Faith is the confident belief or trust in the truth or trustworthiness of a person, concept or thing, or a belief that is not based on proof.
How can we have faith if we repeatedly disobey the word of god?
I have heard people talking, about "once in grace always in grace" or so they put it and I really don't understand where this comes from!
Doesn't the Parable of the Prodigal Son give the perfect example of one who has lost faith in the lord?
That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ
Isn't the trail of our faith, the way we lead our life born again?
I believe a battle is raging everyday with the enemy. The choices we make build or faith.. And no matter how much faith we think we have everyone could stand for allot more building.
Yes, He will decide during the Judgement Day to accept us back or we will see that we have never been saved (written in the Book of Life)....why? because our sins KILL us. Punishment for sin is DEATH.
I believe there is a difference between loosing Salvation and being out of fellowship with God.
Let me ask you this, if you went and committed a crime, would that mean you were no longer your mother's son, or your father's son? Or would you be in disgrace with them, and until you repented and ask for their forgiveness for what you did be estranged? When you repent of your sins, what then happens with your relationship with your parents?
It's the same with us, once we are adopted into God's family, we are adopted, completely and whole. We are His children. When we sin, we become out of fellowship with our Father. But, when we repent, that fellowship is restored.
The prodigal son parable is about Jews and Gentiles, the prodigal son representing the Gentiles and the oldest son who stayed home representative of the Jews.
I believe there is a balance to the backsliding truth's first it is not a matter of losing one's salvation for the father is always faithful, where the question comes in is for instance you told a lie yesterday and you have not repented, would you go to hell, no. But there are those that have been saved and have gotten back into a lifestyle of lying this is the place of concern, but there answer is to repent.
If Grace is the unmerited favor of God, if there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus, if Jesus died for us while we were still yet sinners, if Jesus was crucified from the foundation of the world......
.....then I humbly ask : How can we ever be out of His Grace?
I do agree however, 'faith builds faith'
POIC replies:
Faith builds faith:
that is like saying that muscle builds muscle,I do not think so.
Jas 1:2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
Jas 1:3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
As resistance against the muscle causes tears in the muscle.
Protien is then needed to repair the muscle,thus we have muscle growth,and an increase in strength.
Tests,trials,tribulations,poverty,PERSECUTION.
These ae what are use of GOD to make a person grow in knowing Him.
Thus trust/faith occurs.
These things happened to Paul,are we any better then he is.
Wgere does the Word say that we are exempt from these.
2Co 11:25 Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep;
If you are a Christian and you were born of God but you kill another person. It means you are a murderer. Can you be in Paradise? The Scripture clearly said NO. Murderers�. do not inherit the Kingdom of God!
The question is: was you really born of God or you live in sins?
If you live in sins, you are NOT born of God. Those who live with God, do not sin, says the Scripture!
We all can be crashed by our sins. It is shipwreck of faith.
But we have a chance to get HOME if He will accept us back.
Will He? He can.
Let me tell you why I think so:
Brother,
one of my Muslim brothers said:
In USA and Europe, I saw prostitutes being �.while having cross round their necks... They say that Jesus will mercy them and send them to heaven...
Exactly like you with your mean behaviour and emails, yet you think you are doing well.
One question!!.. what happens inside churchs after you finish prayer...
Here in our district, Christians say that lights go out inside churches for a while to let mixed people please each other..
You are lax in morals as well as believes...
You had better find your way before it is too late.
Let me answer to your question by quoting you words of one song. This answer will remind us again about who we are and what happened with our brothers in America in September too:
Where Were You When The World Stopped Turning?
Where were you when the world stopped turning on that September day?
Were you in the yard with your wife and children
Or working on some stage in L.A.?
Did you stand there in shock at the sight of that black smoke
Risin' against that blue sky?
Did you shout out in anger, in fear for your neighbor
Or did you just sit down and cry?
Did you weep for the children who lost their dear loved ones
And pray for the ones who don't know?
Did you rejoice for the people who walked from the rubble
And sob for the ones left below?
Did you burst out in pride for the red, white and blue
And the heroes who died just doin' what they do?
Did you look up to heaven for some kind of answer
And look at yourself and what really matters?
I'm just a singer of simple songs
I'm not a real political man
I watch CNN but I'm not sure I can tell
you the difference in Iraq and Iran
But I know Jesus and I talk to God
And I remember this from when I was young
Faith, hope and love are some good things He gave us
And the greatest is love.
Where were you when the world stopped turning on that September day?
Were you teaching a class full of innocent children
Or driving down some cold interstate?
Did you feel guilty 'cause you're a survivor?
In a crowded room did you feel alone?
Did you call up your mother and tell her you loved her?
Did you dust off that Bible at home?
Did you open your eyes, hope it never happened
Close your eyes and not go to sleep?
Did you notice the sunset the first time in ages
Or speak to some stranger on the street?
Did you lay down at night and think of tomorrow
Or go out and buy you a gun?
Did you turn off that violent old movie you're watchin'
And turn on "I Love Lucy" reruns?
Did you go to a church and hold hands with some strangers
Did you stand in line and give your own blood?
Did you just stay home and cling tight to your family
Thank God you had somebody to love?
And the greatest is love.
And the greatest is love.
Where were you when the world stopped turning that September day?
Brothers,
yes my brother is right. I am a sinner. I am a killer. I even cannt count my sins.
But I know only what my God was teaching me since my childhood:
But I know Jesus and I talk to God
And I remember this from when I was young
Faith, hope and love are some good things He gave us
And the greatest is love.
When I was a child God revealed me Himself by giving me a chance to read His holy words. God came to me through these words. I re-reread them so many times...and God talked to my heart. He told me that He is LOVE and He gave me FAITH and Hope in Him. These are the best moments in my life when God talked to me.
No one of men came to me and told me about my sins. Only God did it. No one explained me how bad my sins were. Only God did it. There was no hope in my life but God shed His Light from heaven into my heart and I repented of my sins. He forgave me.
I came to my schoolmates and I taught them the way of God. I came to my teachers in school and I told them about my God. I came to you to bring you the same Light of God which we all are able observe in the life of God Jesus. Do not look at my life. Look at Him and How perfect He was and is.
Who am I?
I am nothing. But He is everything.
About Him I tell you, forgetting if I would be in hell or not.
I am asking Him to save you all, that you would avoid the hell fire.
This is not about me, what I tell you, but about Him!
And I tell Him about you!
He forgives and gives us hope no matter who were. If we have committed any sins then we should remember that He- Jesus- is the ONE who forgave all our sins.
He chose to forgive my crimes.
But I am imperfect. How to be perfect?
If I will OBEY Him and LIVE as He says, implementing all His words, then in the Kingdom of Heaven I will see that I was forgiven and accepted by God.
If I will live in the renewed life WALKING with God Jesus only then I am forgiven and cleansed of my sins.
If I would return to my love from Palestine then would I be in the Kingdom of Heaven? No.
If we do not abandon our lovers, sins, crimes, abominations which we all have committed then HOW would we get to the Kingdom of Heaven?
Jesus sis the ONLY Way to God.
By living with Jesus, we cannt sin. We cannt return to our mud pit to sleep there again and again.
By living with Jesus, we cannt live without Him. This life is DEATH.
It means we have only two choices:
1. Or we live with God
2. Or we live against God.
There is no other option!
God Jesus said:
He who is not with Me is against Me,
and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.
Matthew 12: 30
Brothers, we can be prodigal sons, dogs or pigs always living and sleeping in our mud pit.
But when you are in a such state there is no one who would be able to give you a hand of support!
Who is this who loves you infinitely?
No one.
Only God is helping you to rise up when you have fallen down.
Only God comes to you to wipe away your tears and He promised to wipe them away in His Kingdom too! Only God returns you your direct look lifting up your eyes to Himself.
Only He who wipes your blood from your face, returns you HOPE and LIFE when you decided to kill yourself.
Who is He that He loves so the humankind?
He is the ONE who lived among us.
He is the ONE who suffered like we are suffering.
He was hungry like we are hungry.
He was in blood and no one supported Him.
He is the One who was insulted and finally killed.
He was killed instead of you. That�s why there is no need to die for you. Do not kill yourself because He gave you HOPE!
He NOT only descends from heaven to your world, He comes to YOU in His GLORY and His pierced hands wipe away your tears and He changes your future. There is no need to die.
He is the ONE who saves you.
There is NO OTHER who is like He is.
He said:
�Thus says the LORD:
� I remember you,
The kindness of your youth,
The love of your betrothal,
When you went after Me in the wilderness,
In a land not sown.
Israel was holiness to the LORD,
The firstfruits of His increase.
All that devour him will offend;
Disaster will come upon them,� says the LORD.��
�
� What injustice have your fathers found in Me,
That they have gone far from Me,
Have followed idols,
And have become idolaters?
�
Has a nation changed its gods,
Which are not gods?
But My people have changed their Glory
For what does not profit.
�
� For My people have committed two evils:
They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters,
And hewn themselves cisterns�broken cisterns that can hold no water.
�
� How shall I pardon you for this?
Your children have forsaken Me
And sworn by those that are not gods.
When I had fed them to the full,
Then they committed adultery
And assembled themselves by troops in the harlots� houses.
�
I have seen your adulteries
And your lustful neighings,
The lewdness of your harlotry,
Your abominations on the hills in the fields.
Woe to you, O Jerusalem!
Will you still not be made clean?�
�
Have you not brought this on yourself,
In that you have forsaken the LORD your God
When He led you in the way?
�
Your own wickedness will correct you,
And your backslidings will rebuke you.
Know therefore and see that it is an evil and bitter thing
That you have forsaken the LORD your God,
And the fear of Me is not in you,�
Says the Lord GOD of hosts.
�
Yet I had planted you a noble vine, a seed of highest quality.
How then have you turned before Me
Into the degenerate plant of an alien vine?
For though you wash yourself with lye, and use much soap,
Yet your iniquity is marked before Me,� says the Lord GOD.
�
Yet you say, �Because I am innocent,
Surely His anger shall turn from me.�
Behold, I will plead My case against you,
Because you say, �I have not sinned.�
Why do you gad about so much to change your way?
Also you shall be ashamed of Egypt as you were ashamed of Assyria.
�
You also committed harlotry with the Egyptians, your very fleshly neighbors, and increased your acts of harlotry to provoke Me to anger.
�
You are an adulterous wife,
who takes strangers instead of her husband.
Men make payment to all harlots,
but you made your payments to all your lovers,
and hired them to come to you from all around for your harlotry.
You are the opposite of other women in your harlotry,
because no one solicited you to be a harlot.
In that you gave payment but no payment was given you, therefore you are the opposite.�
�
Also My food which I gave you�the pastry of fine flour, oil, and honey which I fed you�you set it before them as sweet incense; and so it was,� says the Lord GOD.
�
�But you trusted in your own beauty, played the harlot because of your fame, and poured out your harlotry on everyone passing by who would have it.
�
There she lusted after her lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of horses.
�
�They say, �If a man divorces his wife,
And she goes from him
And becomes another man�s,
May he return to her again?�
Would not that land be greatly polluted?
But you have played the harlot with many lovers;
Yet return to Me,�
says the LORD.
�
And I will establish My covenant with you.
Then you shall know that I am the LORD,
that you may remember and be ashamed,
and never open your mouth anymore because of your shame,
when I provide you an atonement for all you have done,� says the Lord GOD.��
�
Will you not from this time cry to Me,
� My Father, You are the guide of my youth?
�
� Return, backsliding Israel,� says the LORD;
� I will not cause My anger to fall on you.
For I am merciful,�
says the LORD;
� I will not remain angry forever.
Only acknowledge your iniquity,
That you have transgressed against the LORD your God,
And have scattered your charms
To alien deities under every green tree,
And you have not obeyed My voice,�
says the LORD.
�
Surely, as a wife treacherously departs from her husband,
So have you dealt treacherously with Me,
O house of Israel,� says the LORD.
�
�Return, O backsliding children,�
says the LORD;
�for I am married to you.
I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.
And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.
�
�When I passed by you again and looked upon you, indeed your time was the time of love; so I spread My wing over you and covered your nakedness. Yes, I swore an oath to you and entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine,� says the Lord GOD.
�Then I washed you in water; yes, I thoroughly washed off your blood, and I anointed you with oil.
�
� Return,
you backsliding children,
And I will heal your backslidings.�
�
Jeremiah 3: 2-3, 5. Ezekiel 23:16, 23
Brothers, God said these words to you all Christians, Jews and you Muslims.
RETURN backsliding children, wash your hands from the blood of your you sins. God is married to you. You like His wife who is making Him great pain.
He is LONG-SUFFERING!
He SUFFERS LONG!
Why?
Because He NEEDS you!
There is no greater LOVE!
God made an ATONEMENT for your sins!
And I will establish My covenant with you.
Then you shall know that I am the LORD,
that you may remember and be ashamed,
and never open your mouth anymore because of your shame,
when I provide you an atonement for all you have done,�
says the Lord GOD.��
This Atonement is the DEATH of His Son -�Ibn Allah- on the cross instead of you. He took all your sins to make you FREE of them and CLEANSED of your sins and blood once and forever.
Poic the battle does not teach these things are of God, it teaches they are of the devil, and of course it does not say they build faith, because many have died from the very things you have mentioned.
Faith starts where the will of God is known, and if you believe these things are of God you are already defeated, to overcome them you would have to overcome them.
Paul said a messenger of satan came to buffet him, grace is no there to endure satan, but to overcome him.
