Expert: Dean Gade - 11/22/2005

Question
During events that have happened in my life had made me bitter. I'm at a point in my life where the people I work with, i won't talk to them about God and don't care if the go to Hades. Now after watching a program about witnessing, I'm wondering if I've actually lost my salvation. Not just by that ,also not keeping God's commands. Am I no longer saved?

Answer
The fact is that Jesus died for the sins of the whole world....and you are included in that world.  Just continue to say, "Thank you Lord for saving ME".  It's His gift to you in spite of any backsliding you may feel you have done.

We are not saved because we kept His commands.  We have been saved BECAUSE WE COULDN'T keep His commands.  If we could avoid sin, we wouldn't need the sacrifice of our dear brother, Jesus the Christ.

We all get bitter.  I know that fact very well!    It seems sometimes that God has abandoned us and we've had to make a go of life on our own....and it hasn't been anything like the "abundant life" that He promised.

Yet, though all be liers, God is true to His word/promises.
I look at Job and his years of testing.  And at Joseph, whose own brothers wanted to kill him, sold his as a slave to some merchants, ended up in jail for years in Egypt...and many other followers of God.

God sustained them, then brought them out of these depressive lives and restored them.

He hasn't forgotten you, nor been too busy for you.  He still loves you.  I don't know what He has in mind for you but He promises to make all things work for your good.

That's where faith comes in.  Isn't He still God?  The one who created all things?  The one who called you to be his child, the child of the king of the universe?

You still know that that is true.  

The word "patience" in the Bible comes from a word which means "long suffering".  That's us, you and me.

Write to me some more.  Maybe we have a lot in common.