[sola gracia]

Joel asks some interesting questions. Any comments?

[sola gracia]

Bump for discussion.

[anniegetyourgun]

Joel needs to stop beating himself up. He says his friend sat through two services in which he would have heard the gospel message and seen others respond. Joel cannot convert, he can only plant seeds and pray that the Spirit of God will draw this one. If Joel prays earnestly for the very salvation of this man (which is the will of God), he must have faith that God will perform it.

It's the folks out there for whom no one plants seeds and no one prays I think about most often. Therefore I find myself praying without ceasing - for almost every lost soul I come across. It's tiring, but I ask myself when I meet (or even see across a crowded parking lot a person getting out of his/her car which has God-hating messages in bumper stickers) - what if there is NO ONE ELSE in this world to pray for the salvation of that person? It must be me, or I shall surely be accountable for all those missed opportunities. And if that's all I did in what may be 80 years in this life - with no recognition or awareness on the part of others that I did it - I would thank God for that calling.

[He Rides A White Horse]

But these are real people, with real eternal destinies. The fellow in my office that afternoon is not just investing his life savings in the next Enron. He's investing his whole being in a thought system so bankrupt that if he continues in that direction, he will spend all of eternity grimly separated from God.

All this is true, of course, not just of our Jewish friends and acquaintances. It is true as well for everyone who ignores or explains away Christ's offer of grace and tries to earn acceptance with God some other way. The gospel of Christ is wonderfully inclusive-but it is inclusive only for those who embrace it. Everyone else is excluded.

Some will undoubtably think this statement harsh, but it ultimately comes back to the issue of free will.......you choose, you decide.....because there isn't a person on this planet who is going to make you believe in anything.

[BibChr]

I have often pointed out that people who object to Christians evangelizing are simply telling them not to practice their faith, in two ways. First, we're told to spread the Word; second, it's the loving thing to do.

Practicing what I preach, I don't object to JW's turning up at my doorstep (in fact, I wish more Christians matched their zeal and dogged devotion). What I object to is their claiming to believe the Word, while denying its fundamental teachings.

Dan

[Jemian]

Successful evangelism is sharing Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and leaving the results to God.