Believe - Live How You Want - Still Go to Heaven

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J

JaimeMartinez26

Guest
#41
No worries :) Hey, unicorns are Biblical! :D Jesus wore a magenta robe...
if you look up a unicorn in 200+ plus year old dictionary it just means 1 horned quadraped and was referring to the 1 horned rhino..... no mention of a horse till dictionaries hundreds of years after KJV
 
Nov 22, 2015
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#42
That's why Jesus after He said to "repent" ( which does mean to change your mind ) - to believe the gospel." Repent and believe the gospel". Mark 1:15

Jesus wants us to change our mind - change the way we think to rely on Christ alone for salvation and life and not rely on our own selves and our own self-righteousness.

We are transformed by the renewing of our mind as we see what Christ has already done for us. Rom. 12:2 As we behold the glory/goodness of the Lord as in a mirror the Holy Spirit transforms us from glory to glory/goodness to goodness. 2 Cor. 3:17-18

We participate in this with the Lord "For it is God who is at work in us both to do ( gives the desire ) and to do ( gives the capability ) of His good pleasure. Phil. 2:13

And in Acts 26:20 it says to "repent and turn to God". When we turn to God for His life there will be "fruits of repentance" by grace through faith. We will walk in love and the grace of God that is in Christ only will cause us to walk by the Spirit and the lusts of the flesh will fall off of us like dead leaves on a tree.

Just because the Greek word "repent" means to change your mind - it doesn't mean that there will be no fruits of having a renewed mind in Christ from manifesting is us as we learn to rely on Christ alone for life and salvation. We Christians love to make mountains out of mole hills because of our church teachings.
 

valiant

Senior Member
Mar 22, 2015
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#43
This heading is absolutely true.

If we truly believe we WANT to please Jesus in everything, and while that is not 'a requirement' for Heaven, it is the fruit of truly knowing Jesus. Knowing Jesus and being known by Him is the way to Heaven.
 
Dec 28, 2016
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#44
This heading is absolutely true.

If we truly believe we WANT to please Jesus in everything, and while that is not 'a requirement' for Heaven, it is the fruit of truly knowing Jesus. Knowing Jesus and being known by Him is the way to Heaven.
Yes, through true repentance and belief the believers wants change. That is a fact. But that doesn't reflect the message of FGT and GES.
 
Feb 24, 2015
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#45
That's why Jesus after He said to "repent" ( which does mean to change your mind ) - to believe the gospel." Repent and believe the gospel". Mark 1:15

Jesus wants us to change our mind - change the way we think to rely on Christ alone for salvation and life and not rely on our own selves and our own self-righteousness.

We are transformed by the renewing of our mind as we see what Christ has already done for us. Rom. 12:2 As we behold the glory/goodness of the Lord as in a mirror the Holy Spirit transforms us from glory to glory/goodness to goodness. 2 Cor. 3:17-18

We participate in this with the Lord "For it is God who is at work in us both to do ( gives the desire ) and to do ( gives the capability ) of His good pleasure. Phil. 2:13

And in Acts 26:20 it says to "repent and turn to God". When we turn to God for His life there will be "fruits of repentance" by grace through faith. We will walk in love and the grace of God that is in Christ only will cause us to walk by the Spirit and the lusts of the flesh will fall off of us like dead leaves on a tree.

Just because the Greek word "repent" means to change your mind - it doesn't mean that there will be no fruits of having a renewed mind in Christ from manifesting is us as we learn to rely on Christ alone for life and salvation. We Christians love to make mountains out of mole hills because of our church teachings.

This whole post redefines repentance, turning from sin and walking righteously into just
a change of opinion.

Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.
2 Cor 7:10

Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
Matt 11:21
 
Nov 22, 2015
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#46
This heading is absolutely true.

If we truly believe we WANT to please Jesus in everything, and while that is not 'a requirement' for Heaven, it is the fruit of truly knowing Jesus. Knowing Jesus and being known by Him is the way to Heaven.
Amen...I firmly believe in this truth.

Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. His desires become birthed in you because we know the love and grace He has for us. We have the life of Christ in us.

We need to be firmly established in the love and grace of God for us in order to grow in the Lord properly. We need to be constantly repenting as we see new truths of the Lord's love and grace towards us.
I believe a lot of sincere believers have left the church ( not Jesus ) because they could not live this religious Christian life that was being preached to them. They loved Jesus " in their heart" but they didn't want to be a hypocrite so they backed away from the organized church.

Then there is the group that struggled with a certain sin and were never taught about grace properly and so they left because they were defeated. Constantly feeling condemned and guilty and full of shame. The legalists keep preaching at them to change!

The only change that is effective is from the true manifestation of the life of Jesus that is already in us - in our new creation and that only comes with the message of the gospel of the grace of Christ.

I believe there are thousands of Christians like this but I also believe the Lord is bringing them back to Him - only this time it will be based on the true knowledge of Him and His love and grace for them.


Only the unconditional love and forgiveness of our Heavenly Father can change our hearts and focus.

The Lord is bringing many people to Himself - Let's make sure that they are met at the door by our loving Father and not the angry, judgmental condemning older brother who doesn't know the true heart of the Father for His children.
 
Dec 28, 2016
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#47
This whole post redefines repentance, turning from sin and walking righteously into just
a change of opinion.

Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.
2 Cor 7:10

Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
Matt 11:21
Once in awhile you get something correct PeterJens. Now, why not take the rest of the day off since you are ahead? ;)
 
Feb 24, 2015
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#48
Once in awhile you get something correct PeterJens. Now, why not take the rest of the day off since you are ahead? ;)
p4t - Thankyou for this. You could do without the condescension, but a positive affirmation
from you is a rare thing indeed.

Do many actually agree with you, or should I say, do you actually agree with anyone apart from
the odd phrase or statement?
 

MadebyHim

Senior Member
Dec 17, 2016
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#49
God is not a puppet master, He gave us free will. But its our choice how that free will is lived, God gave a lot of warnings of, do this, and that happens, don't do that and this will happen. We are given free will as a choice to do Gods will or our own will.
 

joaniemarie

Senior Member
Jan 4, 2017
3,198
303
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#50
God is not a puppet master, He gave us free will. But its our choice how that free will is lived, God gave a lot of warnings of, do this, and that happens, don't do that and this will happen. We are given free will as a choice to do Gods will or our own will.

I agree and believe we need to know what the Bible says so we can know how to think how to use our free will. If we apply earthly principles to our lives it only goes so far and can't bring the joy of the Lord. Instead we need to learn how to apply Biblical principles about the goodness and kindness of God in Christ. Seeing everything from the vantage point of the Cross of Christ.

We are to be growing in the grace and knowledge of God in Christ. Learning about the love of God and how to direct our lives in the love and grace of God. The love and grace of God in Christ is the compass that points to how we apply the truths of the Bible.

Just like 1 Cor.13 instructs. We can have all the works down but if we don't have the love of God in Christ., the works are dried up brush to be burned up. Hollow, no substance like sounding brass making lots of noise but having nothing solid inside.

 

notuptome

Senior Member
May 17, 2013
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#51
There are without a doubt many facets of repentance. We change our belief in self to belief in Christ. We no longer see ourselves as righteous but as sinful and without hope. We see Christ as our only hope and come to trust Him through the grace of God.

We are changed by our new birth in Christ. We are no longer the same as we were before salvation.

2Co 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

As we grow in Christ we become more like Christ. You cannot become born again if you have not repented or turned from self to Christ. Laid down all of self to be filled with Him. Give up your sin to receive His righteousness.

As the caterpillar changes into the butterfly so does his very nature. The butterfly does not consume leaves but now seeks nectar. So it should be with the Christian. No longer are his desires for things of this world but rather the things of heaven.

If there is no evidence of repentance I would be concerned that there was never a new birth in Christ. Did the Holy Spirit really draw them to Christ or did they attempt to approach only on the intellectual basis? Any person under conviction of sin produced by the Holy Spirit does not hesitate to repent but gladly surrenders all to Christ that they might be saved from their sins.

For the cause of Christ
Roger
 
Nov 22, 2015
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#52
I agree that when we receive Christ when we hear of Him and believe in our hearts there will be fruit of some sort manifested in all of our lives. We can become fruit inspectors based on how we have been impacted and others may have been impacted differently.

The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faith, gentleness and self-control. ( yes..self-control is a fruit of the Spirit and not from human fleshly will-power )

Another aspect that goes with "fruit inspectors" is just what is fruit? And what does this fruit look like. What if as an analogy a Christian is like an orange tree?

An orange tree is still an orange tree even though it doesn't produce the fruit we want to see in the timeframe we think it should. What happens if this orange tree dies before it has had a chance to be fed properly to grow up to be able to produce the fruit of a ripe orange?

To some works-based people - you would have to display 50 oranges in order to prove you are a real orange tree ( saved ) - to others you need 100 oranges in order to be a proved orange tree. ( saved ) So, this fruit inspection thing is not viable ..that's for God to look at people to determine if they are in Christ or not.

A person could have love and kindness as a fruit in their life but be addicted to some pills or alcohol which they are continuing to struggle with in their life or outbursts of anger..etc.

We religious people love to "categorize" sin - especially the ones that we have never done before and then look down on those that do have a problem that we don't. We say that they are "sinning" - and they are but so are we in other areas too. We all have the flesh to deal with and none of us behaves perfectly in our behavior.

The people that don't have a struggle with alcohol ( or basically anything that they themselves don't struggle with in their flesh that others do ) will condemn the ones that do have these struggles in the flesh and declare they don't have the fruit and thus are not saved. This is Pharisee-ism at it's finest.

Does the orange tree stop being an orange tree even though it dies without having fruit that we think "proves" it was an orange tree to begin with?

What if Christians were like that? What if we fed them messages about the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness in Christ so that they could grow? Then they would produce an abundance of fruit.

I say let's preach and teach the love that Christ has for us and be filled up with the fullness of God and about the grace of Christ in our lives so that we have the proper nutrients to grow up in Him!

Then people in this hurt and dying world can see the true nature of the love and grace our Father and Lord Jesus have for them.
 
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