yea i agree with your seconed last statment oracio
warnings of apostacy have realy helped me fear god and judment ,have led me to repentance ,noing that the goodness of god leds to repentence ,,god is showing us mercy by convicting our concences and give us much more then ample time to repent of known sin in our life even as believers ,,,i smoked pot for many years after being born again ,i was set free from hard drugs like meth,,but i would not let my marawana go ,,,,, the conviction got so strong and the idea that maby im not realy a christan if i continue in this type of rebelion ,was sickning ,till now iv also repented from that and he truly has set me free
but like you said a balance is needed ,,,
i tuly believe with all my heart that the other thing that has caused me to indure is eturnal security of the elect ,,the inevadable persaverence of the saints ,,through the reality of gods predestanation
this has played a huge part in my life ,,even tho iv only believed it for the last 3 years or so
iv been saved for about 12 years
i think only those who bare the fruits of a deepening repentance can claim that they have truly been saved
so many are called by gods spirit ,in the contex of the father drawing them to christ but few are chosen in the contex of baring much good fruit that remains
many have tasted of the lord , but few have consumed the bread of life
many have met god
but few know ,and have a real relationship ,with him
many have walk on the boundary wall of repentance faith and sangtification ,,,but only few have crossed of into the property of the kingdom
untill we cross ,we should not presume we are saved
the flesh has a talent to mimic spirtual things an experances and decieve many people
and demons that run with the prince and the power of the air are keen to operate with the fleshly fallen adamic nature ,,giving sensations of joy and a scence of the presence of a higher power ,,it is there job to decieve the multiudes of religious persons in christiondom and all other religones ,,,
people must be aware of the deception
regardless of those that say ,,,ohhhh dont worry about all that we dont need to think about all the nasty stuff ,neither gods wrath nor judgments in this age
it all about grace ,grace ,grace ,,and mercy and love and forgivness
there two sides to gods nature and two sides to that powers that be in this world
and we should take head lest we fall
if we are gods elect he will make us stand again
but that will also be becasue we took head to the warnings
and did not just wallow face down in a figment of a loving god ,in our own imagenation
his rod and his staff ,comferts me ,,,amen
blessings brothers and sisters
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