the be-all end-all of all salvation threads

woohoohoo!

the idea of giving up sin can lead to feelings of deprivation, and here's a secret Satan doesn't want you to know: treat that lowly feeling of deprivation, as if God is humbling you, take the opportunity, and if you prefer the teachings from VCO (or someone similar) where he said that the saved would want to love and obey God, ask God to help your heart love and obey God, this will take resolve and ...

... when you are tempted to remember "but what about my good deeds in the past", consider how the righteousness of Christ far exceeds the value of self-righteousness, whatever your good deeds are in the past, consider this "surrender the past, because the past is gone" the past is dead, the present is alive, forget the past, you are praying now as an expression of your salvation, and now is all that matters (and praying is not to gain salvation, even though that's what it feels like, praying for that moment is part of assurance, as dcon have said, you are saved in a microsecond)

here's the chronological order
- before salvation
- saved by grace through faith
- salvation produce works for us with Christ-like attitude

or a tree analogy ...
- the word is the seed
- our heart is the soil (why does God want our sinful soil is beyond me, but God is love)
- salvation is the root
and out of the root comes faith and Christ-like love-motivated works



or
if you want to graph this ...

salvation is the independent variable (the input)
while works is merely the dependent variable along with many factors that can both exist in the physical and the spiritual world

if you prefer to think technically

if you have any questions, please comment below

Another of the way of the enemy to get you to fall into temptation is to make you think "well everyone is doing it" or "everyone says this is normal" or "this is not that bad at least is not [insert what you think is a worst sin], when the enemy use those thoughts we sometimes fall, but that is why we need God everyday to become stronger and dismiss those thoughts immediately.

About our "good deeds", i do admit that doing good pleases God, but just the opportunity to be able to do good is gift from God, the opportunity, us being able to do the good deed, us feeling happy about the good deed, all of this are gifts from God, so when we think "Oh i'm perfect or the best because i did this or that" then we are taking away the credit to who truly deserves it and belongs the credit God.

Prayer more than a way to Salvation is a way to speak with God, grow closer to God and have a stronger relationship with God, believe me we need the pray not God. I mean how can you be close friends with someone you don't even speak with our someone you do not dedicate time with? The more time we spend with God the stronger our relationship with God grow.

@SweetStars I wish I can explain things just as simply as you do, and have the style of tapping into our inner child

God gave you that gift, cherish that gift

Thank you, i'm glad it was easy to understand, i'm sometimes a bit scare as English is not my first language so i'm a bit scare people may misinterpret on what i say, but it is truly a gift of God, thanks. What you say was also pretty easy to understand i believe.

Thanks, but there are even words that i need to look up because i'm unaware of the meaning ^^u

for this part, are you saying

for example:

well, everyone is being mean in Bible Discussion Forums,
meanness is normal in Bible Discussion Forums,
at least it's not as bad as "chasing after an administrator and insulting the administrator"

and God is trying to tell us to "take the higher road" or "don't stoop down to their level"

is this a good example?

Something like that what i mean is that "well everyone is [insert sinful behavior that people see as normal now days], [Inser sinful behavior] is normal now days, ar least it is not as bad as [Insert even worst sinful behavior in your opinion like killing].
If you want an explicit example would be:
"Well everyone is getting drunk" or "everyone says getting drunk is normal" or "getting drunk is not that bad at least i'm not killing or stealing" Like that, what i was trying to say is when people tend to normalize sins by the thoughts the devil and our weakness put on our minds.

hmm salvation is a binary variable, isn't it?
only takes two values - yes or no, 1 or 0 .. ?

so if i graph salvation v. works i've got a bar graph with two columns, and people can certainly do works without salvation, so it's not like one bar is at 0 and the other at some positive value.

like this:

I think that a lot of people become derailed sometimes for years even and then feel condemned because they wandered away into sin. Then when they return they have huge doubts as to whether they have lost their salvation or if they are restorable.

I love this guy! What a legend. You are cool posthuman.

Thats a good one especially when you add this:
My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
James 5:19‭-‬20 NASB
https://bible.com/bible/100/jas.5.19-20.NASB

i used to, as a teenager, and one day He made me understand that salvation is His work, not mine, so all the while i was doubting if i was really saved or not i was doubting Him. i was looking at my own hands thinking His were maybe not working because i didn't see my own hands working salvation. duh. and i stopped doubting and just believed. trusted. and He gave me peace

may posthuman continue to be informative, amen

salvation is the root that leads to faith and spiritual fruits (ie: love)

as long as we have the root, we will never lose that root (John 10:28)