K-Fish, I agree that a person who just repeats the sinner's prayer and then goes back to the same life style with no change of heart or living is in danger of being rejected by God in that He will say " I never knew ye". When we pray the prayer for forgiveness, there has to be a change in our hearts and a change in our everyday life and style of living, also, a change in the way we treat our fellow man. Without these
changes and without the act of witnessing to our fellow men, what are we accomplishing? It is our christian duty to confess Christ openly and be a witness in
the way we live each day.
Just food for thought.
A King's Son
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I don't know if you noticed or not, but we had a few people in the congregation this morning, that have not been there for awhile. Some of these people only did come to church for a "short" time prior to returning to their previous lifestyles. One does really wonder if they ever had turned their life over to Jesus and his saving grace for real. God knows. I pray that if they didn't, (and even if they thought they did) that they don't waste more time, by not doing so once and for all, so they can experience the true victory in life that so many of us have, in our personal relationship and walk with Christ.
Good to have you on board Brother!
This raises a thought to those people who were once in a church or our church.
Do they believe in the once saved always saved belief?
I don't. I believe if you are saved and change the way your life was, you don't go back to the old life. I don't believe you get saved, then go back to the old lifestyle and still consider yourself saved.
Thoughts?
That's a comment that would be tough to follow-up on...
We know that when saved people are changed, they become new creatures, the old passed away, because scripture tells us so. But that doesn't occur because we change ourselves, it is because the grace of God begins to work in us, changing us bit by bit to be more Christ-like as each day goes by.
In the book that I am reading, "Driven By Eternity" (by John Bevere) the author points to a flaw in the process of inviting someone to meet Jesus, which is driven home in Sunday School class anytime there is a lesson on cults; that is: we should never hang our hat on a single scripture while ignoring what other scriptures have to say about the subject.
In thinking about when we teach people scripture that says "they that call on the Lord, shall be saved...", I think we do promote a once-saved-always-saved mentality because often-times we ignore all the other scripture that talks about giving up or dying to self, crucifying the flesh, living a life that the world will reject, and ultimately could require us to physically give our lives (in actual death) to Christ.
Sometimes when I read scripture and ponder what it means and the implications, quite frankly it scares me... I don't believe for a minute that all us are as secure as we might think. Yes, I know that I know, that I know that I am saved. But I could still mess that up... I agree with 1DukeFan that returning to our previous Godl-ess, self-lived, sinful lifestyles has serious ramifications and consequences to the sureness of our salvation.
Think about this:
Who in America would respond to an alter call, if signing on the dotted line, would mean immenient death at the hands of law enforcement the second they walk out of the building after they got saved? Yet many newly born-again Christians around the world face this, and they know it, yet they still choose to side with Christ. What have we been preaching in our churches? Part of the truth or all of the truth?
Just catching up on the blog; my thoughts are that: 1 a person repents of his or her sins, changes their lifestyle through the grace of God and strives to serve Him; 2 A person can, of their own volition, stray completely away from the ways of God, return to their old ways and habits and be just as lost as they were before. It is harder to bring them back into the fold after this happens due in a large part to pride and the fact that they have to repent again and ask God for forgiveness again.
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