More on Once Saved, Always Saved and Gifts of the Spirit

I have felt compelled by God to share a letter I wrote this morning. This was written to a couple who we met last summer through the home church group before it fizzled out. Names have been changed to protect the innocent!

Hi Joe & Suzy:
I hope that your family is doing well. God has laid it on my heart to e-mail you guys this morning. When we met you, we were interested in doing Bible study with you. I thought and prayed a lot and I kept coming back to the place that there were 2 points that we disagree on which would hinder us studying the Bible together.
When I mentioned the issue of salvation as in I don't believe that you can't lose it, Suzy you said that if your daughter was born a Smith (last name), she could never be born anything else. But Jesus said "He who endures to the end shall be saved." Matt. 10:22 and in Revelation He says "Remember therefore how thou hast received and didst hear; and keep it, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. But thou hast a few names in Sardis that did not defile their garments: and they shall walk with me in white; for they are worthy.He that overcometh shall thus be arrayed in white garments; and I will in no wise blot his name out of the book of life, and I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels. Rev. 3:4-5. In the Baptist church I was in I learned the "once saved, always saved" doctrine. As I shared with you, when I left church, I asked the Lord to strip away everything that man had taught me and to teach me His truth. After that prayer as I read through the New Testament, I saw a different salvation doctrine. I've come up with pages of verses that don't jive with "once saved, always saved".
The other issue was obviously, the gifts of the Spirit. That was another truth that God showed me. I do not agree with most of what goes on in the Charismatic/Pentacostal churches. A lot of what I've heard is enough to keep me away. I was taught in the Baptist church that these things ceased when the Bible was completed. After God showed me that they still exist I went back and looked at the Scriptures. In Acts 2 on the Day of Pentacost, Peter proclaims the prophecy in Joel being fulfilled "And it shall be in the last days, saith God, I will pour forth of My Spirit upon all flesh: And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, And your young men shall see visions, And your old men shall dream dreams: Act 2:18 Yea and on My servants and on My handmaidens in those days Will I pour forth of My Spirit; and they shall prophesy. The question begs asking "When did the last days end?" When did God stop giving His Spirit"?
Another Scripture: 1Co 13:10 but when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away. 1Co 13:11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child: now that I am become a man, I have put away childish things. 1Co 13:12 For now we see in a mirror, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know fully even as also I was fully known. 1Co 13:13 But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
My bible does not have a face, nor can it know me, I believe this speaks to the second coming of Christ, or when we meet him face to face.
If you go back to 1 Cor. 1:7 - so that you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting the revelation of our Lord, Jesus Christ, That word revelation is also translated coming.
I've learned over the past year that my life has been transformed since I got filled with His spirit last January, why didn't that happen when I was trying hard for 7 years sitting in church? I thought that I had all the spirit that I was going to get when I accepted Christ. I rejected His Spirit, even though I thought I had it. I couldn't get rid of the sin in my life because I was not walking filled with the Holy Spirit. My life never seemed to make sense because I couldn't live the Christian life the way I was supposed to. I had a form of godliness but denied the power thereof.
I hope that I've not offended you in anyway through this e-mail. I don't claim to have all the answers. You may be right and I may be wrong but I hope that all of us are seeking God and His truth alone because if we aren't we are following a man that taught us what we believe and that is idolatry.

There is a website called http://www.revivalschool.com/. This man preaches repentance like no one I've heard. I've not found anything that he is saying that is against the word of God. If you scroll down on the left side under audio, there is a link called The True Gospel and another Are you walking in Romans 8. I hope that you will ask the Lord for discernment and listen to them. I know Joe doesn't like fluff teachers, and I agree. This guy is anything but.

Again, I felt led to share this and I hope that I, in no way, offended you but this has become a block to us studying the Bible or fellowshipping as a home church with some other people because I feel very strongly about chucking theology out the window and just opening up the Bible and asking the Lord to speak truth. We've not met a person yet, who was willing to pray "Lord strip away what man has taught me and any lies I'm believing and show me your truth."

Have a blessed day rejoicing in our Savior!

That's the end of the letter. Beloved, I beg of you there is a minefield of lies out there in Christianity and Christians who are sound asleep. On judgement day, we will be held accountable for God's truth, not what we chose to believe. WAKE UP AND GET HUNGRY FOR THE TRUTH!!!!! Nobody, including me when I was sitting in church thinks "oh, yes, I'm believing lots of lies"! You will never know unless you ask God, He will not lie!


2Th 2:10 and with all deceit of unrighteousness for them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
2Th 2:11 And for this cause God sendeth them a working of error(some translations say strong delusion), that they should believe a lie:
2Th 2:12 that they all might be judged who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

That is scary, scary enough for you to ask God to show you the truth?

Free Copy of Stay At Home Mom's Guide to Successful Ebay Selling

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Just click on over to her site and get your free e-book.

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Giveaways

Free Fireproof DVD plus Clearance sale at Vision Forum

If you read my review earlier today and are planning on buying a copy, first go check out the great deals over at Vision Forum during their clearance sale. They are giving away a free copy of Fireproof DVD with every $100 purchase.

Fireproof - Gotta See it!!!!!

Yes, I know Fireproof was out in the movies in the fall but for us cheapskates, yesterday was an exciting day. Fireproof was finally released on video or dvd as the case may be. God was with me, I figured I'd be waiting a while to rent a copy. I had to stop at Walmart yesterday morning to buy a bubble mailer to ship a book I sold on Amazon. In the entrance area, they have a Redbox machine and low and behold Fireproof was in. By the way if you never tried Redbox, what in the world are you waiting for? For only $1.00 per night using your debit card, you can see all the new releases. Go to the Redbox website to see if there is a location near you. By the way, they often offer free codes. We don't rent many movies because of the content but at least when we do, we can do it cheaply.
Anyway, on to Fireproof. Up until yesterday, Facing the Giants was my favorite movie but Fireproof definitely competes for the #1 movie. It seemed like everyone we knew went to the movies to see it. Some grown men told us they cried along with their wives. Well, my husband did too! That does not happen often.
This movie will renew your faith in God. It goes beyond marriage, to our relationship with God, forgiveness and how we treat others. Toward the end of the movie when Kurt Cameron asked his mom for forgiveness, it really struck a cord in me. I grew up with, let's say, not June Cleaver as a mom and spent many years bitter and angry. The Lord has taken a lot of that away over the years but still it hit a nerve with me.
Another moment that struck me was when Kurt Cameron was talking about his wife rejecting the love he was trying to show her and his father shared that he was doing the same thing to God, that got to me. No Christian would outwardly admit that they were rejecting God's love but I've seen it in my life when I continue to sin after God has convicted me about it. Also, the times where I have failed to show the love of Christ. When we've done it unto the least of these we've done in unto Him. So, every time I'm snotty or short with someone, I'm snotty or short with Jesus! God forgive me and change my heart.
This movie also will renew your strength to keep going in a tough marriage situation. Even if only one person is trying, it can work. I've seen it at times in my own marriage when we were fighting a lot that when I seek God and try to obey Him it softens my husband's heart. At times, it seemed like my husband's heart wasn't softening but you know, I still had joy because I was obedient to the Lord. Our marriage has gone through the good, the bad and the ugly over the last 20 years but praise God, we are still together. When we were young and first married, we were not walking with the Lord. We were both selfish and self-centered. God has been slowly changing our hearts over the last 8 1/2 years and our marriage is better for it.
Please watch this movie, you will be so very blessed. I'm sure you can find a place to rent it. If not Amazon has plenty of copies available. I just checked Amazon, this DVD is #2 selling. If you're planning on purchase a copy, you may want to do it soon, before they sell out.
By the way, side note, has anyone seen Flywheel, it was the other movie put out by the same producers of Facing the Giants and Fireproof? I'm hoping to purchase a used copy on Amazon when we get our tax refund since there is no place that is renting it around here.

What a Year!

I had posted an update on how we're doing earlier this month. I didn't feel quite right about how it was worded so I deleted it a week or two later. So, let's try this again!
Last January, I had made my goal to live my life each day on purpose for the Lord. Around the same time, I really started seeking God's truth in His word. This was spurred on because of all the different opinions out there in Christianity. I became very disillusioned by all the authors "expert opinions". Well, God truly honored both of those decisions.
We found out the truth about not being under the law of tithing. A year has gone by now since we stopped tithing and began what we believe is New Testament giving. To us, that means we give as led by the Spirit to people in need, not institutions. Financially, God has truly showed us that He is our provider. Normally, my husband works 6 days a week just to make our budget. His overtime got cut in the beginning of November. So far, our bills are paid, there is food in the house and gas in the car. We really needed to learn that God is our provider and not my husband's job.
I also learned that the gifts of the Spirit are for today, unlike what I was taught in the Baptist church. I was reading through the Book of Acts and I was just so excited at how the Holy Spirit was working through those believers and had already realized that some of what we were taught wasn't true. I prayed and asked the Lord if these things still existed today. Nobody knew that I prayed that prayer. Within 2 weeks, my youngest daughter who has a heart for the Lord, and I had an encounter with God that I will never forget. Yes, God still does work supernaturally through the Holy Spirit with tongues and prophecy. Maybe someday I will share more about that encounter.
I truly renounced all that I had been taught and spent a lot of time in the Scriptures this past year seeking what God would teach me. I no longer believe the "just pray a prayer" or "once saved, always saved". Among many verses that spoke to me was Jesus saying "He who endures to the end shall be saved". That says to me that if I do not endure to the end, I will not be saved. Like I said, there are quite a few verses that made me question what I previously believed and again, maybe another day I will go further into that.
Our home church group kind of fizzled out. There were differing beliefs and some of us were an hour away from one another. So, in the end, we sometimes get together with another family that lives an hour away. We are looking to have a home church group so, if you live in Lehigh or Berks County in PA(we are near the line) and are interested, leave a comment below.
We tried visiting a church a few months ago but we just couldn't do it. After a month of seeing people having financial problems, the church having financial problems and knowing that tithing was being taught, it was too much for us. We tried talking to the pastor but he believes that tithing is biblical and didn't really hear us. The funny part is that the whole church has been gathering on Friday nights seeking God for what it wrong. They pay people for the simplest things, like locking and unlocking the doors yet they have no money to help the needy within the church. The church is surviving off of savings right now.
If there were ever a time for true NT giving, it is now. If all this money wasn't being given to institutions and salaries, which aren't in the Bible, there would be a lot more available to help each other.
So, this is a bit of where I'm at right now. I look forward to what God will be teaching me this year. Praise Him, He is faithful!

Bless Your Home, Bless Your Husband

I've come to realize that if this blog is going to get updated I will need to be doing shorter posts. I've got a few posts that I started and never got back to. So, today, I will be brief.
We were at a friend's home last night and he was talking about knowing our God-given roles as husband and wife and working together, not against each other. He said, "When I get home, it's like AHHHHH! The air conditioning, the place is immaculate, the laundry is done and the meals are cooked." This morning I asked my husband if he felt that way and he said, "yes, I should say it more often". I wasn't fishing for a compliment, just information. I will add here that this couple's children are grown. I don't think that we have to strive to never have a speck of dirt in our house but God didn't call us to live in squalor either.
It is easy for us to get our priorities out of order and feel like it doesn't matter anyway. I want my husband to feel blessed when he walks through the door. He works 48 hours per week in a hot factory. Yesterday, it was 95 and humid here and it's even hotter in the factory. He looked like he was going to fall over when he I picked him up from work. In a little bit, he was refreshed by the air conditioning in the car. I want to be that to him, that pick me up at the end of the day. I want him to be so happy here that he can't wait to get back home to us.
If you are struggling with keeping up with your house check out flylady.net. I don't agree with all of her philosophies but she'll help you get organized. I was also recently blessed by reading Speed Cleaning by Jeff Campbell. It was a great book for me as I just didn't feel like the flylady system was meeting my needs anymore. Jeff Campbell has some help available on his website as well as a monthly newsletter.
Well, I'm off to clean my house. Be blessed and be a blessing!