Personal salvation? To me it seems partial and self-conceited compared to global reconciliation unto God.?
450109
belief in god and prayer is very personal,but otherwise i think your close to right,but don't forget you got to start somewhere.
446435
(resounding amen coming from a fellow believer)\nThat was beautiful sister, i really am so glad someone did this, anyway i really hope people can read this with out opininionated ideals and theology. God is God and who are we to define who he is. My point is we are so caught up in our selfishness and selfcenteredness, we reject proper biblical teaching. remember the enemy comes to steal, murder and destroy, but Christ came to redeem us.\nand again AMEN!!!!!!
63774
i prefer the term "beliver" which is what i am. i dont think there is a difference in non and un because,for example,  if someone was to say they were a non believer as opposed to an un believer it means the same thing i beieve that god created us and that he sent his son to die on the cross for our sins and that the only way to get to heaven is through jesus. once you accept him into your heart that is where he dwells inside you. and then once you have jesus you have to obey God and his rules and commandments. you do not have to go to church to be saved. church does not save you God does. the different denominations take different parts of the bible and focuse on them rather than stick to the basics. other denominations disregard part of the bible all together and others write their own version. that is why i prefer just to be a christian rather than a babtist, southern babtist, catholic, or lutherian or whatever. besides the bible is clear on so many things that i dont understand how so many different religions came about. the things that are unclear are trivial. its best to be just a believer.
781459
Dear bluebootz,\n\ni think we need to do both.  i think it's important to understand what you believe- and i believe most people share what they believe with others not to impose their own beliefs on others, but because of errors they see in another's belief.  i think that there is a loving way to communicate errors in another's belief system (for example when i was in Thailand there was a temple where people were bowing down to Monkeys offering them money and stuff like that...) yes people have that freedom to do that... but seeing that was rather painful to my heart.  \n\nSo i think part of communicating lovingly with another is also trying to understand what they belief and the basis of that belief.\n\nIn terms of the Bible verse you quoted- the Corinthian church had forgotten how to love one another and there was much immorality in the church- so the Apostle Paul reminded them of the attitude they were to have as followers of Christ.  They were to love others before themselves, and not just think of themselves... think of how much better the world might be if people adopted that attitude... The verse refers to an attitude that someone who follows Jesus should have... not just being self-centered... but being God and other people centered...  It's not making a statement about our internal morality...\n\nHope that helps.  Kindly,\n\nNickster\n\nP.S.:  Feel free to email me:  nicksterlee@yahoo.com if you need any more clarification on the verse.
192065
To me it's the notion that the only way to pass is to accept jesus as your savior. The first (and to me) most important idea in the Bible is that we are in God's image. And who saved God? obviously no one, He is self-eternal.\nIf we really are in the image of God then we too must have the ability to organize our animating energy (soul) into a permanent consciousness. But by telling us that the only way to heaven is through accepting Jesus, modern preachers have become the snake in the garden. And they've turned Jesus (as the external solution) into the fruit which we must consume.\n\nLet me point out that I truly respect Jesus. He is one of the few that has managed to organize his animating energy into a permanent consciousness, and I believe him to be in the image of God. But to deny that anyone else can do it without Jesus, is to deny that we are all in God's image.
715374
I think that verse reveals a lot of modern evanglicalism to be out of step with Scripture. We have a very friendly, easy gospel preached in America where salvation is all up to us. John 6 teaches its not up to us at all in fact we contribute nothing to our own salvation including the will to believe. We are so totally depraved in our sin that we cannot even worship God unless he makes us worshippers. Very humbling.
925204
You do have a good point, and it is something to take notice of. I haven't thought about it that way, but as a Christian, I will take this constructively and maybe there can be things that I can change that I wasn't doing before in treating people. As for my shortcomings in life, I blame that all on myself.
1139904
While I am a bit of a Catholic mystic who might use some of the language you've used above such as "absolute bliss", no, really I can't say I am of a similar mind. \n\nI accept the Christian message because I have become convinced that the Almighty God - the "life force supreme" if you will - is also an intimately personal and not impersonal being. He is aware of - and profoundly in love with - not just the big picture, but the individual grains of sand within it.\n\nWhen Jesus in scripture says, "Every hair on your head is counted," that for me is the perfect representation of God. There can be no universal love without individual love. And individual love, for God, begins with love for the Son. And the love for the Son becomes love for all - the transcendant is the personal.
1144456
I think that as ong as you are a good person in your heart, and dont' inflict pain on people, that you will go to "heaven" or whatever it is called. All religions pretty much have the same message.
481995
Mr. King is absolutely correct on this one. This is a way of thinking that many people embrace wholeheartedly. Sadly, thinking like this removes much of the concept of "personal responsibility" from the equation of the human condition.\n\nOnce one starts thinking like this, all good can be attributed to god, and all evil blamed on the devil. It's very convenient and allows the person who thinks like this to sit back on their laurels and wait for Judgment Day. \n\nOnce you resign yourself to the idea that suffering cannot be alleviated (except by such things as the sacrifice of Christ [which does little to ease day-to-day suffering]), it's far to easy to not attempt to solve problems in the world.\n\nThis is certainly not to say that there are not many Christians who go out of their way to do what they can. In fact, most of them are pretty bent on doing their share. \n\nHowever, in my opinion, this type of thinking does diminish personal efforts to right greater wrongs.
148160
The Sacrament of Reconciliation is in place for us to be forgiven of our sins, the priest who hears your offenses was put here by Christ himself when He gave the keys to Peter and told him "what he holds bound here on earth will also be held bound in Heaven..." the priest forgives through Christ within him.As for believing in it... I have to say I do because in general people feel better when they talk about their wrongs to get it off their chest so to speak and I think that was ingrained into us by God.
79611
First of all; I do believe in Jesus however; I see differences. I don't agree with the concept that God requires a certain ritual in order to go to Heaven. In my opinion; I don't feel any one religion is "right" in itself. There are cultures all over the planet that vary in their beliefs concerning God,Bible etc. I am not saying anybody is wrong for I don't place judgement for myself I can't comprehend alot of things in religion. It is my belief that no matter what your faith is that at the time we move from here to spiritual form then we will know- I do feel that the Bible has been translated in many variations and I am not saying it is false I just feel there are some translational variations.I ask myself this if you have to be "born again" in order to go to Heaven then what of people born of severe mental handicaps that may not be aware of their surroundings like us? Infants that perish? Cultures in Asia,India? Those that lived before Jesus? Does this mean that Oh well its the luck of the draw? It is what you hold as your personal truth of faith is what is real to you,is how I believe.\nBlessings\nTim
159564
For me it is remembering that what I do for others I am doing for Christ. God loves me and He wants me to take care of myself and His children. I know that no good deed will go unoticed through him. So even if the hobo on the street goes and blows the money on liqour.... I tried. Or even if I help someone and they dont accept or ridicule me, God sees that. I am a foreigner here.
993303
Salvation is by Gods grace and will alone, and is equally available to everyone who ever lived regardless of anything that they did, or did not do.\n\nThis I believe;  http://homelessheart.com/testimony.htm
805041
If so, then as some on here have suggested, let's pack it all in and throw the whole mess away. Having spent a good deal of my life studying the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures I certainly don't come to that conclusion. Instead I see story after story about losers (not winners), the least (not the greatest), the littlest (not the biggest), the dim-est (not the brightest), the foulest (not the most righteous), the f__k-ups (not the ones who get it right), being the ones who are deeply loved and greatly prized. It is not a collection of winner's stories. It is an anthology of humanity with all of its beauty and ugliness, and a God who seems to be remarkably like his/her creation. It is an image (sacrament) about how God has always been in and loving his creation - and that his creation has always been "in" its God. So the redemption stories in those Holy books are not about god leaving anyone out (including herself), but about how everyone was always in (all along).  Contrary to what the moralists and hell-lovers proclaim, God has not changed his mind since saying in Genesis 1:31 about her creation: "it is so good, so very good!"
107611
Don't you know that it rains on the just and the unjust?\n\nHave you chosen Christ as Your personal savior?  Have you accepted the baptism of Christ and Gods holy Spirit?\nHave you studied the word of God?
566061
I think I have always been since God has always been. I see myself as a piece of God. After this life I will go and evaluate what I have learned and what I still need to learn for my own enlightenment. Then when I am ready I will choose to be born again or maybe I will choose to help other souls that are in human bodies. I don't believe in heaven and hell either. I don't go in for the whole sin concept. Just learning lessons.