Peaceful lifestyle of a believer

The way we live, our lifestyle, is based on our overall belief system, that is best described as:

(1) Though born a sinner, mankind is given a spark of divine grace that enables him to respond positively to God.
(2) God does not arbitrarily consign some people to eternal damnation; their willful rejection of God’s salvation makes them responsible.
(3) Christ died for every person, even though some refuse to accept the provision for their salvation.
(4) No person is forced against his or her will to become a Christian.
(5) One’s salvation can be lost through willful disobedience; that there is a condition to our predestination. We are predestined to eternal life if we accept God’s provision of salvation.

So how should we live as believers?

• We should not get comfortable and complacent.
• We should be humble before we stumble; pride causes sin; pride goes before destruction; grace requires being humble.
• We should pay attention to the warning signs by repenting of our sins and start doing right.
• We should always show merciful kindness to the poor and oppressed.

But because we are creatures with free wills, we must be vigilantly on guard because the enemy of our soul, the devil, “prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith” (1 Peter 5:8,9). In our fellowship we believe carelessness can lead to apathy, apathy to neglect, and neglect to a conscious decision to sin. We often refer to this spiritual decline as backsliding. We believe one who backslides is in danger of losing his salvation if the individual persists in rejecting the Spirit’s call to repentance and restoration.

Luke 8:13 makes clear the fact that believers can lose their salvation. It says some “believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away.” Revelation 22:19 says “If anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life, and in the holy city.”