Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news.harvard.edu!noc.near.net!howland.reston.ans.net!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!network.ucsd.edu!rutgers!igor.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian
From: armstrng@cs.dal.ca (Stan Armstrong)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re: So far so good
Message-ID: <Apr.19.05.13.16.1993.29204@athos.rutgers.edu>
Date: 19 Apr 93 09:13:17 GMT
Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu
Organization: Math, Stats & CS, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada
Lines: 22
Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu

In article <C4z5u3.Jxo@spss.com> luomat@alleg.edu writes:
>
>This may be a really dumb one, but I'll ask it anyways:
>	Christians know that they can never live up to the requirements of  
>God, right? (I may be wrong, but that is my understanding)  But they still  
>try to do it.  Doesn't it seem like we are spending all of our lives  
>trying to reach a goal we can never achieve?  I know that we are saved by  
>faith and not by works, but does that mean that once we are saved we don't  
>have to do anything?  I think James tells us that Faith without works is  
>dead (paraphrase).  How does this work?
>
So long as we think that good things are what we *have* to do rather than
what we come to *want* to do, we miss the point. The more we love God; the
more we come to love what and whom He loves.

When I find that what I am doing is not good, it is not a sign to try
even harder (Romans 7:14-8:2); it is a sign to seek God. When I am aware 
of Jesus' presence, I usually want what He wants. It is His strenth, His love 
that empowers my weakness.
-- 
Stan Armstrong. Religious Studies Dept, Saint Mary's University, Halifax, N.S.
Armstrong@husky1.stmarys.ca | att!clyde!watmath!water!dalcs!armstrng
