Talking to the Cat on New Year's Eve!

It was New Years Eve and my husband and I had gone out to dinner and came back home and did our usual year end prayer and discussed & wrote down the goals we have together and individually. It's going to be a great year! After that, he was tired and went on to bed. I did my usual bible reading. I'm a night person for sure! Anyways, after that I went into the hot tub. My cat Persia is 15 years old and lives in the hot tub. She likes to walk around the perimeter of the hot tub and then sits on the cover (I open it halfway when I'm by myself) and she wanted me to rub heads together. She likes to do that and she loves it too when I pet her and get her forehead all wet. She likes the water, always has. There was a party going on at my neighbors behind us and to the left. Anyways as the parties going on I'm thinking about my cat and rubbing heads with her and I started thinking about how old she was and I told her outloud "Persia, you and I have been together for a long time; we have made it another year!" I then started remembering a specific time when we lived in Wheaton Illinois back in '94. Persia wasn’t even a year old yet. She had climbed up my neighbors tree so high that she was higher than the house! She was waaaaayyy up there. Their dog was after her, which sent her high tailing it up the tree. I quickly got the ladder and braced it on the tree and climbed up it and then climbed up the tree from there to her. I remember thinking at the time that I had to reach for her up over my head and that she was really going to have to trust me and know that I could save her. She let me get her and I remember wrapping my arms around her. I thought, she has trusted me ever since.
Okay, back to the hot tub....that's when God said to my spirit "Yea Kel, you were in a pretty bad spot yourself with no where to turn but to me." “You trusted me and I wrapped my arms around you and you’ve been trusting me ever since." I felt His warmth wrap around me there in the hot tub with Persia and I thanked God for all the wonderful memories of yesterdays and all the years since & for that very moment! I thanked him for always wrapping me in His love.

Eternal Security Part 2

Defending Eternal Security


(My notes taken from Reclaiming the Mind Ministries Theology program)

#1 I would be denying the clear teaching of these scriptures...
Romans 9 & 10
"That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified,(made right with God) and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved."

#2 The bible clearly teaches that a true believer cannot ever be lost.
John 10:25-29
"Jesus answered, "I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father's name speak for me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, no one can snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and the Father are one."
So no one can take my salvation away. Looking from God's perspective who has a hold of me, I can't imagine me being able to get out of His grasp once I am truly there it's totally impossible.

#3 Romans 8:29-30 Predestination...I'm saved and in the process of being saved (8:38-39 This is a completed action! This is not just based on affection for us or from God, but Paul has put this in to explain our salvation. This is an ACTIVE love of God.

#4 Eternal life begins the moment you have it or receive it.
John 5:24
"I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned, he has crossed over from death to life.

#5 This is a down payment...a guarantee
Ephesians 1:13-14
"And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession- to the praise of his glory."
John 6:39-40
"And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day."

#6 Scripture clearly teaches we can be CONFIDENT of our salvation:
2 Corinthians 5:6-10
“Therefore we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.
Philippians 1:6
“Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

Response to "Conditional Security" arguments
1.TWO THINGS WRONG
*Based on faulty notion of free will. Our free will is limited by ability, and no one has the ability to choose God on their own (Romans 3:11)
*Even the conditonal security advocates believe that in eternity we will not be able to reject God.

None of these passages teach that a person can loose their salvation

2. John 5:16
Death here is not spiritual, but must be physical. If this was a reference to an unforgiveable sin causing spiritual death, God did not do a good job of covering a spiritual topic.
(there is a sin that leads to physical death)

3. MATTHEW 3:28-29
The unforgiveable sin, blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, is the sin of unbelief or rejection of Christ.

4. Hebrews 3:26-28
HAVE YOU NOT SINNED WILLFULLY AFTER RECEIVING THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUTH?
They have overturned the system of sacrifice for 2,000 yrs. Now everyone is still doing this system of sacrifice, their saying the old system does you no good, after you've been introduced to Christ, He does away with the sacrifices.)

5. 2 Peter 2:19-22
THE FALSE TEACHERS WERE NEVER TRUE BELIEVERS
They escaped this thing of this world in that they made an outward change, but they never really had a change of heart.

6. Galatians 5:1-4
"Falling from grace" does not mean that they fell from saving grace, but sanctifying grace. This is the entire argument of the book. Paul is wondering why people think that it is possible to be sanctified by the law when they have been saved by grace (3:1-3) When a person tries to be sanctified by the law, he or she has fallen from grace in that they have no power to grow in Christ.
(Not using the provision of grace from God-they have fallen outside the use of God's grace. Every one of us can fall from grace, if we are not using God's grace or power available to believers. In other words, the flesh instead of the spirit.

7. Matthew 18-23-25
This passage is not speaking about salvation, but about forgiveness.

8. Hebrews 6:4-9
This passage does not suggest that true believers can leave the faith, but if they could they could not be restored to repentance. This is made clear in verse 9, "But Beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, & things that accompany salvation." Things that accompany true salvation must not include apostasy. Perseverance would have taken hold.

9. Hebrews 4
These scriptures are real warnings. The writers all encourage their readers to persevere in the faith, but are not suggesting that one can lose true faith. The scriptures do, however, teach that many people have a nominal or "said" faith. People are encouraged to examine their faith, to make sure it is true. If people do not persevere until the end, they were not ever true believers.
Matthew24:10-13, John3:16, 2 Cor.13:5, 2 Peter1:10, 1 John2:19
Matthew 7:21-23 (sure would look like a true believer!)

****************THE OUTCOME TOTALLY RESTS ON GOD*************************************

The means by which you are saved is also the means by which you are kept. If you were saved by grace, you are kept by grace. If you were saved by faith, you are kept by faith. Both are true. God graciously gave us the gift of faith when we were not seeking it. If we were to loose our salvation, God must take the gift back. But if man produced faith by his own volition, as the conditonal advocates teach, then his own volition can also decide to reject God.
While it is true that the majority of church history has believed that one could forfeit their salvation either through mortal sin or apostasy, this does not make it correct. The majority of church history also believe in baptismal generation. (saved when baptized)
CONCLUDING PRINCIPLES

1. Our salvation is protected by the Power of God

2. If you are trusting in Christ for your salvation, you have eternal life as a present possession.

3. We are to persevere in our faith.

Eternal Security Part 1

(These are my notes taken from Reclaiming the Mind Ministries Theology program)


A lot of people wrestle with their salvation. They don't know if they are saved for all eternity or not. Well, maybe they are more confused by their own actions to keep it. Some believe God gives us the freedom to choose him or to reject him and some believe he doesn’t' take that freedom away when we become believers. So, by means of their own actions, they believe their salvation is on a "conditioned" basis. According to the conditional security position, they believes that they can never be sure if they are saved until when at death they die with all sins confessed & before they die they are in a state of believing at that time.

Some scriptures seem to indicate that we can lose our salvation (eternal security) Hebrews 6:4-6... a falling away...turning away from God after having been enlightened & have shared in the Holy Spirit.

Check these scriptures out:
Hebrews 10:26-27, 2 Peter 2:19-22, & Galatians 5:1-4

The scriptures clearly teach that people must continue to believe:
Matthew 24:10-13, Hebrews 3:6, John 3:16, John 10:26-27

There are lots of scriptures that command us to persevere and those are the over-whelming ones. One thing, don't presume too quickly that someone is a believer. Test yourself to see if you are of the faith...Read the Parable of the Sower (Mark 4)

Seeing Miracles

My sister called yesterday to wish me a "Merry Christmas"
Then, she told me how she & her husband spent their christmas day feeding the hungry. She shared with me that she was blessed. I could hear in her voice that a miracle had happened within her heart.
It's just a miracle what God can do in our hearts. God is doing an internal work with them with external manifestations. Their hearts and minds are witness to the miracle power of the holy spirit working not just around & with them, but IN them. I can see how the Lord has prioritized performing a miracle IN them over a miracle concerning their circumstances. But I believe He can perform a miracle with their circumstances too at the same time! He knows what is best & His timing will be perfect. All of us suffer in this life, but I know God will use it & I can see this miracle... that He is using it... for His greater good... as I see here with my sister and her family!
God Bless you dear sister Sue and Stu! for all that you do for Him!
I love you both so much!

"Did I tell you, that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?"
John 11:40

"Now if we are children, then we are heirs- heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory."

Roman's 8:17

Now to Him who is able to do immeasurabley more than all we ask or imagine, according to HIS POWER THAT IS AT WORK WITHIN US, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever! Amen."

Ephesians 3:20-21

Tim's Memorial Service

Thank you so much for your prayers for my family and I. My brothers memorial
servicel was a great blessing for my family & we all agreed it was what Timmy
would have loved. Each member of my family spoke. It was what God
wanted. I didn't plan on singing, I was led to. It was sad and there was alot of
tears and alot of laughter too. We all went to dinner afterwards and then had
dessert at my youngest sisters house. My Dad is doing really
well. When he spoke, it was deeply humbling, confessional, & loving. I already have
witnessed the good God is doing through this & with your prayers. God is so GOOD! My brother Kevin from Japan called me tonight. It was so good to talk with him. Now, that's a far away call!I will miss Timmy & his way of always making us laugh, his warm smile, & his love to me.