PG4Him
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Post by PG4Him on Jul 16, 2019 14:04:02 GMT -5
This is for Tabitha3319 to assist in her journey of understanding salvation.
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Post by Tabitha3319 on Jul 16, 2019 15:07:59 GMT -5
This is for Tabitha3319 to assist in her journey of understanding salvation. First of all, thank you for making this for me. I'm all starry-eyed! So, you are saying that our God is interested in the righteousness of those he saves. That makes sense. You also seem to be saying that God is effective in working with us in that salvation. I'm glad you said that because it answered another question I had. I agree with everything you said about God saving us. My question is, once we are saved, does God keep us saved or do we humans have to maintain salvation? I ask this because if it's the latter, it feels like we could lose our salvation all too easily. If that's biblical, however, I have to accept it.
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PG4Him
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Post by PG4Him on Jul 16, 2019 15:30:58 GMT -5
Those are good questions. I am out shopping at the moment but will be happy to answer them shortly.
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Post by joseph on Jul 16, 2019 15:44:16 GMT -5
I agree with everything you said about God saving us. My question is, once we are saved, does God keep us saved or do we humans have to maintain salvation? I ask this because if it's the latter, it feels like we could lose our salvation all too easily. If that's biblical, however, I have to accept it. It is Biblical that few people are saved. (as if it is very difficult to be saved? - yet really it is because people choose not to turn to God - they willingly choose not to turn to God to be saved, and thus remain all their lives unsaved, and die apart from God, and without Christ, and without hope in this world and without hope in the resurrection to eternal life) ..... Few are saved, and for them they get as a result persecuted, they face troubles because the whole world (basically) IS against them, just as it is against Jesus , all as written throughout all Scripture.... When someone gets saved, and tastes of the heavenlies, experiences the union with Jesus and with the Father, with all as described in Scripture (not as described by men in churches), and they walk daily with Jesus and with the Father, can they turn away from Jesus, and trample underfoot His Grace ? Yes. As written. Hebrews 10:29 How much more severely do you think one ... [Search domain biblehub.com/hebrews/10-29.htm] biblehub.com/hebrews/10-29.htmNew International Version How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? The "easy road" is the wide road to destruction, and multitudes are on that road, and will be destroyed. The "painful" road, with Jesus, is the narrow road to life, and few are there who find it.
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PG4Him
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Post by PG4Him on Jul 16, 2019 16:00:39 GMT -5
Okay Tabitha3319 let me start by saying this. God is not up there looking for excuses to disqualify you. I don’t know any Bible teachers who preach that. Neither does He change His mind or revoke our salvation when He feels like it. When He saves us, He fully intends for it to be permanent as long as we stick with Him. Secondly, He isn’t expecting perfection after a year or two. He knows our helpless condition, and He works in our lives to slowly develop a better attitude. Paul told the church at Philippi, God began a good work in them and He would bring it to completion. We are signing up for a lifetime of transformation, not instant gratification. Thirdly, the Bible makes a distinction between willful disobedience and honest mistakes. This is part of the transformation. Once He opens our eyes to see how wrong something is, He shouldn’t have to discuss it with us over and over. More grace is given to account for things we do in ignorance. Hebrews says if we continue to deliberately disobey Him after He set us straight, we have no one to blame but ourselves. If you obey Him the best you know how, stick close to His word, and continue making progress, He will do His part to protect you.
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Post by John on Jul 16, 2019 16:10:18 GMT -5
Okay Tabitha3319 let me start by saying this. God is not up there looking for excuses to disqualify you. I don’t know any Bible teachers who preach that. Neither does He change His mind or revoke our salvation when He feels like it. When He saves us, He fully intends for it to be permanent as long as we stick with Him. Secondly, He isn’t expecting perfection after a year or two. He knows our helpless condition, and He works in our lives to slowly develop a better attitude. Paul told the church at Philippi, God began a good work in them and He would bring it to completion. We are signing up for a lifetime of transformation, not instant gratification. Thirdly, the Bible makes a distinction between willful disobedience and honest mistakes. This is part of the transformation. Once He opens our eyes to see how wrong something is, He shouldn’t have to discuss it with us over and over. More grace is given to account for things we do in ignorance. Hebrews says if we continue to deliberately disobey Him after He set us straight, we have no one to blame but ourselves. If you obey Him the best you know how, stick close to His word, and continue making progress, He will do His part to protect you. Well said.
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Dezi
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Post by Dezi on Jul 16, 2019 17:29:32 GMT -5
So, what if someone falls away from God. Does He take them back if they repent? Even if they knew what they were doing was wrong?
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Post by John on Jul 16, 2019 17:32:53 GMT -5
So, what if someone falls away from God. Does He take them back if they repent? Even if they knew what they were doing was wrong? I believe so. The thing is, if a person departs from following the Lord, and they refuse correction and the tug of the Holy Spirit, eventually God will stop dealing with that person, and they won't desire to return and it will be too late. So long as a person desires to return, they can.
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PG4Him
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Post by PG4Him on Jul 16, 2019 17:47:17 GMT -5
As long as the Lord continues to make that person feel conviction, He is still dealing with them. Feeling sorry that we got caught, we hurt people, or we disappointed our parents is not the same as feeling repentant. True sorrow that we have disappointed the Lord is different. Only God can give us this sorrow. If He chooses to keep working on a person in this way, there is still hope for them.
However, we cannot mess around on the assumption that He’ll always be there. Only He knows when He’s had enough.
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PG4Him
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Post by PG4Him on Jul 16, 2019 18:02:49 GMT -5
I would also add this. Christians tend to struggle with sins that they mentally “know” are wrong but don’t spiritually understand. Children know they ought not cheat on their homework for example, because their parents say so, but they do not deeply understand the value of integrity. This is how it often is for babies in Christ. They’ve been told that certain things are wrong, so they fight themselves in their flesh to control their behavior, with no deep spiritual or philosophical conviction about the real issue. Only the Holy Spirit can reveal to us just how important a principle is. Only He can open our eyes to the spiritual destruction of certain behaviors. The more you fully see the destructive effects of something, the less likely you are to tolerate that behavior.
If it was a matter of reading what the Bible says about right and wrong and then controlling ourselves to behave that way, we wouldn’t need a savior. Part of our transformation is when the Holy Spirit makes us fully aware of the impact of sin. When He shows us in living color how bad is it really is, it takes an awfully cheeky person to go out and do it then. I believe this is primarily what Hebrews was talking about. After the Lord has shown you the full extent of a problem, no sincere Christian could do that again without feeling really bad about it.
I don’t think it’s a matter of reading some words on a page about right or wrong and then being held to that standard. All of us did things that we knew were wrong at some point in our lives before we met Jesus. To deliberately disobey Jesus after enlightenment is a very different ball game.
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Cletus
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Post by Cletus on Jul 16, 2019 19:56:00 GMT -5
So, what if someone falls away from God. Does He take them back if they repent? Even if they knew what they were doing was wrong? He took me back. It is His right to let us back on the salvation train or not.
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Cletus
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Post by Cletus on Jul 16, 2019 20:08:25 GMT -5
Eph 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
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Dezi
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Post by Dezi on Jul 16, 2019 20:08:38 GMT -5
Well I ask because I fell in love with Jesus at a young age but I got into deep sin later after I didn't totally have an understanding of Him. I didn't go very deep into his Word. So, when I was put on Psych meds for anxiety I feel like they changed me and I could not "feel" the Lord anymore. I totally lost who I was and didn't seem to care.
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Post by Tabitha3319 on Jul 16, 2019 20:29:51 GMT -5
Well I ask because I fell in love with Jesus at a young age but I got into deep sin later after I didn't totally have an understanding of Him. I didn't go very deep into his Word. So, when I was put on Psych meds for anxiety I feel like they changed me and I could not "feel" the Lord anymore. I totally lost who I was and didn't seem to care. I can relate to this--- periods of sin, not being able to feel God because of medication. Right now it's alright--- I've figured out some meds I won't take and others I tolerate. I can still feel God's presence, although not as intensely as before. But I understand the frustration.
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Post by John on Jul 17, 2019 6:09:29 GMT -5
Well I ask because I fell in love with Jesus at a young age but I got into deep sin later after I didn't totally have an understanding of Him. I didn't go very deep into his Word. So, when I was put on Psych meds for anxiety I feel like they changed me and I could not "feel" the Lord anymore. I totally lost who I was and didn't seem to care. I can relate to this--- periods of sin, not being able to feel God because of medication. Right now it's alright--- I've figured out some meds I won't take and others I tolerate. I can still feel God's presence, although not as intensely as before. But I understand the frustration. We walk by faith and not feelings. God is with us even in those times we don't feel anything.
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