"For Good Reason"

"For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods." (Psalms 95:3)
Besides the fact that God loves us, and besides our need to be holy, we need God! Yes, we might have some faults and we might have a few doubts now and then, but these are all the more reason for our need for God's mercy and grace. Please don't think that God hates you because of what you have done, or because of the wrong choices you have made in your life: God meets us where we are and then transforms our lives. It might take a few months, or years, or even decades; but you can bet on the result being one of transformation, even if it requires being taken out of this world. Maybe that sounds a little drastic, like God would not do such a thing as remove someone from this life, just to keep them from messing up their life any more than they all ready have; but it's not really our life that concerns Him, it's the lives of those who are influenced by us. I am one of those people that believe we are only saved once, and that once is for eternity. There might be more than one salvation; three to be exact; but we are still only born again once. If we could simply allow God to change our lives as He wants to, then we could save ourselves so much pain and suffering; trials will still come, but they are for purifying, not for correction. There really is a difference between the two: one is making bad into good, while the other is making good into great. We do not need anyone to tell us the bad things we need to stop doing, we already know what they are; God has already put those things on our hearts as things He wants us to stop; those things we don't like are easy, but the things we like to do are not. Correction is used to correct our direction; we want to go this way, but God wants us to go another. Purification is used to purify someone going in the right direction, but they need some things still removed from their lives; mostly things that are about love and forgiveness, or vanity and pride. These are things that purify our hearts to allow us to be more like Jesus; we are following Jesus, but we still need some cleaning up. Going in the wrong direction is not following Jesus! That's when it might require a broken leg, because we just won't listen; if you get my drift. Does it mean we are no longer saved? Not in the least! It means that He loves us and needs us to listen, or else. I do not believe that we can lose our salvation, not once we have given our lives over to the Lord. We might lose everything else, even our own life; but what really matters is that we have been saved. We were saved from death and hell when we asked Jesus into our hearts; we will be saved from ourselves if we do not listen and obey! There is no other way to put this, idols are gods; they are things that we let tell us what to do, even when we know that the Lord says not to...
"People who worship idols are stupid and foolish. The things they worship are made of wood! They bring beaten sheets of silver from Tarshish and gold from Uphaz, and they give these materials to skillful craftsmen who make their idols. Then they dress these gods in royal blue and purple robes made by expert tailors. But the LORD is the only true God. He is the living God and the everlasting King! The whole earth trembles at his anger. The nations cannot stand up to his wrath. Say to those who worship other gods: "Your so-called gods, who did not make the heavens and earth, will vanish from the earth and from under the heavens." But God made the earth by his power, and he preserves it by his wisdom. With his own understanding he stretched out the heavens. When he speaks in the thunder, the heavens roar with rain. He causes the clouds to rise over the earth. He sends the lightning with the rain and releases the wind from his storehouses. The whole human race is foolish and has no knowledge! The craftsmen are disgraced by the idols they make, for their carefully shaped works are a fraud. These idols have no breath or power. Idols are worthless; they are ridiculous lies! On the day of reckoning they will be destroyed. But the God of Israel is no idol! He is the Creator of everything that exists, including Israel, his own special possession. The LORD of Heaven's Armies is his name!" (Jeremiah 10:8-16) NLT