H. Richard
Well-Known Member
Yes, it was a short summary of what you said over a few minutes and would have taken more words than what you shared in your post above.
That was why I said that your reported actions were God's to judge and not mine.
The fellow worker came to you for help and what the fellow worker heard and saw in your responses, he judged and rejected as being no better that the others he had talked with. That was contained in your story, that you told.
Jesus condemned the people who told people what they should do but was contrary to their own practices.
That was why Jesus told us to make disciples of the people we rub shoulders with and to take our disciples on a journey towards theirs and our salvation which is always in our distant future when the book of our good deeds will be opened and they will either condemn or exalt us at that time. As such we need to put into practice what we learn about God's heart for us and the people around us. The process towards our salvation is not something that we can take the "necessary" steps towards, it is a learning process that we must put into practice. We, who claim to be in a deep relationship with Christ, are required to demonstrate this relationship on a daily basis by taking up our own cross to follow Him.
Shalom
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Thanks for clarifying your thoughts. Sorry that your ideas are the same as the religious persons that told the man "HE MUST SAVE HIMSELF BY WHAT HE DOES". Since you and those in religion think they can save themselves by what they do then for them salvation is something they must earn by the flesh. If a person has to work for it then it is not a free gift from God and it keeps them from finding any joy in what God HAS DONE FOR THEM.
If this young man had realized how much Jesus loved him and did not expect him to be sinless perhaps he would still be alive. It is the religious that think other are not to sin and that is because they can not see their own sins. They say a person can not sin while they are sinning in the flesh just like others do and that fits the very definition of a hypocrite..
We are as far apart in our thoughts as the West is from the East. The scriptures tell me that salvation is the work of God and is a free gift. But the religious do not want it to be free. I am reminded of JOB's three religious friends.