SEVEN PROMISES

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In a message dated 99-08-05 15:35:05 EDT, you write:

<snip>
<< Salvation is easy to come by.  Revelation 22:17 And the Spirit and the 
bride 
 say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst 
 come. And WHOSOEVER WILL, let him take the water of life FREELY.
 
 But, Jesus said something else about the matter of WHOSOEVER WILL.  Mark 
8:34 
  And when he had called the people [unto him] with his disciples also, he 
 said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, LET HIM DENY HIMSELF, AND TAKE 
 UP HIS CROSS, AND FOLLOW ME.  
 
 Salvation is FREE, but it carries some RESPONSIBILITIES with it, IF WE ARE 
 PLANNING ON BEING SUCCESSFUL IN OUR CHRISTIAN LIFE.  <snip>
  >>

Me:
I guess it's all in how you look at it. From our point of view, the above 
statements are correct, but as Paul Harvey says: NOW FOR THE REST OF THE STORY

"Salvation is easy to come by."


1 Pet 2:21-24
21  For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, 
leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:
22  Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth:
23  Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he 
threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:
24  Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, 
being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were 
healed.
(KJV)

Matt 16:21
21  From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he 
must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief 
priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.


Mark 10:34
34  And they shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him, 
and shall kill him: and the third day he shall rise again.

Luke 22:44
44  And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it 
were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

Isa 53:3-9
3   He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with 
grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we 
esteemed him not.
4   Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did 
esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5   But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our 
iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes 
we are healed.
6   All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own 
way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7   He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he 
is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is 
dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
8   He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his 
generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the 
transgression of my people was he stricken.
9   And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; 
because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.


"Salvation is FREE"

Acts 20:28
...the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

2 Cor 8:9
For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet 
for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.

1 Cor 2:12
12  Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which 
is of God; that we might know the things that are *freely given* to us of God.


I am not disputing your original comments...of course they are valid. But, 
sometimes the "saints" (some of them that I have met, anyway) remind me of my 
children when they were small......they did not understand that although a 
gift was *given to them freely*, that it certainly was not "free". Someone 
had paid the price and often made great personal sacrifices to provide for 
them. When children are young, this can be due to an inability to appreciate 
the value of what has come to them without effort or personal cost to them. 
However, when they become older, it can only be attributed to a spirit of 
ingratitude toward the one who has sacrificed and paid the price for them for 
them.

I believe that if we all truly counted the cost of this *free gift*, and 
remembered the *sacrifice that was willingly made for us*, that we could more 
easily accept "the responsibilities it carries with it."

IOW,

Heb 12:1-3
1   Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of 
witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily 
beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
2   Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy 
that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set 
down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3   For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against 
himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.


Pastor (just checking in) Joe 
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