| Author | Message | ||
| Max |
Patti, Do you agree with Paul? He wrote: "Where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace my increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?" --Paul, NIV Romans 5:20-6:2. | ||
| Max |
Patti, Do you agree with God? He said: "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but innwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them." --Jesus of Nazareth, God-Walking-Earth, NIV Matthew 7:15-20. | ||
| Max |
Greetings in Christ, George, Romans 14 does not deal with "all kinds of sins." Paul deals with "undisputable sins" = "deeds of darkness" in the previous chapter, Romans 13:12-14 NIV: "Put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealously. Rather, clothe ourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature." Romans 14 simply cannot be used to deal with those "missings of the mark" -- sins that are undisputable. In chapter 14 Paul discusses only "disputable matters" and how these must not be allowed to harm our loving relationshps with one another as Christians for whom Christ died and rose from the grave. Blessings in Christ, Max of the Cross | ||
| Valm |
Hi all, Have you done your group hug yet? There are days when I am able to that I check on several times and this was a day to do just that. The discussion has been lively and intense. Maryann, I wished you were my sibling. I could use you in my corner. Your love and protectiveness of your brother is touching. Please know that in no way did I mean to offend either of you. I recognize George has a different perspective, I am still trying to figure it out. It is coming clearer. George you might be just like my Joseph and maybe that is why I seem frustrated in my posts, I am emotionally very close to it but can not pin it down, if that makes any sense at all. I am sorry Maryann if you perceive we are arguing with George. But I have to be honest, George's voice in black and white come through to me in an argumentive tone. And I don't think he means to but sometimes my hands key impulsively and fast after I read his post. I can think of a time or two I wished I had waited and thought about it before hitting the send button. I recognize your frustration with Max's quoting of the Bible. I had to get used to it myself. when I see the quotes it is reminiscent of the Biblical arrows my family throughs back and forth to admonish people. I don't think that is his intent though. I think he just writes what the Bible says and wishes the reader to draw from it themselves without his opinion. As long as we live here on planet earth we will perceive interpret and practice our Christianity diferent than others. That is because we are unique organisms. George, if you ask a question you are going to get different answers from all of us. They might not even seem like they are answering your question. Maybe it is because we don't know what you are really asking or maybe you wish your own conclusions to be affirmed, I just do not know. I can bet the farm though that you will not get a black and white answer to your question. For me presently the question of sinning is not an issue. I am going with the texts that promise that the Holy Spirit will write the laws of love in my heart. It would be fool hardy for me to ignore these laws as they will not only weaken my connection with God but will give me trouble in all areas of my life. I will keep my connection going with God through Jesus Christ and I will sin less and less each day and will rest in his grace. The sinning less and less is by no ways giving me bennies to heaven, but it is making my life a whole lot easier here on earth. George, God bless you in your search. I hope you will restate your question concisely if we haven't answered it already. Valerie | ||
| Denisegilmore |
((((((((((((((((EVERYBODY))))))))))))))) Not that I play favorites but: ((((((((((((((((((((((GEORGE)))))))))))))))))) God bless us all, everyone, tim | ||
| Bruceh |
George What I see in your writtings is that you are intellectually trying to see how this thing works out. ----- for me all this Bible stuff has to fit together like a well oiled machine, every piece dependent on every other one, with no pieces floating around to fall into the works and tare things up. If all we have to do to get to heaven is believe in Christ then God sure wasted a lot of words.-------- George, the Gospel is not an intellectual or mental thing. It is a spiritual thing. You cannot see the Gospel clearly untill you accept it first. -------Yes I understand salvation, and no I have not accepted it yet. And yes I will not do so till I can see that it is not an unclear mix of leagelism, works, grace and mystory.----- 1 Cor 2:14 14 But the natural man (One who has not accepted it) does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. The word foolish is the greek word moroni, where we get the word moron, another way of saying this is the natural man see1s the things of the Spirit as moronish or foolish, not fitting together as a well oiled machine. Matt 11:25 25 At that time Jesus answered and said, "I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. Notice that it is hidden from the wise and the prudent, or the intellectual. God opens the eyes of those who die. Matt 16:25 25 "For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. The Gospel is this George you have to die first, you have to try and stop thinking this through, or how does this work. Proverbs 3:5-7 5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. 7 Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the LORD and depart from evil. George you must stop trying to figure it out for you cannot, you must stop trying to lean on your own understanding. George this is the incredable thing when you finally give up and die and see that you will never be abel to figure this out and you see yourself as dead, and then if you trust in our Lord and him alone and accept the salvation to cover all the bases and all the intellectuall meanings, then He will give you HIS eternal life, and this life will show you the way and reveal truth to you. It has been a long time since I have talked to you George, I hope things are going well with you. I am not trying to be harsh with you but when you said that you have not accepted (Yes I understand salvation, and no I have not accepted it yet.) salvation I want you to know then that you are then a natural man and not a Spiritual man you have to be Born Again, Rom 8:9 Now if anyone does not have the SPIRIT OF CHRIST, he is no His. Geoege when you accept salvation you recieve the Holy Spirit and it is the Spirit which guides you into all truth and knowledge. Bruce Heinrich BH BH | ||
| George |
Bruce, Val, Denise and Maryann, Bruce, nice to hear from you, and I don't think you are being to harsh. I get the feeling you realy care and want to see me grow. I get that feeling from most of those that post to me also. Regarding slvation, I know what it is. I believe in how it is done and who did it. I just have not accepted it yet,(told God I wanted it). To me, all this stuff has to be easy to understand and do. Yes I mean do, but I don't mean work at. When I used to do religon, I could never DO it right or enough, what ever I did just was not acceptable. Now, religion for me is very simple, all I have to do is believe and I wont go to hell. (Christs words not mine.) What can be more simple than that? A few days ago I see that Rom. 14 seems to say, if you think a thing is a sin and do it, it is then a sin for you even if it is not wrong to do it. OOOOOPs there seems to be more than the sin of unbelief that will keep me out of heaven. Now, how do I decide what these sins are. I might think typing on a computer is a sin, if I do it acording to Rom. 14 it is. I might think walking down the left side of the streat is a sin, and for me it would be. I might think eating meat is a sin, and for me it is. I might think everything EGW says is a sin is a sin, and then it would be for me. I might think everything the Baptest say is a sin and it would be for me. I could go on and on and on till I mentioned a million things, but how would I know if I had them all covered, if I was doing it right or enough? How could I ever know? What is the common word in all the examples I just stated? BELIEVE! Wow!!! Did you see that! If I go against my beliefs it is a sin for me. Remember when I said "OOOOOPs there seems to be more than the sin of unbelief that will keep me out of heaven." And when I said "but how would I know if I had them all covered, if I was doing it right or enough? How could I ever know?" Here is the simplest way to know, Dont do what YOU BELIEVE is wrong, Don't go against YOUR conscience, NOT someone elses, but yours. Do you see what my idea is now? How you might ask do we see if there is any value in this idea? Just turn it around and ask, is not believing in Christ a good thing? Is going against your conscience a good thing? If you can say yes to eather of these questions and prove it from the Bible we have a big, BIG problem. George | ||
| George |
Max, Because of the apparent history between you and Patti and my mere mention of her name, you have acted in a very unchristian and unnecessary manner toward her. This, and the attitude I feel from you toward me, has put me in the very uncomfortable position of having to ask you not to respond to my posts, and in particular not to jump on those I talk to or about. George | ||
| Valm |
George, I do not think we could say yes and prove it from the Bible on either of these things. Why would anyone think so. The Adventists think alot of things are sins and for them I guess they are. This is burdensome and unneccesary, in addition to thinking they are sins the are sorely mistaken if they believe that is what they need to do for salvation. George, take that giant leap of faith. It is well worth it. I am sorry that you and Max have had a disagreement; I do not know the history and do not wish to know but I hope the two of you could get together and resolve your differences. The act of forgiveness blesses both people involved. Take care God bless and have a wonderful holiday season. | ||
| Colleentinker |
George, it's wonderful to hear from you again! (Of course, I've not been here very much lately, either!) I think I understand your frustration, although I may be wrong. Correct me if I misread you. The Bible asks us to do only one thing: believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and we will be saved. That belief is a surrender of ourselves to a Love that is greater than all of our own control. I know, George, that you understand the love that Jesus has for you. I know you understand the simplicity of believing him. I also know that it's like jumping off a cliff to risk surrendering to it. It's espcially hard if your whole life's history has been one of God executing punishment and abuse to those who offend him. George, I remember a wonderful conversation we had one evening when Richard and I ate with you and your sister. I remember how I praised God for the way he was revealing his love to you, and for how aware you were of his love. I know , George, that you have experienced God's love and his persistent persual of you. And I know that you want to experience his peace in your heart. I'd just like to encourage you, George, to trust that love that you have already experienced and leap off that cliff of faith. Tell God you want his salvation and forgiveness and eternal life. When you do, you will experience the most astonishing freedom and joy. The details of belief and the uncertainties about what certain biblical passages mean will become clear as the Holy Spirit lives in you and teaches you. Truly we cannot resolve all of our spiritual questions before accepting Jesus' salvation. Those things only begin to make sense after we trust him and receive his Spirit in us. I'm praying for you, George. You have a good heartóand it is a heart that your Lord Jesus loves! Colleen | ||
| Colleentinker |
Patti--It's great to hear from you. I'm continuing to pray for you and for your family. I can imagine how difficult the holidays must be for you this year. I wish for you, even in your pain and loss, a certainty that you are in the center of God's will and His love. I pray that you will experience God's love in a new way this year because of his ministry to you in your grief. With prayers that you will experience the miracle of Christmas in spite of the circumstances, Colleen | ||
| Colleentinker |
Patti--It's great to hear from you. I'm continuing to pray for you and for your family. I can imagine how difficult the holidays must be for you this year. I wish for you, even in your pain and loss, a certainty that you are in the center of God's will and His love. I pray that you will experience God's love in a new way this year because of his ministry to you in your grief. With prayers that you will experience the miracle of Christmas in spite of the circumstances, Colleen | ||
| George |
Val, I am going to be blunt, so please understand and don't take offense. I can't believe that after all that long explanation you only picked up on the challenge to concept and not the concept itself. So I will try one more time. Lets try an experiment. In your idea of religion are there dos and don'ts? (Be careful here because we are close to legalism.) If so what are they? One of the dos is, believe in Christ, are there any others? How many can you list? For the sake of the experiment write them down on a piece of paper before you read any more. O.K. that done, are you sure you got them all? Now make a list of the don'ts. I really am serious. One of them might be, don't kill your neighbor, another might be, don't engage in homosexual behavior. Be sure you get them all or at least as many as you can think of. Post your lists to me tomorrow and I will finish the explanation. Now to Max. I am going to apply the golden rule there, it will probably be applied a little different than you would think, but it will be no less accurate. And here it is; If Max wants forgiveness he must first ask for forgiveness. He should know what that means, I am sure Maryann does, and she is free to tell all of you if she wants to. This is the last I will post on this subject. Till tomorreow---George | ||
| George |
Colleen, Nice to hear from you too. You wanted me to correct you if you miss read me. So here goes, my whole issue on this thread is not salvation or accepting it, that is another story. The issues are, what are sins and how do we do them. Would you be so kind as to do the experiment posted above, and post the lists to me tomorrow? I too have warm memories of that dinner. George | ||
| Maryann |
Okay Guyz;-) I've settled down'-) Sorry I wound up on ya! I wonít try to decipher George's post. After thinking today and reading the above post's, I'm going to jump back on a band wagon I tried to roll 6 or 8 months ago. Then the light might come on in George's mind and the rest of us;-) George is one that needs to logic-ize a thing. He did just that when, some months back, he discovered that there was ONLY one sin. That is the sin of un-belief. Here are the proof texts: John 3:18...Whoever believes in Him is NOT condemned, but whoever does NOT believe stands condemned already because he has NOT believed in the name of God's one and only Son. John 5:24...I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me HAS eternal life and will NOT be condemned; he HAS crossed over from death to life. Jesus died for SIN....singular. That sin is UNBELIEF. Soooooooooooooooooooooooooo, what's all this hulla ballu about ALL these OTHER sins that everyone seems to be sinningly stumbling over? George mentions Romans 14 etc. and the thing about missing the mark and what you think is a sin IS a sin, oooooops, God did an ooops! Max mentions "Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that -- and shudder." NIV James 2:18-19. With OUR SDA background, so many of us are STILL confused about SIN V SINS. George likes to know the definition of something and then make sure that everyone in the same discussion knows and uses the same definition for what ever is being discussed. THIS IS REASONABLE! Singing a song with everyone singing a different verse could cause fistís to fly. It is EVERYONES RESPONSIBILITY to agree to what verses are to be sung and in what order!!!!! Paul goes on and really confuses the SDA mindset in 1 Cor. 9:24-27...."Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize." First off, at least in the SDA strain I came from, competition was a BIG SIN, so there was NO possible way for this line of talk to be understood. Running to win a prize was just not an acceptable thing in the Christian life!!!! Paul now only makes it worse to the SDA mindset when he makes comments (in part) like this in Eph. 6:7-8Ö..Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free. To add to the confusion, Paul, I believe, is speaking to Christians!!!! Now it sound like Paul is peddling his way to heaven and telling the Corinthians and Ephesians to peddle their way to heaven too. Now you have people that think they understand grace, using texts like this to prove that there is a need to continue to peddle to MAINTAIN their salvation by grace. Here, for instance, are our good SDA friends fully believing that they MUST stand before God to receive (in the future) this reward that Paul is talking about and confuse it with salvation!!! BUT...;-) Over in 1 Cor. 3:11-15, Paul make it crystal clear that there is a difference between rewards and salvation and SIN and SINS!..."For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each manís work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames." Take a double take if you need to! ìhe himself will be savedî!!!! If the deeds done are cheap things of no heavenly value such as selfishly motivated deeds, these are wood, hay and straw that will go pooooooof in the fire! If the deeds done are selflessly motivated deeds, these are gold, silver and costly stones that will withstand the fire. When Paul says in 1 Cor. 9..."Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize." He is in NOOOOOOOOOOO way worried about his salvation! His foundation is Christ!!! How can that Foundation be lost? IT CAN NOT! When Paul is saying in Eph. 6..."Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free." He in NOOOOOOOOO way is telling them that their behavior is maintaining their salvation! Their salvation is already in Jesus, their Foundation!;-) Now, when I mentioned this to my Mom, she became quite indignant that God would have a reward system. She said that as long as she ìmade itî to heaven, she would be plenty happy. And as I remember, George didnít think too much of it either;-) What exactly is the reward? Hmmmmmmm, thatís probably best for another day. But, for myself, I am currently leaning towards the thought that it could be a crown with jewels that will be handed to me and I will in turn put at Jesusí feet as the only one deserving of it and worship Him!;-) I donít believe that God is preparing whitewashed Army barracks for all of us. I believe that he is preparing a special place for each and every one of us. He knows our every desire. He will fulfill our every desire individually, so we donít really need to worry about a reward system! We simply need to follow the prompting of the Holy Spirit and claim the promises that the Bible is full of while building on the Foundation called Jesus. And George....I just read the above postings! Forget the experiment!!!;-(( Legalism is NOT, KNOT, NAUGHT, NOUGHT infinity NOT the issue here!!!!! SIN....(singular, "sin") was completely taken care, eliminated, smithereenied forever at the cross for those that believe! That makes us forgiven sinners!!! SINS....)plural, "sins") are the thingies that sinners (forgiven sinners) do. Some more than others!!! I know!! These are the sins that forgiven sinners are admonished my Paul and other Bible writers to overcome. Strive to run towards the mark, win the race etc. and don't be disqualified! Sin(s) plural, have nothing to do with LEGALISM! They have ONLY to do with what is being built on that Foundation, Jesus. Striving NOT to do sins, is what the Holy Spirit is given to us for and it is NOT legalism. This is in NO way kin to the Brownsville people!!!!!! They don't understand that SIN not SINS were smithereenied at the cross!!! Our job, not to be saved, but because we are saved, is to build a solid structure on the Rock solid Foundation of Jesus with the power given us through the Holy Spirit! Remember....1 Cor. 9:24-27...."Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize." THIS IS NOT, KNOT, NAUGHT, NOUGHT LEGALISM! If it is, then Paul was a legalist! and Galatians 3 is a flamin' farce. UN-legalisticly, upward and onward....Maryann | ||
| Chyna |
>Jesus died for SIN....singular. That sin is UNBELIEF. yes, jesus died for the sin of unbelief AND every single sin that has occurred is occuring and will occur in the entire HISTORY of man. which is why we all are referring to what you refer to as "sins" but sin is sin is sin. it all separates us from God. He did not die just for the sin of unbelief. in terms of SALVATION here is what I want to make distinctly clear. ALL sin separates us from God. God, by some power, has the ability to wash us white as snow with the blood of Jesus Christ. "Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world." maryann, i do not read this as 'sin of unbelief' but all sin for all time. there is no place in the bible that says that the only type of sin Jesus died for was unbelief. this is how it is: you are either an ENEMY of God, or you are a CHILD of God. the Bible makes it blatantly clear that there is no in between. you cannot straddle the fence. you either HATE God or love Him. now, since George is not a believer, it means that he is an enemy of God. "for what part does light have to do with darkness." we were all formerly enemies of God, the EXACT people that CRUCIFIED our Lord and Savior on the cross. either you make a mockery of Christ by denying Him as the Son of God and of God's great love by sacrificing His Son for you, or you accept it and desire after the things that God desires. someone mentioned a cliff. George, they are right. the only way to do faith is to experience it. surrender your life to Christ and He will give you joy for your sorrow. love, Chyna pp.s. i concur with whomever that talked about Romans 14 speaking of grey areas. some were saying that eating certain foods was a sin, but paul says if you are strong of faith you will eat everything, why? because to a mature believer you understand that nothing that enters the body (food) makes a man unclean, rather what comes out of a man's heart (sin). so the brunt of the point of Rom14 is that we are to live our lives for Christ. the point is not what you eat or what day you go to church on, rather that all is done for the glory of God rather than being concerned about "doing it right" but knowing it has all already been "done" right for you in Jesus Christ. pppps, maryann, those verses about running are about our part of salvation. i've always heard it is 100% God 100% man's decision in salvation. that growing in Christ is both active and passive. active: you accepting christ, praying, encouraging one another, studying the word etc. passive: God working in your life, God giving you trials, God strengthening you, God working miracles, God in your life, period, letting Him work. okie, g'night all. Chyna | ||
| Valm |
George, The do's and don'ts in my life with regaurds to my spirituality come naturally. I really don't think much about the sin issue. I just let God work on me in his own good time. I am not even going to try backing that up with scripture because I couldn't and I wouldn't if I could. I won't engage in your experiment because it is not consistent with my philosphy. Maryann, I do not think with matters of spiritual concerns people will ever get a concensus on the meaning of words or scripture. This is not science, it can not be measured or put under scientific or concrete scrutiny. And one cannot expect the control over other people's internal meaning of words. I understand some people's desire to do so because my scientific side of me would do better if it could, but it just isn't going to happen. Colleen, that was a beautiful word of encouragement you gave to George, since I cannot say it any better than that George, I wish you the same things that Colleen has expressed. Valerie | ||
| Cindy |
Patti, Good morning...I see you posted here on this thread yesterday. I had greeted you on the 'abuse and addiction' thread yesterday morning, but didn't realise you had posted here until this morning; so, just wanted to make sure you know I miss you... I just read Philip Yancey's new book entitled "Reaching for the Invisible God". At the end there's a wonderful story of his wife Janet's experience leading a "Christian Circle" in a nursing home. It centers on an old Alzheimer's patient named Betsy who could still read well, although she lived in a state of confusion all of the time. One day, when asked to read out-loud the song "The Old Rugged Cross", she began... "On a hill far away, stood an old, rugged cross, the emblem of suffering and shame," and then she suddenly stopped, quite agitated, saying, " I can't go on! It's too sad! Too sad!" She tried again and again to read it, but had the same reaction, along with tears down her cheeks. This was an amazement to the others, for not once before had Betsy shown the ability to put words together meaningfully. Finally, Janet led her to her room and to her amazement, Betsy began singing the hymn by memory, with new tears falling... "On a hill far away, stood an old rugged Cross, the emblem of suffering and shame... "And I love that old Cross, Where the Dearest and Best!! For a world of lost sinners was slain. So I'll cherish the old rugged Cross, Till my trophies at last I lay down; I will cling to the old rugged Cross, And exchange it someday for a crown." Grace always, Cindy | ||
| Patti |
Colleen, thank you for your comforting words. It is difficult. Christmas will be a doubly difficult for us because not only is it also my mother's birthday, we had planned a large family Christmas this year. Jerry's family will not be coming; they say need the time alone to sort through things. So there will be a great big hole in our holiday season. On the bright side, though, we will be celebrating Christmas with my half-sisters for the first time ever. It has been a peculiarly special blessing to have gotten to know them and their mother in the past couple of years. George, Thank you for your kind words. You see now why I was reluctant to respond to you in public. As for your questions, please don't let anyone make you feel like a second-class Christian for questioning. Sometimes I think God has a special place in His heart for the honest questioner as opposed to those who know everything already. Perhaps I can give you another perspective on the atonement (I am not saying it is right; just different.) Perhaps it would be easier to conceive if you would think of Christ dying for sinners instead of sins. Forgiveness is not for specific sins; it is for specific sinners. Christ does not forgive a single sin at a time. I know, if your SDA background was like mine, you tried very hard to remember and confess every sin before you went to sleep at night because Ellen said not to go to sleep with any unconfessed sin on your conscience. Well, that idea is silly, at best. We cannot even name all our sins in a single evening; we are not even aware of most of them! I would refer you to the prayer of the publican, the prayer that justified him and set him right with God (although there is no indication that he knew he was right with God--interesting point there: God, be merciful to me, a sinner. He did not enumerate sins; he did not make any grand promises of restitution. He simply asked God to have mercy on him because he realized what a hopeless sinner he was. We never get beyond that point here on this earth, George. Our prayer is perpetually the same: God, be merciful to me, a sinner. As I said before, it is not sinning that causes us to be sinners; it is being sinful, being hopeless sinners, that makes us sin. Jesus came to save sinners. The moment we stop recognizing ourselves as hopeless sinners (hopeless meaning there is no way we can overcome our sinfulness, no way we can stop sinning), we stop feeling the great need for the mercy of God and the imputed righteousness of our Lord and Savior. It is like I said before: We are either saved by the perfect life of Jesus Christ alone or by something (Anything we contribute will be filthy rags.) that we add to it. He is able to save us to the uttermost because He is worthy. He alone is worthy. And our eternal destiny does not depend upon whether we are worthy or not; we are unworthy--that is a given. But the Lamb is worthy. On HIS merits--not on our own, never on our own--rest our hope for eternity. God bless you, George. And thank you for your kind words for me. Grace and peace always, Patti | ||
| Patti |
Hi, Cindy! Good to see you. I will not be on very much. Things are about to get very hectic for me. Please feel free to write me anytime. Thank you for that story. That is one of my all-time favorite hymns. There is a line from another old hymn that impels me to keep trying to present the Gospel: "I love to tell the story for those who know it best, Seem hungering and thirsting to hear it, like the rest." American Christendom is not overflowing with voices preaching only Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Yours is one of them. You have always been a blessing to me. With affection and appreciation, Patti |
