They go by the verse, He who lives his live for my sake shall gain it and he who lives his for his own shall lose it. Clearly out of context. I have studied many years, and I believe that "All who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved .... none shall pluck them out of my Father hand"..... In recent years, I have come to recognize the story of the Prodigal Son to be one of the most Beautiful stories in the Bible. The son, having rejected his fathers house and ways, left to do it on his own, and ended up destitute and hungry in a pig stye. That is the lowest a "Jew" could sink -- covered with mud and pig excrement he went back home in hope of being a servant. But his Father "watching from afar" (God is watching) "Ran to meet his son" and "hugged and kissed him" (covered in mud and excrement) and "put a robe on his shoulder, sandals on his feet, and a ring on his finger, and ordered a great fest/party" God is not waiting to judge you for the sins you have committed, "He is watching from afar, and will hug and kiss us when we return, and put a robe on righteous on our shoulders and sandals on our feet and a ring on our finger, and set us at the feast". I don't know about the other people, but that is the God I serve, the same God that sacrificed his son so that I might take on the mantle of his righteousness. You are righteous through Christ, he has paid for your sins.
VERY GOOD POINT! And not even the stupid, utterly sinful act of Suicide, could separate us from the FATHER's LOVE.
What can we lose, since we CANNOT LOSE SALVATION?
We can LOSE heavenly Rewards.
We can LOSE crowns.
I think, we can LOSE even these:
We can LOSE servant positions in Heaven. {Would you rather be a teacher of those born in the Kingdom, or on permanent KP washing the pots and pans.}
We can LOSE where we stand, or sit at the table. {Would you rather be on the front row at the 50 yard line, or WAY UP in the corner of the stadium behind a post.}
BUT NO, YOU CANNOT LOSE YOUR SALVATION, BECAUSE JESUS AND THE FATHER ARE HOLDING IT IN THEIR HANDS.
Granted when we are walking filled with the Spirit, that thought of Suicide will NEVER enter our minds. But NO HUMAN BEING can stay filled with the Spirit 100% of the time; NOT EVEN PAUL. And only at moments when we are NOT filled with the Holy Spirit, can sin's temptation lure us in.
Romans 7:14-25 (ESV)
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14 [/SUP] For we know that the law is spiritual, but
I am of the flesh, sold under sin.
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15 [/SUP] For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
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16 [/SUP] Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good.
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17 [/SUP]
So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
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18 [/SUP] For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.
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19 [/SUP] For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.
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20 [/SUP] Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
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21 [/SUP] So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.
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22 [/SUP] For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,
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23 [/SUP] but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to
the law of sin that dwells in my members.
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24 [/SUP] Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
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25 [/SUP] Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.