Riverwalker

Excellent! No God is not standing over us with a hammer waiting for us to fail, any more than a father who runs along side his child riding a bike for the first time so that he can berate him if he falls. God has already given us everything, through Jesus Christ, we do not have to earn it. 2nd Peter 1:2 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3 as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,

You misrepresented the whole thing Ephesians 2:. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Every bible writer agrees, we are saved by grace through faith, not of good works, but TO good works. James is saying if you say your saved, but nothing in your life shows, your faith is dead and so are you. Salvation is not earned by us, it was earned by Jesus on the cross. We can do nothing to be be more deserving of his Grace. When you are (truly) saved, your life is changed, you are made new and you have salvation. Its already given to you. We do not do works, out of requirement, we do them because it pleases the Lord and it blesses us

Until they depart from God

yeah, I am really going to have to look into this

Thank you. I tend to be a bit leery of the words of men, but in these quotes I find the word and truth of God. James 1:2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. I especially like the quote Thanks for posting

Without question mine is Michelangelo Buonarroti. Surely a troubled soul, but it seems it takes a troubled soul to create the essence of Art. Joy, pain, fear, faith and a solitude that no one else understands, or so we think.

Yes its okay to ask why, But He might answer, "because it is my will for your life." and offer nothing else We must know that God has our very best in heart, and while we may not see it at the time, walking through valleys at times, and sometimes on the mountain top...it is the very best to be for our life. Matthew 6: 8 “Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. 9 In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. 10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors. 13 And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

May I ask what MJS C A C and JCR are?

Amen, and thank you for posting. The point that what we sow effects more than just us, is very interesting and important. Some people start from such a deficit because of what was done by their parents, that it is just an effort to get back to normal/

Hallelujah! "The terror of the Lord" - what a concept Proverbs 9:10 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. Ever since I saw the movie "The Matrix" I have thought of passing over much like that experience, unplugged we go from being here, to being there. Seated in heavenly places (although heaven is much nicer) Eph 2:6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, As Always, Thank you! Definitely part of my devotionals

It is to respect, listen to, love and accept them, even if they are not following the Lord (and even if they have not been the best of parents, because they are yours) It is the opposite of disrespecting, ignoring, hating and rejecting Obedience is not part of that once you are an adult. In as much as you can live in peace with them, do so. But Obey and submit to your heavenly Father

When we become Christians, we still sin, we still fall. But we get up. Repentance brings us back into a right standing with God so that we can once again go forward

It seems to me that "Come to Jesus, accept His invitation to love, family, salvation, blessing and life. Or be judged and tossed into the lake of fire" would be a classic no brainer, and yet MANY choose badly Dueteron0my 30: 19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;

::trying to steer the topic back on course: Repentance is turning away from your sin. The Christian life is like a country road, with many side roads we call sin. If we find ourselves down one of these side roads, we have to reverse course and head back to the main road. This is repentance, turning away from sin and back to God. This happens when the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin and our heart is soft enough to hear. This includes being toxic to each other

The former is my focus. I am not well versed in Calvinist doctrine, I am just trying to understand the thought process

Um.......

Proofs are for Theory's to become truth

If they can prove the origin theories.....we have no issue.

It seems rather strange if everything in our life was preordered, that all decisions were made and the die was cast, that God would require us slog about on this planet for 80 or so years before we could go to our predetermined reward or punishment. As a person who holds to the teaching that salvation is a choice, I believe my purpose in being here is to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, and then to help others find the same. That this earth is a proving ground, giving us a chance to choose to follow or reject God. I did not ask this question to rekindle the never ending debate. I want to know what your thinking here is. There is no wrong answer (and if the hamster wheel does start up again, I will not be part of it)

I would quite agree that the Judgment of the Righteous God has not been removed, just put off for a time. so that we can come to a saving knowledge Of Jesus Christ

Ocaam's Razor Simplified: is a principle from philosophy. Suppose there exist two explanations for an occurrence. In this case the one that requires the smallest number of assumptions is usually correct. Another way of saying it is that the more assumptions you have to make, the more unlikely an explanation. Creation: God Did it Origin (Without God): All of everything banged to existence for no purpose cause or reason Everything arranged itself in an orderly fashion using gravity, that also appeared for no purpose cause or reason Then life erupted spontaneously where there was no life, no organic material anywhere, again for no purpose cause or reason The life became more and more advanced finding enough other life to feed on to survive, for no purpose cause or reason Finally 200,000 years ago modern man* appeared on the scene, but it took him 195,000 years to learn that if you planted seed it grew, that fire could be controlled and that a branch can be used as a lever and a round wheel as a pulley (Simple Machines) and the Egyptian Civilization was born 195,000 years doing nothing? Civilization restarted after the flood 5000 years ago That is an awful lot of assumptions being based on something that was never observed. * Man with all the intelligence, curiosity, creativity and drive we have today

Christianity is a personal experience. Church and preachers help establish that experience, but when the rubber meets the road, its you and the Lord

No its not unbiblical, but realize God will not force them. He can send people there way, he can try to communicate with them, But in the end the freewill he gave us means they final deciding factor is our own choice

The initial impression may be off, but anyone who truly seeks, will find the truth eventually

God told them Roman 1: 18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse And what is love , trying to save people from the destruction that their chosen lifestyle will take them to. Or making them comfortable on the way to hell?