By His grace and mercy, may we all persevere!

Thanks again!

I once was in a Church were we were so comfortable, a friend of mine and i thought we would start a new church and name it the Church of Contentment. “Come in sit down relax, we will not provoke or convict you only give you peace and love for as long as you like. Now go home and relax, let God take care of the world.’

Jesus did not just come here to have us feel comfortable.
We have more to do than wait and relax in our knowledge of our own salvation.

Oswald Chambers writes:

SERVICE OF PASSIONATE DEVOTION

“Lovest thou Me? . . . Feed My sheep.” John 21:16

Jesus did not say - Make converts to your way of thinking, but look after My sheep, see that they get nourished in the knowledge of Me. We count as service what we do in the way of Christian work; Jesus Christ calls service what we are to Him, not what we do for Him. Discipleship is based on devotion to Jesus Christ, not on adherence to a belief or a creed. “If any man come to Me and hate not . . . , he cannot be My disciple.” There is no argument and no compulsion, but simply - If you would be My disciple, you must be devoted to Me. A man touched by the Spirit of God suddenly says - “Now I see Who Jesus is,” and that is the source of devotion.

To-day we have substituted credal belief for personal belief, and that is why so many are devoted to causes and so few devoted to Jesus Christ. People do not want to be devoted to Jesus, but only to the cause He started. Jesus Christ is a source of deep offence to the educated mind of to-day that does not want Him in any other way than as a Comrade. Our Lord’s first obedience was to the will of His Father, not to the needs of men; the saving of men was the natural outcome of His obedience to the Father. If I am devoted to the cause of humanity only, I will soon be exhausted and come to the place where my love will falter; but if I love Jesus Christ personally and passionately, I can serve humanity though men treat me as a door-mat. The secret of a disciple’s life is devotion to Jesus Christ, and the characteristic of the life is its unobtrusiveness. It is like a corn of wheat, which falls into the ground and dies, but presently it will spring up and alter the whole landscape (John 12:24).

Scripture states that we are sick from the top of our heads to the soles of our feet. According to Tim, if God were a doctor, he would set admit us to a state of the art hospital room with all of the finest medications and equipment needed to restore our health and then sit back and watch as we administered our own treatment.

it is a poor argument, as is the traditional perspective of “free-will” being expressed by the “God is a gentleman” thing. Neither resonates with the story of redemption. If they did, the story of the crucifixion would have been preceded in Scripture by some universally unanimous petitioning of God for a Saviour, which of course it is not.

The narrative of redemption states that God’s love instigated the manifestation of One whose unveiling was announced as the sacrificial offering that “…taketh away the sin of the world,” (not just believers or adherents).

Thanks for the vine.
Nate

Blessings to you Colin!

I will check out your post and throw in my 2 cents!

Blessings to you, also.