop tart (which isn't nutritious at all) or should they go without because it's not nutritious and the expert said it is better to eat what you have then to go without.

Read the Word and feast on what is made available. It is ALWAYS better than going without!