He is in you, you are the Temple of the Lord, and you are in Him, the Body of Christ, amen. All communication is direct.

Wait. You mean I don't need a faggot in a long flowing robe to give me HIS blessing and talk with the Almighty on my behalf, for money?

Now THERE'S a "revelation" :)

Actually, from the very beginning, salvation was always and only by the grace of God through faith (which is a gift of God) accomplished through the Person and work of Christ alone, completely apart from any works of man. The Lamb was slain from before the foundation of the world. OT era animal sacrifices were a temporary insertion until Christ should come to earth and die for his people, as Paul explains in his letters. "It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins." Abraham was saved because he believed God's promise, not because he sacrificed animals. All who believe have the same kind of faith that Abraham had.

Not every Israelite was "saved." Only the ones who had God given faith. Based upon his behavior, you wouldn't think that Lot was saved, yet Peter affirms it was so. Lot was a type of believer too much in the world, yet God had chosen him for salvation before he was ever born. When Christ came, salvation was opened up to the world of the gentile nations. Prior, it was mainly for the Israelites. Also, the Holy Spirit was given to indwell believers when Christ appeared at Pentecost. Prior to this, the Spirit would sometimes temporarily fall upon believers who would be empowered to prophesy.

NT talks about fasting for the purpose of prayer, so giving up something for Lent is a type of fasting, which doesn't have to be assigned to a particular season. I put Lent in the same category as celebrating Easter and Christmas. Observe these things if you wish, just don't get caught in the mind set that religious rituals and observances are keys to finding favor with God. The heart has to be scrubbed of self-righteous notions. Christ alone is perfectly righteous, and a believer has Christ's righteousness laid to his account. He died as a substitute for his people's sins, which have all been washed in the blood of the Lamb. The debt of sin is paid in full.

A believer will have some good works, but genuine good works spring from salvation and God's work in and for the believer, not our own fleshly "good works." Even religious non-believers can perform fleshly good works. Any good works performed prior to experiencing the spiritual rebirth of salvation are what the Bible calls "dead works."

There is that troubling passage in the book of James. It talks about faith vs works and faith without works being "dead faith." This is on the surface different from Paul's writings, especially in the book of Galatians, where he says they have been "bewitched" by Judiaizers into adding the works of the Law to the grace of salvation. He explicitly states that if they continue to believe in co-mingling grace and works, they will be in danger as to their salvation status. The point of the Law of Moses is that no one can perfectly keep it! It only condemns you to a trip to the Lake of Fire. Who saves you from the fire? Christ! Christ only! Not any portion of what the Bible calls "filthy rags of self-righteousness" will open the gates of Heaven to you. Cling to Christ and you will be safe.

The Parable of the Wedding Feast: Matthew 22

22 And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying, 2 “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king [God the Father] who gave a wedding feast for his son [Christ], 3 and sent his servants [prophets] to call those who were invited [Israelites] to the wedding feast [marriage supper of the Lamb], but they would not come. [No thanks, we don't want salvation your way.]

4 Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.”’ 5 But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business [interested in worldly things, not heavenly things], 6 while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. [Prophets, apostles and Christ were killed.]7 The king was angry, and he sent his troops [Roman army] and destroyed those murderers and burned their city [sack of Jerusalem].

8 Then he said to his servants [Christians, including apostles], ‘The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. 9 Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.’ 10 And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all [Jews as well as gentiles in the world] whom they found, BOTH BAD AND GOOD [no relationship to works]. So the wedding hall was FILLED with guests [lots of people in Heaven].

11 “But when the king came in to look at the guests [Christians], he saw there a man who had no wedding garment [he was wearing his filthy rags of self-righteousness]. 12 And he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?' [clean wedding garments supplied by Christ's works to cover our sin] And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the attendants [angels], ‘Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ 14 For many are called, but few are chosen.”

[Many are attracted to popular images of Christ, but "relatively" few believe in Christ as accurately set forth in the scriptures. True faith is the work of the Lord, not man.]

The last time I read the Bible was today, joker.

Catholics don't believe salvation is based on works, fool. But works are critical. Jesus Himself said we have to do works.

In Matthew 7:13-14, Jesus refers to heaven as "the narrow gate". Not just any crackhead gets in.

You don't HAVE to sacrifice for God but what does it HURT? The apostles fucking DIED for Him what have you done? People can't even be bothered to give something up once a year because "I don't have to!"