What must I do to be lost?

Dusty idea is the idea that I might be lost. What is lost? It means that you have died in your sins, and you will go to Gehenna or hell as described by Jesus in Matthew the 25th chapter. You will be in outer darkness for all eternity.

Most people you see will tell you that when they die they want to go to heaven. Most people aren't making any preparations to go there though. It's like the person that wanted to be a doctor when they grew up, but didn't want to study anything in school. They want, and they hope, but without any preparation how many patients do you think they'll get as a doctor? I know some people have fake degrees and get by with things for a while or maybe never get caught playing doctor. I promise you your fake Christian degree isn't going to fool God. You're not going to duck and dodge or slip and slide into heaven on some kind of accidental thing that God somehow forgot about you. If you go to heaven it will be because you have heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ¹. It will be because you believe it². Then you repented³ of sinful practices. You confessed⁴ Christ as the Son of God. Then you contacted the blood of Jesus through baptism⁵ (not infant baptism but an accountable age), which blood washed⁶ your sins away. Then you continued following Jesus, seeking to save that which is lost⁷. Converting people like you once were. Then The Lord wrote your name in the Lamb's Book of Life⁸. Then you worshiped right, worked right and walked right so it wouldn't be blotted out⁹.

One of the ideas people seem to have is that God is going to just go around saving random good people or good as the world defines good. There aren't any good people Mark 10:18. Ephesians 5:23 says that Jesus is the savior of the body, you have to get into the body to be saved. He will not save you outside of the body.

What is the body? It's the Church, Colossians 1:24 Paul says Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church,

Are you in the body? The title of this dusty idea was what must I do to be lost, well here it is: don't do anything listed above in red. Whatever you do don't do that, because it's the only thing that can take you to heaven.


^{1 Acts 15:7
2 Mark 16:16
3 Acts 2:38
4 Luke 12:8
5 Mark 16:16, Acts 2:38, 1 Peter 3:21, Colossians 2:12
6 Eph. 1:7, 1 John 1:7, Revelation 1:5, Acts 22:16
7 Mark 16:15 
8 Philippians 4:3, Revelation 21:27
9 Revelation 3:5}

Do people really believe in Heaven and Hell?

Dusty idea is Heaven and Hell are real. Heaven is wonderful enough to dream of and Hell is awful enough to be scared of.

What do you think would really happen if everyone believed in heaven and hell. People would probably study the treasure map that God through the Holy Spirit left us a lot more. It's amazing that people could have the map to the greatest treasure in the universe, the Bible, and decide it's not worth following.

Some of the things I do sometimes, makes me think I have the ability to forget that hell is real. It's not right in front of me, and it's not something I've ever seen or heard or smelled. I don't have a memory bank of first hand experiences to call up like I do for other things that have scared me in my past. I flipped a tow motor on it's side one day at work. That was a scary experience. I know exactly how I did it. When I drive a tow motor now do you think I won't do whatever it takes to avoid that same outcome? People don't have any experience with hell. There use to be a saying from Vietnam Vets that when they died they'd go to heaven, because they had spent their time in hell. I respect veterans of all wars, but if any of them think they have seen hell, they haven't seen anything yet. If people really believed in hell they would do whatever it takes to avoid that outcome.

One person that walked this earth knows exactly what hell is like. He's seen it, he helped prepare it and he's warning us about it. He left the warnings in a book called the Bible, more exactly in the New Testament. His name was Jesus. The apostle Paul taught Felix and his wife of righteousness and temperance and judgment to come in Acts 24:25 and it says that Felix trembled. It scared him so much he was shaking. I've had fellow Christians tell me that they wish preachers would stop talking about hell so much and just focus on the love of God. I think if reminding people of hell helps them to miss it, that's love you can't buy. You know that commercial on tv that use to end with something that was "priceless"?

Here goes.... Winning the lottery - $200 million dollars...... gaining the whole world - $999,999,999,999,999,999.00 + dollars.... Avoiding hell - PRICELESS!

Bible messages that can't be changed #4

Dusty idea this time is Jesus is the only way to get to heaven. This is a dusty idea topic to itself, but we're going to access this message from the Bible in verses that some people would like to change or erase from the Bible.

John 17:2 - As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.

John 14:6 - I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

In John 17th chapter we see that Jesus has been given power over all flesh. Does it matter what color people are? Does it matter about the social status? Does it matter if you're male or female? Does it matter what religion you're claiming to believe in? Does it matter if you believe in God or his Son? Jesus has all authority no matter how much some people don't like that idea.
John 14 Jesus gives us the final say on the entire matter, he is the way, he has the truth, and without him there is no life, now or in the judgment to come. You can't get to God except through Jesus and thats a message that can't be changed.

Everything God is.....

We're gonna resume messages that can't be changed but for a brief interlude, something I wanted to do for myself if no one else. Dusty idea is that God is more things than love. He is certainly love, he shows us on a continuing basis. We heard a sermon at church recently that held that God's main attribute is holiness. I agree with that, but here's other things the Bible says, "God is".

God is witness - Gen. 31:50
God is not a man - Num. 23:19
God is a consuming fire - Deut. 4:24
God is a merciful God - Deut. 4:31
God is one LORD - Deut. 6:4
God is a jealous God - Deut. 6:15
God is he that goeth over before thee - Deut. 9:3
God is God of gods - Deut. 10:17
God is he that goeth with you - Deut. 20:4
God is thy refuge - Deut. 33:27
God is with thee - Josh. 1:9
God is he that hath fought for you - Josh. 23:3
God is my strength and power - 2 Sam 22:33
God is mighty - Job 36:5
God is terrible majesty - Job 37:22
God is angry Ps. 7:11
God is forever and ever Ps. 45:6
God is the King - Ps. 47:7
God is known - Ps. 48:8
God is judge - Ps. 50:6
God is mine helper Ps. 54:4
God is for me - Ps. 56:9
God is my defense - Ps. 59:9
God is my salvation - Ps. 62:7
God is the God of salvation - Ps. 68:20
God is the strength of my heart - Ps. 73:26
God is a sun and shield - Ps. 84:11
God is greatly to be feared - Ps. 89:7
God is the rock of my refuge - Ps. 94:22
God is Holy - Ps. 99:9
God is pure - Prb. 30:5
God is righteous - Dan. 9:14
God is able - Mt. 3:9
God is come - Mt. 12:28
God is at hand - Mk. 1:15
God is preached - Lk. 16:16
God is within you - Lk. 17:21
God is nigh - Lk. 21:31
God is true - John 3:33
God is a spirit - John 4:24
God is glorified - John 13:31
God is revealed - Rom 1:18
God is manifest - Rom 1:19
God is blasphemed - Rom 2:24
God is eternal life - Rom 6:23
God is faithful - 1 Cor. 1:9
God is wiser than men - 1 Cor. 1:25
God is stronger than men - 1 Cor. 1:25
God is not the author of confusion - 1 Cor. 14:33
God is one - Gal. 3:20
God is not mocked - Gal 6:7
God is my record - Phil. 1:8
God is not bound - 2 Tim. 2:9
God is light - 1Jn 1:5
God is love - 1Jn 4:8

Bible messages that can't be changed #3

Dusty idea again is that the Bible can't be changed or altered to fit "modern" times.

Romans 1:16-17 - For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written the just shall live by faith.

In Romans 10:1-4 Paul talks about how the Jews had a zeal of God but not according to knowledge, and went about trying to establish their own righteousness instead of God's. This is not talking about the character of God, but how God made men righteous. According to Romans 1 above the righteousness of God is found in the gospel. So whatever God considered right he put it in the Bible.
If it's not found in the Bible it's not right. Where does that leave all the creed books in the world? The Baptist Standard's Manual, The Book of Common Prayer (Episcopal), The Book of Discipline (Methodist), The Book of Mormon? Where does that leave the koran and any other book you might come across thats not the Bible?

This message from Romans can't be changed by writing another book. We have one book, The Bible, in which the righteousness of God for man exists.

Bible Messages that can't be changed #2

Decided to change the name of these numbered posts to something that made more sense. Of course the dusty idea here is Bible messages can't be changed by men to suit what they want to believe.

Mark 9:1 And he said to them, "Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power." (ESV)
Matt. 16:28 Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom." (ESV)

These are a two parallel verses found in the Bible that pre-millienialists would like to have removed from the Bible. They believe Christ is going to set his kingdom up for a thousand years after he returns. Jesus' words are in direct conflict with this doctrine. Christ's own words say that there are people standing around him when he says this that will still be alive when the Kingdom comes. It came on the day of pentecost and it did come with power Acts 2:1-4.

Bible Messages that can't be changed #1

Dusty idea is that messages from the Bible can't be changed. Try to keep this short, but I don't know if I can..

I would first like to illustrate what I mean by messages that can't be changed in the Bible. If something is changed in the Bible God has to change it. Whatever has been delivered to us from the apostles is what we have to work with  (Jude 3). A prime example of God having a message delivered and not changing it would be Naaman the Syrian in II Kings 5. He was told to go down and wash in the Jordan River 7 times. He couldn't go anywhere else even after he asked if he could go to another river in Damascus. God didn't change his mind about where Naaman needed to go and he's not going to change his message for us today.

One of the messages found in the Bible that a lot of people would like to see removed or changed.

Mark 16:15-16, And he said unto them, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, he that believeth not shall be damned.
Might be the number one verse in the Bible that people would like to see gone or changed. But it's been there a long time and it'll be there after you and I are long gone. I can't change it, you can't change it and your pastor can't change it. The great commission includes baptism to contact the blood of Jesus, it's not outdated, and can't be updated to just accepting Jesus in your heart and you're saved without baptism.

More to come...