Today's Christian Faith

[Anthony]

This will be a short write as it is late. Check into the facts and go deeper researching for your own.

Christian Right, which is usually the ones who say we must do all these different laws in order to be saved. IE: Salvation.

Christian Left says that all one has to do is have faith, no works involved. Faith alone equals Salvation.

So we seem to lean towards one extreme or the other, but which is right? Answer, neither. If ones gets saved and baptized physically one then opens the door symbolically to the Holy Spirit to come in, but it is up to the Holy Spirit when. There are instances when it happens at the physical symbolic ritual. How the Holy Spirit knows which, whom, and when... I have no idea. There is yet a third option, the Biblical teachings.

It isn't that it has been lost in translation but rather interpretation. The interpretation of men and women. Some have been deceived and pass on twisted information, some on purpose. It is a fact that God the Father loves you and is not a God the Father of hate. What many do not realize is that Paul never met Jesus while He walked the physically was alive. Paul knew the Noahide Laws and these are the works he was speaking of. Jesus fully made it clear the laws we were to abide in as Christians and the separation of the laws that men made.

So if Paul wasn't a Disciple that walked with Jesus, who was he? He was Saul, a crooked and evil Jew that persecuted Christians. To my knowledge Peter is the only Disciple of Jesus that Paul met. Paul wasn't liked very well because he took Christianity to the Gentiles. The Disciples of Jesus were not to preach the good news to Gentiles, only Jews. So why was that?

Jesus only has record of healing possibly two Gentiles while He walked here. The rude comment referring a Gentile woman as a dog was one. God had promised the Jews a Savior, and Jesus was they savior. Even then though most of the Jewish people would not accept him. He sent His Disciples out to the Jews, like sheep among wolves. Gentiles were not the wolves. Once Jesus' time was through here, seeing the Jews did not receive Him, He opened the Kingdom of Heaven to Gentiles... but not by His 12 Disciples, for that He appointed Paul, formerly Saul. For this task Paul was appointed. Because he had been instructed to work with the Gentiles he suffered greatly. Jews rejected Paul, just as they had rejected Jesus. Seeing they wanted no part in His speeches, Jesus rejected the Jews and offered that which He gave His life for, to the Gentiles and to the Jews who accepted Him.

So what is the middle like?

You are loved by a loving God, But are you in love with HIM? When we are in love completely we act like it, do things asked that we normally would not do. He loves us so much that He sent His only Begotten Son to die for you. Well, unless you are Jewish that isn't the whole truth. It was after the Jews rejected Him that He decided to include Gentiles.

So what besides faith should one have? Deeds, aka works. Always bear in mind that the devils have faith, they just don't do the works or deeds. They don't obey God's few laws. The 10 Commandments (whole thing not the Reader's Digest's version. Then Jesus tacked on a few more. Love your neighbor. Forgive to be forgiven. Pray when persecuted. Avoid usury (interest on money loaned).

Now this sounds simple enough, but it ain't. We stumble and fall repeatedly, but as long as we try, God is pleased. Never take faith out of context. One can have works with faith but not faith without works. I have no idea how God picks us, but I'm guessing that.

Faith, works/deeds, Love, Forgiving. Know and practice these three and do them because you want to do them, do them well. If one loves someone, truly loves someone they will make the person they love proud of them, worthy of the praise. We are all God's children and sometimes we submit to the god of this world.

In the end only You and God know where you stand.
Make sure you stand well.