Sunday Evening Ramblings...

So, while Nic is out of town, I took the liberty of making a little world cloud for her, which is always fun! Try it on your own site, it is rather enlightening!

So, did everyone have a great weekend? I'm assuming you did.. Comments are always nice you know! Speaking of comments, two readers had questions from the "ask Nic" venue from last week, and I shall endeavor to answer as best I can, but with the caveat that Nicole could probably better answer them herself! So Nicole, feel free to revise/ clarify/ delete as you see fit!

Monty asked: Dear cmhl, I read the banner streaming by and I understand the concept that I am saved simply by the fact of my faith. But does that relieve me of my responsibility to try to be a better person? Thank you in advance.

A little internet search gave the following suggestions, read
here,
here,
and
here.

I honestly feel like I am not qualified to answer this question, and I look forward to Nic's take on this one.

My clumsy answer is as follows; nobody deserves salvation. Nobody. All have sinned and fallen short. You will never be good enough to deserve heaven or to deserve salvation.

What about the man that murders his entire family, is convicted, and then has a death-row conversion. Obviously he is a sinner, obviously what he did was wrong, and he is paying the price. He hears/ believes/ confesses/ repents/ is baptized and is presumably forgiven and on his way to heaven. Could he ever be a "good enough" person? No. Could he still be saved? According to the bible, I say yes. But he will never be good enough.

Good works-- is it a requirement? I think that rather than thinking of good works as a requirement, good works are more of a symptom of people that have been saved. They will want to do good works, want to please God, but good works aren't what will get them into heaven--- grace will. Somebody help me out here, I'm confident that someone else can give a more concise and/or accurate answer to this question. Thank you Monty!

Overwhelmed asks: Nicole (or Cmhl), how did you get those neat graphics on your sidebar? :)

This one I will totally ask Nicole to answer! her page has TONS of graphics, and yet still loads well! I will say this--- many of her links, if you click on them, it will take you to a website that has the directions for putting a link on your blog. Normally, you go into your template and add in the code, or at least that is what I have found in my experience..

Have a wonderful Sunday Night!