Typing isn't preaching but yes, salvation cannot be earned. As you know, the personal attacks are the insults I speak of. Being saved, having experienced the baptisms - Jesus came to baptize us with His Spirit, as it is written - we go on to perfection, maturity, completeness, which is well beyond sin. We don't go on to perfection to be saved, no, we go on to perfection because we are saved.
In all this, we keep ourselves in the love of God, as it is written. It's false to think there is salvation outside the love of God. The church at Laodicea was a prime example of the complacency coming from false doctrine, which is how I grew up. I was heaven bound! But I didn't realize I was naked, blind, and poor. Like many, I confessed Jesus had saved me, but I was a slave to sin, doing the works of the devil while my pastor told me I was righteous with Christ's righteousness. I lived according to the sinful nature but knew nothing of living according to the Spirit.
The letters to the churches apply to us today. He knows our deeds and He will give to everyone according to His conduct and as his deeds deserve. Faith changes us. It takes us from Satan's kingdom, which we are all born in, to God's where Jesus is our King. Selfishly wanting Him as Savior but not as Lord leads to hell. But a disciple of Jesus isn't selfish. He denies himself. He has lost his life; he has lost everything, as Jesus said.
Paul said, "If by any means I may attain to the resurrection of the dead." Eternal life is through faith in Jesus. Well, other things happen in the life of those who believe. Having repented and been baptized, rivers of living water flow from their innermost being. You have eternal life? John 7:37-39 must be working too.
Believing in Jesus, we are born of God and those who are born of God have been set free from sin. They are not slaves to it anymore because of grace. A slave does not have a permanent place in the household. Everyone who names the name of the Lord must abstain from unrighteousness.
If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer, as it written. But if I had beheld sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. So, we see awesome fruit from the one who really believes. And they fear God, too, since that endures forever. We kiss the Son, lest He be angry and we be destroyed in our own way. For His anger can flare up in a moment, but blessed are all who take refuge in Him. Yes, so faith is to stay right there next to Him. To abide, not stray. The life of faith is as a distance race, not a static position; a race run out of love.
The world doesn't believe because it sees people who claim to have faith, who claim to be righteous, doing the same things it does. A people for whom Jesus isn't King - walk in their own way today. That's not the Kingdom of God. By faith, we are to live today as Jesus did. He is the pattern Son. And we are to do His works. So be it, Lord.
In all this, we keep ourselves in the love of God, as it is written. It's false to think there is salvation outside the love of God. The church at Laodicea was a prime example of the complacency coming from false doctrine, which is how I grew up. I was heaven bound! But I didn't realize I was naked, blind, and poor. Like many, I confessed Jesus had saved me, but I was a slave to sin, doing the works of the devil while my pastor told me I was righteous with Christ's righteousness. I lived according to the sinful nature but knew nothing of living according to the Spirit.
The letters to the churches apply to us today. He knows our deeds and He will give to everyone according to His conduct and as his deeds deserve. Faith changes us. It takes us from Satan's kingdom, which we are all born in, to God's where Jesus is our King. Selfishly wanting Him as Savior but not as Lord leads to hell. But a disciple of Jesus isn't selfish. He denies himself. He has lost his life; he has lost everything, as Jesus said.
Paul said, "If by any means I may attain to the resurrection of the dead." Eternal life is through faith in Jesus. Well, other things happen in the life of those who believe. Having repented and been baptized, rivers of living water flow from their innermost being. You have eternal life? John 7:37-39 must be working too.
Believing in Jesus, we are born of God and those who are born of God have been set free from sin. They are not slaves to it anymore because of grace. A slave does not have a permanent place in the household. Everyone who names the name of the Lord must abstain from unrighteousness.
If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer, as it written. But if I had beheld sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. So, we see awesome fruit from the one who really believes. And they fear God, too, since that endures forever. We kiss the Son, lest He be angry and we be destroyed in our own way. For His anger can flare up in a moment, but blessed are all who take refuge in Him. Yes, so faith is to stay right there next to Him. To abide, not stray. The life of faith is as a distance race, not a static position; a race run out of love.
The world doesn't believe because it sees people who claim to have faith, who claim to be righteous, doing the same things it does. A people for whom Jesus isn't King - walk in their own way today. That's not the Kingdom of God. By faith, we are to live today as Jesus did. He is the pattern Son. And we are to do His works. So be it, Lord.
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