Faith, the final frontier. . . (man I am such a dork!)

Now, I have been having an email discussion with a fellow believer, who used to be a staunch "once saved, always saved" believer, but has relaxed his stance over the years. I haven't had a chance to respond to his most recent response in our discussion, but I have been meaning to tell him I think we actually agree with each other on the fundamental fact that Grace cannot be earned. That is what makes it Grace. Once we are in Christ we receive Grace, which is a gift that is not deserved. I think that this is an indisputable fact. Humans do not deserve to be in the presence of God. But God loves us and has made it possible for us to be with Him one day. He has given us a precious gift. We also agree that a person can loose faith, and then loose their place with God. What we might disagree on is how one goes about losing faith.
I believe that we should recognize our sins and ask God to forgive us of them. I believe that we have to have faith that God will forgive us of them. I think people give up on repenting, because they listen to that evil inner voice that tells them, "You will never be good enough, you might as well give up, and you know you will do this again tomorrow." When that happens, you are losing faith that God will forgive you. You lose faith that Christ's blood is all that is needed to purify you. As my friend pointed out, the only thing God requires of a Christian is to have faith. Why should we have a place in heaven if we aren't going to have faith to believe in God? Now my friend and I probably disagree on how faith is demonstrated. I do not believe in faith only, per se. I believe we demonstrate our faith in God by obeying God's word. I feel like if we could go to heaven on faith only or once saved always saved then the New Testament would have a lot less books and pages in it. What would be the point of the epistles? Even if we remove the epistles that people say aren't as "important" as others, there are still several epistles describing to us how a Christian should live. I think we demonstrate our faith by obeying these guidelines that God had the apostles write for us. I also think these guidelines are timeless. Therefore they are just a useful and pertinent now than they were 2000 years ago.
From an atheist’s point of view, the Bible is a bunch of rules that goes against our natural urges. Why fight it? Well, little do atheists know (and don't forget I was once such a one), if you try to live by God's rules, your life is so much better. If you look out for others first instead of looking out for yourself, you will be sooo much happier. It is when we are looking out for ourselves that we end up getting ourselves hurt.
Well, it isn't very late, but I am very tired (I've been working a lot lately, and work has been pretty crazy the last few months--it wears on a girl). So I am not sure if this blog even makes sense, but I started writing it at the end of the other one, when I realized they weren't really the same topic. I think the take home message of this post is that, you have to have faith to go to heaven. By obeying God's word you are demonstrating your faith. When you lose faith, you are lost.
Remember, God loves each and everyone of you, but he hates your sin. He wants all of us to be with Him, but it does require a little effort on your part. Feel free to post a comment I was considering putting my email out there, but with all of my *controversial* topics, I think I'll just let people leave comments. Please note: I will post your comment even if you disagree with me. I will not post your comment if it is hateful or obscene.
God bless you all and I pray that if you are searching you find Him :)

Being an Atheist

For a short time when I was a teenager I decided I would be an atheist. It seemed a lot easier than wondering if I had the right religion or not. It wasn't. If you are an atheist you still have to have a lot of faith. You have to have faith that after we die we cease to exist. You have to have faith that there was no Creator. You have to have faith that there is no supernatural, there is only what is natural. This is actually very hard to do. There is no meaning to life if you are an atheist. There is no purpose. If you believe there is no afterlife and we are a product of evolution then what is the point of being here? Is it to make ourselves happy? Just to live and reproduce? As an atheist I was very hard pressed to come up with a reason to exist. I finally decided that purpose was to live life, which of course leaves you with no real purpose, because what is life? I went around and around about this, to no avail.

My best friend in high school believed that you ceased to exist after you died. We had a once in a life-time friendship. We told each other everything. She was the nicest person you would have ever met, which anyone who ever met her would confirm. She, literally, would not hurt a fly (and got mad at me if I ever tried to kill bugs). We went to a residential high school for math and science. We were roommates our senior year. One of the reasons I applied to my alma mater was because she wanted to go there (and I am glad I did--it was the perfect place for me). During the summer before our freshman year of college we wrote each other letters, she didn't have internet access and I didn't even have a computer and neither of us could afford to make long distant phone calls--we lived 2 hours apart. We started college. She had decided we should not be roommates because we should at least try to make friends, but we still planned to room together if that didn't work out. Our first week of college involved orientation with all the freshman. We didn't go to many things, we just hung out. We were used to living in dorms; we thought we didn't need orientation. We did go on our orientation trip to Devil's Den though. We started our second week. This was our first week of classes. She planned on going home for the weekend after our first week of classes. I thought that was weird because our high school classmates were getting together for a huge camp out party. She insisted I go to the party. I was broke (as usual). She gave me a $20 as a "loan." She gave me a big hug before she left with her mom for the weekend. I went to the party and drank for the first time. The next morning she went out for a walk around the park where her dad was a forest ranger. She took his gun with her and shot herself. I was devastated, but unfortunately I was not that surprised.
My best friend was severely depressed, which I always knew. We talked about it frequently, but she wouldn't get help. She frequently talked about how she thought when she died she would cease to exist. That was what she hoped would happen. After she died I couldn't stand the idea of her ceasing to exist. It was another reason for me to believe in an afterlife.
It was definitely my freshman year that I decided I was wrong about there not being an afterlife. I believed in an afterlife because I refused to believe that she ceased to exist. I still wasn't sure about a Creator, I would become positive of the fact that there was a supreme being in graduate school, but that is another post.
I didn't set out to write this blog about my best friend. But she was more of an atheist than I ever was. I always had a secret hope, deep down. She never did. I pray that God doesn't judge her harshly. I hope that I'll see her in heaven, but I know that I might not because she took her own life. I am comforted by the fact that God knows what is in a person's heart and God knows how sick she was.
I started this blog to explain to you what might go through an atheist's mind. At least explain what was going on in my mind. I wonder if what I am about to tell you is true for others. I would not be surprised if it was. As an atheist I clung to the idea that there was no God. When other people talked about how good God was or how much God loves us I would be very, very uncomfortable. It would cut me to the quick, just as Stephen's defense cut his persecutors to the quick in Acts 7:54. Because, as Paul says in Romans 1:18-25 says, we are born with the knowledge of our Creator. Unfortunately men like to speculate and rely on their intellectual reasoning, instead of the Truth. God eventually gives people over to their speculations and good men fall to ideas that are based on man's reasoning. What makes us think that we can come up with better answers than what God has given us? I know why men do it, because the Bible tells us why. Men listen to the devil tickling their ears with nonsense about how much easier it is to ignore the Word. I know that I ignored the voice that was telling me that there was a God. I ignored it for many years. The devil was telling me that it was impossible to prove that there was a God, hiding the fact that it was also impossible to improve that there wasn't.
You (yes you!) have to have faith in something. What do you have faith in? Why do you have faith in that? Can it be proven? Are you really sure you are right? Is there something tickling you deep down trying to tell you about your Creator and the meaning of life?
Are you wondering what the meaning of life is? I will tell you.
It is to love and worship our Creator and Savior. Does that thought make you uncomfortable? If it does than you need to start searching for the Truth. It is the Bible. But make sure you study with somebody who knows a lot about it. Make sure you ask questions! Make sure you are satisfied with the answers you are given. And always, keep searching. You will find the answers. I know this because the Bible tells me so.
I think my next blog will be about being an agnostic :).

Conclusion to my Biblical Authority Entry

Sorry it took me so long!
Ok, so here is my concluding paragraph to last weeks blog:

As I mentioned previously, it was really Rabbi Harris' study that gave me the confidence (that I shouldn't have needed). Well at least gave me complete confidence :). I mean I like numbers. Numbers are concrete (provided they are based on the facts and not pulled out of the air). The people I talk to tend to also like numbers. I still need to do a little verification on the numbers I got out of his study. It is hard for me to be motivated to do that though since I already had faith that what the Bible says is true. But now I am thinking. . . I don't have time right now, but I think I am going to write one more entry about what I have learned about the fallibility of man versus the infallibility of God. Ok, this post actually took me two days to write. So, all my faithful readers (I think there is 3 of you now :)), please keep that in mind. But believe me, knowing you are out there and actually interested keeps me writing.