FAITH

Faith alone in Christ alone.  A simple plan, yet so many people confuse this with what they "so-call" believe.  The Bible is God's Word. It was written by men he directed or inspired to pen his intentions for mankind in understanding him. 

 

Why is this so hard to understand?

 

People (man) fouls up everything!

 

The plain and fact of the matter is that no matter who you are, what you have, or what your influence is...whatever; you will spend eternity in one or two places.  Humm, so what is longer, the here-and-now, or eternity?  Which should we be planning for?

 

No other book or writings (can't call them a Bible because they are NOT; there's only ONE Bible) challenges its readers like THE Bible does with these words in 2 Timothy 3:16-17:

      "All Scripture is given by the inspiration of God (literally, "BREATHED"), and is profitable for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete throughtly complete, throughly equipped for every good work."

 

The way I see this, God is challenging you to prove the Bible wrong.  Fact is, you can't!!  But you sure can with other so-called religious writings.  Generally, all other writings take this information and reword it to fit their needs so as to reflect that it is their original writing and not the God of the Bible.  Even the Bible warns of taking away or adding to the Scriptures.  Foolish man just won't listen!!!

 

In the December 05 issue of Reader's Digest, Barbara Walters did interviews of various people of other so-called religions. It was entitled "In Search Of Heaven".  She stated that there are some 10,000 religions in the world.  See how man fouls up everything?

 

Barbara also reported that 79% of Americans believe that someone of another faith can attain salvation and go to heaven.  When she asked Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, if a person who did not accept Jesus Christ as his/her Savior was destined to go to hell.  Haggard's reply was equally unambiguous --- "Yes!"  And he's right.  The big question anyone should be concerned with, or, better yet, where should they turn for answers in life ?  The Bible.  God's Word, remember?  Even Acts 4:12 states:

 

"Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved."

 

So simple a child can understand it, God states.   "BELIEVE".

 

I knew a guy up the street from us that said he has a brother just like Jesus Christ; that he doesn't curse, drink, smoke, do bad things...is "Perfect".   Well, I gave this some thought remembering my walks through life, struggling with this or that, disliking certain people, and them even cussing me.  I finally came to the conclusion that we were all destined for hell; that none of us could do completely right while in our blood and flesh bodies, that we couldn't live not one of the 10 Commandents and stand before the Lord and say, "Man, I was good."  Well, being good has absolutely nothing to do with having "eternal life".  All you have to do is "believe in Jesus Christ."  Well, I later told my neighbor that I would like to meet this brother of his; that I had never in my life met such a liar, and I, by George, wanted to meet this person!!  I even told him I would pay the air fare.  Of course nothing ever became of it.

 

No matter if you are a Christian "Believer", you will have tribulations in this life.  You have tough decisions to make every day and if you are a "Believer", you have a helper...always.  I forget where this photo came from below.  If anyone who reads this knows the source, please let me know as I want to give credit where it's most certainly due.  This is a perfect view of a "Believers" choices each and every day, while the evil one tries to sway him otherwise.  Feast your peepers on this:

 

 

 Being a steam engineer from the Old Navy of yesteryear, I sort of equate trying to be a sinless Christian like water and steam in the stream drum aboard ship: when the steam is still in contact with its source (the water), it can NEVER be superheated.  It has to be removed and put in another container and fired up again.  Only then can it really be called super heated steam.  Like us on this earth in the flesh and blood bodies: As long as we are still in contact with the earth in these bodies, we cannot attain a perfect life. It's one problem after another.

 

Incidently, we don't....CAN'T....IMPOSSIBLE......NO WAY.....live by the 10 Commandments.  God gave them to us to SHOW where we could go wrong...SIN.  According to the New Testament, Jesus states we live by GRACE now.  Man, thank goodness for that!!!  No, thank GOD!!!!!!!

 

More to follow. Check with website page frequently.

 

Many thanks.