OSAS

I find myself re-thinking the once saved always saved part of being a christian. From my reading of the Bible and from the research I did on this I was sure I was right. Everything seems to say that when you become a christian you are saved. Nothing you do after that can keep you out of heaven. I'm not talking about wanting to follow Jesus after becoming a christian or just skating by. Just believe, accept = heaven.

I got involved with a conversation on face book. A guy who "was" a christian now seems to not believe in God at all. Not sure what happened to change his mind, but from reading what he was saying, it is changed big time. I had to stop reading after a while cause it was heartbreaking really. I realize he can ask for forgiveness and be ok. But if he dies before that I'm not sure.

I guess my thinking is right. But it's just not as cut and dry as I'm trying to make it. In any case I pray he does whatever he has to do to make it right with God. He seemed like a nice person. And while I was reading and commenting it was a very civil discussion. But it was hard to read.

GOD BLESS!

TITHE

I want to say right off that I do not and never have given 10% of my income to the church. I am however working towards it. Although I always new about it I was always cold to the idea. And really it's a pretty good chunk of change to be giving away. Especially now the way the economy is. Who can afford to give away 10% of their income when they ain't even sure if they will have a job next week? I can see why so many churches struggle when it comes to this.

It seems to be very easy to come up with reasons for me not to tithe. But now that I'm on this journey, I feel myself looking for reasons to tithe. What really got me going on this was when a pastor said, "Does God need your money?" "No." "Has God ever not been able to do something because He didn't have enough money?" Seems God will be around wether I tithe or not. The church and all the good it does however might not.

Heres a couple of things I came across while "researching" this on the internet. Seems I'm not the only one looking to explain away tithing.---Tithing is an Old Testament law, since we live by the New testament it no longer applies.---Is it 10% of gross or net? But I guess if you are asking these questions you ain't doing it for the right reason anyhow so why bother.

I'm not sure how long it will take to get there but I'm going to keep walking in that direction.
GOD BLESS

TESTIMONIAL

Barb and I went to church tonight to tell our story of becoming Christians. It will be put together with our baptism. We both knew going in that it probably would not come off well. Come on, your talking about someone who died on a cross to save you. How do you get thru that without choking on every other word? Luckily they plan on weaving our daughters story in with ours. And also our son in law will be editing it. So my prayer is that between them they can come up with something that will encourage someone to take a step towards salvation. GOD BLESS

OLD TESTAMENT

Started reading The Old Testament. Have to be honest and say this is a tough read. There are parts that really have me paying attention. Then there are parts that make me ask the question, does anyone really remember this? Like when they start talking about the family trees. I can't even get my daughters names right half the time. I got Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Other than that I'm lost.

Now I'm at Exodus. Going along fine. The part about Moses is great. I always loved the movie 10 commandments. Then bang, we're talking about building tabernacles and how many cubits high and long. And how many times each cloth is folded. Luckily there are pictures in my Bible. Now I know why I was told to start with the New Testament.

After reading about the ten commandments I was so happy that I actually new them. Or so I thought. I'm looking at them and start to count them. Wait, theres only 9 of them. Read them again. No, thats 10. So I write them down. Umm theres only 9. I'm not kidding when I say I had a good 15 minutes into this. Here I was lumping together--no other Gods before me and shall not make carved images. I don't think I ever laughed at myself so hard! Oh well I thought it was funny.
GOD BLESS

GOD

The subject of Feb. sermons was God. His mercy-love-power-faithfulness. It was an eye opener for me. Have you ever sat back and thought about what's going on here? I can see why people don't buy into it. It's just totally amazing stuff. God loves me so much that He had his Son die on a cross for me. Really? Me? He must have some big plans for me. How do you pay that back?

Here's a few things that stuck with me this month.--Grace is getting something you don't deserve. Mercy is not getting something you do deserve.--We are like spare change in Gods pocket, He can spend us however He wants--No matter what I do God will be faithful to me--God loves me just the way I am, not a cleaned up better version of me.

So I'm thankful for Gods grace. I pray for His mercy. I hope He doesn't have to buy anything with me that costs too much. Unless theres a lay away plan! I pray that I don't test His faithfulness too much. And I hope He is happy with the cleaned up version of me in the future.

GOD BLESS