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First love !

SANTOSO

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But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. -Revelation 2:4

Isn’t the Lord looking for our FIRST LOVE ?
Yes, He is !!!

Isn’t it that having FIRST LOVE brings us to deeper fellowship or union with Him ?

Share your love you had at first with the Lord, that may encourage us !
 
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1watchman

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Yes, Santoso! I also see the question as twofold: addressing those who came to know of God, but failed to know God; and then became more interested in the world and the pleasures thereof. They were glad to learn about the Creator and that is as far as some people care ---believing that all is well and they are on their way to Heaven one day. They forget or never understood that the salvation of God is in His "...beloved Son" (John 3; John 14; etc.); and do not know or value the price the Lord Jesus had to pay on the Cross to redeem them.

If they DO NOT receive the Lord Jesus (God manifest in the flesh) they will have no salvation for their soul; yet perhaps mercies along the way as God waits for them still to come to God as He asks of us --as in the four Gospels. Many professing Christians today think that allowing there is a God will save them forever ---NOT so; for trusting and honoring the Lord Jesus is the essential need for us!

Real "born again" Christians (as John 3:16) sometimes forget the "...high calling of God in Christ Jesus" and begin acting to please their flesh ---called 'carnality'), which is acting like the world and pleasing flesh; which is what the Corinthian saints were doing when the Apostle Paul came there and upbraided them (I Cor. 3:3). They were in fact "born again" real saints of God and saved, but "carnal and walk as men") as He said. So, there are both carnal saints and just so-called 'god fearing people'; as well as those faithful and Godly saints who walk and talk with our Savior daily and seek to honor and please Him (though at best, all of us will fail in the flesh at times, by the temptation fostered on our minds by Satan, if we fail to stay close to our Redeemer.

We do have a challenge in this world to overcome flesh, but IF one is "born again" that one will at least be in Heaven one day (though we might "suffer loss" of some rewards by our carnality here below, as God warns us about. Let us look up always and walk circumspectly!
 
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SANTOSO

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Yes, Santoso! I also see the question as twofold: addressing those who came to know of God, but failed to know God; and then became more interested in the world and the pleasures thereof. They were glad to learn about the Creator and that is as far as some people care ---believing that all is well and they are on their way to Heaven one day. They forget or never understood that the salvation of God is in His "...beloved Son" (John 3; John 14; etc.); and do not know or value the price the Lord Jesus had to pay on the Cross to redeem them.

If they DO NOT receive the Lord Jesus (God manifest in the flesh) they will have no salvation for their soul; yet perhaps mercies along the way as God waits for them still to come to God as He asks of us --as in the four Gospels. Many professing Christians today think that allowing there is a God will save them forever ---NOT so; for trusting and honoring the Lord Jesus is the essential need for us!

Real "born again" Christians (as John 3:16) sometimes forget the "...high calling of God in Christ Jesus" and begin acting to please their flesh ---called 'carnality'), which is acting like the world and pleasing flesh; which is what the Corinthian saints were doing when the Apostle Paul came there and upbraided them (I Cor. 3:3). They were in fact "born again" real saints of God and saved, but "carnal and walk as men") as He said. So, there are both carnal saints and just so-called 'god fearing people'; as well as those faithful and Godly saints who walk and talk with our Savior daily and seek to honor and please Him (though at best, all of us will fail in the flesh at times, by the temptation fostered on our minds by Satan, if we fail to stay close to our Redeemer.

We do have a challenge in this world to overcome flesh, but IF one is "born again" that one will at least be in Heaven one day (though we might "suffer loss" of some rewards by our carnality here below, as God warns us about. Let us look up always and walk circumspectly!
Our Lord Jesus Christ is looking for love we had at first. That first love. I consider this first love as bridal love. Love that has only eyes for the one who is love.

As we have heard:
so that He might present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. -Ephesians 5:27

Isn’t the meaning of "church" is ekklesia [ejkklhsiva], “the called out ones” ?

Aren’t we the called out ones ? The called out ones who are called in union with Him in love.
 
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SANTOSO

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I agree, and I was just remarking on all the variations people come up with in speaking about a god, and never getting to the point of receiving the Savior: our Lord Jesus (noting John 14).
I understand your point
 
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