Predestination is misunderstood...

I've spent the last couple of hours explaining to you how futile it is to live apart from Christ, whether you are saved or not. God doesn't save us and endue us with power independently of Him. You do receive a new heart, but it is one that is still flesh and not stone. God can work within this heart but doesn't give us some superpower by which we obey. He works in and through us Himself to produce obedience. Left alone, even saved, you will continue to sin as you formerly did; simply not as noticeably because you will probably change your behavior outwardly but it won't reflect an inward change of motivation or purity.

The living are conscious of death when they experience it,.and not before.

Or being conscious of something does not mean it has entered the conscience.

It's like an evil spirit that has no empathy.

No empathy has no conscience

that's good but I've also just spent time with.you.

You replied within 1 minute of me posting, so i don't think you had time to reflect, which is easily done.

But I would like you to uphold the only defense we have.

I have been: Jesus. He is our only hope for anything. This has been the case I have made from the beginning. Your heart and you guarding it helps you sometimes from sinning outwardly. It does nothing to cleanse your heart of the impurity that motivates you to sin. This is a work only Christ in you can produce. And this is the source of your error and why you and all of us fall again into sin. And until you understand this, nothing will change. You will do the best you can and eventually fail and sin rather than have Jesus live perfectly obediently through you free of sin.

Your very much in error here.

But never mind, I think ill come back tomorrow.

What I shared is true. It is the substance of John 15.

Late yesterday I wrote how Luke's version of the Parable of the Wedding Feast, along with encouragement from a fellow-saint several years ago, gave me the heart to be a "sower of the seed". One way he and I and others from his large church sow the seed of God's Word is by intergrading evangelism into our daily routines or general lifestyle. We routinely deposit [usually] surreptitiously our favorite gospel tracts in public or outdoor spaces.

My friend who put this idea into my head several years ago has his own favorite methodology whenever he shops in supermarkets. He finds the magazine racks at the registers and slips his favorite gospel tract in a few of them virtually every time he shops.

When I started doing this, I was in a lot better health than I am currently, so I would literally walk entire s/f neighborhoods and leave my favorite tract hanging in a plastic door knob hanger. I have even walked through large ungated apartment or condo communities to hang my tracts. But as my lower back problems worsened, along with my sciatica, I adopted my buddy's shopping idea. However, I prefer leaving tracts tucked under people's windshield wipers (still in the plastic door knob bags) in parking lots. I usually grab 4 or 5 from my stash in my car and on my way into a store, leave them on people's windshields. The reason I still use the small plastic door hanger bags is because I don't want to irritate or anger anyone if it should rain and the tracts disintegrate on the windshield and under the wiper blade and makes a mess they have to clean up. Another advantage to using the plastic bags is that they're easy to leave on motorcycles or scooters.

I would say on average, I deposit at least 10 tracts a week on my shopping trips. I really have no idea how many tracts over the years I have have hung. Certainly many thousands -- perhaps even tens of thousands. I just recently had some extensive chiropractic therapy on three of my lower back discs, so I'm hopeful that over time my condition will continue to improve so that I'll be able to get out once again and walk good distances comfortably. I would dearly love to revisit those earlier communities that I walked years ago to leave more tracts.

The designer of my favorite tract wisely left a small block of empty space on the last page of the 4-page tract so that one could buy a stamp to leave other information, such as the name of one's church or the URLs of well known, conservative evangelical websites as additional gospel resources, e.g. Sermon Audio, etc.

In closing, I do want to make it clear that I don't consider this method of evangelism a way to usurp our responsibility from one-on-one, personal evangelism. I consider this latter type of evangelism to be the best for several reasons -- one of them being the opportunity to share our own personal testimony, which cannot be done with tract handouts. Another reason is that unbelievers' own questions or concerns usually cannot be answered adequately by tracts. But I do consider tracts to be an important way of supplementing personal evangelism because we become conscious of our great privilege daily to go out into the world and spread the Word on a routine basis. It's a way of cultivating a good habit to the point where it becomes second nature to us.

Further, people have come to saving knowledge by reading a simple tract, just as some have come to saving knowledge of the Lord by reading the biggest "tract" of them all -- the Holy Bible. So, this brings me back full circle to where I started with Luke's version of the Parable of the Wedding Feast: I know that at the end of the day, no matter how one is evangelized, it will be the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit to open up anyone's heart to receive the gospel truth, as God did with Lydia. This is not my job, for it is well above my pay grade. And this is what strongly motivates me to evangelize in this manner. And my hope and prayer is that it will motivate each of you as well to routinely become "fishers of men" by also integrading this type of evangelism into your lifestyle. In fact, whenever I see any vehicle with any kind of Christian symbol or message on it, I make it point to leave a tract on that vehicle as a hint to go and do likewise.

Jesus was tempted by Satan is Jesus a sinner?

You're being stubborn brother.

How can Jesus prune the branches in your body if he's not living in the heart.

In order for Jesus to prune your body or your branches in your body such as your mind, Jesus has to prune the heart first.

Is Jesus going to live in a heart that's naturally deceitfully wicked.


The heart that gets circumcised by the sword is the heart that becomes pure brother.

Blessed is the pure of heart for they will see the kingdom of God.

A Heart that is naturally deceitfully wicked hasn't been circumstanced brother, it hasn't become pure its remained wicked.
Are we going to say a heart that has Jesus living inside is a heart that sins bro.

The heart renews the mind. Because Jesus now lives there, you don't live there anymore Jesus does.

It is the mind that sins, not the heart where Jesus lives

And so we have the epitome of exemplification.

Grace and peace.

Feeling tempted isn't in itself a bad thing—it's acting on that temptation that crosses the line into sin. Even Jesus was tempted, right? In the Bible, specifically in Matthew 4:1-11, Jesus goes into the desert and gets tempted by the devil in all sorts of ways. But, He doesn't take the bait. So, the big takeaway here is that facing temptation isn't a sin because even the big guy (Jesus) went through it.

"If you tempt somebody to sin are you going to tell me that's good." This flips the script a bit. Actively trying to get someone else to do something wrong is a whole different ball game. That's not just being tempted; that's being the tempter. And yeah, scripture's not cool with that. It's like if you're trying to get your buddy to skip work to hang out with you when they really can't afford to lose the job. You're not just chilling with temptation; you're handing it out. And that's not looked upon kindly in the Bible. James 1:14-15 says 14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. 15 Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. So, it's about what's in a person's heart and their actions, not just the feeling of wanting to do something they shouldn't. The critical moment comes when you start to entertain and embrace that tempting thought, letting it hang around and grow in your mind. That's the "lust hath conceived" part.

In short, feeling tempted? Not a sin. Acting on it? That's where the trouble starts.

Are you going to correct your error then

There's nothing that I've posted that is incorrect to my knowledge. I'm not opposed to correcting my mistakes, but nothing you have shared leads me to believe I am in error. But I have enjoyed the discourse. Thanks.

ok buddy but I'm beginning to see a pattern here, where by your never wrong.

I'm often wrong. Were I responsible to confess my sins to you, you would know just how frequently so. Thankfully, God alone knows.

It doesn't get much more plainer than this.

This is the only strong hold we have brother.

Strip this away from your faith and you have nothing brother.

You stripped it away with old testament Jeremiah



Ephesians 3:17

New International Version



17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,

Jesus is the stronghold. He is our fortress and high tower. He is our sword and shield. He alone is the maker and keeper of all that we are. Regardless of how many times you ascribe the heart or anything else to an individual or something else, you are actually trusting in something or someone void of the ability to keep you.
When my kids were younger and we would be doing Bible studies, if I asked a question that he didn't know the answer to he would always reply "God ". Technically, He was never wrong. It's always about God.

The only thing I'm ascribing is the heart where Jesus lives.

If Jesus lives there, the shield loves there, the sword lives there his fortress lives there.

So is the heart still naturally wicked.

Can I trust my new heart.

You've answered no i can not trust my heart.

And you've answered the heart is naturally wicked.

Do you wish to correct your answers now.

when your talking about being on recieving end of temptation, then no that's not a sin.

When we you use temptation to cause someone to stumble it is a sin.


You made the statement temptation is not a sin.

Temptation is a sin.

Never say the lord as tempted you,

When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone

Why does he not tempt anyone 🤔

Well because temptation is a sin.

What does the devil do, well he's called the tempter.

And well he's full of sin.

What happens when temptation gets a hold, well it gives birth to sin.

But not just sin

Temptation is also evil intent.