Refreshed, Thorn has so much going on with work, etc. that he is probably not going to be coming back here. He's in bed now anyway.
I'm not coming back. I just wanted to clear up a couple of points really quick.
On Thorn's family, I think you have maybe confused some stuff I've said about my side of the family. And I really don't think I've said much about them either. I remember making a post one time about how when we meet for the holidays, the conversations seem shallow sometimes. Some of the family on my side are atheist, or something like that. They hate Christianity for sure.
I just don't remember saying anything much about Thorn's side of the family. I did mention one time I think about his sister abandoning her four children and not knowing where they are. As for his parents, the only thing I've ever had any twinge of anger towards them at all about has been not teaching Thorn how to clean better. lol They have no idea what I go through over that particular lack of parenting. :) But I really blame him. He's an adult now and can learn how to clean and put away his things better, and he is learning, slowly. I love Thorn's dad. We've always had a great relationship and he makes me laugh. His mom makes me laugh too. She's always got something new to show me that she digs out of her purse. :) I have no animosity towards them at all. I wish I could have been closer to them but their daughter has been selling drugs out of their house and doing drugs in their house for many years, and all kinds of other stuff has been going on in there that shouldn't be going on. We can't have our daughter over there because of that. Thorn's mom is not in good shape physically, but we meet them out other places when we can. Thorn's brother and me had some bad moments recently but we have since made up and forgiven one another. So all is good. Thorn has another sister that has lived in another state for the past decade or so, but we are on good terms even though we rarely see her.

Maybe I didn't have to explain all that, but I don't like to just leave stuff like that unexplained on here. Like you said, you never know when someone else could be reading. If they ever read this thread, that would really hurt their feelings to think I had this huge animosity towards them that you described and it just isn't the case. I love them, and so does Thorn. We wish they hadn't allowed the drug dealing, etc. to go on, but this has been more of Thorn's frustrations than even mine because obviously he is even closer to them being their biological son. But we both hate to see what they go through because of it, and all the other consequences to the family that come from it.

On the not continually asking God for forgiveness of our sins issue, which applies to true believers, or true Christians only, I put up a really good article that I thought did a great job of explaining this position. It's like if a father gave his son something, but the son kept asking the father to give it to him when he already did, that might get annoying and frustrating to the father. Instead the son should just thank the father for whatever he gave him. I thank God everyday, at least I hope I remember to do that everyday, for the forgiveness of my sins. And I'm always confessing my sins, agreeing with God in the ways I've gone astray, asking Him continually for Him to work in me to not sin in those ways again, to mold me to be more like His son, etc. But that's all different than asking Him to give me something He already has:

Hebrews 10:15-18 - “The Holy Spirit also is a witness to us; for after He had said before, ‘This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord; I will put My Laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,’ also He adds, ‘their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more.’ Now where remission/forgiveness of these (sins) is, there is no more offering for sin.”

Ephesians 1:7 – “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace,”
(The key here though is to be "In Him" otherwise we are still in our sins and must face God's judgement for our sins. Not everyone that claims to be a christian, is "In Him." But this is how we know if we are "In Him" or not.
Romans 8:16
The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.

Acts 13:38-39 – “Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the Law of Moses.”
Hebrews 8:12 - “For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more”


Hebrews 10:18 – “Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin”

(not even prayers)

See before the death of Christ, the people had to make sin offerings and they continually had to pray for the forgiveness of their sins. When Christ gave the example of how the disciples should pray, they were still in the Old Covenant. Christ still had not made the final offering for sin that would ever be, and the disciples were to still be praying for forgiveness of all their sins, because the New Covenant had not come into effect yet. Everything was not yet finished, as Christ would say in His final breath, "it is finished."

Refreshed, I believe God has already saved me as far as He's already forgiven all my sins, past, present, and future, and my inheritance in Him is sealed. I know you take offense to that, but that is what I believe and it is not uncommon at all for Christians of all kinds of denominations to hold that belief, because I believe the bible is clear on that.
That belief doesn't make me want to live in sin, but quite opposite, it causes me to hate sin all the more because of this amazing, everlasting, never to be taken away, love God has revealed that he has for me. I sometimes get sucked into the constant voices that seek to blind me from God's everlasting love for me, and that is when I'm much more prone to fall into some kind of sin, negative thoughts, or whatever.

Anyway, bottom line, I thank God for what he has done for me instead of asking him to do what he has already done. It's a simple concept to me, but I understand the confusion on it. How the New Covenant is very different from the Old covenant and rightly dividing the scriptures is not so simple sometimes. It takes a lot of studying and understanding and I surely need to do more and more of that.
Sometimes something we have always done, seems so right, but may not be as we examine what the scriptures are saying a little closer.
I have peace about the issue. But just continue to pray for me if you think I'm in danger with this belief.

I love you too Refreshed. We have been at this for years, and that is hard to believe.   And yes, there have been many good times, as well as the bad. 

I just need to go though for a lot of reasons. Maybe someday I can come back. Surely you want some more peace on here anyway. With me here, that's much less likely to happen, and you know that. :) I've said it before, and I'll say it again, there is a reason for the different denominations. This isn't a perfect world, and we don't have perfect understanding, and we still have fleshes that get riled up and don't handle things perfectly. And it's much nicer to have bible studies where there is a lot more common ground and everyone doesn't leave saying "huh???" to what each other said. It's hard to build up and help one another in our understanding when our foundations aren't even the same. I'm saying true believers are already saved and you are saying, no, they are not. Huge difference there!, and so many of the other doctrines are built upon that doctrine, whichever way you believe effects so many other doctrinal beliefs.   You said that yourself in a slightly different way in maybe this same thread, and it's true.
My friend from my church emailed me the other day. It was a breath of fresh air to hear from her because it was in the middle of this debate. Just to hear from someone that I know understands the way I understand, just helped me to take a deep breath, and remember that I'm not insane after all. lol

I do love you all. Just like I love Thorn's family who sees things differently, and my own family, who sees things differently. But we are not getting anywhere. And I am not a shallow person that just likes to talk about shallow things. And that's what we'd all have to do to not start stepping on one another's toes again here.

Yes, when we all sing and talk about how glorious the Lord is, those are great moments that I feel like we can all feel good about, and we all agree that He is indeed glorious! And we can all agree that God created the world. The topics of creationism are good, but we don't talk about that a whole lot on here. Everything else starts getting into deeper theology, and there's where we start to go our different directions. I know why you rarely comment on Scotty's prayers and the quotes I put up, etc. because the theology in those prayers and quotes is often very different from your theology.

I feel like I'm rambling like never before. Man this is long. It is hard for me to go. I will miss you all. And like I said above, there are so many reasons I need to go. I've just stated a couple. I won't go into the rest. Please don't ask me to stay. It's hard enough as it is.

May the Lord continue to guide all our paths wherever they may take us!

Goodnight!