DW is not sending comments. Sorry! Just saw this now.
that I didn't care--something that still horrifies me to this day, and makes me terrified of those people who say once you reject Jesus, there's no going back.)
"And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand." -John 10:28 (NKJV)
This Biblical doctrine that a person who has received Jesus Christ, been born into the family of God, and justified by faith, can never again be lost is sometimes called eternal security. Others speak of it as the perseverance of the saints. The latter expression might better be termed the perseverance of God in behalf of the saints, because the security of our salvation does not rest on us but on God—it is based on the work of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
I really think you can set that fear aside, Kate. If it was OUR work that got us saved, then it might be lost because we're not perfect. But it's not our work or our deeds, or even our words. It's the belief that we hold -- CS Lewis went really in-depth into this subject and I wish I could explain it half as well as he can but basically?
Let's say you have someone born into utter poverty who stole to survive and did lots of bad things to survive. One day that person changes her mind, meets the real Jesus and accepts him as Savior. She might not become a "model" citizen, but Jesus doesn't judge just on one scale of 1-10. For this girl not stealing and praying might be as acceptable to God as a life-long Christian going out and being a missionary.
The point is...we don't know and can't judge the heart. We see the outer person. God sees inside, to our thoughts and our heart, our deepest desires. He knows very well what our inner person is believing.
And it's Jesus who saves, it's his power to keep us and hold us and not let us go. Not our own will power or whatever strength we have.
I hope you will stop fearing this one. It's a big lie from the pit of Satan's heart and he uses it to scare a lot of Christians who believe more from fear because that's how a lot of churches teach. Especially Southern ones.
Look at God's character. He didn't let the woman at the well be stoned even though he knew very well she was guilty of sin. He confronted her tormentors, and then spoke to her gently and kindly. He ate with tax collectors (ultimate baddies back then) and prostitutes. He defended widows who could only give the smallest tithe and said they gave more than the wealthy who put gobs of money into the church.
Look at his promises. Look at his faithfulness. He never changes (the same yesterday, today and forever), he is unfailing, he has perfect timing, he holds us in the palms of his hands and our names are carved into those palms.
This is the one being in life that will never let you down even when you don't understand, even when you don't think he's there.
I love the 'if you don't speak in tongues then you're not a Christian' thing. WHERE did they find that? Where does scripture say that, I'd really like to know because I was baptised in college and I didn't come up speaking tongues. I still don't. I never heard this until I met people from the South - it certainly was never preached in any church I've attended! And it's not Biblical. Gifts are given, some to interpret, some to speak tongues, some to teach and some to preach.
The "Church" gets some crazy ideas sometimes and people start to believe those doctrines even though they're only vaguely Bible-based.
And yes, writing is a Gift. :) God uses people, and he works through them and their gifts, but that doesn't mean he's dictating each word.
All I could say to folks who say things like this is to show me the passages in the Bible where they pulled it out. THen read it in context and cross-reference it. The Bible is THE guide to all questions and I wouldn't believe even my pastor if he said something that contradicted what I was reading in my Bible.
I took what he meant about Buddhist Christian to mean the conflicting doctrines -- you can't have both. All religions I've looked into have some wisdom and usually you can find the same thing said differently in the Bible as in the Koran or the Book of Mormon or the Catholic Bibles or any of the Eastern religions. They have truths in them or people wouldn't believe -- if you tried to form a church out of "Pigs Fly" you wouldn't last long. ;) But add some truth and there you go.
So what he was saying I think is that you can't serve Man and God -- but I don't think that's what you're doing in seeing the wisdom in the quotes. If you believed in reincarnation then we might be a huge odds on that.
I've been talking about this to another writer friend and we both agree that ....there's too often a disconnect between Christians and the World. Yes, we're told to not be "of" the world but we do live in it, and we have to understand how to talk to those still of it or we'll be throwing darts in the dark.
Jesus took our form and came to live among us so that we could understand him. I think we need to do the same for those we try to talk to -- to not be so part of church talk that people don't understand or want to listen to us.
So we've been talking about how do you do that in writing without sounding preachy or too worldly? It's made me really look at things I do and say!
But I still and will always think the biggest thing is love that sets us apart. Not just love for other Christians, that's too easy, but for the homeless and the drug-addicted, the prostitutes and the kids on skateboards with a million tats and piercings. For all of those "outcasts" who are just human beings with hurts and hopes and feelings.
And this has grown far too long! Thank you for sharing! *HUG* I know it's hard sometimes... I was saved when I was 13 and still struggled most of my life to believe I was really saved and safe. I wish I'd known then what I know now!! It's all so simple when it's broken down to what Jesus actually said and did. But man, we complicate it.
no subject
that I didn't care--something that still horrifies me to this day, and makes me terrified of those people who say once you reject Jesus, there's no going back.)
"And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand."
-John 10:28 (NKJV)
This Biblical doctrine that a person who has received Jesus Christ, been born into the family of God, and justified by faith, can never again be lost is sometimes called eternal security. Others speak of it as the perseverance of the saints. The latter expression might better be termed the perseverance of God in behalf of the saints, because the security of our salvation does not rest on us but on God—it is based on the work of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
I really think you can set that fear aside, Kate. If it was OUR work that got us saved, then it might be lost because we're not perfect. But it's not our work or our deeds, or even our words. It's the belief that we hold -- CS Lewis went really in-depth into this subject and I wish I could explain it half as well as he can but basically?
Let's say you have someone born into utter poverty who stole to survive and did lots of bad things to survive. One day that person changes her mind, meets the real Jesus and accepts him as Savior. She might not become a "model" citizen, but Jesus doesn't judge just on one scale of 1-10. For this girl not stealing and praying might be as acceptable to God as a life-long Christian going out and being a missionary.
The point is...we don't know and can't judge the heart. We see the outer person. God sees inside, to our thoughts and our heart, our deepest desires. He knows very well what our inner person is believing.
And it's Jesus who saves, it's his power to keep us and hold us and not let us go. Not our own will power or whatever strength we have.
I hope you will stop fearing this one. It's a big lie from the pit of Satan's heart and he uses it to scare a lot of Christians who believe more from fear because that's how a lot of churches teach. Especially Southern ones.
Look at God's character. He didn't let the woman at the well be stoned even though he knew very well she was guilty of sin. He confronted her tormentors, and then spoke to her gently and kindly. He ate with tax collectors (ultimate baddies back then) and prostitutes. He defended widows who could only give the smallest tithe and said they gave more than the wealthy who put gobs of money into the church.
Look at his promises. Look at his faithfulness. He never changes (the same yesterday, today and forever), he is unfailing, he has perfect timing, he holds us in the palms of his hands and our names are carved into those palms.
This is the one being in life that will never let you down even when you don't understand, even when you don't think he's there.
I love the 'if you don't speak in tongues then you're not a Christian' thing. WHERE did they find that? Where does scripture say that, I'd really like to know because I was baptised in college and I didn't come up speaking tongues. I still don't. I never heard this until I met people from the South - it certainly was never preached in any church I've attended! And it's not Biblical. Gifts are given, some to interpret, some to speak tongues, some to teach and some to preach.
The "Church" gets some crazy ideas sometimes and people start to believe those doctrines even though they're only vaguely Bible-based.
And yes, writing is a Gift. :) God uses people, and he works through them and their gifts, but that doesn't mean he's dictating each word.
All I could say to folks who say things like this is to show me the passages in the Bible where they pulled it out. THen read it in context and cross-reference it. The Bible is THE guide to all questions and I wouldn't believe even my pastor if he said something that contradicted what I was reading in my Bible.
I took what he meant about Buddhist Christian to mean the conflicting doctrines -- you can't have both. All religions I've looked into have some wisdom and usually you can find the same thing said differently in the Bible as in the Koran or the Book of Mormon or the Catholic Bibles or any of the Eastern religions. They have truths in them or people wouldn't believe -- if you tried to form a church out of "Pigs Fly" you wouldn't last long. ;) But add some truth and there you go.
So what he was saying I think is that you can't serve Man and God -- but I don't think that's what you're doing in seeing the wisdom in the quotes. If you believed in reincarnation then we might be a huge odds on that.
I've been talking about this to another writer friend and we both agree that ....there's too often a disconnect between Christians and the World. Yes, we're told to not be "of" the world but we do live in it, and we have to understand how to talk to those still of it or we'll be throwing darts in the dark.
Jesus took our form and came to live among us so that we could understand him. I think we need to do the same for those we try to talk to -- to not be so part of church talk that people don't understand or want to listen to us.
So we've been talking about how do you do that in writing without sounding preachy or too worldly? It's made me really look at things I do and say!
But I still and will always think the biggest thing is love that sets us apart. Not just love for other Christians, that's too easy, but for the homeless and the drug-addicted, the prostitutes and the kids on skateboards with a million tats and piercings. For all of those "outcasts" who are just human beings with hurts and hopes and feelings.
And this has grown far too long! Thank you for sharing! *HUG* I know it's hard sometimes... I was saved when I was 13 and still struggled most of my life to believe I was really saved and safe. I wish I'd known then what I know now!! It's all so simple when it's broken down to what Jesus actually said and did. But man, we complicate it.
*hugs*