Posted on 06/21/2006 5:15:34 AM PDT by MountainMenace
The blind leaders of the blind. They will both fall into a ditch.
going directly to God
The Word proclaims - No one can come to The Father but through Jesus. Jesus' death cleared the way! We are sons and daughters of The Most High God, we are His children. i.e.,Children go to their father - they don't go to someone else and then that someone else intercedes for that child to his/her father.
How do we pray? "Our Father...." He told us Who to pray to, make confession to - Our Father for HE is Our Source for everything. No man is Our Source.
I agree, we go directly to Our Heavenly Father in Jesus' Name.
Oh dear Lord.
Look folks. Many of us former Episcopalians are very very sad to see a once proud arm of Christendom go down by the liberals desecrating the long held beliefs. It all started ca 70 years ago when the libs took over most of the seminaries. Then followed the ordination of women (which I found OK) but it was done by trickery and a stacked convention. Then they quietly started ordaining homosexuals and then finally consecration of a practicing homosexual to be a bishop. That, of course, invalidated the orders and the church was lost. I cry for a once wonderful denomination. The arrogance that continues now is just the crowning blow. Sad Sad.
Put on the full armor of God, friend, you're going to need it.
That's the way I feel about my denomination, the PCUSA (Presbyterians). Anybody have any news about their recent national convention? I haven't seen any threads about anything momentous (i.e., controversial) coming out of that body in the last week or so. Sure hope "no news" is good news for the body.
They have decided as much.
They have become a pagan social club, and nothing more.
How "self-righteous" of God to pretend to have the authority to decide how things are.
IOW, there are a lot of people who do not know the Bible.
How Ironic it is that the Episcopal Church now has to have Missionaries from Africa to straighten them out.
Lutheranism also.
The explanation is very easy. The first one, who believed and confessed openly that Jesus Christ was his Lord and Savior, died saved. The second person did not, because he believed the lie that he could get to Heaven by his good deeds alone--in short, making himself his own Savior and his own God (idolatry) and thereby rejecting the free gift of salvation from God through Jesus Christ.
Sitting in a church doesn't make a person a Christian anymore than sitting in a garage makes him a car. There are people--and churches--who profess Christ, but do not possess Christ. They have ritual without righteousness. They want to feel good without making any effort to BE good. It is not that easy to follow Christ--it is almost, but not quite, beyond human capacity.
Still we--his disciples--do our best, because of who HE is and what HE has done, paying a debt we can never repay--which clears the way for an inward, lasting joy right here on earth and the anticipation of knowing we will live with him in paradise when we die.
Christ came to save sinners. He didn't come to spend his time with people who thought themselves already good enough (the Pharisees) and by telling the truth he insulted them and was crucified. He came for you and me. All we have to do, is accept the gift of salvation, invite him in our hearts, live for him and love one another as he loves us. He offers us a divine guarantee and we would be fools not to take him up on his offer.
It would be funnier if it weren't so true. I grew up in the Episcopal church. I love its history. I just don't like what it's doing to itself now. It makes me terribly sad.
I don't really consider myself a sinner.
>I don't really consider myself a sinner.<
If their is a God then your opinion matters not.The God of the Bible says we are all sinners and fall short of the glory of God.
Could you explain that "really"?
I think you need to give this some serious thought. "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." And every sin, every bad action deliberately undertaken, separates us from God, who is all-Good and by His nature excludes ALL sin, not just what we may think of as "serious sin". As C.S. Lewis put into the mouth of Screwtape, murder is not necessary for damnation if cards will do the trick. The most effective road to Hell is the broad, gentle slope without signposts or turnings . . .
What odds we both come up with Romans 3:23?
Sure my life has not been perfect but when I look at a list of "sins" I do not consider myself a sinner, at least from my religious perspective.
What list of sins? Or "sins"?
What do you consider, from your religious perspective, to be a "sinner"?
SD
I have. I don't know your background but I would guess that I have spent more years with more religious backgrounds than you have. My conclusion is that no one 'religion' has a lock on God's will.
What religious tradition are you?
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