Decades ago, I was helping out with the youth in a good church. A few were asked to tell about their salvation experience. One simply said he was raised in a Christian home, and he had been going to church all his life. I just shook my head, and thought some of these people may be tares among the wheat.
>>Decades ago, I was helping out with the youth in a good church. A few were asked to tell about their salvation experience. One simply said he was raised in a Christian home, and he had been going to church all his life. I just shook my head, and thought some of these people may be tares among the wheat.
You have to be careful with that. Being raised Christian so that it is your only worldview is God’s Plan A for his Elect. He wants families to raise their children as his children. Plan B is the person who lived away from him for years and suddenly has a dramatic conversion experience.
I’m a Plan B person and wish I had been a Plan A person so all those years wouldn’t have been spent on some of the things I spent them on.
That reminds me of the parable about the king who sought to choose his successor out of all the children in the kingdom.
They all lined up (what mother was going to miss out on *this* opportunity?). The king gave them each a seed to plant and grow and nurture. At an appointed time, they were to return with their project, so that the king could assess their abilities.
The day arrived. Each child brought forth his plant. Quite a line-up of beautiful flowers and greenery. Whose would be the best? Who would merit the kingdom?
One little boy, however, could only present the king with an empty pot of dirt. The child did the best he could, but his seed didn't grow. He was very sad, but that's what happened, so that's what he told the king.
Well you can see who merited the kingdom, because none of the seeds the king gave to the children were any good.