Salvation Through Grace

I have heard of Torah Observant Christians.  I am not one of those people, nor do I fully understand what they believe and why they do. 

I believe in this verse, John 1:17:

I also believe Galatians 3:1-14, 17-19, 24-26:

For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

O foolish Galatians!  Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as cruicified?  This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?  Are you so foolish?  Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things in vain -- if indeed it was in vain?  Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? -- just as Abraham "Believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness."  Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.  And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, "In you all the nations shall be blessed."  So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.  For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, "cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are writen in the book of the law, to do them."  But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for "the just shall live by faith."  Yet the law is not of faith, but "the man who does them shall live by them."  Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree"), that the blessings of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might recieve the promise of the Spirit through faith. [...]  And this I say, that the law, which was four hundred and thirty years later, cannot annul the covenant that was confirmed before by God in Christ, that it should make the promise of no effect.  For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of primise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise.  What purpose then does the law serve?  It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator.  [...]  Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.  But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.  For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

I am so thankful that God sent His son, Jesus, to save us from the law.  I cannot imagine having to live under such a law.  Maybe it would be different if I were to have been born into it, in fact, yes I know it would be different, but I am  thankful to know that I do not have to follow the law of Moses in order to reach salvation.  I need to believe in Jesus and His grace and that is my path to salvation. 

I do not believe in salvation through good works, but nor do I believe that if you only believe will you be saved.  Our actions must match our beliefs.  We need to believe in salvation through grace, but in addition we also need to believe in making our actions match that.  We cannot simply go around killing people because we know that we will be forgiven.  The Bible teaches us that murder is wrong and therefore we cannot do it, even if we know that we will be forgiven all our sins.

If there is a TO Christian who would like to possibly do a guest post to share their beliefs, I am open to that.  Please know that I do not mean this as an attack on anyone.  I simply wish to express my gratitude for Jesus Christ saving us from the law of Moses. 

Blessings in Christ,

 

Fearing God and Death

This one sort of ties into a previous post of mine on Assured Salvation. Sunday at church, the Bishop was giving main sermon. His main topic was fearing God and how it does us some good to fear God because if we fear God, then it will help us want to do what is right and obey God's commands. He gave several examples in the Bible of those who obeyed God out of fear, one being Abraham when he took his son to sacrifice him for God because that is what he was instructed to do.

This lead into a converstaion the Bishop had with an Old Order Amish man a little while back about how the Amish man feared death because he did not know where he was going to go. In essence, the Bishop said, this man's fear of God was so great that he feared to meet God upon his death. The Bishop linked this to the Amish's belief that one does not know where he will end up upon death until he is told by God. **This is for the Amish around where I live, I realize not all Amish believe this, but this is how this Amish group believes.** He continued saying if anyone was so fearful of God because of his or her past sins to die that we could repent and know exactly where we will go. I understand the church that I have been attending does believe in assured salvation, but as I said before, it is something that I do not believe in. But, nor do I believe that we should be afraid of God so much that we do not want to die. I am perfectly fine not knowing for sure where I will end up when I die, of course I would love to be welcomed into God's Kingdom, and that is what I strive for in my daily life, but I will not say where I will end up upon my death -- I do not believe it is my place to say so. I will admit, there was a time when not knowing scared me, but as I have grown, I appreciate not knowing. I know what I need to do in order to be welcomed into Heaven, but I also know that sin and temptation are constantly around the corner and if I stumble or fall into the trap of sin, I may not have enough time to climb back out before I die.

Blessings in Christ,

Assured Salvation?

Happy New Year to everyone :) I am off to a rather slow start this year, hopefully I will find the words to say and thus pick things up a bit.

A recent post on Amish America's website responded to a reader's question of whether the Swartzentruber Amish (one of the most conservative groups of the Amish) believe in assured salvation. The answer to that is, the Swartzentruber do not, the New Order Amish would as well as the Beachy Amish.

But my question to you is do you believe in assured salvation? I personally do not. I was raised in a protestant church that did not teach that we will for sure make it to heaven if we do A, B, and C. I was taught that until we go knocking on Heaven's pearly gates, we do not know whether God will allow us to enter or not. However, I do believe some of the members of that church do believe in assured salvation, my mom included. In attending a Mennonite church and previously a Beachy Amish church, I think that is one of the hardest things for me to grasp. How can anyone know for sure that what they are doing on earth is exactly what the Lord wants, even if we are doing our best to follow His instructions? I also have the tendancy to believe if we go around spouting that we will be going to Heaven when we die, we overlooking God's Will. Are we telling Him what to do by telling others with such assurance where we are going when we die? Are we being prideful when we state that rather than humble? Also, could we do harm to new Christians or those who we are trying to share the Word with by being so outspoken? Just a few thoughts that run around in my head.

Blessings in Christ,

Lay Hold on Eternal Life

I have really been struggling to come up with something that I feel God would want me to write about, but I may have found something... the sermon that was given last Sunday at church. There is one minister at the church whom I feel is such a blessing to listen to, he truly has his thoughts organized and speaks from the Word of God. The other ministers all speak from the Word of God as well, don't get me wrong, but I feel this minister truly has a gift for Sharing the Word and I love to listen to him preach.

He spoke on laying hold on eternal life -- something that all Christians should be striving for. There were many references given to scripture that shows us what is necessary in order to hold onto our salvation and have eternal life; I have listed them below. But I would like to highlight a few.

1 Timothy 6:6-12, 19 -- We must give up our love for money, why do we love money anyway? Because it will buy us things? Sure it will buy us things on earth, but no matter how much stuff we buy or how much we tithe, money will not get us into heaven! We must grab hold to righteousness, godliness, love, patience and meekness.
Colossians 3:1-2
Philippians 3:10-14
2 Peter 1:5-10 -- We must have faith and virtue and knowledge and temperance and patience and godliness and brotherly kindess and charity. If we have all these things then we shall be frutiful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ!
Luke 13:24-25
Hebrews 12:1 -- Again, we should set aside every weight and sin that beset us in order to run the race that is set before us with patience.
Luke 18:22
Luke 12:15
Luke 8:14
Luke 9:59 -- There is nothing that should come before us following our Lord, not even burying a parent.
2 Corinthians 7:1
Ephesians 4:22
Ephesians 5:14-20
2 Timothy 2:4 -- If we entangle ourselves in the affairs of our earthly life, our Father in heaven will not choose us as one of His soldiers!
1 Peter 2:1
1 John 2:15 -- If we love the world or things in the world, then we do not love our Father in heaven, for we cannot have both the love of the world and of the Father in us.
Mark 10:45 -- We are children of God, and if the Son of Man did not come to be ministered to, then neither should we. We should do as Jesus did, minster to others and give our life to God for the sake of others.
Matthew 11:28-29 -- If we follow the Lord, we shall find rest unto our souls because our Lord's yoke is easy and His burden is light!

It may seem like a lot to take on all at once if we have not truly given ourselves to the Lord, but those of us who have can surely attest to how He guides us in our lives! That is if we allow Him to!! I know myself, I want to be in control of my life so giving up the reins and handing them over to God has definitely been a challenge, but thus far He has provided!

Have a blessed Lord's day tomorrow!

Blessings in Christ,

Losing One's Salvation?

Things have been relatively busy, but not too bad around here. I just put up 3 more quarts of pickled beets & cabbage. This batch I made a tad sweeter than the first. Last week we put up 4 quarts of pickles, 2 quarts bread & butter and 2 quarts dill pickles. I like them and am going to be making some more because my mom asked for some bread & butter pickles. We "cheated" and used a bought spice package, but it was cheaper than buying all the seasonings ourselves.

Last night my roommate and I went to a corn roast at a local Mennonite church. It was lots of veggies :) We got to play cornhole as well, my first time, don't suppose I was too bad... I am not so great at things like that though, putting a bean bag through a hole, not my forte. It was still fun though and that's what matters :)

My roommate has a manager at work that likes to start debates. The first one was over why one would wear a covering all the time, like what's the purpose of wearing it when you're not in church or at a church function? That was his question. He comes from a church, if I understand right, where the women wear their coverings at church (for service only), for a formal church event (ie. wedding or funeral), or when they go out on the town. They do not wear it while at home or when they are eating. The latest debate has been sparked because he said you cannot lose your salvation, once you gain it, God will never let you lose it. My roommate says you can lose it. So, tomorrow at lunch he wants to continue the debate. We have been looking through our Bibles for scripture that supports that someone who has been saved can ultimately lose their salvation.

Some of the scripture we have found and been led to by other Christians who believe that one can lose their salvation are as follows:
Hebrews 6:4-8 (This is a hypothetical situation, Paul was not saying that the Hebrews lost their salvation, but what would happen if someone strayed away from their faith)
Hebrews 10:26 (Same note as above)
Matthew 7:21
2 Peter 2:20
Mark 11:25-26
John 9:31
How I read these scriptures, some of them are what we must do in order to be welcomed into the Kingdom of Heaven (ie. forgive one another) and if we neglect to do these commands, then our Father will not forgive us and if we are not forgiven we are not allowed into heaven. Other scriptures state how it would be difficult for someone who has tasted the Kingdom of Heaven and left it to be welcomed back into it, in other words, someone who has been saved and fell from grace, it will be harder for them to return to the faith than someone who has never been saved before.

The list of abominable sins are found in:
1 Corinthians 6:9-11
Galatians 5:19-20
These abominable sins can be committed by anyone, and if we commit them we must repent before we would be welcome in the Lord's Kingdom. I take this to mean that even if we call ourselves Christians and were once saved if we commit one of these sins, we must repent otherwise when we go knocking on the pearly gates of heaven, we will not be welcomed and rather turned away to the wrath of hell. However, if we repent and turn away from these sins, God will forgive us and we will be welcomed into His kingdom when He calls us up.

What are your thoughts? If you have any scripture that supports losing one's salvation (or supports that one cannot lose their salvation) please share :)

Blessings in Christ,