Salvation

[BigBird]

If our salvation is eternal, then what do we have to worry about? Just a thought.

[oneafroboy]

I'm confused. Are you saying that there is nothing to worry about then?

I think we are told not to worry, because God is in control. We are also told we are not given a spirit of fear. So, we can be sure that God will take care of us.

But at the same, we still have to go through this life. We have mountains to go over, valleys to go through, and rivers to cross (pardon the cliche). There are people we meet who are in pain, many of whom are not saved. We experience pain ourselves. We have choices upon choices to make. Our human nature, since it is corrupted (I think we can all agree that we are corrupted, even if we can't agree on the degree of our depravity), we respond to these things in perhaps foolish ways, or maybe they are just human ways. We do have emotions and they are affected by the events and people in our lives.

So, I guess from an eternal aspect, we have nothing to worry about; but as long as we're in this life, there's a lot going on that demands our concern, care and attention.

(Either that answered your question, or I totally missed what you were getting at.)  

[BigBird]

i meant it as far as salvation goes
doesn't it effect the way we view everything else?

I just consider it a comphort to know that I'm God's child whether I like it or not...

[Vlad!]

Well (at the risk of dragging predestination into this :X), I don't think God will drag me to heaven if I don't want to go. So I'm not going to go around rejecting God. But I suppose it is a reassuring thought.

[oneafroboy]

Actually, C. S. Lewis said that God dragged him into Christianity kicking and screaming.

If you know anything about C. S. Lewis, he was an athiest before he became a Christian. While doing research for a book to try to disprove Christianity, he found that he couldn't do it. So, he couldn't help but believe, but I'm sure it wasn't easy. Other note: J. R. R. Tolkein and he were friends, and Tolkein was a big influence on him, including his decision to become a Christian (what I mean is that God used Tolkein to help bring Lewis to Him).

PS: I don't have a reference for this quote. My friend's youth pastor has said this before on radio. But knowing what I know about Lewis' conversion, this seems entirely plausible. Obviously, after he became a Christian he wasn't kicking and screaming. I'm sure he liked the idea of heaven and life abundantly and all of that.  

[BigBird]

Well (at the risk of dragging predestination into this ), I don't think God will drag me to heaven if I don't want to go. So I'm not going to go around rejecting God. But I suppose it is a reassuring thought.

Well, yeah, I think most people like the idea. Otherwise they wouldn't believe.