What is salvation

Salvation is not a reward to be earned by works - but a free gift to be received by faith.

We are saved by trusting Jesus' death, burial and resurrection as the complete payment for our sins. We cannot be saved by turning from sin, or by doing good works, or by living the Christian life. It's only by putting our trust in Jesus alone and in what He did for us (His death, His burial and His resurrection). No amount of good works can undo the bad that we've done. No one is good enough to go to heaven on their own merits. If we could be saved by our own doing, we would have to be a 100% perfect all the time and only do good without ever committing a single sin for our entire lives- and be absolutely perfect like Jesus Christ. But truth be told, we've all sinned before, and as long as we are in this corrupt, sinful body, we will always sin (no one keeps God's commandments perfectly - the flesh cannot keep the law - If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us - - Romans 8:3, 1John 1:8). This is why turning from sin will not work - your past sins are still recorded against you, and you will always sin either by will or by ignorance. In order to go to heaven, you have to be a 100% perfect- which is why your sin needs to be paid for and covered, and Jesus' finished work is the only acceptable payment for man's sins. God will not accept any of our good works or efforts as a substitute to Jesus' death and resurrection. You must put a 100% of your faith and trust in Jesus alone, and nothing of yourself (Eph. 2:8-9, Rom 4:5). 

Salvation is eternal - there's nothing you can do to lose the gift of eternal life because it depends on Jesus alone.

The good news is that once you are saved, you're saved forever because all of your sins have been paid for and covered by the blood of Jesus the moment you received Him as your Savior. Now, if you commit sins after you're saved, God will correct you (nobody is getting away with sin in this life - whatsoever any man soweth, the same shall he also reap (Ga. 6:6)), and if you do good things (as a means to serve God and not as a means to earn salvation), God will reward you and bless you - but regardless of what you do or how you live, you will always be saved. You've become a child of God by faith in Jesus Christ (Ga. 3:26). That is because salvation is all by grace (by God's unmerited favor) through faith in Jesus' finished work alone. It’s not by our own works of righteousness (i.e., the works that we do to earn salvation). Salvation depends on Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins, and not on what we do to earn it. One sin has condemned us all to hell (Romans 5:12), and only one sacrifice can save us - the blood of Jesus (Heb. 9:22, 10:12).

This is how salvation works - it's free grace, and it's once saved, always saved. Salvation is only through Jesus' death, burial and resurrection. Salvation is truly free.

If you desire to be saved, you must stop trusting in your own works and you must simply believe that Jesus died, was buried and rose again to pay for your salvation. You cannot add anything to His finished work - simply believe, and you will receive eternal life. If you think that you have to be a good person, or do good works, or be baptized, or go to church, or keep the commandments, or do anything other than BELIEVE on the Lord Jesus Christ for your salvation (Acts 16:31), then you will not be saved - because you're trusting in your own works, instead of depending on Jesus' finished work alone. Nobody ever worked hard to enough to make it to heaven. My friend, it's the sinless blood of the Lamb versus your filthy rags of good works. Don't trust any of your works (Is. 64:6)- only trust the blood of Jesus. ''What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus; What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.'' 

In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace. Ephesians 1:7

And if by grace, then is it no more of works - Romans 11:6a.

The dangers of pornography

Pornography is very bad for many reasons. First and foremost because it sticks to your mind forever (what goes in, doesn’t come out). It's like a tattoo. Except it's put in your brain and you cannot erase it. It's also very bad because it creates an insatiable appetite. ‘’The eyes of man are never full‘’. It’s all dirty. It will follow you wherever you go, and will affect your relationships and view towards the opposite gender (it perverts your view of the opposite sex and creates cravings that are really hard to resist). It will destroy your marriage, your career, your morals, your brain’s chemistry and it can send you to jail, and will shave years off your life and wellbeing. It is over-addictive and over-stimulating – it is worst than actual drugs. Just as with video games, it creates OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) and fills a good chunk of quality time that could be spent on something else. You will be desensitized to the beauty of your spouse. You will lose your desires to do normal things and to do what’s right and enjoy the basic pleasures of life. Etc. For one once of pleasure, you get a lifetime of pain and sorrow. It is better to bear a yoke of wood, than a yoke of iron.

You can live without pornography once you realize that it’s a literal toilet bowl. Pornography is the internet’s sewers. As with any addiction, you can never remain on the same level of intensity to fulfill the chemical addiction that you’ve created in your mind – it is ever increasing and requires more hardcore content for a temporary relief. Over time, you will notice that the content you see will be filthier and filthier because the so called ‘’good’’ or ‘’likeable’’ content is mixed with the perverted content (such as sodomy, etc.), which will desensitize your mind to the awfulness of sin, and as we know, curiosity always kills the cat. You will always go to the next level of filth until you reach the point of the toilet bowl. As long as you feed that lust, it will always get the best of you.

The way to live without porn is to live a full life, avoiding idle time, spending quality time working at a job, having hobbies, fulfilling hard tasks and doing plenty of physical exercise, having close friendships and accountability partners, keeping a journal of abstinence and of course, the Bible, prayer and church.

You may have been taught all your life that masturbation is a sin- well, if it’s a tool you can use to avoid pornography, by all means do it once in a while – because the greater sin is looking at pornography. It is greater work to release yourself with fantasy (it might require more effort for some), but it’s purer and more satisfying in the long run. You will probably feel guilty of doing it even without looking at internet filth, but that is because of the misconception of it being a sin by the evangelicals and the other nuts who do not use their own judgment over the necessities of life. You ought to be spared the toilet bowl of filth that’s waiting to catch you on the net. Using your imagination is the better tool here. Most men require a release every few days. If you can push back the need to do it further, great, but don’t wait to explode. Once or twice every day or up to once in 3 days is a good rule of thumb. The main point is avoiding nudity and filthy content. There’s already enough visual stimuli that isn’t porn, you don’t need any more. In the good old days, without the internet filth, men had to use their imagination and they only had clothing magazines. The internet filth causes memory problems and erectile disfunction (which can be almost permanent depending on the level of your addiction). Also you will never enjoy the natural beauty of women as much as before if you go into the deeper levels.

If you can quit cold turkey, that’s the best way to do it. It will be a real struggle for the first week, then the first month, then the first half of the year, but if you can reach a year without it, you will be very proud of yourself. As with cigarettes : you better abstain from any of it, and if you're on an addiction, the Lord might make you hit some walls that will make you stop - but it won't be pleasant. The only durable solution is to get married or wait for your sex drive to decrease over time. 

Society’s norms are not God’s norms. The cesspool of iniquity will only increase, so remember : 1- stop, 2-run, 3- don’t turn back, 4-Keep yourself busy and pray ''that ye enter not into temptation''. Give yourself all the means to avoid it- and avoid it like the plague. Sin is always more serious than you think. Fools make a mock of sin.

If you've fallen into sin, know that the consequences will remain, but you can be restored in part (some things will fade away with time, however, stains of the sin will always remain -i.e., especially memories). The reason porn is so bad is because it affects your mind for a lifetime, and its severity depends on how long you've been into it and what you've been exposed to. Know that you are not alone in this struggle, and that the Lord can help you remain sober if you keep yourself busy and distanciating yourself from the negative influences. Society has pushed it as ''a need'', but in reality it is only a craving, or an addiction that has replaced marriage. It is a communist goal to pervert the minds of the youth and the medias (such as TV and  the internet) do just that.