Now Reading:

The calculus and greek books I reported before, and C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy (almost done with the second one.) Also I'm halfway through Luke-Acts. At the urging of some of my friends (*cough*Nick*cough*Matt*cough) I'm reading a little poetry. (I picked up the complete works of Shelley and Keats for 6 bucks at half-price books)

When I am done with Perelandra, I'm gonna start War and Peace

In Our Weakness...

...He is strong.

What does that mean to you? To me it means that I am way too preoccupied with improving myself for God's sake. It is not in our "strenghths" (as the world sees them) that God is the strongest, but in our weakness. In the actions we are not able to perform, God works strongest.

What do you think?

The religious left stakes its claim

Read the Article: "Take, for example, the familiar verse in the Gospel of John in which Jesus says: 'I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.'

'Sooner or later,' said Maddox, ' the church crowd is going to wake up and realize that there are going to be a lot of people in heaven other than us Christians. I still believe Jesus is the way and the truth -- for me. But it's that last part that troubles me, the part that says 'no man comes to the Father, except by me.'"

That is the part of the article that bothers me the most.

Thoughts on "Faith Alone"

Fore there is no good tree which produces bad fruit, nor on the otherhand, a bad tree which produces good fruit -- Luke 6:43

Why do you call me "Lord, Lord," and do not do what I say? -- Luke 6:46 NASB

Salvation does not come from works but from faith alone (Romans 3:28.) But from faith comes good works (James.) The way you identify good trees is from their fruit. But the fruit depends on the tree, not the tree on the fruit, therefore the works come from the faith, not the faith from works. If we say "Jesus is Lord," and then go against God's will, we are showing a basic misunderstanding of the word "Lord." The Centurion in Luke 7 understands the meaning of "Lord," he says "go" and the man goes.

So, how do I respond? Often I act contrary to God's will. Taken with Luke 6:43 "There is no good tree which produces bad fruit..." my contrary acts seem to damn me. So I pray the prayer of the man in Mark 9:24 "I do believe, help me overcome my disbelief."

Faith yields good works (aka: doing God's will) and a lack of faith yields sin (aka: not doing God's will.) The actions are evidence of the Faith, and are completely dependent thereon. What do I do now? I want to have all faith and constantly act in God's will. But when I sin, I am not acting according to God's will. God has set me free from sin (Romans 6:22) but I still sin. Repentance in Christ's name yields the forgiveness of sins (Luke 26:47)

The only way to be a good tree is to have your sins washed away by christ. For then we truly are the good tree which produces no bad fruit. This is why Christ is necessary, if we could slowly root out sin until we were perfect, then Christ would not be needed to reunite our will with God's will.

Therefore salvation comes from faith alone. Faith yields good works, but good works are not related to salvation.

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