My name is actually Kathleen HERR, not Hazelton (I don't know how that mix-up occurred, and it really doesn't matter anyway...), but I thank you for your note.

 

Yes, what I said actually does reflect my own views.  I'm usually just a "lurker" on the Five Doves.  Until I read the recent posts wherein some people expressed their opinion that the ten virgins represented the Church, I had never really heard of this point of view, or if I did, it didn't sink in.  It just doesn't reflect the Jewish marriage pattern, and I guess I've heard a lot more about that whole idea: one bride, whom the groom goes to get himself to take to his father's house to the place he has prepared for her.

 

I had never thought about the debate about whether true Christians could lose their salvation in connection with this particular parable either.  My mindset tends to revolve more around confidence in and gratitude for the finished work of Christ on our behalf, rather than on constantly worrying about my own efforts, which could never save me anyway.  That doesn't mean I'm not seeking to live for Christ - I most certainly am, and I long for His coming and want to see Him glorified.  What other response could I make to Him, considering His love for me, and all that He has done for me?  I want to live for Him, because I love Him dearly.  But I don't kid myself into believing that this is what keeps me saved.  Far from it it, since there is nothing good in me, except for Christ Himself, living out His own life in me through His Spirit.  If I had to rely on my own efforts to stay saved, I would have given up hanging on by my fingernails long ago and fallen into spiritual oblivion (or somewhere a lot worse.)  But because I am in Christ, instead of hanging on by my fingernails, I can stand.  "Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God."  Romans 5:1-2.

 

"What then shall we say to these things?  If God is for us, who is against us?  He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?  Who will bring a charge against God's elect?  God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns?  Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  Just as it is written, 'For Thy sake we are being put to death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.'  But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."  Romans 8:31-39

 

I am puzzled about why some of us seem to believe that our position in Christ is so precarious, and why they believe that genuine Christians as a general rule would be looking for chances to sin, to be lukewarm, etc. (not that we don't all go through dry spells emotionally and spiritually, but that's not the same as lukewarmness.)  "...for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have delivered unto Him against that day."  II Timothy 1:12b

 

God, though His Word, surely can say things better than I can, can't He?  As a parting thought, my prayer for you and all the Doves is "that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God."  Ephesians 3:18-19

 

And as we wait for His certain coming, let us remember also the words of Oswald Chambers in writing, I believe, about Ephesians 1:18-19:  "What thought have we given to His glorious inheritance in us?  Do we pay sufficient attention to His eager expectation and anticipation of His wedding day?  Is His coronation prominent in our minds?"

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Hi Kathleen,
The error is all mine. I listed the name "Kathleen Herr" on the letter index page but erroneouly left it as "Kathleen Hazelton" using a letter template. :(
John