Thoughts From 1Corinthians 10 - Part 1

  For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. 2 They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. 6 Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did 1Cor. 10:1-6

        I once confronted a youth who attended our church, went to the youth group my wife and I had at our house, went on a mission trip with me to Mexico, but now was having sex with his girlfriend and stopped coming to youth group and church. I met with him at his place of work and told him that he needed to stop what he was doing and get right with the Lord. I told him Jesus said that if you love Him you will obey his commandments and how can you call Him Lord if you don't do what he says. I quoted him some verses from Hebrews 10 and 1John which warned him that if he continued on this path, he wasn't really a Christian. In a few days I got a scathing letter from his mom stating how dare I question his salvation. She referenced the time he went forward and got saved and his baptism done by the pastor in our pool. If I forgot she had pictures she could show me. His Bible had the date of his salvation written in it for proof! Didn't I know that you can't lose your salvation?!

      Passages like this one and many others suggest that just because you start on the spiritual journey with Christ doesn't necessarily mean that your final destination is Heaven. The people Paul was talking about were Israelites (members of church), passed through the Red Sea (baptized), experienced the power of God, and yet most never made it to Caanan (Heaven). Why? Because God was not pleased with them, they chose idols and persisted in sin and desired to go back to their old life. I do believe the verses that nothing can separate us from God and no one can pluck us out of His hand. But what if we willingly crawl out of His hands? 

     Lately, in the pool, my young grandkids love this game where I hold them in my arms and say, "I captured you and I'm not letting you go." Then one of the kids has to come rescue them or they have to wiggle themselves or fight to get free from my arms. I see eternal security somewhat like that. If you really want to get free of God's embrace, He will reluctantly let you go but you can't lose your salvation. You can willingly give it up, though.

       Today, this young man is a successful businessman, married, has kids that I delivered but is not following the Lord. His mom is currently not in church. Are they going to Heaven, I don't know. Are Joshua and Caleb the only two of the million that left Egypt that we will see in Heaven? I doubt it. Can they come back to the Lord? Absolutely. Only God knows hearts, but this passage does serve as a warning that just because you "got saved" and were baptized isn't a "get out of hell free" card.

 A saved life is an obedient one. Learn a lesson from the Israelites.