Thanks for the uplift - too many Christians on FR either cherry-pick or ignore the Bible and spout the "You will be damned for eternity" trash. I was taught to not just read the words, but to put them in their proper context so I could understand not only the meaning, but the implications and the import of the words. It gives me comfort to know that my sins are forgiven despoite my weak flesh - better men than I suffered the same shortcomings. As God spoke through Jeremiah 31:
27 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will plant the kingdoms of Israel and Judah with the offspring of people and of animals.
28 Just as I watched over them to uproot and tear down, and to overthrow, destroy and bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant,” declares the Lord.
29 “In those days people will no longer say,
‘The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’
30 Instead, everyone will die for their own sin; whoever eats sour grapes—their own teeth will be set on edge.
31 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.
32 It will not be like the covenant
I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
though I was a husband to[d] them,[e]”
declares the Lord.
33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
after that time,” declares the Lord.
“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
34 No longer will they teach their neighbor,
or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares the Lord.
“For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
How beautiful! We no onger suffer for the sins of our forebearers - we only suffer for what we as individuals do. God put the knowledge of His presence in each of us so the decision is ours to make - nobody needs to convince us because in our deepest recesses, we KNOW He exists.
Then He tells us the meaning of Jesus' birth, teachings, death and ressurection - He will forgive our trashing His commandments and will recognize our sins no more - our inability to live sinless lives will not be counted against us.
Have a Blessed Day!
“No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money/mammon”.