Salvation and stuff

I was talking to Samantha and Anil the other day about salvation and whether it's possible to lose it and all that stuff. I remember the first time I read Hebrews 6:4-6. It was last year, at the end of spring. I was a new (and kind of confused) Christian, so I was spending most of my free time reading (devouring) the NT. I remember being in a tram, on my way to the university, reading chapter 6. I pretty much freaked out. I don't remember trying to talk to the pastor about it. Only when I got to the US and met all the wonderful mature Christians, did I get a chance to find what people thought about that.

Anyway, I found a short article in my study Bible about this. It makes a lot of sense to me, so I'm just going to reproduce it here.

"If I sin, will I lose my salvation? (Heb 6:4-6)
An act of sin does not cost you your salvation. There are people who teach that if you sin once after you have accepted Christ, you must be saved again. But this is not what the Bible teaches.

Can you conceive of somebody adopting a child and then throwing it out in the street because it falls while learning to walk? When we are saved, we are adopted in the family of God. We must, out of love on one hand and godly fear on the other, to seek to live a life that is pleasing to Him. But the idea that one act of sin would cause somebody to be thrown out of God's family is not in the Bible (1John 1:7,9). However, acts of sin and rebellion will take away the joy of our salvation. When David sinned , he had no joy, because he had rebelled against God (Ps 51:12). He said "Do not take your Holy Spirit away from me" (Ps 51:11). Even though he had committed adultery and had been responsible for an innocent man's death, by this clear statement we are shown that he still had the Holy Spirit. Though punishment came due to his sin, nevertheless, God forgave and loved him because David was repentant before the Lord.

If one continues in a course of known sin, assurance of one's salvation may be lost, but that is not the same as the actual lost of one's salvation. When the Scripture says, "Whoever is born of God does not sin" (1John 5:18), the sense of the Greek is not that a Christian never commits sin, but that he does not continue in a course of sin, refusing to confess and repent of his sin. A person born of the Spirit of God will be drawn back to repentance every time he sins.

Beyond that, we do read in the Heb 10:29 that if somebody actually says the blood of Jesus Christ is a common (unholy) thing and renounces the salvation he has received, then that person may have lost it all. But the same book says, "But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you" (Heb 6:9). It is very hard to believe that somebody who has been born again would turn away from God.

But one might ask, if we are new creatures in Christ, why do we even still have the capacity to sin? The answer is that perfection for the Christian awaits us in heaven (1 Cor 15:54). Now, we are united with Jesus at salvation, but we are being progressively transformed in His image (2 Cor 3:18). We are being changed throughout our lives, but there is no final moment, short of death, when the believer becomes sinlessly perfect (1 John 1:8)"

I find this very encouraging. But I think it should emphasize more that we are called to live a holy life. Anil said something that I found very helpful. The idea that we know we're on the right track when we feel we are growing in our faith all the time. Ideally, every day. And the way God designed things is so cool, because He made it so that we can always draw closer to Him. I really feel like adding a passage from 2 Peter that we were studying in church last Sunday (2 Pet 1:2-11)

"Grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, according as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who has called us to glory and virtue, through which He has given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, so that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. But also in this very thing, bringing in all diligence, filling out your faith with virtue, and with virtue, knowledge; and with knowledge self-control, and with self-control, patience, and with patience, godliness, and with godliness, brotherly kindness, and with brotherly kindness, love. For if these things are in you and abound, they make you to be neither idle nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he in whom these things are not present is blind and cannot see afar off and has forgotten that he was purged from his sins in the past.Therefore, brothers, rather be diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you do these things, you shall never fall; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

Movie

Last night I watched the movie "Good-bye, Lenin" with Samantha and Tim. It's a German movie about Eastern Germany(Berlin) and some of the changes in the society brought by the fall of the Berlin Wall. I was happy that my friends liked it (I wasn't surprised though because it's a great movie :) ). It reminded me a lot of what happened in Romania in 1989 when the communist era was officially over. It’s amazing how that whole period is still fresh in my mind. One of the things I like about this movie is the fact that the main character (actually the main character's mom) was one of the few people that enjoyed the socialist times: she was involved in a lot of the activities in "the party" and such. Most of the people were persecuted and suffered during that time. But I was also one of the few people who were happy back then. I guess kids tend to notice the beautiful part of everything rather than the bad part.

The communist era was a hard time pretty much for everybody. Even for people who were members of the party although they usually had a decent life. But it was not easy for the ones who weren’t. Parents had to never talk to the kids about how bad things were actually going, because if anybody found that you were saying bad things about the communist party, your life as a (pseudo-)free person was pretty much over. I was just a kid and because I had a happy childhood I was totally enjoying the socialist society, to my parents’ annoyance (I guess there’s a good reason why God makes children cute). There was a lot of energy spent in the big meetings they had in some of the really big squares of Bucharest where they gathered to listen to Ceausescu’s speeches (and everybody had to be there), the marches, the activities, etc. And everybody had to pretend to be excited about everything (that must have been awful).

I remember sitting in front of the TV, watching the shows for (washing the brains of the) kids and doing my best to learn songs about how wonderful "The Party" was. I was really excited. No songs about cute animals, unless the animals were actually worshiping the president. I loved the uniforms and was really proud to be elected “chief of the class” in the 2nd grade. I was happy to learn all the speeches for the students’ meetings (a lot of fancy words that didn’t mean anything). I was very happy that my parents would let me sleep in their bed to warm them up in the winter, when there was no heat. The only thing I found annoying was that I had to get up early in the morning (at like 5am) once a week or so to stay in line for milk. Decent food resources were limited, lazy people never got to drink milk or eat meat :) (unless their families were willing to get up early).When the revolution came and we were watching the news, I remember seeing people with panels that were saying “down with Ceausescu” and thinking “why would anybody have anything against him?”. But I know the revolution was the end of a really difficult time for a lot of people.

Once, I was in this show organized for Ceausescu on Labor Day or on the first day of spring, I can’t remember exactly (I was 3). It was about the beginning of spring and I was a bee. I had to make bee noises. I remember being on stage and looking at the floor (it was really shiny and pretty). I was so fascinated by the nice stage floor that I think I forgot to make bee noises. I don’t remember that, my mom told me about it later, but I guess I screwed up (God definitely has a good reason to make children look cute). It was ok, because "the spring" took me in her arms and nobody noticed anything. I still don't really know what was going in that show/play or if there was a plot or anything.

Currently listening: Tchaikovsky: The Seasons, June

Monday Morning

A GREAT song to start up the week. Stephen Curtis Chapman - DIVE.
Where's Sam to dance around the room ? :)

The long awaited rains
Have fallen hard upon the thirsty ground
And carved their way to where
The wild and rushing river can be found
And like the rains
I have been carried here to where the river flows, yeah
My heart is racing and my knees are weak
As I walk to the edge
I know there is no turning back
Once my feet have left the ledge
And in the rush I hear a voice
That's telling me it's time to take the leap of faith
So here I go

I'm diving in, I'm going deep in over my head, I want to be
Caught in the rush, lost in the flow, in over my head, I want to go
The river's deep, the river's wide, the river's water is alive
So sink or swim, I'm diving in

There is a supernatural power
In this mighty river's flow
It can bring the dead to life
And it can fill an empty soul
And give a heart the only thing
Worth living and worth dying for, yeah
But we will never know the awesome power
Of the grace of God
Until we let ourselves get swept away
Into this holy flood
So if you'll take my hand
We'll close our eyes and count to three
And take the leap of faith
Come on let's go

Block party

Today I took part in a "block party and health fare" organized by Elijah's Promise. Usually they just do the soup kitchen once a week (feed the poor in the neighborhood). Anyway, today was SO MUCH FUN. Honestly, it was like the perfect thing to help poor people. These guys (Elijah's Promise) don't just feed people, they also teach them how to cook. They also try to help them as much as possible with all kinds of information they may make their lives easier (like how to be healthy and stuff).

I was very excited about this thing for two reasons: first, I have been praying a lot for opportunities to serve in the neighborhood. When I first got here, I used to walk down the streets of "downtown" New Brunswick, seeing all these people who obviously need help, and didn't really know what I could do for them. Second, in Romania there's not a lot of things like this going on. Because there are not many churches that are actually involved in helping poor people with food and other things they may need. And nobody really has that money. Pretty much all the people who would afford to give to charity
don't care about poor people. So this is really cool.

Anyway, what I really liked about today was that there was not just food but also there were doctors and opportunities for people who don't have health insurance to get their blood tested, their sight, and so on. I LOVED that they were thinking about the kids: there was a HUGE pile of teddy-bears and other stuffed animals (all really cute) that kids could pick up and that were "examined" by 3 young and friendly "doctors" :). There was also this table where kids could have gotten their faces or hands painted. I would have had so much fun if I were a kid!!

Outside , there was music and food. At some point, a pastor preached. Despite the fact that it was unceasingly raining the whole day, a lot of people came. Who said there was no such thing as a free lunch ? :) And it was also one of the rare moments when I didn't really mind getting soaked in the rain.

Currently listening: MercyMe - Word of God speak

Prayer

I just want to share 2 things I found about prayer in the last couple of days. After a time when I pray a lot, I find it more difficult to concentrate and it's also more difficult to pray, because I tend to cover the topics superficially and, to be short, I don't feel that I'm doing a very good job. One of the things that can help and that I think is a great idea is to keep a prayer diary, containing not only the prayer requests and the dates, but also God's answer and the date of the answer. I think this is a wonderful way in which we can see how God works and we can also learn to patiently wait for Him to answer.

The second thing is praying with somebody else. Because it is more likely to make a list and systematically go through all the things you need to pray about. And because it is so much easier to pray when there are two people (I think God intended it to be that way, because it feels so much easier). And one last thing I found this morning is that praying in a foreign language really helps keeping the focus on the things you are saying. I know God doesn't like routine, when we try to vary our way of relating to Him, it always works.

Currently listening: Mozart - Concerto for flute and harp

Switchfoot all over the place

I was spending the evening with Samantha she's such a great company! We had an amazing time together! We found that we both like Switchfoot a lot, so we were listening to one of their albums called "The beautiful letdown". God is so wonderful for bringing us together, He just has the most brilliant ideas!!

It's 1:30am now and I can't go to sleep because I can't let go to "The beautiful letdown". It's shared by this guy on iTunes and I'm afraid the guy won't be online tomorrow. Yes, I bought the cd, but it's going to take it a couple of days to get here..

I LOVE this song..
("Learning to breathe" is the fave though. This is "Gone", more appropriate for my state of mind/heart right now)

"She told him she’d rather fix her makeup
Than try to fix what’s going on
But the problem keeps on calling
Even with the cellphone gone
She told him that she believes in living
Bigger than she’s living now
But her world keeps spinning backwards
And upsidedown
Don’t say so long in the cellphone
Don’t spend today away
Cuz today will soon be

Gone, like yesterday is gone,
Like history is
Gone, just trying to prove me wrong
And pretend like your immortal

She said he said live like no tomorrow
Every day we borrow
Brings us one step closer to the edge (infinity)
Where your treasure, where’s your hope
Forget the world and lose your soul
She pretends like she pretends like she’s immortal
Don’t say so long
Your not that far gone
This could be your big chance to makeup
Today till soon be

Gone, like yeterday is gone,
Like history is gone,
The world keeps spinning on,
Your going going gone,
Like sumemr break is gone,
Like saturday is gone
Just trying to prove me wrong
You pretend like your immortal your immortal

We are not infinite
We are not permanate
Nothing is immediate
We’re so confident
In our accomplishments
Look at how dark it is

Gone, like frank sinatra
Like elvis and his mom
Like al pichino’s cash nothing lasts in this life
My highschool dreams are gone
My childhood sweets are gone
Life is a day that doesn’t last for long

Life is more than money
Time was never money
Time was never cash,
Life is still more than girls
Life is more than hundred dollar bills
And oh the town fills
Life more than fame and rock and roll and thrills
All the riches of the kings
And up in wills we got information in the information age
But do we know what life is
Outside of our conveinent lexus cages

She said he said live like no tomorrow
Every moment that we borrow
Brings us closer to the God who’s not short of cash
Hey bono I’m glad you asked
Life is still worth living, life is still worth living"

I just want to thank GOD for setting me free..