This is not so much a comment on the post, but the Christian life needs to be more than simply holding correct doctrine in our heads and using the phrases used in the Bible. There needs to be a genuine display of the spiritual reality of Jesus Christ within the life of the individual Christian, and within the life of the church. Genuine Christianity is sadly missing in the American church. We've opted for "doctrine," or programs, or "seeker-friendliness," or being "purpose-driven," or a combination of all. Where is the person who can say, "My life is hidden in Christ. It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me"?
Great post and sentiments. I've often felt the exact same way.
Over the years, however, I began to notice that my behavior had changed towards other, my friends, my church brethren, and my community of Christians. I began to question THEIR faith and their DEVOTION based on what I saw in their actions and/or attitudes. I felt that my feelings of how to live should be the yardstick that others should be measured.
After a passage of time, God opened my heart again and showed me that it's NOT my place to judge other people around me, but He is the master who accepts or rejects the hearts of other. He led me back to where I work for Him through Him and I pray that others will be led to the same work.
The Community cannot separate itself based on how we perceive other denominations, religions, or even our church family members. We are all workers of God's will when we accept Him. He will be the judge and the jury on that final day. It's not by good works by which we are saved, but through the grace of God.
I pray each and every day to have God's grace in all my actions, humanity, and thoughts. I also pray that He extends that grace to all I know and love.
I hope that I didn't misread your post in that since you have a strict interpretation of what salvation is, that you do not make the same mistakes I did.
May God's blessings and grace alway surround you!
I gather by your post that you seem to be a rather sincere Evangelical Christian. I don't know if you read the magazine "Christianity Today". Even though I am not an Evangelical Christian, I find many articles in it very interesting. Recently, one article caught my eye--in the current issue. There seems to be a whole upsurge in Calvinistic theology sweeping through some sectors of the Evangelical world. Not that I have any particular sympathy for Calvinist theology, but one of the reasons for this phenomenon is that many Evangelicals are searching for a faith with a more substantitive theology. Many are looking for something more intellectually based than what they are finding in their congregations. If you come across the article I think you will find it a good read. It doesn't mean you have to go the route of Calvinist theology to have a decent intellectual basis for your faith.
Being raised a Roman Catholic, which at one time prided itself on its intellectual heritage (I don't want to segue into a diatribe on the sin of pride) I feel much of that has been lost as far as the people sitting in the pews. The emphasis in RC churches is primarily on social justice. It kind of goes like this; "Well, if I volunteer once a week at a soup kitchen, I am doing something good for someone else, I FEEL GOOD ABOUT MYSELF (the self esteem angle is always there--watch out for the warm & fuzzy syndrome)----therefore I must be a good person."
I am not saying folks shouldn't be concerned about social justice, and I belive more folks should get involved in soup kitchens and shelters etc. But there is no intellectual substance for their faith. For all the information available in this day and age, I really believe there is an anti-intellectualism out there--even among the college educated middle class. It's not so much a liberal-conservative thing--it's an all across phenomena and it definitely affects religion & faith as well.
Here is an interesting quiz from their site: Am I Going To Heaven?
Wherefore, my dearly beloved, (as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but much more now in my absence,) with fear and trembling work out your salvation
But I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection: lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway
Now all these things happened to them in figure: and they are written for our correction, upon whom the ends of the world are come. 12 Wherefore he that thinketh himself to stand, let him take heed lest he fall
A faithful saying: for if we be dead with him, we shall live also with him. 12 If we suffer, we shall also reign with him. If we deny him, he will also deny us. 13 If we believe not, he continueth faithful, he can not deny himself.
For it is impossible for those who were once illuminated, have tasted also the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 5 Have moreover tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come6 And are fallen away: to be renewed again to penance, crucifying again to themselves the Son of God, and making him a mockery
For if we sin wilfully after having the knowledge of the truth, there is now left no sacrifice for sins, 27 But a certain dreadful expectation of judgment, and the rage of a fire which shall consume the adversaries
I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever; and the bread that I will give, is my flesh, for the life of the world. The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying: How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say unto you: Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed: and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth me, the same also shall live by me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead. He that eateth this bread, shall live for ever.
Everybody's a Christian now a days...And how does one know he/she's a Christian???
I'm convinced there has to be a defining moment in a Christians life...If you're a Christian, one day, or one night, you asked Jesus to be your savior...
And unless you write down the date, you may over time forget the date, but you won't forget the event...I didn't write it down...I remember it was on a Thursday in June of 1983 that I asked the Lord to save me...I was driving my car and can pick the spot on the road give or take a quarter mile...But the date of the day escapes me...
When you get that personal with the Lord, it'll leave a mark on your memory, in my opinion...
btt
"It is sad because children are very literal in their approach to things. They are left confused. They see a contradiction between what they learn in biology and what they hear in church. In biology they learn nothing about a door or latches on the heart."
Jonathan Edwards "The Excellency of Christ".
snip
Say to all those who call you away, "Nay, but I will die here"; for nobody ever did perish trusting in Jesus. There has not been through all these centuries a single instance of a soul being cast away that came all guilty and hell-deserving, and took Christ to be its salvation. If you perish, you will then be the first that perished with his hand laid upon Christ. His love and power can never fail a sinner's confidence. Wherefore, may God the Holy Spirit lead you to resolve, "If I must die, I will die here." Listen to me, soul, whoever thou mayest be out of the crowd, man or women, whatever thy life may have been, even though it should have been that of a harlot or a thief, a drunkard or a profligate, if thou wilt now believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, thou shalt be saved; for, if not, then God himself will have missed his greatest design. What did he give Jesus for but to save sinners? What did he lay sin upon Jesus for, but that he might take it off the sinner, and let him go free, and be pardoned? If, then, Christ fails, God's grandest expedient has broken down. That method by which the Lord resolved to show what his almighty grace can do has proved to be a failure if a believing sinner is not saved. Dost thou think that such a thing can ever be? It is blasphemy to think that Jehovah can be defeated. He that believes in Christ shall be saved; nay, he is saved.
If thou art not saved believing in Christ, then Christ himself is dishonoured. Oh, let them once know, down in the dark abode of fallen spirits, that a man has trusted in Christ and yet has not been saved, I tell you that they will make such exultation over Christ as Philistia made over Samson when his eyes were put out. They would feel that they had defeated the Prince of Glory. They would trample on his blood, and ridicule his claim to be the Savour of men. If any soul can truly say hereafter, "I went to Christ, and he refused me," then Christ does not speak the truth when he says, "Him that cometh to me I will in nowise cast out." Then he has changed his nature, foregone his word, and foresworn himself. But that also can never be. herefore, dear heart, cling to Jesus, and say still, "If I die, I will die here."
Moreover, if thou canst perish trusting in Christ thou wilt discourage all the saints of God; for if Christ can break his promise to one, then why not to another? If one promise fails, why not all the promises? If the blood has lost its power, how can any of us ever hope to enter heaven? I say it will breed great discouragement in the hearts of all people if this be true; for what a wet blanket would e throne over all thy fellow-sinners! If they are coming to Christ, they will start back, and say, "What is the good of it? Here is one that came to Jesus, and he did not save him. He trusted in the precious blood, and yet his sin was laid to his charge." If one fails, why not the rest? I must give up preaching the gospel when once I hear of a man trusting Jesus and not being saved; for I should be afraid to speak with boldness, as I now do.
If one poor soul that puts his trust in Christ should be cast away it would spoil heaven itself. What security is there for glorified spirits that their splendours shall endure except the promise of a faithful, covenant-keeping God? If, then, looking down from their celestial seats, they behold the great Father breaking his promise, and the Son of God unable to save those for whom he died, then will they say, "We will lay our harps aside, and put our palms away, for we, too, after all, may perish." See, then, O man, heaven and earth, ay, God and his Christ, as to their credit and their glory, do stand and fall with the salvation of every believing sinner. If I were in your stead tonight, I think that I should bless God to have this matter put so plainly to me. I know that years ago, when I was under a sense of sin, if I had heard even such a poor sermon as this I should have jumped for joy at it, and would have ventured upon Christ at once. Come, poor soul; come at once. You have heard the gospel long enough; now obey it. You have heard about Christ long enough; now trust in him. You have been invited and entreated, and pleaded with; now yield to his grace. Yield to joy and peace by trusting in him who will give you both of these as soon as you have rested in him.
Look! sinner, look! A look out of thyself will save thee. Look away from all thy works, and prayers, and tears, and feelings, and church-goings, and chapel-goings, and sacraments, and ministers. Look alone to Jesus. Look at once to him who on the bloody tree made expiation, and who bids thee look, and thou shalt live.
God make this present hour to be the period of thy new birth. I pray it, and so do his people. The Lord hearken to our intercessions, for Christ's sake. Amen.
Taken From:
Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit
Vol. 31, No. 1826Charles Spurgeon
Hey cowboy! My grandmother used to sing this song to us every night after we said our prayers, when we visited her, back East. She then would sing it to us in what I think was Russian! She spoke & taught 6 different languages. To this day I still sing it after my bedtime prayers and then again when I awake, each morning. Into my heart, into my heart, come into my heart, Lord Jesus. Come in today, come in to stay, come into my heart, Lord Jesus! I'll have to e-mail my brothe in California, who is 4 years older than I am, to see if he remembers it in Russian, or whatever language it was.