In Reply to: About God hearing the prayer of the righteous posted by Thinker on January 20, 2003 at 09:35:45:
Hi Thinker, No, I don't think you are going crazy, but I do think that you are trying to factor too many things together at the same time. I try to keep things simple because I used to be very complex in my thinking and that can take a heavy toll on one's mind, especially when you try that on LSD:) While I may be oversimplifing things, I have noticed that the Lord takes seriously anyone who takes Him seriously as God in sincerity, even a very evil man, who looks unto Him and says, "God be merciful to me a sinner." I try my best, most times (and sometimes, just sometimes)to do those things that please the Lord, but I still pray, "God be merciful to me a sinner." I figure it this way; if I think of myself as being righteous or holy, it's most likely because of pride. And that is something that is easy to trip over. Besides my evaluation of myself, won't count at the Judgement seat of Christ. About the other stuff you mentioned about, 'righteous sinners', I want to remind you of what Paul said, "I know that in me, that is in my flesh dwellest NO good thing." So you see the only good he could find was by the Spirit of Jesus in him. I just listened to the Book of Revelations, and in there it says that only God is Holy. So whatever is truly good or holy in us must come from Him. The rest well, that's the messed up human nature that tends toward sin. As I see as it, God is delivering us from ourselves. Our part, as far as I understand, is to simply believe that He will do just that, and not fight against Him by refusing to accept that truth. God afterall is, all powerful and eternal, while we are just human and only on the earth a short time. As far as I know anything, Jesus is the only future and hope that any of us can have. That's why Paul could say, that he suffered the loss of all things, in order to follow Jesus, while considering all those earthly things to be but dung. Anyway, I hope that helped to simplify matters.