How’s your salvation tower coming along?

[BCsenior]

Point well taken.
Sorry
M-Bob

MMRbob, it wasn't directed at you.
Are you sorry for your posts, or are you sorry
for me and my attempts to WARN with the Truth?

 

[Mountainmanbob]

MMRbob, it wasn't directed at you.
Are you sorry for your posts, or are you sorry
for me and my attempts to WARN with the Truth?

We seek the truth.
The narrow path at times.
M-Bob

 

[BCsenior]

We seek the truth.
The narrow path at times.
M-Bob

Dat's good 'cause goats handle
the narrow mountain paths real well.

 

[Devin Newsome]

Will you be able to finish your salvation tower?
“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough
to finish it — lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’?” (Luke 14:26-30)
We cannot be a disciple of Jesus
● IF we love ourselves (or a relative) more than Jesus
● IF we do not bear our crosses and come after Jesus
Jesus warns us to count the cost
● of being a follower of Jesus
● of building our salvation tower
● of laying a proper foundation
● of finishing the whole process
● of enduring the shame of not finishing

Are you taking up Jesus' cross and following Him?
“Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself,
and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Matthew 16:24-26)
Jesus warns us to count the cost
● of coming after Him (being His disciple)
● of denying ourselves
● of taking up our crosses
● of losing our fleshly desires for His sake
● of exchanging our fleshly desires for eternal life

Back to foundations
“But why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord’, and not do
the things which I say? Whoever comes to Me, and hears My sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like: He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently against that house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock.
But he who heard and did nothing is like a
man who built a house on the earth without
a foundation, against which the stream beat vehemently; and immediately it fell.
And the ruin of that house was great.”
(Luke 6:46-49)
Jesus warns us
● to obey His teachings (for this is most critical)
● to dig deep when building our salvation house
● to build our foundation on the Rock who is Jesus

Remember the narrow gate and the narrow way?
“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate
and broad is the way that leads to destruction
(eternal death), and there are many who go in
by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult
is the way which leads to (eternal) life,
and there are few who find it.”(Matthew 7:13-14)

Let’s not forget
“… as He who called you is holy, you also
be holy in all your conduct, because it is written,
'Be holy, for I am holy.' ” (1 Peter 1:15-16)
“… those who are with Him (Jesus) are
called, chosen, and faithful.” (Revelation 17:1)

Jesus said that his yoke is easy and his burden light.

Why are you making such a simple thing so complex.

God is love and he wants us to love others.

Why are you making Christianity out to be some evil experience.

 

[Devin Newsome]

Dat's good 'cause goats handle
the narrow mountain paths real well.

The narrow road is love. It’s not some evil legalistic journey that you are making it to be.

 

[nonaeroterraqueous]

Striking imagery used, here.

בבל
​

 

[BCsenior]

The narrow road is love. It’s not some evil legalistic journey that you are making it to be.

The NT teaches an evil legalistic journey?

No, the NT teaches that those who choose to be
habitual (unrepentant) sinners are on the path to hell.

The unsaved have NO choice in the matter.
They are held in bondage to their sin nature & to Satan.

BACs are able to make a free-will choice: slaves of sin,
or slaves of obedience and of righteousness (Romans 6).

 

[Devin Newsome]

The NT teaches an evil legalistic journey?

No, the NT teaches that those who choose to be
habitual (unrepentant) sinners are on the path to hell.

The unsaved have NO choice in the matter.
BACs are able to make a free-will choice: slaves of sin, or
slaves of obedience & slaves of righteousness (Rom. 6).

And yet Jesus hung with sinners and had a huge problem with the self righteous Pharisees.

 

[BCsenior]

Striking imagery used, here.

Yes, which little kiddo are you?

 

[nonaeroterraqueous]

Yes, which little kiddo are you?

I'm the one in red about to accidentally kick over the whole thing (ah, brings back memories of my sister's birthday cake, in the summer of 1984).

 

[BCsenior]

I'm the one in red about to accidentally kick over the whole thing (ah, brings back memories of my sister's birthday cake, in the summer of 1984).

Aaaaah, you like to kick birthday cakes
... truly a man after my own heart.

 

[Der Alte]

Didest thou foist countest the cost?
"For which of you, intending to build a tower,
does not sit down first and count the cost,
whether he has enough to finish it" (Luke 14)

This is known as proof text theology. A piece of a passage from here and a piece of a passage from there, jam them together with no regard for context and anyone can make the Bible say almost anything.
This is part of the same passage.

Luke 14:31-33
(31) Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?
(32) Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace.
(33) So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.​

Have you sat down and calculated the cost of your coming battle, have you sent ambassadors and begged for conditions of peace? If you emphasize the first part of this passage you can't honestly ignore the second part.

​

 

[BCsenior]

Have you sat down and calculated the cost of your coming battle, have you sent ambassadors and begged for conditions of peace? If you emphasize the first part of this passage you can't honestly ignore the second part.

I spared you the second part so as to not bore you!
The red is echoing what was said in the first part,
which was all about counting the cost (to your soul)
of building your salvation tower.

Are you ready to accept Jesus' teaching now?

 

[Strong in Him]

That is somewhat true.

Well, no; that iS true.

But, we can throw it away, fall away from it, etc.

We can certainly choose to walk away - because God gave us the ability to make choices.
Why anyone who knows God's love would want to turn their backs on it, I don't know; but some might. I don't believe that if we have a period of doubt/despair/depression/dryness or whatever, we will find that we've lost our salvation.
Paul says that it is God who works in us to will and to act, Philippians 2:13 and that he will bring to completion the work that he started in us, Philippians 1:6. I don't believe this means that he overrides our will, but he can continue to work in us through illness, depression, dementia etc.

 

[Strong in Him]

I spared you the second part so as to not bore you!

You really think we'd be bored by Scripture??
You have taken it out of context.

The red is echoing what was said in the first part,
which was all about counting the cost (to your soul)
of building your salvation tower.

No, it's about counting the cost of being a disciple.
I.O.W, no one plans to build a tower without making sure that he can afford it, otherwise he'll look foolish; no one goes into battle without making sure he has enough resources, and men, to win the battle. In the same way, think carefully about the cost of following Jesus. He said the same thing elsewhere - no one who puts his hand to the plough and turns back, is fit for the Kingdom of heaven, Luke 9:62. He also said that we are to love him more than our families, Matthew 10:37, seek first the Kingdom of God, Matthew 6:33, and take up our cross and follow him, Mark 8:35-35.

Jesus invites us to follow him, and doing so means eternal life and great rewards. But it may also mean persecution and suffering, and we must count the cost before we follow - starting to follow Jesus and giving up when the going gets tough is not good.

The verse you have quoted says nothing about a man building a salvation tower - that is reading into the text. Salvation is from God; HE has done it, we can't achieve, or "build" it.

 

[BCsenior]

We can certainly choose to walk away - because God gave us the ability to make choices.
Why anyone who knows God's love would want to turn their backs on it, I don't know ...

You don't know that some people just CHOOSE
to walk in the flesh, i.e. habitual sin!
Is that so difficult to understand?

 

[BCsenior]

You really think we'd be bored by Scripture??
You have taken it out of context.

Yes, otherwise why do so-called "believers" NOT
read, remember, understand, comprehend, etc.
the NT verses that I put in my OPs?
Many respond as if they never read the OP.
Too bored with it all to do the red?
Too in a hurry to vent their false doctrines?

 

[Strong in Him]

You don't know that some people just CHOOSE
to walk in the Spirit, i.e. habitual sin!
Is that so difficult to understand?

What you have written is impossible to understand - you have just said that walking in the Spirit is habitual sin!

 

[Strong in Him]

Yes, otherwise why do so-called "believers" NOT
read, remember, understand, comprehend, etc.
the NT verses that I put in my OPs?
Many respond as if they never read the OP.
Too bored with it all to do the red?
Too in a hurry to vent their false doctrines?

Too irritated by your taking verses out of context to make/prove a point.

The title of this thread is about our "salvation tower". There is no such thing, and the passage you quoted from Luke does not say otherwise.

 

[Aldebaran]

I spared you the second part so as to not bore you!
The red is echoing what was said in the first part,
which was all about counting the cost (to your soul)
of building your salvation tower.

Are you ready to accept Jesus' teaching now?

The way you're interpreting this is more in line with the reasoning people used when they started building the tower of Babel.