Where do you draw the line?

Have you ever caught a child with his hands in a cookey jar? Or caught a child in the act of doing wrong? Don't watch the expression on the child's face wathc the expressions on the faces of all the kids next to him/her. if you know what to look for you may be able to detect how many other kids do the same thing. In so many ways I believe that is what worries a lot of christians in the world today. Not the fact that they don't sin, but the fact that their sins have not yet been found out.
Now the question is, where do you draw the line? At what you do and at how you go about avoiding it. People sleep with bibles under their pillows, sleep with crosses around their necks, people have the name Jesus ready to spill out at the slightest opportunity, the Lord's prayer, Psalm 23 you name it, it has been used as a defense mechanism.

The idea of defending against the attacks of the evil one isn't behind the mechanisms being used, it is the power behind the mechanisms being used, the power of the name of Jesus, the power of the Holy Spirit, the power of God. If you quote the Lord's prayer 50 times for the same sin, it is very likely that long before the 50th time you will have fallen, same with Psalm 23 or any other defense mechanism you have (I have tried it). Now that power ain't gonna work if you don't believe in it. And it most definitely would not work if you don't know how to use it. The bible says that the Holy Spirit will show you a way out before the temptation becomes too much to bear, a fact and a path which can be lost if you are too busy waving a cross or chanting to listen and look. Joseph resisted Potiphar's wife on a number of occasions but he fled when he had to and I am sure he fled for a reason.

The reason why things work so differently nowadays than from the time of the early church is because we now lay stock on the mechanisms rather than the power. For those who understand and believe, it becomes a matter of trying them sequentially... If prayer don't work, lay hands, if that don't work then use some oil, if that don't work then throw some more oil till the situation works itself out... Look at the disciples after the transfiguration, they tried to cast out a demon form a child and the demon just wouldn't come out. I am sure they tried different means but none of them worked and Jesus told them the reason why, and it was a lack of prayer and fasting. Which as we know is a way of edifying yourself, depriving yourself of what the body needs so you can get closer in the spirit.

Where do you draw the line? The truth now is that we as christians have become quite lazy and are quite content with just salvation, that is enough. I mean if I can sneak into heaven based on salvation then why bother? But then it is a different thing to be saved at the last minute and it is another thing to be a lost sheep that just doesn't want to be found. I have several passages which I want to look at in turn...
2 Timothy 1:6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands(NIV). Paul was reminding Timothy about the need to keep on fire for God, not by relaxing or being complacent but by a conscious action. Makes me think of barbecues and roasted corn...

Joshua 1:8, Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful. Meditate on it day and night, a continous and once again an active undertaking.

Eph 6:18, And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.. Again a conscious effort of constant communication with God.

This is not so we can go to heaven, this is so we can resist all manners of temptation, both from without and from within. Why? Paul warns us through Timothy about the kinds of things that would happen to christians in the last days. The last days are not the last hours before Christ's second coming but is the period between His death and His second coming, which is as I believe right now.

2 Tim 3:1-5, 1 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.

These are qualities possessed by many christians in the church, these are the sort of things we should also watch out for. its not just about salvation or avoiding temptation, not just about getting yourself to heaven. It also about making sure that no sheep including yourself is lost from the flock and also drawing the lost ones back into the fold.

Where do you draw the line?