Is there such thing as a lukewarm Christian (a Christian, not a churchgoer)?

[hmbld]

On February 29, 2016 at 6:29 AM, enoob57 said:

Points of view! It is not what we see and claim but what God sees and claims....
God looks at obedience as love so

Heb 10:25

25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
KJV
 

Is it a choice given, in this one passage?  I think the choice is revealing,

Is this a suggestion?

Is it somehow conditional?  Please do this if you can find the perfect church?

Is church about being happy and comfortable?  

You may think I am being judgmental, maybe your correct.  Been having a great difficulty in regularly attending for over a year, I have this great yearning to be among family of believers, yet, well, I am caving under the attacks that come.  The questions I ask, I feel I know the right answers too, yet I answer them incorrectly.  

Maybe not the correct thread, but to borrow a quote from our beloved soda pop Joe, "I covet your prayers."

[enoob57]

2 minutes ago, hmbld said:

Is it a choice given, in this one passage?  I think the choice is revealing,

Is this a suggestion?

Is it somehow conditional?  Please do this if you can find the perfect church?

Is church about being happy and comfortable?  

You may think I am being judgmental, maybe your correct.  Been having a great difficulty in regularly attending for over a year, I have this great yearning to be among family of believers, yet, well, I am caving under the attacks that come.  The questions I ask, I feel I know the right answers too, yet I answer them incorrectly.  

Maybe not the correct thread, but to borrow a quote from our beloved soda pop Joe, "I covet your prayers."

It is not without notice God called our shell (body) God call The Church (Body) neither can grow without attending to the needs of the Body... Prayed... Love, Steven

[missmuffet]

I have a friend who I pray with regularly. He has been a friend for a long time and has been through seminary.

Matthew 18:20  ²⁰ For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”

 

[hmbld]

I hope its ok, on another thread, oo said this, "After 25 years I stopped looking at Doctrine and started looking at the people..."

A common complaint of finding a church, is disagreement with a doctrine.  Oo, your comment made me think, as the body is made of many parts, if everyone who has all the right doctrines abandon all the churches who don't have all the right doctrines, well then how could the correct doctrines be found in a church?

Either everyone who thinks they have all the doctrines correct, are, in fact, wrong, or-if you have all the correct doctrines, then you are very much needed in church.  

How are you ever going to find a perfect church if there are people in it?

Back to what Oo said, I need to start "looking at the people"  

[enoob57]

doctrine equals- as God has said through His Holy Spirit... we can never let it go within ourselves as truth but without force in gentleness and love stand in it...
We individually answer to God for our own hearts and what has been formed in there by our choosing!

[enoob57]

23 hours ago, Rick_Parker said:

Bull

cow  

[simplejeff]

Read the letters in the NT.  

Read the messages from Yahshua in ((specifically)) the first 3 chapters of His Revelation to John.

Read all of Yahweh's message to His people.

Read the description of ekklesia in the NT, everywhere.

Lukewarm doesn't make it.

Like the 5 virgins without oil.

Like those invited to the feast, who found an excuse not to go.

Like the timid, the fearful, the thieves and adulterers and idolators.

Yahweh warns everyone and gives clear WORD in Scripture who won't inherit heaven.

And He clearly states over and over who will inherit heaven.

Who will, and who won't.   He does not get them mixed up.   His WORD is very clear.

3 hours ago, hmbld said:

............ if everyone who has all the right doctrines abandon all the churches who don't have all the right doctrines, well then how could the correct doctrines be found in a church?

Either everyone who thinks they have all the doctrines correct, are, in fact, wrong, or-if you have all the correct doctrines, then you are very much needed in church.  

How are you ever going to find a perfect church if there are people in it?........

Remember when people did not have a choice ? When the whole world was lost, corrupt, defiled, pernicious without Christ ? 

How did Yahweh do what HE DID in ACTS ? etc.  ((EPHESIANS, PHILIPPIANS, 1 JOHN,  et al))

How did anyone become one with the disciples, in union with Yahshua in Yahweh ? 

Same TODAY.  ((and the CLEAR DESCRIPTION IS STILL IN THE NT, through and through)).

[Esther4:14]

On 2/24/2016 at 6:43 PM, Omegaman 3.0 said:

I know there are tares, I know there are self-deluded people. My question is there a person, who has saving faith, who is lukewarm. Can a person actually grasp what God has done for him/her, in Christ, and lack enthusiasm about it?

Yes Omegaman, I surely think a person can grasp what God has done for him/her, in Christ, and lack enthusiasm about it.  I believe it is described in one of my favorite parables that continues to remind me that even though I have accepted the Holy Spirit in my heart, I still struggle to understand things.  It is the parable of the sower.  Every time I read this parable, I expect myself to understand it because Jesus makes it seem like this should have been easy for the disciples to understand, but no I still don't.  I still have to read the interpretation for it.  Someday. 

Anyways, this would describe, "that one sown on the stony places is this, the one hearing the word, and immediately receiving it with joy, but he has no root in him but is temporal.  And when trouble or persecution comes, he is quickly offended because of the word,"(Matthew 13:20-21); or, in other words, he loses enthusiasm.  There is also, "that sown into the thorn bushes is this the one hearing the word, and the cares of this world, and the deceit of riches, choke the Word, and it becomes unfruitful," (Matthew 13:22); or, in other words, he loses enthusiasm when it becomes a choice between luxury or Christ. 

The way I figure it according to this parable, about 50% of all people fall into this group where they have grasped an understanding of Christ, but lose enthusiasm about it. 

That leaves 25% of the population who will accept Christ and bear fruit (Matthew 13:23), and another 25% percent who will hear about Christ and want nothing to do with him essentially (Matthew 13:19). 

It doesn't seem like a whole lot sometimes.  It reminds me of the scene in Titanic where Kate Winslett realizes there are not enough boats available for the number of people if something were to happen.  However, I am reminded that Christ had Judas with Him throughout His ministry and He was not afraid of this, so I will not be afraid of the same possibility as well.  Following the leader. 

Bless you.