I wish I would have visited your blog site before now. I’m going to make a few whiplash points here, and then sum up what I’m hoping for.

I absolutely cannot fathom the pain you’ve been through, but the answer to it all is not that God is our cosmic pep-talking cheer-leader who has our picture on His refrigerator.

Follow me here… God is most assuredly a God of love without a doubt. BUT God is ALSO a God of wrath, and His wrath is perfectly just. While it is true that God desires that nobody would perish, His perfect justice demands such a punishment for sin which is condemnation to hell. He is glorified in both those He saves, and those who perish. My feelings about it make absolutely no difference to Him because I, as a finite being, cannot even come close to understanding the mind of God and I’m good with that. The Bible teaches that we are responsible for the decisions that we make, but God also has sovereignly orchestrated everything according to His will, and not mine. That includes men of old age being saved on their deathbed, and infants never seeing the light of day.

I am in no way trivializing your loss. I believe whole-heartedly that I have one child in heaven as well, but if I die and find out that I was wrong about that, I’m okay with it because God is absolutely sovereign and His decisions are just and perfect. My love for God doesn’t hinge on where my child is, it hinges on what He has done for Me which was planned before the foundation of the world! He planned out my life, and if He hadn’t of saved me by His will, I would not have sought Him by mine.

Make no mistake about this one fact as well, and that is that you indeed sin. You can’t not sin even for one day. Jesus said that the greatest commandment, which sums up no less than half of the ten, is that we love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. I assure you that as much as you love Him, you have not kept that command. As long as you dwell in that body of corruption, you will never be sinless. You can sin less, but not stop completely. Sin is doing, saying, or thinking something that is contrary to the nature and character of God and only Christ lived life without doing those things. Salvation declares that we are not guilty – it does not say we are innocent.

Thanks be to God however if you are His child, that in the imputation, your sins were placed on Christ, and He paid the penalty for each and every sin you ever have and will commit. In return, His perfect righteousness was cloaked around you so that now, when God sees you, He sees His Son’s glorious righteousness as it was given to you when He regenerated you, and Christ took up His life again from the grave, arose, testified to at least 500 people, ascended to Heaven, and now intercedes for you while He sits at the right hand of the Father. You are being sanctified daily in preparation of being presented to Christ as the spotless bride at the great wedding feast!

He did this for those who repent and put their faith in Christ.

This repentance is also not a self-generated emotion. It is given by God Himself.

Acts 5:31 “He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. ”

Repentance also was given by God to the rest of us!!

Acts 11:18 “When they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, ‘Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life.’”

And the repentance that God grants us understanding of the truth.

2 Tim 2:24-26 “The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.”

He also gives us our faith, but I’m trusting that you will search that out now if you disagree. (Start at Gen 15:6 and chain reference it all the way to Hebrews first.)

So Ma’am, if you are believing the questionable and borderline heretical things you are speaking and blogging about because you are trying to make sure your babies are in heaven, you need to stop and read the Bible for what it says concretely which is that God is sovereign, and you will be amply satisfied with His decision. My prayer for you is that you are truly saved and that you will study to show your self approved unto God, a workman who needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth. Until that time, I’m quite sure we will not come to any other agreements.

Soli Deo Gloria!!

First – I have no doubt that what I share is God’s Truth and can confirm it with Scripture but it’s a lot of wordage so would I rather send you an e-mail or a link, let me know.

Second – If Jesus hadn’t experienced what we have but did not give into temptation He could not have been the sinless Lamb, experience matters and so do emotions and feelings even Laughing they are from God and there is a time for everything.

Third – Any Church that Tries to tell me that God would send a baby to hell to suffer for eternity because of my sin is WRONG – WRONG – WRONG and yes I’m shouting!

Forth- No we don’t go on sinning after we have been Born again it is what Freedom in Christ Jesus is all about.

Fifth – Bereanwarrior lets try one question at a time in future but not just to keep the wordage down another American blogging rule no just to keep focused even if takes more wordage then 5 questions and that is ok with me what about you?

Sixth – No I’m not a member of the Methodist Church, I’m part of The Body of Christ, God’s real Church and there are members all over the world and God calls us all by name.

Seventh – I’m enjoying sharing with you -Bereanwarrior but yes you do need to lean some of God’s Truth that has not been taught for many many years but you still have some very uplifting thoughts – Wow I bet that had a reaction but it is true – Take care, contact me if you want the e-mails and links – Christian Love Anne

Okay, you wrote “…but we need to remember The whole Story of the life and death of Jesus is based on what He experienced on earth in the outer garments of a man and there is amazing Truths to learn from Jesus’ and other peoples lives then and today, we don’t just ignore feelings , experiences etc. ”

Let me submit this to you for your consideration. I would take the position that Jesus did NOT come to earth to go through any experiences, or at least any experiences to see what being a man was like. Scripture isn’t the “3 years to a better you” book that some pulpit occupying hacks would have you think it is. As Creator, as the Sovereign God of the universe, as the Alpha and Omega, and knowing the end from the beginning, it would be unimaginable to conclude that Jesus wanted our perspective on life or to show us how to be fulfilled with the things of this world.

Rather, He came just as the Bible says – to fulfill the law, to call His sheep, to live the perfect life we could not live, and then to be the unblemished and perfect sacrifice as our propitiation and atonement so that we could be ransomed and bought for the Sovereign and perfect pleasure of His Holy Father to His Glory. The Bible is NOT a book relating the outcome of Jesus’ collective experience and lessons to us so we can overcome the trials as He did. It DOES show us how wretched and sinful we are, and the extreme that Christ had to go to and through in redeeming us as we are worthless and vile creatures with the righteousness of used menstrual clothes. This was an “experience” that He would have rather not gone through at all as evidenced in the garden of Gethsemane, yet Christ demonstrated complete submission to the will of His Father and died for us anyway. Yes, He loved us, but He was not excited to be crucified. Because if it, we can now become the “spotless bride” as we are clothed now in His righteousness.

As to your assertion that we should not ignore feelings, experience, etc…, that’s not what I said in my other post. What I wrote was first… “Scripture alone validates scripture, and feelings or experience based interpretation does not.”… and then later in the post…”I’m all for you bringing your refutation of whatever is on your heart, but make sure you do so with Scripture in it’s proper context, and not your feelings or experiences. If in any way you are a part of your reasons, then they (your proofs) are not valid. Scripture is sufficient.” I still hold to that comment because it’s Biblical. The Bible is not subject to how someone feels about them due to experience or where they are emotionally in life.

You also wrote… ” I assure you I have all the Scriptural confirmation I need and it was not this Church that I attended for 20 years which you would have realised (sic) if you had read my comment in full.”

But what you wrote in that first post which I DID read in full was… “I found myself looking for another Church after being in one Church family for 20 years and another for 8 this lead to my eyes being opened in regard to differant (sic) and varied understanding of the Scriptures”

I’m reading through it again, and I guess I missed what part of the story went where. I promise, I don’t skim posts, but could misunderstand sometimes. Thanks for straightening that out.

You wrote…”I left this Church after a few mths realising (sic) they didn’t want Scriptural confirmation of their error but wanted to continue in what had no Scriptural basis only man’s understanding,”

Now this is a tough one because I truly struggle with my own sinful arrogance at times, but I’m asking you to carefully consider this question. Do we actually have anything OTHER than man’s understanding of Scripture? If a person was to come to you and say (as it seems you doing here) “I have an understanding of the Word that you don’t because you only have man’s understanding of it”…. well …. what would you test that with? Scripture says that God’s Word is TRUTH, that the Holy Spirit is the helper in our understanding of the Truth, and that all Scripture is the breath of God. So, if you are saying that you have some enlightened understanding of Scripture, but that understanding violates Scripture, then again, I would reject your claim based on its impossible logic. Perhaps you could explain this too so that I understand what you are saying.

( By the way, the problem with written text is that you can wrongly imagine the “tone of voice” being used. When I capitalize, it is only because there is a point I want to make sure is being understood, and the capitals do NOT mean I am yelling or even raising my voice. If this was over coffee at Starbucks, I promise that nobody would be turning their head to see what the fuss is about.)

As much as I’d like to just stay focused on those issues, I’m puzzled here in your second reply as you wrote… “but first let me assure you that we are indeed saved by grace by God’s forknowelage (sic) of our hearts repentantance (sic), which will be shown in our lives and this then shows we really believe in Jesus Christ and our repentance is not just words…
John 8:34-36 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to itforever (sic). So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
1John 3:4-10 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that He appeared so that He might take away our sins. And in Him is no sin. No one who lives in Him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen Him or known Him. Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as He is righteous.”

So let’s discuss this section too I guess. What is your implication here? The first thing you wrote here sounds like “doctrines of grace” which I of course love, but then you seem to go on to use only enough Scripture to make it sound like if a person is in Christ, he/she doesn’t sin anymore. Are you a member of the United Methodist “church”? (That’s a serious question by the way because it will help me understand your viewpoint.)

Blessings!

John 8:34-36 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to itforever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

1John 3:4-10 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that He appeared so that He might take away our sins. And in Him is no sin. No one who lives in Him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen Him or known Him. Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as He is righteous.

Christian Love Anne.

Christian Love Anne.

Funny. By the way, they both have pointy beards.