Spookycolt

Living is not salvation.

We all sin and always will. Its unavoidable. The thing is that we need to recognize it and try our best to change it even though we may fail. When you stop trying, or don't at all, and try to justify it is where the problem lies. Almost every day I do something I know is wrong but I don't pardon it just because I am saved. I ask forgiveness and try not to do it again. Sin really has no levels, you either sin or you don't. A homosexual is no worse than a murderer who is no worse than the soccer mom who tells a lie. So before you judge your friend to harshly I would look into the mirror and figure out what sins you have done. Then I would try to get your friend to realize the mistake and try to change it as we all should do. But not judge them since we are all guilty of something.

When I was 17 I went to a Christian rock concert and in the middle they stopped and asked who wanted to be saved. I walked down the aisle and accepted Jesus and I don't remember much except for the man saying that once I did that Jesus would NEVER leave me. The Footprints poem comes to mind. Fastforward about 4 decades and following a divorce my life was completely gone. I had abandoned God at that point and, well lets just say that it was a dangerous moment for me. Through the course of a week there were things going on that I can only attribute to God. He stopped certain bad things and literally pulled me out. I looked over it and there is no other explanation for what happened to me other than God. Even coincidences don't cover it because there were so many. I literally should not be here now except He wasn't ready for me yet. After that week I remember what that pastor so long ago said, "he will never leave you", and He didn't when I needed Him the most. It is at that point that I became a true believer. I can't prove it but I saw His works with my own eyes and I know 100% that He is there.

There is only one thing you really have to do. Accept Jesus into your heart. The rest is all secondary to that. Work full time or not, give to charity or not, it really doesn't compare to the top thing. As Christians we should try our best to follow the teachings in the Bible but doing those works will not get you into Heaven. Only one thing can do that.

For all we know Jesus was a superb ballet dancer. That wasn't His calling however and as such I believe that God has a role for all of us. If you are a great artist then create your art but that may not be God's plan for you. I am very weirdly good at video games, excel at them actually but that's not His plan for me. Still, that doesn't mean I can't still play them it just means that I know they will never be used to fit into His plans. Some people are great artists, fishermen, great at sports, all sorts of things but those things are not the priority for God.

Exactly my point. Its a history lesson and not relevant to our salvation. God had to write a beginning and an end. That's essentially all it is.

Do you have the wisdom to know who is not a believer?

You have raised my curiosity. What do you find important to our salvation in Genisis?

I have to disagree Maryjayne. As Christians we are still humans and living in this world. I can root for a football team without it being related to God. It appears you are implying that we are different but we actually aren't, we make the same mistakes and have the same successes as anyone does. That includes bad marriages. Since we are Christians the hope is that we make a good judgement call beforehand, about the person we are about to marry, pray about it, and hopefully find guidance. If we walk with the Lord I don't think He is going to lead us astray so if He is telling you its ok to marry an unbeliever, because maybe He has a plan, I don't think that should be an obstacle.

I understand all of those but the question is this. How do you define an unbeliever? I guess that if someone straight up says they don't believe in God then they aren't but I myself denied Him for a long time but I still did believe. I just hadn't been shown the path yet.

Thank you JTC and this is why I am here. To hopefully learn things. But I do have to respectfully disagree. None of us are or ever will be fully complete with God, if that was possible then Jesus wouldn't have had to die. So where do you draw the line, as a Christian, on who has reached that point of worthiness? I am not qualified to judge someone else's faith. I believe this gospel is not about a strict rule but rather about how we judge ourselves. You marry an unbeliever, it doesn't work out, and you get divorced, same as everyone but what I believe God is telling us here is that we should put our faith in Him to fix what we might conceive as impossible, that we could be His tools. God pulled me out and I think He wants to pull others out also. He may use marriage to do that.

If I could be honest I will tell you that I pretty much avoid Genesis and Revelations. The Bible is a history book and God had to put a beginning and end and that's what I feel they are. They complete the story. The important stuff that we need to know is very clearly spelled out. I feel, and this is just me, that when we focus on questions like this that we aren't focusing on the things that really matter. In my view, God didn't put riddles in the Bible for us to find, He let us know what He wants us to know, the rest is just there.

This is a tough one. We know what the Bible says but it says many things. Isn't giving up the one "you are supposed to be with" also turning your back on them? Can't God use you to change them? Does saying that I can't date you or marry you because you don't believe instill an elite status upon us, which God definitely forbids? My point is that God has rules we need to follow and this is one but you should make sure that its not the only criteria and that you might be breaking other rules by following it. I don't think that marrying someone who isn't a Christian is bad because I think if he is a bad choice that God will give you plenty of other obvious reasons not to marry. You will see them if you look. Or hopefully you won't and you found the perfect mate.

When I do go I go alone. Often I don't, I'm secure in my relationship with God but I know I also need the fellowship but I don't want to treat Church as some dating site either. I've been struggling with this. So you aren't alone. Reading scripture isn't a replacement for an actual human because that's how He made us. We sorta need that I think. But its hard when you can't participate, or feel you can't, because you are alone.

To be honest, we are all still learning about God, we all work to fulfill his wishes, its never done. Is she any worse than me or am I better than you? There is no goal that any of us will ever achieve, its all about levels so at what point do you say that someone isn't at the level where you can't marry them? Is there a test we take? No there isn't. I think, and I really believe this, that unless she is totally denying God then she is in the struggle with us, she just hasn't found a path yet. Probably more of a reason to marry her.