I'm a Christian. Now what?

How do you know when you are actually saved and going to heaven? I would think that even though one claims to be a new Christian doesn't mean they are heaven bound, even if they are serious about the decision they made. I was serious about the decision but the problem is I have so much sin in my life. There are so many things I deal with that it makes me wonder how I can possibly overcome them all. Many of the things I do I really think I could stop over time and then there are other things that I really wonder what I'm to do because it seems so difficult to give up. Does one just stop all these things cold turkey? I can't remember where the scripture was that I read but it said something like turn from your sin and repent or you will perish. That leads me to believe one who hasn't turned completely from sin is going to perish, even if that person is in fact a Christian now. But this only confuses me more because several people so far have said you can't earn salvation.

Every believer in the gospel (of 1 Cor. 15:1-4, Jn. 20:31) can know with perfect assurance he's presently saved (1 Jn. 5:13, 1 Cor. 15:1-4) if when he became a believer in the gospel he repented from his sins (1 Jn. 3:6) & confessed them to God (1 Jn. 1:9). And he can be sure that as a saved person he can never be separated from the love of God, so long as he loves God (Rom. 8:28-39), which means obeying him (1 Jn. 5:3, Jn. 14:21-24). And no matter how many tests a saved person fails during his lifetime (sometime subsequent to his initial repentance), even if he fails & commits sin 70 times 7 times in a single day (Mt. 18:21-22, Lk. 17:4), he can be sure that so long as he sincerely repents from every sin & confesses it to God, he'll be completely forgiven (1 Jn. 1:9). He'll lose his salvation in the end only if he wrongly employs his free will to do something like committing a sin without repentance (Heb. 10:26-29, 1 Cor. 9:27, Lk. 12:45-46), or becoming utterly lazy without repentance (Mt. 25:26,30, Jn. 15:2a, Rom. 2:6-8), or committing apostasy (Heb. 6:4-8, Jn. 15:6, 2 Tim. 2:12).

Initial salvation is by grace through faith without works (Eph. 2:8-9, Titus 3:5, Rom. 4:1-5). But initially saved people must have both faith & continued works of faith (1 Thes. 1:3, Gal. 5:6b, Titus 3:8) (not works of the letter of the Old Covenant Mosaic law) if they're to obtain ultimate salvation (Rom. 2:6-8, Jas. 2:24, Mt. 7:21, 25:26,30, Philip. 2:12b, 3:11-14, 2 Cor. 5:9, Rev. 22:14, Heb. 5:9, 6:10-12, 2 Pet. 1:10-11, Jn. 15:2a). For believers must actually continue to do righteous deeds if they're to continue to be righteous (1 Jn. 3:7, Jas. 2:24,26).

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Notes: christianforums.com/blogs/u77506/

Assurance of salvation is something we all seek. It is available;

Christian Pioneer - How can I know for sure I am saved?

Eishiba-

There isn't a person on this earth who is sinless, with those who claim to be either suffering from arrogance or conspiring to convince others that they can be trusted as their spiritual leaders. And in the cases that I have encountered in the 'real world' over the years, those same people have fit both those descriptions.

In Luke 18:9-14 (the Pharisee and the tax collector) Jesus taught that it was the tax collector who left the temple justified, rather than the Pharisee. Note that Jesus didn't deny that the Pharisee had indeed done all that he boasted of doing, and that he had refrained from doing all that he denied doing. But his attitude was one of arrogance ("Look at how holy I am"), whereas the tax collector's attitude was one of humility. The tax collector asked for God's mercy, and received it. The Pharisee instead saw himself as so righteous that he could stand in God's presence through his own works, and therefore would see only God's justice. And none of us is so perfect that we can stand up to God's justice.

A word of caution: There are some denominations and sects which give lipservice to our being saved through Christ's atoning sacrifice, but then state that one must keep a set of laws and commandments (invariably compiled by the heirarchy of that particular denomination) in order to hold on to our salvation. But the righteousness which we need in order to stand before God cleased of our sins is a righteousness which we must receive as a gift, and then see as a gift from that time forward until we are in God's presence.

In Romans 3:19-26 (quoted in message #9 of this thread) Paul makes it clear that the righteousness which we need is a righteousness that originates with God rather than with ourselves. There is only one means of obtaining this righteousness, and that is by permitting God to give it to us. We are like children who see something far higher than our reach, and so must trust in our parents to obtain it for us and then give it to us. That he is willing to do as a result of our accepting the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ:

What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the "stumbling stone." As it is written:

"See, I lay in Zion a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame." (Romans 9:30-33,NIV)

This righteousness stand alone. It cannot be replaced with our own righteousness, nor can it be augmented by our own righteousness. As Christians we do what we can for the furtherance of God's kingdom, depending on our talents. But we always realize that what we are doing is being done through gratitude for what God has already given us, namely, the righteousness necessary for our salvation. The work is never to be seen as in any way a part of that righteousness, but only as its aftermath.

Many of those online study guides and devotions include a lot of Bible passages. You don't always have to read whole chapters at a time (though it helpful to do so). Sometimes it is good to read it in small pieces and read the teachings that go along with them. Podcasts can be very helpful too.

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"A positive religious faith does not offer an illusion that we shall be exempt from pain and suffering... Rather it instills us with the inner equilibrium needed to face strains, burdens, and fears that inevitably come." -Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Almost every heresy that has afflicted the church through the years has arisen from believing about God things that are not true, or from overemphasizing certain true things so as to obscure other things equally true." -A.W. Tozer

Onan was to marry her and have a child by her. He tried to cheat his way out of it.

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Every word of God is flawless; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him.
Do not add to His words, or He will rebuke you and prove you a liar.
- Proverbs 30:5-6

Sovereignty is not racism.

Welcome into the kingdom of God. When you accept Jesus into your life, angels rejoice.
What you need to do next is to go to a church which will encourage you to love Jesus more.
Then, learn to pray, and it is all right that your prayers are short. Even now, I struggle with my prayers.
THen, read the bible. I know it is not easy. Maybe you can purchase some kind of bible commentary.

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Jesus never intended for us to try to understand sacred Scripture apart from the community of believers, which is his Body, the Church. As the Apostle said, there are many things in scripture which are difficult to understand, and that the ignorant and unstable distort to their own destruction (2 Peter 3:16). If I'm sitting in my room, reading scripture and relying on the Holy Spirit to immediately guide my understanding without reference to the Church, I put myself at grave risk of leading myself astray. How do I know that I'm not one of the ignorant and unstable? By definition, I'd be the last to know.

That's why God set up His Church with a teaching authority and promised that it would never teach false doctrine.

Jesus gave the authority to teach in His name to the Apostles (Matthew 10:20; Luke 10:1; Luke 10:16), with Peter having the preeminent position among them (Matthew 16:17-19), and promised that the Holy Spirit would protect them from ever teaching error (John 14:16-18, 26; 15:26; 16:13; 17:17-19; Luke 21:33). He said that they would remember everything Jesus taught them. (John 14:16-18, 26; Luke 21:33). He further promised that the fruit that the Apostles bore (i.e., the Bishops they appointed and the Church that He built on them (Ephesians 2:19-22)) would remain faithful (John 15:16). The Apostles in turn taught (again, without error) that they had the authority to pass that office on to their successors (Acts 1:20,26; Rom 13:1-2; Heb. 13:17; 1 Tim 1:3; 2 Tim 2:2; 2 Pet. 1:16–21, 3:2; 1 Cor 3:9-11; Jude 8, 10-11 (ref. to Num 16). Based on the word of Christ, we can know that the teaching authority of His Church is protected by God from ever teaching false doctrine as being infallibly true and binding on all believers.

So if I were you, I'd find out which Church is the one which has been around since the time of the Apostles, and join it.

See Deuteronomy 25:5-10

When brothers live together and one of them dies without a son, the widow of the deceased shall not marry anyone outside the family; but her husband’s brother shall come to her, marrying her and performing the duty of a brother-in-law. The firstborn son she bears shall continue the name of the deceased brother, that his name may not be blotted out from Israel. But if a man does not want to marry his brother’s wife, she shall go up to the elders at the gate and say, “My brother-in-law refuses to perpetuate his brother’s name in Israel and does not intend to perform his duty toward me.” Thereupon the elders of his city shall summon him and speak to him. If he persists in saying, “I do not want to marry her,” his sister-in-law, in the presence of the elders, shall go up to him and strip his sandal from his foot and spit in his face, declaring, “This is how one should be treated who will not build up his brother’s family!” And his name shall be called in Israel, “the house of the man stripped of his sandal.”

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The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us (his) flesh to eat?"
Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you....For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink..."
As a result of this, many (of) his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him...
John, Ch. 6