--- In [email protected], "kjdruhl" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Rick, > > have you ever been very close to someone, in a room packed with > people, but were not intimate with him? There was physical > closeness, but no relationship. > > Another analogy: If by an accident all the nerves going into your > left arm were severed, it would still be your arm, your blood > vessels would still supply it with blood, but it would be of no use > to you. It would begin to shrivel, the muscles would loose their > tone and shrink. > > Same with God and man. Man is made in the image of God, and God's > Spirit sustains us and all of His creation everywhere and at all > times. But we have been given free will, to enter in relationship > with God or not. Without free will, there could be no relationship, > we would be puppets. > > The Bible tells us that man choose, at some distant point in the > past, to forego his relationship with God, in an attempt to become > himself like God, to live out of his own understanding of good and > evil. God had made it clear that the result of that choice would be > death. And spiritual death has been with man ever since. Jesus > Christ paid this death penalty for all of mankind, for all past, > present and future on the cross. "It is finished" were His last > words. Nothing more needs and can be done by man to be restored to > God...
Nothing ever did. It has always been "finished." There was never a moment in which it was not "finished." There was never a "fall." Man just imagined there was. But if it floats your boat to believe that there is an "except" clause needed to clarify the first part of your last sentence above, you have fun with that, y'hear? > ...except to accept His gift of salvation by a free choice of his > will. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Get fast access to your favorite Yahoo! Groups. Make Yahoo! your home page http://us.click.yahoo.com/dpRU5A/wUILAA/yQLSAA/JjtolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To subscribe, send a message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Or go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ and click 'Join This Group!' Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
