B Judson

And, it's entirely possible the person DID get born again, but as Jesus taught in Mark 4:13-20 they allowed persecution, affliction, cares of this world, lusts for other things or deceiptfullness of riches ENTER IN and choke God's Word out of their lives. Jesus teaches us in John 15:1,2 that those that do not abide in Him and do not bare fruit are cut off. Romans 11:22 is a similar warning. Bottom line is the Christian should recognize being a believer is like a marriage relationship between us and the Lord. If you turn away from your wife and go committed adultery, she has every right to divorce you. Of course the Lord gives us opportunity to repent and come back to Him, but we also run the very real risk of being turned over to a reprobate mind as we see in Romans 1:28-32 But, based on numerous warnings in the NT... if they continue being carnal without repenting and going back to walking after the Spirit... they would not be going to Heaven. The Lord says thru Paul... Romans 8:6 - For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. ”Death” in this context is being separated from the Lord just like the Lord told Adam and Eve in the garden that if they eat of that tree they shall die. They lived physically for 900+ years so we know the Lord is not referring to dying a physical death... We see in Galatians 6:7,8 that is we sow to the flesh (sin, aka not being led by the Spirit) we shall reap corruption which again is is being separated from the Lord Romans 8:13, 14 - For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. This is why the Lord says in 1 John 1:9 that if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us. He would not need to say this if we were not capable of turning away from the Lord and disqualifying ourselves where our salvation could never be lost. We also see the Lord saying that we must forsake our sin on order to have mercy: Proverbs 28:13 - He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.

You might try blessing others anonymously. One way to do that is have another person deliver the blessing and ask them to please do not tell anyone (you may have to explain why you want to keep it private) Another way is to ship blessings to people privately although it's always possible it could get lost in the mail. I prefer UPS since I can print a UPS shipping label (I have my own online account) to PDF and then use my PDF editor to put in a different return address other than mine. (Like maybe put in your church's address as return address if they are OK with that). There's nothing wrong with being a little "sneaky" so to speak when you are giving money or stuff to someone in need so they don't know who is giving it to them... which means they can only thank the Lord for the blessing!

1 Thessalonians 5:23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Not sure why so many don't use the order the Lord uses in scripture .... Spirit, Soul, and Body The Lord has it listed this way obviously because the spirit and the soul is more important than the body.

I came from a bad family situation and got in to drugs, drinking, chasing girls, etc, etc. The year after I got out of high school one of my party buddies got born again at an assembly of God church and the day I first saw him I could tell something about him was really different. He seemed like the weight of the world had been lifted off of him and he was at peace (something I did not have at the time) So, he invites me to a Wednesday night service and when I went the preacher was preachin hell fire and brimstone! I heard all that and decided it was a very bad to decision to end up in hell... so when he made the alter call, I went down and got saved. They didn’t lead me in the sinners prayer but the pastor was speaking that those getting born again should be willing to turn from your sinful lifestyle, ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins, and ask Jesus to be your Lord and Savior... so I did, and I I cried like a baby for about 15 minutes on the alter down front. They just left me there and the Lord whacked me! Since then (this was about 39 years ago ) of course I’ve learned there is much more to being a Christian than just not going to hell. I found out that the Lord is the Father I never had growing up and was truly what was missing from my life. I cannot imagine not walking with the Lord now and will not be turning away!

This is the whole reason I don't listen to those free gracers all over TV and on Youtube, LoL!

I agree that man must decide to either follow the Lord or reject Him. God created man in His own Image which is where we got free will from and there's all kinds of references throughout scripture that show the Lord is holding men responsible for their actions. I thought it very odd that the calvin peoples claim God has pre- ordained some to be saved (and they can live in grievous sin and still go to Heaven) while others the Lord pre- ordained to go to hell I couldn't attend a church that teaches that, or pay any attention to a preacher that teaches this.

I keep hearing that once born again we will go to Heaven anyway if we live in sin like we did before getting born again. Apparently this is what the calvinists and reformed theology folks believe.

Has anyone ever claimed that God refused to consider them to be "elect" and because of this they were doomed to hell and what Jesus did on the Cross does not apply to them? Seems like someone would be saying this if God decided to create some people for no other purpose other than to spend eternity in hell.