I'm a good wife according to SOMEBODY!

84 As a 1930s wife, I am Very Superior Take the test!

This quiz is so cute. I loved the question about putting my cold feet on my hubby to warm them up at night! Yes, I was left with no choice but to mark it...That is my sin nature working! lol

I found this at Amy's Place.

Is Faith a Work?

Karl asked (kind of asked, I guess...) me this and the comments are getting to be so long, so I am moving it here...

You still haven't understood what I'm saying.It is necessary for Christ to be
preached in order for His saving work to become ours by faith. You clearly agree
with this.Thus, the Word saves you. Paul says it saves you. Peter says it saves
you.So obviously, they are adding something to salvation--according to your
logic.Because when Lutherans say that Baptism saves--in the same sense that the
Word saves--you say they are adding to the work of Christ. We no more add to the
work of Christ than Paul, Peter, and you when all three agree that it is
necessary for the word to be preached, and that the word of Christ gives
salvation.I'm glad to debate all the other points we're talking about here on
the basis of God's word, but I want to make sure you see this point above before
we go any further.I'm sorry you think it's rude that I don't read all of your
posts, but I kind of think that it's rude that you presume to call the pure
Gospel all sorts of names without even clearly understanding it.The other
arguments about free will we can talk about later. But first, do you understand
that the Word is a means of grace--that is to say, that you cannot have faith in
Christ's blood without the preaching of the good news? And if so, do you
understand how it is hypocritical to accuse Lutherans of adding the work of
baptism to the cross, when you (and Peter and Paul in the bible) insist that the
preaching of God's Word saves?

I don't believe a person needs to be preached to to be saved or to hear the gospel. One can read His word and understand the simplicity of the gospel if they are open. Also the people who do not have the gospel are judged based on the knowledge they have, whether they have rejected what little they have. I have already went through this. I Tim. 3:15 says that people had the knowledge since childhood that leads to salvation... Eph. 5 says that the people hardened their heart, not that God did. James separates faith from works (most religious people know of those scriptures)...

Regardless, the preaching is a work which I do not do it to get saved. Someone else does, and then I get saved. I did not do the work of preaching.

Also, Scripture NOWHERE teaches that faith is a "work". John 6:28, people ask what works they can do of God and Jesus corrects them... John 6: 29 "This is the work OF GOD that you believe in Him whom He has sent." How much more clear can one get than that? So, God calls everyone, but only the person who chooses to come, receives the free gift of salvation.

At best, the Word of God brings the message of salvation to a person but it is the blood of Christ which saves them. Faith is not a work and preaching that leads to salvation is a work of someone else. I am still preaching the cross of Christ and nothing else. Baptism is you getting into the water...

John 12:32 Jesus says He draws ALL men to Him, so why aren't all men saved? Because they have the free will to say "no thankyou, not today" or "No thankyou, I've got things under control"

My recent Visitors

I know most of the people that have been coming here the last couple days see me as a "lost cause". Out of the hundred or so stops to my blog the last couple days, only 3 messages have been left, and no one seems to be able to refute the verses I have posted which obviously show Luther's doctrine doesn't "jive" with God's. Also, no one has left any responses to the link that brought the "Lutherquest" people here. I wonder why that is. I guess I don't really wonder.

I believed what Luther taught most of my life because it was what I was taught. When someone showed me I could be wrong, I thought "Gee, maybe I was wrong all these years" whereas people like the original poster, Steve, don't think that. They seem to have in their mind they are right. But the Word of God is what will stand in the end. Not my word. Not Luther's word either.

I surely won't be standing regardless. When I meet the Creator, I picture myself with my face in the ground, not patting Him on the shoulder saying, "so glad I made it". The attitudes are so different. I surely wouldn't call someone a lost cause. There is hope always, for anyone.

To call me a sister in Christ and then to say I am a lost cause is a whole different post, of which I don't care to write at this moment...

Is Faith the gift?

I decided to start a new post as the comments on the last post were getting to be a bit much, I think.

Anonymous asked in the comments...

If faith is a gift of God, and faith is a requirement for salvation, only God
saves. If I believe, baptized or not, it's because he's given me the faith to
believe. It's all up to Him.Or, is that wrong?

Good question! I have run across it many times in witnessing.
The common thought of faith being the gift comes from Ephesians 2:8-9 which reads "8For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9not as a result of works, so that no one may boast"
Grammatically, through faith is a prepositional phrase modifying how you have been saved. The "it" is actually referring to the grace that saves you. The sentence could be read "For (by grace through faith) you have been saved, it is the gift of God..."

God is not standing up in heaven saying "I pick Sally and Mark and Becca and Rachel and ... to be saved and everyone else can go to hell, because *I* didn't die for the *whole* world."

There are too many verses that say He died for all. Too many that say it is our choice...

Ez. 18:23 says God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, (2 Peter 3:9 says He doesn't wish for any to perish)
Rev 22:17 says that anyone who wishes to take the water of life without cost may, whereas Matt 23:37 says that He wanted to gather up His people like a hen gathers her chicks but they were un-willing.

I think that people will also single out John 6:44 which says "44“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day." BUT if you read the next verse, it explains vs. 44 in that God draws through hearing and learning what has been taught from the Father either through His disciples or His word--vs. 45 "“It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught of God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father, comes to Me."

When you, me, or anyone else study the bible, we need to remember one main point. God will never contridict Himself. Yes, there may be scribal errors from the copying over and over the bible over the past couple thousaind years, but God's meaning is inrefutable. Now, knowing that, we have to take what is black and white (like Christ dying for all people and all sin (Romans says many times Christ died "once for all.") and weigh it against what I would call "grey" or "cloudy" spots in the text. Because in the end it all fits together like a beautiful puzzle.

I hope this helps your question and you won't ever be afraid to ask more!