Great night last night in Alva as we had a few more people show up and had some great discussion. Christianity Explored is primarily designed for those curious about the Christian faith but as we are finding out, it is also good for those that are young in their walk as well. One of things I keep finding out is that there are so many out there that have a really warped view of the gospel because they have never been clearly taught what scripture says about how we are saved. So many still think (even in protestant churches) that you can somehow do enough good works to earn your way to heaven. The bible couldn't be clearer on this as this is what it says, "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no one can boast." - Ephesians 2:8-9

If that's not clear enough (I don't how it couldn't be), give the sermon on the mount a read sometime (Matthew 5-7) and you'll see that Jesus makes it emphatically clear that we all are guilty of sin and our so-called good works aren't going to cut it. There are many more scriptures I could share to support this point which by the way is the most important aspect of the Christian faith. If it seems like I'm a bit passionate about this well, I am. Actually I'm angry that there are so many men and women in pulpits around the world that give such a muddy message. If they don't preach the clear gospel message that we are saved by grace alone by faith alone in Christ alone, they do not belong in the pulpit.

There's an elderly lady in our church who has no peace because for years and years she has sat in churches week after week listening to a works based social gospel. I'm sorry but that is a crime because she lives in fear every day of her life. Jesus doesn't want us to live in fear, he wants us to experience the peace only he can give through the blood he shed on the cross for the remission of sins. One other thing we discussed last night; when we say we need to somehow do good works to enter heaven, we are saying that what Jesus did on the cross wasn't good enough, it wasn't complete.

There's much more I could say but I'll save it for another day.

God bless