Point Of No Return

[oyster67]

The analogy of a ship might not be totally appropriate, nor the point of no return. After all every ship must have a destination, and since the earth is not flat, it will eventually find a harbor. Perhaps a rocket would be more suitable. Teleportation even better, since Enoch was translated. Abraham looked for a heavenly city.

I completely agree that analogies can be misused, abused, and misconstrued. They definitely have their limitations. I was thinking of the old days, when they were searching out new lands and new frontiers. Sometimes only those who are willing to go beyond the point of no return will find the promised land. We must surrender all to Jesus and leave the past far behind. Never turn back. Don't even look back.

 

[Hazelelponi]

My thought was that to follow Jesus, one must be willing to forsake all and never look back. It is total surrender to Him. Jesus' disciples left their nets to become fishers of men.
Luke 14:33 So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.

It is definitely a choice, not an accident. I believe that this was the spirit of Abraham...

Hebrews
11:8 By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.
11:9 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as [in] a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:
11:10 For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker [is] God.
11:14 For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.
11:15 And truly, if they had been mindful of that [country] from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.
11:16 But now they desire a better [country], that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.

I don't know anything about sailing, so I can't use the analogy of the OP..

But things began moving and changing in my life BEFORE I was saved... certainly I believe that was the Hand of God on my life...

The morning I understood salvation, believed and declared Christ as Lord, my entire life had already changed and all I really had to do was continue in those changes as a saved child of God..

I think the issues of how being saved changes your life is different for everyone, as everyone has different lives and the circumstances surrounding our initial justification is different..

For some salvation/justification may come before the life change, for others the life change may necessarily come before, for others it may not really come at all because maybe their lives don't need changing, just continuance.

What we all need to be is simply willing to forsake all. You don't necessarily have to forsake anything if it's unnecessary.

And that willingness, that happens to all those who were justified by God, upon saving faith in Him, at the moment of their initial justification, I believe.

At the very least, that was when I was willing to die for this..

 

[Lanolin]

Yea planet earth isnt flat. Even the guys that went to the moon returned. Cos you cant stay permanently on the moon.

 

[Lanolin]

Even when the Israelites escaped the egyptians by way of the red sea, which God parted for them, some still complained and wanted to go back to Egypt!

Well God sent them snakes and opened up the earth for the complainers. Moral f the story, if you whinge and moan, you going down, not up.