Blood Bought 1953

Everything” IS” Ok ( in regard to Salvation) if you Believe and Rest in 1Cor15:1-4...... The only “ Responsibility” that WE have is to Believe in the Gospel to the Point that we REST in it for our Salvation. Anybody can HEAR the Gospel , but it takes the Holy Spirit to OPEN YOUR HEART to receive it and let it Save you ( check out how this Works by the example of Lydia, the Seller Of Purple Acts 16 ) When it comes to Salvation, the Initiative belongs to God ....” NOBODY comes to God , lest the Spirit draw him” ) If one is not a Believer, they should pray that God make them a “ Lydia”, But then , if they are not a “ Believer” to begin with , are they going to pray that prayer? Beats me.

No need to apologize..... I just hope it was a blessing to you in some small way , shape or form....God bless you....

What “ seems” to you to be the proper understanding of my post is an erroneous one.Be aware of Sin! I know that “ I” am ( and HOW! ) ........Repent ( be sorry for ) your sins until the cows come home! Sinner that “ I” am, I Repent several times a day....EVERY DAY! Be as Holy as you can be ! Be as obedient as you can be ! These are All GREAT things to do.....every one of them are Biblical Here is the problem. God COMMANDS us in Heb 3 and 4 to REST in the Gospel Of Grace.....Those That are constantly under Duress about Sinning, repenting , trying to be “ Holy” , etc.......are revealing they have a problem .....RESTING and being under DURESS are not Compatable.....it may very well show that you do not really Believe the first half if the Gospel ( 1Cor15:1-4 ) —— The Part That says, “ JESUS DIED FOR YOUR SINS !!! it’s supposed to be GOOD NEWS! And it is if you BELIEVE It.......It does NOT mean we can now go out and “ sin up a storm” and think we can “ get away with it” because Grace always trump’s Sin, and the Blood covers everything .....when one realizes and internalizes the great Favor that God has done for us , something we absolutely did not deserve and something He did not HAVE to do, it is not a human response to try to anger somebody that has done you an UNIMAGINABLE Favor..... If you are about to go to a certain death , finding yourself in a raging river and you can’t swim and a giant water fall is just ahead and somebody throws you a life line that saves you .....what do you think your response will be? If you are a human being your response will be one of Love and Gratitude —- you will be EAGER to pay that guy back for what he did FOR you! Christianity kinda works that way....except the thing that “GOD” saved you From was not a waterfall.....He Saved you from an Eternity in Hell. An “ Eternity in Hell” that was well-deserved, incidentally.....The more you “SEE” what He did......the more you “ understand” what He did.....the more you “ TRUST” what He did the more Joy and Peace you will have in your life .......in short , the more REST you will have .Just like you were “ Commanded” to do...... Do all of the good things that we mentioned .....they are Part Of The Christian Walk.....But so is Joy .So is REST.They come naturally if you Trust the Good News....There is no problem repenting From daily Sins and trying to live right and Holy......but if you these things are done thinking you will be cast into the pits of Hell if you “ don’t” do them.....you have missed the Good News —- Jesus actually “ DID” die for our Sins .Cant we RELOiCE, just a little bit? Smiles make for a better witness than frowns.....I suppose that is the essence of what I am saying....God Bless....

.......you would be a Fool to do otherwise.Your life will be blessed for living this way ....you will become a “ moral man”....... unfortunately , God is not looking for “ moral men” .He is looking for men that are “ lost in trespasses and sin” and KNOW it......Men with Contrite hearts , given to them by a Visit from the Holy Spirit ......Salvation all starts with God. “ NOBODY comes to God , lest the Holy Spirit draw them” Its like Lydia, the “ seller of Purple ( Acts 16:11 ) She was like Cornelius, a Believer in the God Of The Jews, but she had not heard the Gospel Of Paul , Given to Paul by Jesus personally .Thousands heard Pauls Gospel and rejected it .Lydia would have rejected it also, except “ God opened her heart” to the Truth of it .....She became the “ Good Soil” That Jesus spoke of ..... “ God , make me “ good soil” was my second serious prayer.....only God Can can open the eyes and the ears and above all, the HEART to that is necessary to not only “ hear” the Gospel , But BELIEVE it enough to REST in it..... I heard a preacher exclaim once—— “ Give me Lydias!” ......she had a Heart made ready for the reception of the Gospel when she heard it... Be Wise......ask God to give you the same “ break” he gave to Lydia.....ask God to make you “ Good Soil” ......I am the true “Chief Of Sinners” and God did it for me .....” Good Soil” spreads the Gospel .....what do you think I am doing here now? Lol......The Atheist That I was 40 years ago would not be in here right now trying to awaken people to the Good News.....just “ Turn to God”...... Then watch Him go to work.....”IF” you Put Your Trust in Him.....God bless....

.......exactly......and THAT is the Problem. It is NOT “ easy” .....it is IMPOSSIBLE ! ......Nobody can do it .....that was the ENTIRE PURPOSE of the 613 Laws that God gave us in the OT .....it was given to “ close the mouth” —— in others words—- SHUT UP about “ keeping it” ....The Law was given to show you your Lost Position and to show you that you needed a Savior ... By the time that Jesus showed up, many had deluded themselves into thinking that they could keep it ....and they DID Keep it to a large degree.....they kept the “letter of the Law, but not the “ Spirit Of The Law”.......Jesus had to set them straight with the hope that their hearts might become “ Contrite” ......he showed them that even though they may have fulfilled the Commandment, “ Thou shalt not commit Adultery”.....Jesus Added to that Commandment and told them that if they even harbored a lustful “ thought”.....they were in danger of being Damned.... Even If a person obeyed ALL of the Commandments , He still has a big problem remaining.....it’s something the Legalists and religionists NEVER want to discuss......the Sins Of Omission! Those would be all the Good things you SHOULD be doing , but you AINT Doing ! How many strangers have you invited into you house today to feed and clothe and offer shelter to this week? Yeah ......I thought so..... People need to see—- God has got us all Trapped for the rats that we are . There is no way to become “ fit for Heaven” other than to swallow our Pride , admit we are helpless and hopeless Sinners and cry out with a contrite Heart like the Sinful Publican Of Luke 18:9-14 did......he got “ Justified”( viewed by God as if he had NEVER sinned ) the very day he cried out this prayer from a Repentant heart .....I suggest that YOU give it a whirl—- “ God, have Mercy on me, a Sinner!” Do That. Just that , It will get you Saved....it worked for me .God keeps His Promises.....” Anybody that asks for Mercy shall RECEIVE it”.......What kind of Perverted “ Mercy” would it be if God Saved you and then “ Unsaved” you? It’s HIS Mercy and Grace from beginning to end.... He is the one That will “ KEEP you from Falling”....HE is the One that will FINISH the work that HE started .....it May sound crude to say it this way, but when it comes to your Salvation, the “ monkey” is on HIS BACK! Just the Way He wants it ! You see, this way , Jesus gets 100% of the Glory and you get exactly what you deserve—- ZERO. Just the Way He wants it..........God Bless ....

I have only had one serious wreck .... 50 years ago.....was on back of a 175 Honda.....some old lady pulled out in front of me and my buddy.....he slammed on the front brake.....he went over the handle bars and I was right behind him.....we both landed on the very tops of our heads and were able to walk away.....had we not been wearing helmets....we would have both been killed.....helmets are a pain to wear ....wear them anyway....

Sin is a bad thing.....sometimes a Terrible thing....duh. After a person Repents, that is, “ changes his mind” from “SELF TRUST” to “JESUS TRUST” he is Saved.So much for that. As we established earlier , sin is bad.....any sin hurts others, hurts ourselves and displeases God On Account Of that Hurt. However, too many “confused” Christians ....too many “poorly taught” Christians seem to live their lives Dwelling on the subject of Sin....something that God took care of for you, if you are a Believer in Jesus.If you are a Believer, God has Promised to Firgive you for all of your sins.....past ,present , and future.....He promised to take your sins and toss them into the “ deepest depths of the sea”.Your sins are as far removed from His sight as “ The East is from the West” And don’t tell anybody , but the Topper to all of this is that when the Accuser stands before you and God and tries to bring up all of your sins to God so that you can join him in Hell and get what you justly deserve , God is gonna say, “ What Sins? I don’t remember them!” Surprise! It’s just like Promised ! Saved “ To The Uttermost!” So, in light all of these great Promises, the concern for Sin certainly has its place , but I know that ever since I became “A New Creation in Christ Jesus” , RESTING in paul’s Gospel of Grace Plus Nothing , I have become MUCH more “ SON” conscience “ as opposed to “SIN” Conscience God’s Assurance Of Salvation for all Believers and His Amazing Grace , once fully recognized and internalized , so Out- Shadows everything else , I find myself delivered from the Baby World existence of sin ...repent.....sin ....repent, ad nauseam, keeping my eyes on Myself instead of keeping my eyes on Him..... A life devoted to Sin-Maitainence as opposed to Son Appreciation shows a lack of confidence in the Plan Of God for His Children , simply put, it shows a lack of Faith . It’s a Paradox, but nevertheless it is True......the More I keep my eyes on Him and HIS Performance, not being so Obsessed with “ my” pitiful Performance —- the Better my Performance becomes .Christianity is kinda “ crazy “ like that.....Full Of Paradoxes—— you go up by going down......you become first by being last....I am finding that the less I worry about sin the better job I do Of not Sinning .....hmmmm... I wonder if God knew that long before I did......God bless...

Wise and insightful as always......let me just add this.....something I heard years ago and it stuck with me.... A Christian is somebody that has Christ “IN” them, and Christ is “Formed In Your Heart” by Faith....

Sir...... I have regained the WILL to live! Lol......Somebody else “ gets” it.....you have restored my faith in mankind... Great Post!

Only Faith in Jesus will Save.....to “repent” means to “ change your mind “ about HIM —— who HE was and what HE did FOR us......which was to shed His Blood for our Sins....THAT is aRepentance that will Save...... Again.....notice Jesus did NOT say “ Repent from SINS” to get Saved.....

Is there some reason to remove our hand if we stick in a fire? Same thing..... Every sin you commit will come back to haunt you.....you simply can not do wrong and “Get away with It” Sinning is foolishness.....you hurt yourself , more than likely you hurt somebody else and you displease your Heavenly Father......one can derive a lot of pleasure from sin —— “ For a Season” .....it’s going to ruin you in the end.....it can and will shipwreck your life. The only way Repentance can be bad is to think that REPENTING OF SINS is God’s Way to get Saved......Salvation is not a “ Trade” ......saying, “ I’ll give up all of my Sinning in turn for your Salvation” Salvation is a “ GIFT” , GIVEN to those that don’t WORK for it.....We don’t “ Turn “ FROM” Sin” to get Saved .....we Turn “ TO” God with a Contrite Heart When Jesus or anybody else says “ Repent” — Do It! If Jesus or anybody else says “ Repent from your Sins”— Do It! If Jesus says, “ Repent from your sins to be Saved”—- Do That also! The Vital thing is this—- Jesus NEVER said “Stopping your Sinning is the Way to be Saved”. If you can find Anywhere in the KJV where He says that I will give you $1000...... it ain’t in there.... Here is what Jesus “ DID” say about the Way to get Saved.....He-used Paul to say it in 1cor15:1-4 AFTER THE CROSS ..... Believe that Jesus died for your sins and rose from the grave. Simple as that.Make sure you don’t ADD to that with ANYTHING or you will “ Fall from Grace”.......TEACH Additions to that Gospel and you will be “ Accursed”..... that’s a polite way to say “ damned” .....one does not Trifle with God’s Gospel That Saves.... Some confused, poorly taught people agree with the Gospel.... BUT then they say you will be Saved by that Gospel only if you understand that in Addition to simply Believing it, you ALSO have to “ repent of all of your sins “ before you die. That is a FALSE gospel, a PERVERTED Gospel .The Repentance That Saves you is going from being an UNBELIEVER in the Gospel to becoming a BELIEVER in the Gospel..... That “ change of mind” ( metanoia) is what leads to Salvation.....once that is out of the way....then we can attend to the other things like Sanctification , etc....Don’t put the Cart before the horse...

A lot of confused, poorly taught people believe sincerely that unless they “ Stop Sinning” , they can’t be Saved. This is what they take the word “ Repentance” to mean ......one has to Repent Of all of their Sins in order to be declared “ Fit For Heaven” The True Repentance That Saves is the “ TURNING to God , with Faith in Jesus Christ.” Acts 20:22...... “ I told Jews and Gentiles to TURN ( Repent) to God and have Faith in our Lord Jesus) It is literally a “ change of mind” ( from the Greek Metanoia) .....you Change you Mind From thinking that you are “ good enough” to go to Heaven and thinking you can make it on your own somehow , to finally discovering that you CANT be good enough and you need HELP! BIG TIME ! You need a Savior! Then and ONLY then will you have the required Contrite Heart that God is looking for .....the Contrite Heart that cries out..... “ Lord have Mercy on me , a Sinner.....” Onecwill never cry out for the Savior until you see the NEED for that Savior..... So now let me make my point: If one thinks that Repentance means “ Conquering or Stopping Sin”to Merit Heaven.....let’s go through that process .... I am qualified to teach it .....I tried it .....( spoiler alert— it did not work ) OK ....Lets pretend that I just got told by my Dr that I got one month to live ....it’s time to get serious with God ....I gotta quit all of my Sinning .....I have now officially declared “ I Repent! I will sin no more! Starting NOW! So......I start reading the Bible to find out all of the rules that I must keep and I give it my best shot ......I can sin no more between now and a month from now when I kick the bucket.I check out those Ten Commandments and for weeks I go without Murdering or Committing Adultery .....I grit my teeth , summon up all of my will-Power andxfind myself doing a pretty good job! But then I made a big accidental mistake.....I got to The New Testament and stumbled across the Sermon on the Mount. Uh-oh. There I discovered refraining from murder and refraining from Adultery was not going to “ cut the mustard” . To continue my life of Repentance which meant to me in my mind I still had to “ not sin anymore” —— it finally hit me ! I could refrain from Adultery sure enough , but Jesus said that to just have a lustful thought was equal to committing Adultery. Well , a man’s gotta do what he has to do—— no more Lustful Thoughts for me ! Well, that worked for about 15 minutes.....in fact the more that I tried NOT to harbor bad thoughts, the more bad thoughts I entertained ......it finally hit me ......despite my good intentions , my attempts to “ quit Sinning” was a Sham. I could not do it ! The harder I “tried” to quit the harder it “ became” to quit . I was reminded of Paul’s struggle in Romans 7......I sincerely “ wanted” to be “ good” , but it just wasn’t in me..... “ Sin” always found a way to overcome the Best of my intentions....I had to “ come to an end of myself” ..... I could not stop Sinning .....what I “ could” do was to swallow my Pride, admit I was a hopeless, helpless Sinner who HAD to have a Savior or I was headed for Hell like a speeding Bullet! Now I understood how that Sinful Publican ( Tax Collector) felt....I had at last been humbled — All that was left for me to do was TURN TO GOD ( the REAL Repentance that God means for Salvation) and cry out , “ Lord Jesus, have Mercy on me, a Sinner.” Just like the Publican , I was Saved at that moment.....I went home JUSTIFIED —- just like he did.......simply because I “ Repented” ....I Repented God's Way....I finally Turned to Him ......God fulfilled His Promise —- “ Turn to me and I will Turn to You.” So here is where the mistaken idea of “stopping Sinning” to Merit Heaven ( the erroneous view of repentance) can inadvertently lead to one’ s Salvation...If trying to conquer Sin leads you to see that you cant do it and the Holy Spirit That gave you the Self-Insight to see even “That” —— if that Spirit draws you with the CONVICTIOn Of SIN and the Awareness that you NEED a Savior you got Tricked .....the Route that you originally thought would Save you ( mastering Sin) turned out to be Lie.....but it lead you to your Salvation in spite of yourself and your self-Righteousness...... I you went on to put your Faith in Jesus to do FOR you what you discovered you could NOT do by yourself....you, my friend got “ Born Again” ....you got Saved.....Congrats!

Apparently , I saw something you didn’t ....I can’t read these verses or hear this opinion without thinking of Paul’s verses that seem to disagree with these items that were brought up ....I bet I wasn’t alone in that thinking.... another side of the story needed to be told as part of a full discussion .....we-ARE having a discussion aren’t we......sorry If I stepped on anybody’s toes .....it wasn’t..... Is all of this Nit - Picking a part of my “ welcome back?”

“ Christ is the END of the Law for Righteousness”......... Paul never broke it down into a dozen different types of laws . The Law served its purpose ....it showed me that I could not keep it and it lead me to Jesus....I’m done with it.....ALL of it.....I have something better now to guide my life .....the Holy Spirit .

After seeing at least 50 teachers over the years tie themselves up in knots trying to make Paul and James comparable , I have come to the conclusion that they are simply NOT compatible .EVERY attempted explanation falls short and I have “ heard” them all.Why not just admit we can’t explain it and just wait for the Day when ALL secrets will be revealed. In regard to This so - called “ contradiction”, when God reveals That we just “ thought” it was a contradiction.....I think we will slapping ourselves on the forehead saying “ wow! How obvious? Why didn’t “ I” think of that ?” What is a Believer to do meanwhile , here on Earth? Well, Jesus never said , “ follow James as he follows Christ” . Jesus DID say for us to “ Follow PAUL as he follows Christ”. Therefore I will go with what Paul said.... “ Faith alone,WITHOUT Works” for Salvation..... Works for me.....what do the rest of you guys think about my grand theory? Lol....

I suppose I “ DO” have a “ Bee in My Bonnet” when it comes to “ religion”.......So does God . Religion says “ Do” ......God says “ DONE” “Religion” is the Polar opposite of Christiany..... Religion is the all- encompassing Umbrella that includes ALL of the things that God Hates ....Legalism, Rule- Keeping for Salvation instead of Nothing But The Blood, Adding to the Gospel Of Pure Grace, Refusing to Rest in the finished Work Of The Cross as Commanded in Hebrews— in short , “ religion” is Leaven......it takes only a little to leaven the whole batch... It was “ religion”— LEAVEN—That destroyed many of Paul’s Churches that he founded ( “all of the churches in Asia- Minor have deserted me”, he lamented to Timothy) The tragedy Of the Modern Church is that they have taken Christianity and turned it into just another religion....” do do this and don’t do that” .Its like a Mongrel Mixture Of Judaism and Christianity —- “ JudaAnity” we could call it . God won’t have it.....neither will I ....neither will the “ bee”... People need to asks themselves —- are they religionists, TRYING to get to Heaven or are they Christians, TRUSTING to get to Heaven ? The great Teacher Of God’s Word, Watchman Née said that the answer to that question was the difference between Heaven and Hell .Serious stuff . Mock me as the man who has that “ bee in his bonnet”....If there were more “ bees” flying around , maybe 90% of the Church World would not be “ Fallen from Grace” and not even be aware of it . Many great Bible Teachers believe that “ Fallen from Grace” means Damnation. I disagree with that.The religionists —- all of those Tares, Those That add to the Gospel with ANYTHING , the Spreaders Of Leaven, etc. , had better pray that my “ take” is the correct one Meanwhile, get accustomed to the “ bee” , the “ bonnet” and “ me”........I will be around trying to squash Leaven, aka “ religion” as long as I draw breath......just like Paul. God Bless ....

I have some Rules also......ALWAYS wear a Helmet ALWAYS figure that the person that “ CAN” pull out in front of you—- “WILL” pull out in front of you ! Act as if you believe that you are invisible and silent whenever you are on the road .....that is how the world perceives you Never eat the Yellow Snow...... That’s it.......always remember that 90% of motorcycle fatalities happen to those riders that have been riding less than 6 months....they did not learn those lesson yet—- especially that second one..

Sounds like a dream come true.....I would have loved every second of it.....Motorcycle riding is like fishing, golfing, etc....it’s either in your blood or it isn’t.....it’s been in mine since I was 15..... unfortunately, golf is on my Blood also.....lol....it’s a lot easier to pull back on a throttle than it is to hit a golf ball straight.... I ride an ‘03 Heritage Soft Tail ....Some Of my friends have Ultras and I have borrowed them to check them out.....the “ check” went well.....those bikes are simply outstanding ....I told my friend that let me borrow his Ultra—— “ That’s it.....this is a bike that quite simply can NOT be improved upon —- The Power....the Smoothness ....Everything.....it’s Perfect” And yes.....this Earth and it’s beauty are Amazing.....as I ride and look around at gorgeous scenery , it’s hard to believe that this world is “ cursed”..... if this is “ cursed”...... I can hardly wait to see what an uncursed Heaven looks like !

Before we get too carried away with “ The Law”....... it would be wise to keep the following in mind.... Many Christians give lip service to the fact they live in the New Covenant. The truth however is that because they fail to realise they are no longer under the law they are really still living in an Old Covenant reality. Here are 37 scriptures that prove that Christians are not under the law! Acts The law is an unbearable yoke. (Acts 15:10) Romans The law reveals sin but cannot fix it. (Romans 3:20) If the law worked then faith would be irrelevant. (Romans 4:14) The law brings wrath upon those who follow it. (Romans 4:15) The purpose of the law was to increase sin. (Romans 5:20) Christians are not under the law. (Romans 6:14) Christians have been delivered from the law. (Romans 7:1-6) The law is good, perfect and holy but cannot help you be good, perfect or holy. (Romans 7:7-12) The law which promises life only brings death through sin. (Romans 7:10) The law makes you sinful beyond measure. (Romans 7:13) The law is weak. (Romans 8:2-3) 1 Corinthians The strength of sin is the law (1 Corinthians 15:56) 2 Corinthians The law is a ministry of death. (2 Corinthians 3:7) The law is a ministry of condemnation. (2 Corinthians 3:9) The law has no glory at all in comparison with the New Covenant. (2 Corinthians 3:10) The law is fading away. (2 Corinthians 3:11) Anywhere the law is preached it produces a mind-hardening and a heart-hardening veil. (2 Corinthians 3:14-15) Galatians The law justifies nobody. (Galatians 2:16) Christians are dead to the law. (Galatians 2:19) The law frustrates grace. (Galatians 2:21) To go back to the law after embracing faith is “stupid”. (Galatians 3:1) The law curses all who practice it and fail to do it perfectly. (Galatians 3:10) The law has nothing to do with faith. (Galatians 3:11-12) The law was a curse that Christ redeemed us from. (Galatians 3:13) The law functioned in God’s purpose as a temporary covenant from Moses till John the Baptist announced Christ. (Galatians 3:16 & 19, also see… Matthew 11:12-13, Luke 16:16) If the law worked God would have used it to save us. (Galatians 3:21) The law was our prison. (Galatians 3:23) The law makes you a slave like Hagar. (Galatians 4:24) Ephesians Christ has abolished the law which was a wall of hostility (Ephesians 2:15) Philippians Paul considered everything the law gained him as “skybalon” which is Greek for “poop”. (Philippians 3:4-8) 1 Timothy The law is only good if used in the right context. (1 Timothy 1:8) (see next verse for the context) It was made for the unrighteous but not for the righteous. (1 Timothy 1:9-10) Hebrews The law is weak, useless and makes nothing perfect. (Hebrews 7:18-19) God has found fault with it and created a better covenant, enacted on better promises. (Hebrews 8:7-8) It is obsolete, growing old and ready to vanish. (Hebrews 8:13) It is only a shadow of good things to come and will never make someone perfect. (Hebrews 10:1) Well there you have it… 37 scriptures that make a very convincing arguement.

The best example of “ preaching to the Choir” that I have seen for awhile....lol....thanks for the wise addition to my post....

No......if I decide to throw one someday.....would you like to be invited.....everyone is welcome— unless you are Relgious.....I can’t stand religious people.....I prefer Christians.....I don’t know you....which group do you belong to?

Not exactly what I am talking about.....and+what do you mean by “ joining the party”

God hates Sin. I would never promote it.....Sin for me has all the Allure Of a Trip to the Proctologist’s Office....My New Heart is the reason for that , so don’t be over-eager to get your panties in a knot. Here is the Point I am attempting to make: God , indeed , Hates sin, but He has a Remedy For the Guilt and Fear it brings with it......The Bible tell us that when we sin we can Approach the “ THE THRONE OF GRACE!”........ how are we to Approach that Throne? With BOLDNESS! God hates the Sin that caused you to make the trip to that Throne, no doubt about it .But......... I bet He is extremely happy to see His Children have the FAITH to turn to Him in their time of need , God recognizes that the BOLDNESS you show is in DIRECT PROPORTION to the Faith you have in The Shed Blood Of His Son That more than adequately Covers ALL Sins.... God ain’t gonna be “ tricked” by all of this.....He is STILL going to chastise His Errant, Foolish Children when they Stray- COUNT ON IT— But ain’t it great to know that “where Sin abounds—- Grace abounds that much MORE!” He has shown us the Place to GET it! The Throne Of Grace! I spend a lot of time there—- I have the need to.How about you?