To Mike W.....Don't ever quit being repetitious if you keep saying these truths the same way!  Perfect!  Simply told, and totally understandable.  Saved by grace through faith.  Period.  And that's the problem for some.  People feel they have to "do" something, and by "doing" something, they are denying that Jesus, Himself, completed salvation for all of us with "It is finished" (John 19:30).

With what I have read about the "bride" rapture, the qualifications stem from total love for our Lord Jesus.  How many "Christians" profess their love for the Lord...and they seldom, if ever,  open their own bible.  Jesus wants us spotlessly clean.  The only way to do that is to get "washed by the water of the Word".  Jesus is the Word, He is the Water, and He is the Bread.  He is also the Way, the Truth, and the Life. When we read the bible, we are "eating" and "digesting" the Word o! f God....and Jesus is the Word of God (John 1:1).  This is what makes us clean. It isn't work, it's a joy!  I've heard someone say that if you find what you really love to do, and do that for a living, then you'll never have to work a day in your life.

I don't know how the Lord cleanses us by His Word, but He does.  It happens.  To me, when I read that Book, I am looking into the Face of God.  And while I am looking at Him, He is watching me.  It sounds loony, but that's how I feel.  "Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I may not sin against thee." (Ps.119:11).  That's my assurance of salvation.  God knows my heart better than I do.  He lives there!

As for "initial evidence"  and "Spirit baptism".....I really don't know what they mean!  I don't talk in "tongues", nor do I "pray in the spirit".  I don't know what that means either.  Those might be understandable "gifts" for ot! hers, but not mine.  I talk to God...sometimes in my head and from my heart.  Sometimes I talk out loud...like He is right there with me, and I feel that He is!  Sometimes I sit quietly with Him with my bible open....and sometimes I cry.  He knows me.  And if I were in a room with a thousand  men who claimed to be my Lord Jesus....I would know Him, and I would know who it was not.

So, if I were to ever have to "knock" on the door for Him to open it, I don't even want to think about hearing "I never knew you"!  It's up to us to get to know Him.  He wrote us (me) 66 "love letters"....and I love devouring them.  It's not "work", it's a joy!  Every day I learn something I didn't know yesterday.  And studying prophecy is unbelievably exciting because it tells me when He is coming for me!!!  What else is there?

And you too, Mike W, seem to understand this concept....

YsiC,

Arlene