She misapplied the scripture because she judges me and thinks it is rightness. You guys live and debate so much from the bible, yet it is not coming from your own understanding. Very rote and dry.
I have been through my fire with God and have sat still and prayed silently long enough over the years to become truly reborn...not reborn in my mind with a bunch of learned truth. But truly changed within and I am so happy and grateful!
The passage in question was not written by Elsie. God gave it to us so we know his truth, so that those who think they are righteous would realize they have not seen themselves for who they truly are, and so that those who are broken over their sin would have a hope of forgiveness. You found your own place in that picture. Don’t blame Elsie for what God wrote.
As for being through fire, you don’t know any of us in person. No one who truly believes in Jesus is just reciting words. We have lived these truths. Sometimes through great pain and sorrow, the depth of which you have no idea. We have come to Christ only by coming to the end of all our own resources, and have thrown ourselves on his mercy and found his grace.
God knows our hearts. You do not. Yet you condemn us for our love for him and the words he gave us as his gift of love to us. If we are born again, it is by his act of love to us, not by our performance of deeds or techniques. The new birth, Jesus says, is from above. You cannot hypnotize yourself into it. It is a gift of God, only ever given to sinners, and we rejoice in it.
You cannot possibly know what and how we understand the gospel of our salvation. What you term "rote and dry" is simply the ability to apply Scriptural truth to the questions being asked. If I know what God has said about a certain thing, I am better equipped to give an answer to anyone who asks me of the "hope" that is in me. Nobody wants to hear boatbums' philosophy or boatbums' gospel - it is way too an important issue to leave it up to fallible human beings to tell us, not when we can KNOW from the very word of God, Himself. The Bible SAYS that it is GOD-BREATHED which means that every word is inspired by the Holy Spirit of God and not one word is omitted that we must know. That is why we CAN trust what Scripture says, and the Gospel is clearly stated.
You say that you "have sat still and prayed silently long enough over the years to become truly reborn...not reborn in my mind with a bunch of learned truth. But truly changed within", but what is your mind if not your internal spirit? Your mind is your connection to reality and the new spirit nature we get when we are born again comes through faith in Jesus Christ - it is not something that just happens if we sit still long enough. I am not belittling your "change" that you are happy about, but it is not the rebirth Jesus spoke about if it doesn't come from the way HE said it must - and that is through belief, faith, trusting in Jesus Christ to be our Savior.
Do not let yourself be turned away from knowing the truth of God as He revealed to us in Holy Scripture - it is a HUGE part, though, of course, not the ONLY part of knowing Him. Don't allow yourself to be deceived from the simplicity that is in Christ. It is FAR from rote and definitely not dry, but wonderful, freeing, uplifting and full of everlasting joy and peace.
Now just WHY would we do THAT?
Could it be...
Jeremiah 17:9
The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.
Who can understand it?
Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.
While Fabian listens to Masters daily; to see if there is anything more to learn from him.