Last night was a great service, and if you weren't there you missed a powerful moment in the life of our church with our prayer and healing service. A special thanks to Megan Z and her team that organized this event. I am looking forward to the prayer and healing service on August 6. When we gather to pray God moves in a mighty way.
Back to questions of the week: "If you believe Christ died for you, but do not change your worldly ways or thoughts are you saved?" That's a great question because there are so many issues in it that I could spend pages on writing the answers, but I won't.

First, to the issued of "saved." That's just a word I don't like in our faith because it automatically leads to saved from what? Which the typical answer is that we are saved from hell. Yet I don't believe the only reason Jesus came and died on the cross is so we can get the "get out of burning in hell free card." I believe that as it says in John 10:10, "He came that we might have life and have it abundantly." Salvation is much more than where we spend eternity it is about how we live now. We can live the best life possible when we align or orient our lives to Jesus's way, when we live according to God's unforced rhythms of grace.

So with that said to answer the question, I do think how we live our lives is an indication of our relationship with Jesus. So what are "worldly ways?" I think our faith and how we live it out is much more than don't drink, cuss, smoke or chew or go with girls who do! Living the way of Jesus and letting go of worldly ways means not responding to evil with evil, it means forgiving those who hurt us, it is taking care of those in need, it is reaching out to lend a helping hand, it is praying for one another, it is carrying each other's burdens, it is letting go of the past, it is taking a day to rest and honor God, it is offering a way that is different from our got to have it now consumer culture. That doesn't answer the question but yeah I think if we don't change our ways and are not constantly work at orienting ourselves to Jesus then we will miss out on living life to the fullest. What that means for our salvation, I'll let you and God figure that one out. For me and my house, we will serve God and try to put God first in all we do.