Salvation: easy or hard?

[pelathais]

Originally Posted by mrnbcox

If you try living for God easy, it will be very hard to stay saved!

If you live for God hard, with all you got!! It will be easy to stay saved

Just what does that mean anyhow? How does someone "live easy" for God? How does one "live hard" for God? You either are living for God or not. Either the life you now live (Galatians 2:20) is being lived by the faith of the Son of God, or it's being lived for some other purpose.

From a purely quantitative standpoint; how can I evaluate my own or someone else's life as being "lived hard" or "lived easy?" Is there some sort of checklist that you use?

For me, this one is just either/or.

[mfblume]

Originally Posted by Michlow

I guess this is where it gets a bit tricky. I do believe that there is evil in the world, but I'm a little more cloudy on the whole concept of satan / the devil. I think we give him way too much credit and ascribe to him entirely too much power. What is the purpose of serving an all powerful deity, if He is so easily side-tracked by a lowly rebel angel?

It is not God who is ever sidetracked in my assessment. Just us. The enemy is not the macho big burly warrior people imagine him to be. But he is good at lying. That was my point.

[quote](And Yes, I have heard the adage that the greatest lie satan has ever told, is to convince the world that he does not exist!)

If I have the spirit of God in me, (which I believe to be true), I don't think I have anything to fear from satan.[\quote]

Exactly. But it is the deception that is the killer. Those who look for a big burly henchman will be fooled and not catch the lie creeping in like an angel of light. But even the angel of light illusion can be warded off so long as we walk after the Spirit.

As I sit here writing this, I thought to myself, maybe I should test this

And so I prayed "God, if he's right, and I'm completely deceived and the Spirit inside me isn't you, but something else, I ask that you refill me and clear the blinders from my eyes and show me the true path."

And then I paused for a minute and said "Ummmm..God...wait...nevermind"

And then I laughed. Not irreverently...more at the irony. Because it's true, at least to a certain point. I don't want to be wrong. And I certainly don't want all of you to be right! I never want to go back to that place, to that prison. To me it all equals misery, heartache and pain. Maybe I keep God at arm's length because on some level I still fear that. If I ever were to find out that that's what God is truly like / truly expects, I would have no recourse but to reject him entirely.

I think this is where trouble all starts, though. Presumptions about God being someone we may not want to truly see. And that is why I noted the enemy's works. So I would focus on why that might be a possibility in your mind if I were you. It is just that sort of work the enemy does. Demons in teddy bear costumes. lol

I have the feeling that God is better than the greatest God we could imagine Him to be. And that means a lot of folks' opinions of Him are wrong. Try that approach! Think positive.