SALVATION
Keeping your salvation safe.

It is the comparison between the domineering and ill feeling of one group with the love and compassion of the other that draws people to the Lord, but in the "west" there is little to differentiate between the different beliefs, so the bonding is much weaker.

Many start with a strong hunger for God, a desire to read the Bible, and fellowship with other believers. Looking back have you changed, and drifted to a lower level of involvement? One pastor said that you can see people fade over time, and drift away. Are these people lost eventually? He said there would eventually be a spiritual death. Have you considered what this would mean to you? What does Revelation say about this? There are only two options given, one was created for the devil and his fallen angels, do you want to be with them, and all murderers and evil people?

Have the evolutionists dulled your sense of truth, so that you now accept that anything goes, also changes in the laws that have declared things that God hates to be morally acceptable, and making it a crime to tell the truth in case it offends someone? Where will those who would have been offended finish up according to the Bible, should you try to save them from such a fate? Pray for them.

If you have lost your original desire, you need to pray for God to renew a hunger in you for God and his word. Don't let it slip away, I really fear that the lake described in Revelation will be partly filled with "born again christians" who have let salvation slip out of their hands. Have problems such as depression, stress over work or family, distracted you so that you have got into the habit of doing your work or jobs first, and then there is no time for God, or you are too tired?

If Pastors/Priests can see people backsliding and slipping away what steps do they take to wake them up to the dangers? What can they do? Having got people saved why not try harder to keep them safe?

What can you do to help your friends? Often we tend to keep out of others lives and there is the possibility that some can be failing, but they keep up outward appearances, so no-one knows that there is trouble brewing underneath.

Some, like myself, are not socially inclined, and are more easily dis-associated, and don't know who to ask or what to do about a problem that wasn't fixed after several promising attempts, and it just fell into the "too hard at present basket".

Actually a year or two after starting work I felt that it would be nice to go to work, say good morning, pick up my toolbag and some dockets, go out and return at night, say good night, and go home. I didn't want to say any more than that.
I am trying to overcome this problem, but I still listen to others but have nothing to say, but I can cope with writing. This has affected my prayer life, I say it once and that is it, I don't get into long prayers.

Perhaps one possibility is for the church to be more active in promoting counseling, not full counseling, but to asses the situation, and counsel on the spiritual aspects, which you won't get at other counselors. At one time the attitude of our church was if you are not having a daily devotion and prayer life, don't come for counseling until you get it right, a stupid attitude to have, it was about the first question and the end of the session. The problem was "why don't I have a good devotion and prayer life", that part comes first and needs fixing, but there was no help at that time. For me it was that every time I opened the Bible I got "your marriage should be like this" and I couldn't get it like that, even though we had counseling for it. That put me off, as being told off all the time, and not being able to fix the problem is depressing and discouraging. We couldn't even discuss the problem, so I didn't know what to do about it. Even infrequent prayers for help didn't seem to get any help. I was just hanging on waiting for something to change, but getting along reasonably peacefully. We are having another go at counseling.