Am i a christian?

[Samuel Coleridge]

And you may not even make it. It is a long way to the end, and you are not there yet.

 

[razzelflabben]

And you may not even make it. It is a long way to the end, and you are not there yet.

that's a bit pessimistic when you consider God is in your corner, fighting to keep you as His bride....

 

[Brother Chris]

I will wager all I have, that if you live upon this Earth long enough. You 2 will be re-failing test and re-repenting and re-rebelieving more than you think now.

You haven't read 1 John to know that re-believing and re-repenting isn't even in the bible. Either one repents and believes in Jesus Christ and is saved or he doesn't repent and believe and is not saved. Therefore one will continue to pass the test of genuine faith, or one will continue to fail it. They will not alternate. That's why Jesus said, "If you continue in My word, you are truly my disciples." Genuine faith, over the course of one's life, grows, overcomes, perseveres and endures til the end.

 

[heymikey80]

It takes time and familiarity to overcome emotional doubts. Remember the guy in the Gospel -- "I believe -- Lord, help my unbelief!" It's not the factors of doubt that mean anything for your salvation, it's the seed of faith that grows and matures in your life to bring about greater confidence.

"If we deny Him, He will deny us.
If we are faithless, He will remain faithful: He cannot deny Himself."

I'd advise reading 1 John in the English Standard Version, because it's one of the first translations that actually recognizes the continuing tense of the verbs John is using. And never conclude John is contradicting Himself: 1 John 1 does indeed say we have sin, and nothing changes that later. That's what continuing tense is about.

 

[Samuel Coleridge]

You haven't read 1 John to know that re-believing and re-repenting isn't even in the bible. Either one repents and believes in Jesus Christ and is saved or he doesn't repent and believe and is not saved. Therefore one will continue to pass the test of genuine faith, or one will continue to fail it. They will not alternate. That's why Jesus said, "If you continue in My word, you are truly my disciples." Genuine faith, over the course of one's life, grows, overcomes, perseveres and endures til the end.

A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to day in my vineyard.
He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went.
And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not.
Whether of them twain did the will of his father? They say unto him, The first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.

It is not impossible for the Lord to bring back someone that has backsliden and to pick up where they left off with the Lord and to CONTINUE ON FROM THAT POINT. In fact I have seen it with my own 2 eyes. <edit>

 

[Brother Chris]

A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to day in my vineyard.
He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went.
And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not.
Whether of them twain did the will of his father? They say unto him, The first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.

It is not impossible for the Lord to bring back someone that has backsliden and to pick up where they left off with the Lord and to CONTINUE ON FROM THAT POINT. In fact I have seen it with my own 2 eyes.

Yes, the Lord will restore His children who have backslidden. You are correct, and this is biblical, but it only applies to true believers. This is also why the doctrine of eternal security is biblical, and a true believer can never be lost. God will restore him. But if someone who professes the faith, and then goes back into the world and back into sin and the things of God mean nothing to him, and there is no correction or discipline by the Lord in his life, then the bible (not I) says that such a person is not a child of God and is not saved. We are all capable of falling into sin and backsliding, that's not in question. But as 1 John 2:19 says, anyone who professes the faith and abandons it, was never saved to begin with. When reading 1 John, we are not looking for perfection, but you are looking to see if those things in 1 John are in your life, are you going in that direction. The flip side of 1 John is the book of Jude, and Jude tells us what an unsaved person is like.

 

[Samuel Coleridge]

Yes, the Lord will restore His children who have backslidden. You are correct, and this is biblical, but it only applies to true believers. This is also why the doctrine of eternal security is biblical, and a true believer can never be lost. God will restore him. But if someone who professes the faith, and then goes back into the world and back into sin and the things of God mean nothing to him, and there is no correction or discipline by the Lord in his life, then the bible (not I) says that such a person is not a child of God and is not saved. We are all capable of falling into sin and backsliding, that's not in question. But as 1 John 2:19 says, anyone who professes the faith and abandons it, was never saved to begin with. When reading 1 John, we are not looking for perfection, but you are looking to see if those things in 1 John are in your life, are you going in that direction. The flip side of 1 John is the book of Jude, and Jude tells us what an unsaved person is like.

One of the very first things that the Lord taught me and seared into my heart. My mind. And my soul.

Nothing is impossible to the Lord. And nothing is to hard for the Lord to do.

So having said that, I am going to say something to you that only comes with maturity in Truth and the Revelation of the Lord. You may can hear or may not can hear it.

There are many things that are written in the books of the bible and books that are not in the bible

that were inspired by God.

In fact what I am writting to you now

I was inspired by God.

I suppose one could say

to some dgree or another

everything is inspired in some shape or form

by God.

God created all things.

Jesus said alot of things that were not biblical.

John said that not everything that Jesus did was written.

So if you believe that all the truth of God is contained in the Bible, you are going to misout on alot of it.

There are not enough books in the world that could contain the Truth of God.

He has no limitations.

 

[Crosssword]

Sigh, you really want to argue about that again? Satan temps us all the time, trying to take us away from the faith. A Christian who keeps having blasphemous thoughts: unforgivable sin or spiritual attack?

You seem to have little respect for those struggling. I still contend that the Christian must expect temptation, and understand that satan is real and will even put false thoughts into their minds. Thinking satan doesn't come around, doesn't tempt us, and blaming ourselves too much is dangerous.

Anything at all to get us to doubt that Jesus can and will save us. Jesus was tempted. Not because satan appeared to him in the flesh or took him to an actual mountain where it was possible to see every kingdom in world. That's impossible. It happened as a thought occuring in Jesus's mind. Just as it does ours. You're walking and suddenly theres the thought "well I could turn and worship satan and gain ultimate power." And Jesus defended whatever scripture satan tried to quote him with an even better one.

The only thing that hurt about your supposed truth, was that when I humbled myself saying I could do nothing right, you did not even try to pick me up, or see the merits of my work. You are even worse then me when it comes to insisting upon your views, show me one example where you have changed your mind or yielded? You have never once demonstrated humility.

In the Bible even GOD himself repented and changes his mind when certain prophets asked him to alter the prophecy a bit. Read Amos. The very Righteousness of God is not so completely unyielding.

More and more I'm finding that what I said was accurate. Scripture, of course, should not be taken as a single verse here and there, but as a whole. The stem that is too hard becomes brittle and breaks, the stem that is too soft cannot grow. These are two extremes, and balance can be difficult.

 

[Samuel Coleridge]

If you go and plant a apple seed in the ground today

can you pick apples off of it tomorrow?

We plant

We water

But the Lord gives the increase.

 

[Crosssword]

Hmm, well ya got with there, I'm not a very patient person by any means. lol
It's a good thing God is patient with us though.

 

[Philothei]

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[SAMMISPARROW]

confronting doubts will help your mind to experience greater faith, but the heart, body, and soul require trusting the lord and growing in that faith. Remember that nothing stays still, everything in life either grows or decays. Another great axiom is that by teaching others we are also teaching ourselves.

Indeed, Brother Chris, trusting the lord he can and will work in our lives. Christianity is all about the heart and the word. In the beginning there was the word, and the word was without form. The word reflects the heart and is spoken out of the heart. For God so loved us that he gave his only son to die for our sins. This selfless gesture touches the hearts of those who care that they have sinned and want to stop.

We begin with Self love and accepting God's love. Out of self love we are to understand that we belong to the lord. Our bodies are his temples. From here we proceed to love our neighbors as ourselves and to love God with all our heart, strength, mind, and soul. All the deadly sins are unhealthy in one way or another and may easily proceed out of self-hate and utter disregard for the health of body, mind, heart and soul. The lord tells us to do what is best FOR us. To sin is to sin against ones very soul.

I mention self-love because without it the whole thing falls apart. My life is a perfect example of how a person without self-love can try his hardest to find God and fail utterly. Self-hate usually stems out of tragedy so he does take this into account. It's like trying to blame a blind man for bumping into people, any man with a heart would instead want to pity him for being blind. Hating the self is similar to denying the self, except that the result will be sinful. In self-hate all seemingly positive things come from ungodly sources, or from running away from our true problems. In self-denial we are practicing moderation and keeping the ways of God. Self-denial taken too far results in hating what God has created.

Evidence of God working in your life: Consider your interactions with people and whether their hearts have been hardened our opened mysteriously. This is one of the mysterious ways he acts. For instance, back in my teen years I was into drugs, I was caught with a whole pound of weed commerically wrapped and I got off scott free because God opened the judges heart and intervened on my behalf. Yeah, it was a first offense but I was 18 and there's no way I should have got away with that.

Here is an excellent article on his mercy and on how he deals with us: Acts 17:11 Bible Study: Mercy
And a good one on self-hate What does the Bible say about self-hatred?

I'm glad that I see it that way too. Gods blessings be with us always.

 

[SharonL]

The Bible says 'Blessed are those who believe and do not see' - you believe in God - that is faith. Unless you can say I don't believe in God - you have not lost your faith.

The Bible tells us that Jesus is your friend, he is only a heartbeat away, walk with him, talk with him, he is by your side ever step of the way.

Put your hand in the hand of Jesus and let the Holy Spirit guide you, you will grow closer each day. He is a friend who will never leave you and the Bible tells us that no one can snatch you away from Jesus. Let the Joy of the Lord shine upon your face and let everyone see the walk of Love.

 

[phlyingpngwyns]

Sorry I haven't responded for a while. I will continue to think about everything you people have said. I will read John 1 more. Thank you for helping me. I'm in the middle of some school projects, so I won't be able to reply for a while. Thanks.

 

[BeeWrangler]

sorry if this is in wrong place. please move it if it is. I need help with my faith. I have alot of doubts. I want to stop doubting the existence of God, not a major problem because I know he is real, but I still have doubts sometimes. my major problem is doubting my faith. I have asked forgiveness for my sins and have prayed to be saved many times, but I doubt my faith. I don't know if I did it just because of fear of Hell or because I really wanted to or just because I knew it was a good thing to do. I want to have faith to know that I really am a true Christian, and I want to love God so much that I feel no regrets about leaving Earthly things/people behind when I die. So, I need help to stop doubting my faith. once again sorry if i posted this in wrong place, i wasnt sure. THanks

I like to think of this as your seed A plant needs soil, sun, and water to grow healthy and strong. Your faith is the seed, it is not going to grow into a full grown plant full of blooms and strong roots as soon as you stick it in the soil. The roots will not grow strong without soil, think of soil as the word of God, your bible. It also needs sunlight, think of that as prayer. and without water it would dry up and burn, think of water as Jesus. Regular reading, prayer, love and trust in Jesus and you will be filled with the Holy Spirit. Repent, turn from sin and grow into something strong and well rooted Just remember, the right path is not easy, you will stumble. When you do don't give up, get back up and keep moving onward God Bless