I have just read your comment and I am filled with compassion for you and your family. It must be very hard having a little boy with brain cancer. My prayer is that Jesus would hold you close to him and encourage you through this hard time. I believe that Jesus can still heal and I will pray for healing too- ” Lord please powerfully heal this dear child and give the whole family peace and faith.”

I understand your confusion regarding “once saved always saved”. I am aware of all the Bible verses and I can see how people can come to different conclusions. If Jesus has truly transformed our lives from death to life, from darkness to light, changing us into children of God and inhabiting us with His Holy Spirit, we may suffer temporary loss of fellowship, as a result of sin, but I believe our salvation is secure.

I believe there are people who believe in Jesus who have never surrendered their lives to Him. They are like the seeds that grow for a short while after hearing the word of God (in the parable of the sower) but they shrivel or are overpowered by worry, wealth etc. I have written about this in earlier blogs. You might like to look at Women Respond: “The Harvest ” and “Could money worries be fatal?” and “Christians should expect persecution” and “The devil blinds us from seeing the truth.” I think that I wrote these in October.

The parable of the sower shows that Christians should be fruitful. My desire is to help people become mature in their faith. I know that Jesus draws people to Himself and He is the one who changes hard hearts into soft ones and helps us grow and mature. If you know a loved one who is backsliding, I would encourage you to pray for God’s powerful work to re-ignite the fire. He says that He will complete the work that He begins, and let’s ask Him to do that.

As you walk through this challenging time, with Jesus, I hope that you will receive His blessings as you let him minister to you all. “Jesus please give Cathy abundant peace, hope and love.”

Blessings,

Sian

I do not believe this so I posed the question do we become a child of God when we accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. He replied. Yes. I further pointed out the Bible teaches that people are the children of the devil – unless they accept Christ. Again, he agreed this is what the Bible teaches. From there I pointed out if one of my children left and never spoke to me again, he would still be my child. I was amazed that he disagreed. He went even further if my child committed suicide he would cease to be my child!

I have a six year old fighting brain cancer and I share this and assured him if my son dies from cancer, he will still be my son!

Again, he disagreed, siting our spouses will not be our spouses in Heaven. King David knew when his son died he would see him again and had peace – never saying he was no longer his son.

Jesus Christ is and always will be the Son of God, even though He is in Heaven. Does Jesus cease to be the Son because He is in Heaven? Of course not.

Anyway, I am really concerned when so many religions teach one can lose their salvation. They are not rightly dividing the Word of God. If they are going to take one part that says you can lose your salvation, and not the parts, such as in John and Romans that say we can not lose our salvation, I wonder why they promote the first one so strongly. Could it be they are trying to steal that hope that is within us?

In the Last days the BIble warns us there will be false teachers teaching damnable herasies, even denying the One who saved us. They will not endure sound doctrine…

Wow, we are in the last days I am sure. Such apostasy is everywhere! So much for bringing in the Kingdom of God before Christ returns, as many claim they are doing with their signs and wonders and even claim they can raise the dead if they try hard enough.

Jesus Christ will bring the Kingdom Himself, not the church. As a matter of fact, He questions when He comes back, will there be any faith left at all.

If the rapture isnt around the corner, I will be a monkey’s aunt!

Certainly we need to self examine ourselves and if we are unloving we must question our salvation. If we come before Jesus and ask Him to forgive us and re-create us in His image He will quickly oblige, because He loves nothing more than receiving into the Kingdom of God sinners who are repentant and want to be changed. Conversely He must be saddened by so called “Christians” who have been baptized and go to church but do not share His love. It is not surprising that our non Christian friends are turned off.

The Biblical evidence is strong that the spiritual new birth of which we speak creates a new creature, who by nature loves all people, especially other people who have experienced that new birth. If we notice an absence of love in another, we wonder. If we notice its absence in ourselves, must we not examine ourselves to determine if we have been born again and have indeed become a new creature?

My non Christian friends frequently remark that they do not observe that love being shown by much of the Christian community. They mostly see Christians who would rather be “right” than show love. This especially plays out in the political arena. I remember what a coroner who I once knew said when someone was asking him about a particular car accident, and who was “in the right”. He replied that the dead man was technically in the right, but by insisting on his “rights” ended up being dead wrong. Is it possible that as a Christian we can be “right”, but by failing to love can end up being dead wrong?

If we have experienced that dramatic spiritual new birth, will we not, at all times, be loving toward all people? Absent that new birth which of necessity produces love toward all people, all else is meaningless – baptism, our doctrine on whatever issue, which church we do or do not attend and all the rest.

“They’ll know we are Christians by our love” (song by Peter Scholtes) – If you don’t know the lyrics, Google it.