Cory Schmidtz
"I run in the path of your commands for you have
set my heart free."
Psalm 119:32
It has often amazed me how concerned people are to find out about my "experience."
It seems that most people try to fit all of reality into their own experience,
and any claim that doesn't fit in is often brushed aside like some pesky
spider web.
I became a Christian when I was 17 and came to experience a life I could
have never imagined, founded on the objective truth revealed by the Creator
of the universe. This often seems to puzzle the world. Yet I have also experienced
something many in the Church do not understand, either, or would not acknowledge
if they had.
Not long after my conversion, a guest speaker preached at the church I
had started to attend. I can remember him talking about us being united
with Christ in his death, saying that we no longer had to sin, and that sin
had no more objective power over us than it has over a corpse (cf Rom 6).
At the time, God seemed so real to me and the Scriptures so powerful that
I can't remember giving the preacher's declarations even the slightest doubt.
As a matter of fact, during the whole next year and a half, I can only remember
once even experiencing something I could even call a temptation.
Also during that time a Jesuit Priest asked me if I struggled with lust.
I was very surprised by his question. I hadn't been surprised when people
asked me if I was on drugs, why I was so happy, or what on earth had happened
to me; but this question surprised me. He was even more surprised by my
answer: I told him that no, of course I didn't struggle with lust! The very
idea that a Christian would struggle with sin was completely foreign to me.
I had assumed he was a Christian and that all Christians had the same belief-experience
that I had. My experience at this time was perhaps exceptional but that
is another topic.
That was many years ago, and I am sometimes still amazed that God allowed
me to experience such innocence. Since that time I have been somewhat confused
and saddened to find that my experience was not at all common. Not only
that, but many books I went on to read, and many people I went on to meet
told me that I had to sin. The Scriptures they used to back up their confused
beliefs appeared to conflict with other Scriptures, and I couldn't seem to
reconcile them. During this time, I also lost that absolutely supernatural
sense of joy that I had for so long. My life was still dramatically better
than what it was before Christ; but I had lost a sense of fullness.
I am now thankful for that time because it drove me to my knees. As a result,
I have come to a firmer grasp of what the Scriptures do teach about walking
in the light, and now have a greater confidence in Christ as my righteousness
and my sanctification. I acknowledge with shame that through those years
I have stained my hands more than once, but I now know where the responsibility
lies. If I sin now, I know it is my fault. I can't blame my genes, my mother,
or my God. God always has and always will be my strength in this battle
if I will but abide in his perfect love. God is trustworthy and I challenge
everyone to take him at his word: don't listen to those, who think it is
foolish to trust him to express his holiness in us!
The truth will set you free.
Cory Schmidtz
CJSchmidtz@StopSinning.net
PS:
Cory leaves his testimony rather short and fuzzy to not compromise
his role as protagonist on his website. He is gifted as a Christian
apologist, and is still in school for this. His popular website, http://www.stopsinning.net/
challenges believers to think about sin and question
their involvement in it, in hopes that they will abandon it, in favour of
His Rest.
Please notice how very easily Cory entered his Rest at the tender age of
17, while he was yet a new convert. All he did was listen to a sermon
that spoke clearly about sin and then simply believe....... It was
as easy as that, and as hard as that since as a new convert his "all" was
almost all on the altar already. A true saving faith was close
to hand..... This sort of pure faith and unsullied first love seldom
lasts long after conversion, unless it is "sealed" in Him as He designed
it to be. That is one of the things that His Rest is for. To
keep us.
This is the scriptural way to enter His Rest. If it is left until later,
it unavoidably becomes more difficult to enter, leading us all to consider
that His Rest is really tough to enter. Well, to be sure the standards
are uncompromising in that it costs your all, but what is that but dross
anyway? After we forget this we must struggle in consecrations to regain
that pure simplicity of trust that brought us into His Kingdom in the first
place. This second work completes the first to make us white and acceptable
to dwell in the supernatural peace of His glorious bosom evermore. Some
call it Entire (Complete or Completed) Salvation.
I believe this principle is a strong challenge to all preachers to preach
full sanctification to new believers so that they may become whole- as well
as the kind of model Chrisitan that makes a preachers heart rejoice- and
point to for others to follow.......
Let me clarify: after his temporary time of confusion, Cory returned to
His Rest, where he presently remains in supernatural purity- but now he has
a strong burden ( a hard-earned burden to be sure!!!) to
dispel the popular myths that led to his excruciating dive into the darkly
confusing pit of mixture most mistakenly call "normal Christianity". My case
is similar, in that I spent 18 years repenting for one thing after another,
when at some early point I could have given it all over- if only I had known
it was possible! Now I have a strong burden to help others enter the fullness
of His Life without wasting all those years in the sleep-walk of unecessary
compromise.
Cory is now 32 and lives in Alberta, Canada with his young family while
he completes his degree work at Prairie Bible. He and I keep in touch,
and co-operate together. He plans to go on to graduate work in Apologetics.
When he is done- look out world......
Yours in His Service
Tom Plumb
earnestseeker@enterhisrest.org
http://www.enterhisrest.org