so awhile back i talked about how my youth don't blog, they "myspace." so i set up a profile on myspace and committed this segment of cyberspace as "my myspace ministry." it's turned out to be largely successful, i'll leave some notes of encouragement, love, what's up, and answer questions. a couple of the comments have gotten kids back to church which i think is a good thing. the following is a recent email correspondence through myspace where one of my "friends" is wanting some answers. i share this not to have my answers processed but to show how youth will open up to you on the hard issues in their life when you meet them where they are.
hey gavin, if you get a chance to get back to me on this, i have a question or two for you...more or less religiously based, theres not that many people i can ask around here so i figured you'd be a good person to maybe ask.
feel free to ask. i am around here or you can email me directly @ [email protected] (don't worry if it says you were spam blocked i'll get it).. or IM me @ gavoweb.. i am generally on much of the day.
shalom
gav
yea...well this may come of as sort of an odd question, but what are your feelings on salvation? More specifically whether or not its possible to lose salvation.. I mean do you believe that its possible to lose your salvation once you have gained it or do you think that you could do certain things that would result in your losing it.
I thought perhaps I should elaborate on that question even more...lets say that someone truly believed in God, yet they ended up going through a hard time or something and committed suicide, do you think they would end up losing their salvation hypothetically?
it is my personal belief that we don't loose our salvation. if we run into rough times or question our belief in God we don't fall out of favor with God, but more importantly he draws nearer to us. it is up to us whether we seek support in those times. my question would be, is it more a feeling of lose because of an absence of a relationship. ie. when you break up with a girlfriend you have moments of longing for some of those "good times" again, partly why people get back together.
in our methodist traditions we come to understand grace and subsequently salvation through three levels of grace. prevenient grace is the grace that is given to those who are not able to accept a relationship with God. it answers questions for us about babies who die so young that they couldn't be baptized or ask for Christ in their life, as well as people who have never heard the word of God. it comes to reason that you have passed the level of prevenient grace and fallen into justifying grace. justifying grace is redemption from our sins, as we missed the mark of being like Christ. we seek to give/show grace like God on this world in the third level of grace, sactifying grace, this helps us to live up to the call we have to be Christians.
i we fall short of sactifying grace i truly feel we are still saved, the problem only being the seperation in our relationship with God.
now some denominations do believe in a pergatory (sp?) which is a space/land that souls go to while they wait in judgement before they go to heaven and/or hell. generally those who committ suicide go straight to pergatory, and i think i remember hearing from someone that this is where they stay. after that, there's quite a bit in theological conversation as to whether souls are taking out of pergatory once Christ returns, but i am not that familiar with those theories.
i'd like to share a story of my life. i had a friend named mike coe who was great friend of mine in the 7-8th grade years. his mother divorced his step dad and they had to move to delaware to live. where they moved to was much like trailor parks and it wasn't long before he began his ride with drugs and alochol. mike spent many years abusing drugs and it was tough to be a friend to him. eventually he cleaned himself up, yet we had a strained relationship. he was murdered by one of his "friends" who was hopped up on cocaine. mikes sudden death was a real blow to me, and still is, but i am encouraged to know that he is in heaven as he always had a heart for God, even when it was warped by worldly things. i recon that i will see him one day in the future.
inChrist
gavin
let me know if you have further questions.. sorry for being so long getting back to you.. being sick stinks.
:: my myspace ::
