If We Hold Fast

     "Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, in which also you stand by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain." I Corinthians 15:1-2

      "Take care, brethren, lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart, in falling away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called 'Today,' lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, for we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end;" Hebrews 3:12-14

      In my previous post regarding apostasy, I said that my next post would be about salvation being conditionally based on our continuing in the faith. As you know, if you have read the posts that followed, my plans were interrupted. I have been dealing with other issues, but I am ready to return to this very important topic once again. There are a few more scriptures I want to share with you on the topic of OSAS, just to be sure you understand that the scriptures abound with warnings to believers that we must continue in the faith in order to be saved.

     There is a parable that Jesus told that gives us a picture of what happens when different people hear the word of God. It is commonly called the Parable of the Sower and is found in Matthew 13:3-23, Mark 4:3-20, and Luke 8:5-15. I would encourage you to read the whole passage in all three of these gospel accounts. In this parable the seed is the word of God, and the soil is the heart of man. In all three accounts, after telling the parable, Jesus says, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." Not everyone responds to the preaching of the word in the same way. Some people hear the word, but their heart is so hard that it goes in one ear and right out the other. It does not take root at all, and Satan snatches away what was sown in their heart. Another group of people hear the word and receive it joyfully. Luke tells it this way,"And those on the rocky soil are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no firm root; they believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away." Luke 8:13. Mark 4:17 says of the same group, "they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away." A third group hears the word, but "the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful." Mark 4:19 The last person in the parable is "the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit, and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty." Matthew 13:23 This parable teaches us that not everyone who initially receives the word of God continues to follow after Christ. I definitely want to be in that last category, don't you?

          There are other scriptures that tell us that we must endure to the end in order to be saved. Paul tells us in I Timothy 4:1, "...the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons." Jesus, when speaking of the last days, told His disciples, "And at that time many will fall away and will deliver up one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise, and will mislead many. And because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end shall be saved." I Timothy 6:10 speaks of those who have "wandered away from the faith," and I Timothy 6:21 speaks of those who have "gone astray from the faith." What does that mean? I think I will play it on the safe side and believe it means just what it says. I do not want to be found anywhere but IN the faith when I come face to face with Jesus! I hope that is your goal also, so keep on keepin' on! Don't get sidetracked! Don't let Satan trick you! Listen to the Holy Spirit, and be obedient. It will all be worth it some day!!!!
         
         

Easter or Passover?

          In Chapter 12 of Exodus, God told the Israelites how to save themselves from the last plague which He was about to pour out on the Egyptians. That plague was to be the death of all the first-born in the land. The Israelites were told to take a one year old, unblemished male from the sheep or the goats into their house on the 10th day of the first month, the month of Nisan, and they were to keep it with them in their house until the 14th day of the month, at which time they were to kill it and eat it. That sounds quite cruel, doesn't it, to take this young, innocent animal into your house, make a pet of it, and then kill it and eat it? They were also told to put its blood on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the house so that the death angel would "pass over" them. This is where the Jewish feast of Passover originated.
          Skip ahead in time about 1500 years to the time of Christ around 30 A.D.  When John the Baptist saw Jesus passing by, he said, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." John 1:29  John was proclaiming to all the world that Jesus was the ultimate fulfillment of the Passover which the Jews had been celebrating every year for about 1500 years, ever since they came out of their slavery in Egypt. Jesus was the ultimate Passover Lamb who would keep the death angel away from the door of all who would trust in Him for salvation from their sin.  Those who believed would never know spiritual death. The physical death of the ones who trust in Christ would only be a passageway into eternal life with Him.
          There is so much more meaning in the Passover celebration which I won't elaborate on right now, but I just want to express my disappointment that the church today is mostly ignorant of the meaning of Passover. Instead, I see churches celebrating something called Easter, named for a pagan Babylonian goddess of fertility called Ishtar, with chocolate bunnies and colored Easter eggs, symbols of her fertility. How it must grieve God's heart to see those who call themselves Christians openly celebrating a pagan holiday and yet, ignoring the very feast that He instituted to point to His Son, Jesus, as our Passover Lamb.
          It is true that some Christians have tried (mostly in vain) to change the name of Easter to Resurrection Day, but wouldn't it be even better to teach our children about Passover so they could learn the rich meaning behind it? The only way we will rid ourselves of the pagan aspects of Easter is to make a clean break from it. Unfortunately, even the Jews who still celebrate Passover don't understand what it is all about, but Christians have not helped in that department either. Maybe if we Christians understood the true meaning of Passover, we could better help the Jews to see that Jesus is the Savior they have been looking for, since it is their Passover celebration that points so dramatically to Him.
          I am challenging all Christians to do some study regarding Easter and Passover to see which one truly honors God. I believe we would all be blessed if we would do this. "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32  You may never want to call it Easter again!

Temporary Body, Eternal Soul

          "Now on the same occasion there were some present who reported to Him about the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And He answered and said to them, 'Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered this fate? I tell you, no, but, unless you repent you will all likewise perish. Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem? I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.'" Luke 13:1-5

          What is more important, the temporary physical body or the eternal soul? We spend our lives catering to this physical body, feeding it, clothing it, possibly exercising it, nursing it when it is sick, pleasuring it ....etc. Is that wrong? That is certainly what comes naturally to us. We all have that innate self-centered, self-serving, self-preserving programming that tells us what to do all the time, but, as a Christian, I believe I must get past that. The flesh is not supposed to be in control! It is the spiritual side that must be exercised, nurtured, and strengthened. Gal. 5:16-25
          Yes, it is important to take care of the body God has given me. It is a temple of the Holy Spirit, and God expects me to treat it as such, but there is something about me that is much more important than my physical body, and that is my eternal soul. This physical body that my soul dwells in is only going to last at the very most about 100 years. None of us will get much past that, if we even get close to it, so shouldn't we be preparing for what comes next, after our physical bodies have given out? Shouldn't we spend at least as much time cultivating the spiritual side of life as we do caring for the physical? What is 100 years, more or less, compared with eternity? It is the snap of a finger!
          I think that is what Jesus was trying to say in the passage quoted above. Don't we realize that sooner or later our life here on earth will end? That is inevitable, but what comes next? This is a very important question that we would be foolish not to ask. Not contemplating what comes after physical death would be like blindly walking off the edge of the Grand Canyon with no thought of the obvious consequences; only worse, because eternity is forever, and forever, and forever.....
          "A voice says, 'Call out.' Then he answered, 'What shall I call out?' All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field, the grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass, the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever."  Isaiah 40:6-8
          Let's do all we can to be sure we will be with the Lord forever! Believe! Have faith! Submit and be obedient to His voice. Walk with God.
         
         

My People Perish

        
"My people are destroyed (perish) for lack of knowledge." Hosea 4:6

          I know that the scripture above is speaking of more than just our physical bodies perishing. It is our souls that God is most concerned about, but I believe that God is able to give us the knowledge to make our lives better in many ways if we will only listen to Him. He is able to give us knowledge and wisdom that will help us not only spiritually, but also physically, economically, and every other way you can imagine.      
          As you know, if you have been reading my blog, I am experiencing some health problems. I feel fine, and would never know anything was wrong with me if I had not had a scan of my chest a couple of months ago. How did I get to this point? What happened? I thought I was taking care of myself. After all, the scriptures address those of us who are believers with this admonition, "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body." I Cor. 6:19-20 So, it is my responsibility as a believer in Christ to take care of the body He has given me. That is what I have tried to do. I walk a mile each day, try to eat right, and try to get enough rest. I was feeling fine until all of this hit me like a ton of bricks. How did I get sick?
          Now that I have been doing The Gerson Therapy for about three weeks, I have been noticing my body responding to the nutrients I am pouring into it! It is amazing! I didn't know that my body was starving for some good food. Only time will tell what the results of all this effort will be, but I feel great most of the time.
          Now that I have learned a lot more about the foods we eat and have had time to reflect back on what I was feeding my body, I realize that I was not treating it very well after all. Most of the foods we eat today are so far from natural that they can hardly be called food. They have been so processed, and they have so many preservatives and other chemicals added to them that they are poisoning us, and we don't even realize it. At the very least, they are not giving us the nutrients we need to stay healthy. The cancer statistics alone will bear out this fact, not to mention the diabetes and heart disease epidemics. I watched a video on NetFlix called "Food Matters." What an eye-opener! Also, all the material I have read in order to do the Gerson Therapy has opened my eyes to how we are poisoning ourselves, not just with the food we eat, but also with the water we drink and bathe in, the air we breathe, and the chemicals we come in contact with every day. I realize we have no control over a lot of this, but some things we do have control over, and we need to start taking control where we can.
          Satan is the god of this world, and he is doing all he can to pollute and poison it. We have a responsibility to inform ourselves for our own sake as well as for the sake of our children and grandchildren. Let's all do our best to get healthy and stay that way. As Christians, I believe this will glorify God. The world is watching us to see if we are different. I want the world to see that my life is not only different spiritually, but physically as well.

Does God Test Us?

          No one likes to go through trials and tribulations! Some of them we bring on ourselves, others come through no fault of our own, but regardless of the source, trials have a way of bringing out who we really are and show us a lot about ourselves. The mask comes off!
          God has used trials to test most, if not all, of the people we read about in the bible. For example, Abraham was tested when asked to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, a foreshadowing of the sacrifice of Jesus, God's only Son. (Heb.11:17) Job was sorely tested and came through with quite a testimony! Joseph was tested when he was sold into slavery in Egypt by his brothers. (Ps. 105:17-19) The children of Israel were tested in the wilderness for forty years. (Deut. 8:2) By the way, the number of testing in the bible is forty. After Jesus was baptized by John, he went into the wilderness for forty days where He was tested and tempted. Even though He was the perfect Son of God, He, too, had to be tested. (Isaiah 28:16) In fact, His whole life here on this Earth was a test. Thankfully, He passed the test so that He could become our great High Priest. "In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation..." Hebrews 5:7-9 If even our Lord Jesus had to be tested, should we think that we should not have to be?
          Does God test us to see what we will do in the test? I seriously doubt that, since He already knows exactly what we will do in the test. He knows the end from the beginning! (Isaiah 46:9-10) He is omniscient God! No, I believe He tests us so that we will know where we stand with our faith, and it also serves as a witness to the world when and if we stand up under trials.
          James says, "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance, and let endurance have its perfect result, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." James1:2-4
         I am going through a test right now, as you know if you read my previous post. It is not the first time God has tested me, and it probably won't be the last, but it is in the times of testing that we learn the most about God and about ourselves and our relationship to Him. I look forward to every day that I have here on this earth in which I can get to know Him better and be more prepared for the day when I will see Him face to face. I am determined to come through the testings, more like Christ each time I am tested. I realize, too, that it is only by His grace and mercy that this is possible. God is so good!

A Bump in the Road on My Journey

Hello Everyone,
          This is going to be a more personal post than I usually do. I am experiencing a challenge in my life, and would love it if you would pray for me. I do believe that God tests our faith. I'll share some scriptures with you at another time on that subject, but for now, I just want to let you know about the situation I find myself in.
          Before Christmas I was running a low-grade fever, so I went to my family doctor. He diagnosed a urinary tract infection with blood in the urine. I know! TMI! ...but that is part of the story. He put me on antibiotics and told me to come back in a week. At the end of one week I had another test. It still showed infection and blood, so he put me on another type of antibiotic and suggested I have a CT scan of pelvis and abdomen to rule out a tumor. At the time I thought that was overkill, but I went ahead and had the scan done. The results were fine as far as the bladder, etc., but at the top of the scan it picked up the lower part of my lungs. They saw a spot on my lower left lung, so they called for another CT scan of my chest. This scan showed not only the spot on the lung, but also some enlarged lymph nodes.
          My doctor sent me to a lung doctor. He did a bronchoscopy and a PET scan. The bronchoscopy did not produce a diagnosis, but the PET scan looked suspicious, so the lung doctor sent me to a surgeon. To make a long story short, all this time I have been praying for God to guide me to do what is best. I was supposed to have the surgery this past Monday, but I called and cancelled it last week. I have decided to do an alternative therapy.
          Now, I know what that sounds like to many of you. Quackery!! However, I feel that God is leading me in this direction. The name of the therapy is The Gerson Therapy. If you care to check it out, there is a video on NetFlix called "The Gerson Miracle" that tells a lot about it. There are also two other videos, "Dying to Have Known" and "The Beautiful Truth," that are both about the Gerson Therapy. Please watch them. This is not just about cancer, and it is not just about me. It is about all of us killing ourselves with the food that we eat and the poisons we are constantly being bombarded with.
          I have done a lot of research and praying in the past few weeks. So far, the biggest miracle in all of this is that my doctor ordered the first CT scan. Without that I would have never even known that I was having a problem. I was having no symptoms of any lung problems, and still am not. I have never smoked and have always tried to exercise and take care of myself, but I will admit that I have not been very good at eating the right foods, and I like sweets too much! I think God has given me a wake-up call. Now I am trusting Him to lead me in a path that will be best for me. If it is successful, I will certainly be an advocate of it and tell others about it.
          As I have said before, my favorite verse in the Bible is John 8:32  "and you shall know the truth, and the truth will make you free." I am counting on the Lord to lead and guide me into the truth about my own body and what it needs in order to get well. If you know anything about the Gerson Therapy or someone who has used it, please let me know. I would love to hear from you.

What is Apostasy, and is it Possible?

          Regarding salvation, there are some important questions we need to ask ourselves, since salvation is a topic of eternal consequence. Why do the scriptures admonish us to test or examine ourselves to see whether we are in the faith? (II Corinthians 13:5) Why are we told to work out our salvation with fear and trembling? (Philippians 2:12) Why do the scriptures speak of an apostasy? What does that word mean? Why is it even in the Bible if there is no such thing? In fact, II Thess. 2:3 says that there will be an apostasy before the Day of the Lord comes. The original Greek word used in this verse is apostasia, which means defection or revolt. My bible tells me that apostasy means a falling away from the faith. If the OSAS doctrine is correct, then apostasy is impossible.

          Some people who believe the OSAS doctrine say that people who walk away from the Lord were never saved in the first place. This may be true in some cases, but that does not explain the situation that is described in Hebrews 6:4-8. “For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God, and put Him to open shame. For ground that drinks the rain which often falls upon it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God; but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned.” This sounds like a person who has definitely shown signs of being saved. They have obviously, at one time, repented since it says it is impossible to renew them to repentance again. They have also been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, which can only happen when a person has been born again. Read I Corinthians, chapter 10, where the Gentiles to whom Peter was preaching received the Holy Spirit, so Peter knew that these people had believed and been saved.

          There are a couple of other scriptures that are very hard to reconcile with the OSAS doctrine.  In Hebrews 10:26-31 we have a very stern warning, “For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment, and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.’ And again, ‘The Lord will judge His people.’ It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” This is speaking of someone who has known the truth, has been sanctified by the blood of Christ, and received the grace of God, but has chosen to go on sinning willfully.

          Another scripture that speaks very clearly of someone who has turned away from God is II Peter 2:20-22, “For if after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn away from the holy commandment delivered to them. It has happened to them according to the true proverb, ‘A dog returns to its own vomit,’ and, ‘A sow, after washing, returns to wallowing in the mire.” These people spoken of here have known the Lord and have turned away from Him. Once one has the knowledge of Jesus Christ and chooses to turn away from Him, what more can He do that will ever bring that person back again. Jesus has already done it all. He has paid the price. If someone decides that this is not sufficient, then there is nothing more that God can do for them. It is as Hebrews 6:6 says; it is impossible to bring such a person to repentance again, since they have crucified Jesus all over again. They have put him back up on the cross.

 

         These are some of the scriptures that convince me that it is possible for someone to walk away from God and lose their salvation. In my next post, I will share some other scriptures that teach that salvation is conditionally based on our continuing in the faith.