Praise the Lord!

Nate is doing ten thousand times better! He is awake now and off all the sedatives and painkillers that were knocking him out. Now that he is aware of what's going on, he is a little scared, but he really shouldn't be because he is in the home stretch now! He slept through the worst part. He is able to write on a marker board now since he still can't talk with the trache in his throat. Keep praying for him! They are going to try to sit him up today and now they have decreased his use of the venilator so he is breathing on his own more. His blood is clear of all infection so that is a huge praise! His lungs are looking better too! So, they are in the process of weaning him off of things to see what he can do! Rather, see what God can do! I'll keep you updated! All of your prayers are working so keep it up!!!!

My Friend Nate

I know it's been a long time since I've posted. I would like to ask everyone who reads this to please pray for my friend Nate. He has been in the hospital for over three weeks now in ICU. I've been a little preoccupied with that. He's a friend I have had ever since the 7th grade. He works down in the restaurant here at work with his dad. He had a bladder infection to start with, but then it spread into his bloodstream and the bacteria went all throughout his body. Then on top of all that, he contracted pneumonia very quickly. Actually, to top all of THAT, he is diabetic. So, he is a very sick boy. His birthday is today, he turns 25. For all of his life, his parents have been praying that he would get saved. They've almost lost him several times and without verbalizing it, he has confessed his faith Jesus. He is on a ventilator and he had a tracheotomy as well. He has been sedated during the majority of his stay, but now they are trying to wake him up. In fact, by the end of this day, he should be off of the sedative completely. His body is having a hard time adjusting to this, so please pray. The sedative he is on is an amnesia type drug that makes him forget everything every time he goes to sleep. The doctor described it to me as the same type of thing that happens to the girl in the movie, "50 First Dates". Every time Nate wakes up, he has no idea what's going on, where he is, or what is happening to him. It's like he's waking up for the very first time over and over again. This medicine confuses him, so now he is getting off of it and will hopefully be more alert now. Anyway, please keep praying for him. The doctors are seeing improvement every day and they are actually surprised, because he really wasn't supposed to be around for his birthday. Everyone at the hospital, here at work, and all of his family and friends have seen the Lord at work in Nate's life. So, WHEN he gets back to work, we are praying that he'll be quick to tell everyone about the healing power of Jesus Christ!

Eternal Security

Here are some notes a friend of mine here at work took after listening to Tony Evans. Any questions? Let's talk about it. Coming up next.....several more views on hell for Chris' friend Pete. P.S. Chris, STAY OUT OF MY BLOG! You may comment, but you may not change anything!

Eternal Security Notes from Tony Evans 7/28/03 and 7/29/03

Eternal security is key to understanding God’s love.

ASSURANCE
I John 5:13
I have written these things to you who believe on the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have everlasting life, and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God.

Emphasis is on the word ‘know’

Acts 16:30-31
And leading them outside, he said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved, and your household.

Emphasis ‘shall be saved’ not ‘might’ be saved.

If we cannot be sure then it would have read ‘might be saved’
The only way salvation makes sense is for it to be permanent.
If you can lose your salvation, then what does it take to lose your salvation?

EMOTIONAL WELL BEING
John 5:24
Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes on Him who sent Me has everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation, but has passed from death to life.

A man coming to Christ has eternal life and does not come into judgment.

If eternal security isn’t true, then you live in fear. Some denominations use this to control intentionally or unintentionally.

If eternal security isn’t true then we can’t fulfill Paul’s command – “Be anxious for nothing and in all things be content”

UNDERSTANDING THE CROSS
If unsure of security then that causes confusion about the Cross.

Colossians 2:13-14
And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross.

It says ‘ALL trespasses’ not just the trespasses you committed up until being saved. ALL means past, present and future. When Jesus died all of your sins were in the future.


Hebrews 9:12
nor by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered once for all into the Holy of Holies, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

‘Eternal redemption’ not something that can be lost.

UNDERSTANDING GOD’S LOVE
Romans 5:8-9
But God commends His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.

He loved you so much that He died to save you, and He rose to keep you.

Matt 7:11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father in Heaven give good things to those who ask Him?

For you to lose your salvation means that you love your children more than God loves you. Even sinners love their children even when they do wrong, how much more so God loves His children.


SPIRITUAL GROWTH
Fear of losing salvation stunts spiritual growth.

Galatians 5:1
Stand fast therefore in the liberty with which Christ has made us free, and do not again be held with the yoke of bondage.

If you go back to the law, then you cannot benefit from Christ. Grow in grace. Grace is the basis of growth, not good works. Grace and Law cannot exist together. You know you are living under the law if you feel yoked – I have to do this, I shouldn’t have done that ...


COMMON SCRIPTURE USED TO SAY YOU CAN LOSE YOUR SALVATION
Hebrews 6
John 15

II Corinthians 5:9-10
Therefore we are also laboring to be well-pleasing to Him, whether at home or away from home. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive the things done in his body, according to that which he has done, whether good or bad.

I Corinthians 3:12-15
And if anyone builds on this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, each one's work shall be revealed. For the Day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try each one's work as to what kind it is. If anyone's work which he built remains, he shall receive a reward. If anyone's work shall be burned up, he shall suffer loss. But he shall be saved, yet so as by fire.

You may have nothing to show about your works for God, but you are still saved.

I Corinthians 6:18
Flee fornication. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits fornication sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit in you, whom you have of God? And you are not your own, for you are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.

Believers can be immoral.


ETERNAL SECURITY PART OF GOD’S CHARACTER
If you can lose your salvation then ...
God is a liar. He promised us eternal life.
Jesus would be a failure. He died for something that wasn’t provided
Holy Spirit would be a failure. It is the Spirit’s duty to make sure we act like a son of God.

If you sin so that grace may abound then you are stupid and ungrateful.
Eternal Security should increase your gratitude for what God has done for you.
When you know you’ve been redeemed – it makes you want to shout!
Nothing can separate us from the love of God.

God guarantees eternal destiny of everyone He saves. ... anyone He bothers to save.

ETERNAL SECURITY IS NOT –
Armenian: When you get saved it is your responsibility to stay saved. God saves but you secure.

Reform: God saves you but you have to prove you have been saved. If you don’t prove it then you were never saved. Once you're saved you have eternal security, but if you have a bad day(s), year(s) then that proves you were never saved. God gives it, but you keep it by your works.

On a child’s worst day they are still their parents child because they were born. Their birth secured their status. On their worst day they still have their mother and dad.

Utter Chaos

Well, last night was my first official night on duty all by myself at the Y. IT WAS TERRIBLE!!! I am still cooling off today and it's not working very well. I receipted someone the wrong amount, I messed up their membership application, and I entered everything wrong into the computer, and I was long on my drawer! At least I wasn't short, but I could NOT figure out where the extra $12 came from for anything! So what did I do? I took it all out on my wonderful husband who did nothing but try to calm me down and help me figure things out. Upon leaving I vowed, "I don't need this job! I'm going to quit!" and I never wanted to walk in that place again! The new session of swim lessons started last night so we had everyone lined up from the front counter to the door for the "Mommy & Me" swim class! So, I'm trying to get all of them signed in, some of them wanted to pay for their swim lessons at the same time, I was scanning members cards, answering the phone, and trying to enter and receipt a brand new membership and pass out towels! So I hurry through the new membership so I can hurry up and receipt the new swim lesson people, and I send the new members down to the pool and after they leave, I realize, they never gave me their check! So, I can't receipt anyone else until I am done with this, so I enter a bogus check number just to get it done and end up entering $516.00 instead of $561.00. So, that receipt has to be voided by the office girls who are there during the day and the computer doesn't allow me to do a new receipt for them for the right amount. So I have to explain to the new members that I am new, they've filled out all their paperwork, but they still need to pay, but they can't until this other receipt is voided. WHAT A MESS! Now that I think about it, I think I also forgot to stamp the back of ALL the checks before I put them in the safe! So, if I still have a job, I guess I'll be returning to the Y. Otherwise, I just don't know. So, yesterday was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Hopefully today will be better. It's started out okay except for the fact that I overslept and almost didn't get to take a shower this morning! Whew! Just pray for me. By the way, be on the lookout for some good Baptist doctrine coming up soon on topics like: hell and eternal security! I've been doing some studying with some friends of mine! Until then...

Paul Wright

Hey everyone!
As I was driving home from ladies Bible study last night, I was listening to the request hour on KLVV. A girl requested "You're Beautiful" by Paul Wright. I had never heard of him before, but you all would love him! He sounds a lot like Switchfoot or P.O.D. sort of. The lyric that I loved in the song the most said, "Before I die and I leave the world behind, I want to know why I'm alive" So now, I am officially a Paul Wright fan! Especially after visiting his website! He had this to say about another one of his songs and I found it to be very profound: "If a butterfly didn’t know it had wings it’d still crawl like a caterpillar. And a Christian that doesn’t know they can live by God’s Spirit and the Word will naturally live by the flesh." Very simple, but very true. CHECK HIM OUT!

What A Day

What a day today has been! After arriving at work and writing a nice peaceful post about something as nice as rain, my day became suddenly hectic! I received an email from my boss who tells me that I have to register for some online training and take some courses in sales lead administration and all this business stuff. So, I register and do everything I'm supposed to do and even take one class! Well, sort of. I tried logging on to the demo box and it never let me on, however, I did get in on the conference call so I heard the whole class, I was just unable to actually see what was going on. BUT! I got on the website and just navigated around where the instructor said to go, so I sort of followed along that way and took a lot of notes. Well, that took an hour and fifteen minutes which was frustrating to the other ladies 'cause they had to answer the phones while I was on this training session. Equally frustrating for me, was the fact that people kept trying to come up to my desk to talk to me, which I couldn't do so I made a sign that said, "DOING ONLINE TRAINING. SSHHHHH! Thank you! :)" and people still didn't stay quiet. So then, after it was over, I filled out the evaluation form and explained to my boss what had happened. He said it was okay so then I called the technical support number and they fixed all my issues which again, took a long time of downloading, saving, entering, and all this navigation mess of which I am very happy to say that I totally understood! :) So I prepared myself for the next class which was going to be another hour and a half. So, I reheated the lunch I didn't get to eat and took a few bites and got on the demo box just fine. This time, "INSTRUCTOR NOT PRESENT FOR TRAINING, Sorry for the Inconvenience" came up but then it gave you an option to see a pre-recorded demo of the class. So, I tried watching that, and it worked, only.....there was no sound. So, I told my boss about it and THEN he tells me that I actually didn't even have to worry about those classes since I'm not a sales representative! "NOW YA TELL ME!" So after wasting over two hours in my day gaining knowledge I didn't really need, I threw my hands up, schlumphed into my chair (that's a word isn't it?) and starting writing YOU PEOPLE. You people who don't even write me any comments! :( Just kidding, I just see that several have joined, but no one has said anything. So, I'm not talking anymore until you all do...the ball is in your court. Hey, maybe I should try paragraphs next time...hmmmm......:S

"So What If It's Raining...We Can Still Have Fun!"

As I made my way to work today, in zero-visibility torrential rains, with lightning crashing down all around me, these verses came to mind: "Can you raise your voice to the clouds and cover yourself with a flood of water? Do you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you, 'Here we are'?" --Job 38:34-35 And I thought to myself, "That is who God is, and who I am not." He has the power to calm the storm, and He has the omnipotence to see me through it. The rain was a blessing today. His mercy is flooding our land. Hallelujah!