Have you heard believers discuss the question of ‘once saved, always saved’? This is a theological proposition that is also referred to as the question of eternal security. It has remained an open controversy over the centuries with opposing schools of thought. Can you lose your salvation? This question comes close to one you are told to avoid; who shall ascend into heaven, and who shall descend into hell. It is also a question that is more legalistic than relational. If you are deeply immersed in a relationship with me it should be incomprehensible to you that it could ever be discontinued.

Do people confide in you? Do you find it flattering when they do? Do they confide their own faults and shortcomings or those of others? This is a crucial distinction. In the first case it follows the Biblical concept of confessing your faults to one another that you may be healed. In the second case it follows the Biblical concept of gossip and tale bearing. Do you know intuitively who is a receptive audience for what information? It doesn’t take much discernment to figure this out, and it is just as easy for others to see it in you. So the harmful things that people are willing to confide in you about others may tell you something about yourself.

Have you ever heard the saying, it isn’t what you know but who you know? This is most commonly used as a cynical expression in the world of commerce where, for example, the most qualified applicant for a job was not hired because they didn’t have connections. Yet there is still an underlying transcendent truth in this concept. For your faith consists of relational truth. Doesn’t every believer describe the essence of their faith this way? In this case it isn’t enough to know about me, but eternal life is for those who know me. No amount of classroom or book study will get you there but it is readily available to children.

I offer you the promise of transformation. What do you expect this to look like? Is this something you greatly desire, or do you think you are OK the way you are? Do you think that transformation would require the loss of your identity and leave you in a condition that is not uniquely you? You are fearfully and wonderfully made, and I created you with a purpose in mind. You are unique in all creation and this is my doing and I have no intention of changing that. Yet transformation is still the greatest promise I offer you. I want you to understand this and value it as the pathway to being the best version of yourself.