John had a burden. I can relate...I have a similar burden. My burden is not near as articulate or anointed or inspired as John's, but it is evergrowing. John wanted people to know Jesus. He wanted them to know Him clearly and without a doubt. I believe sometimes our institutions and man made concepts make it a little more complex than it has to be. Churches have different ways of doing it. >Some take you through discipleship classes and when you have completed your workbook and learned your verses you are confirmed into the church. Discipleship is good and well needed and too often neglected by others, but I have baptized several that told me when they completed such a course, they never were encouraged to surrender their lives to Christ...so they didn't. But everybody told them it was OK. It is almost more of a rite of passage than it is a life commitment.
>Some focus on putting high pressure on someone to come to Christ and providing 'easy' ways of doing it. The two I have seen the most in Baptist circles are 'raise your hand, nobody's looking' and 'repeat this prayer after me.' If you don't know right off what I am talking about, let me explain. After speaking a powerful message on the need of Christ and the dangers of hell, speakers will often says something like, "ok, every head bowed, every eye closed, if you want to give your heart to Jesus, just slip your hand up...nobody's looking...just slip it up....quickly." When a hand is lifted, the speaker will say 'thank you' or 'I see that hand' or 'hands up all over the building.' Sometimes it is the truth but I have peeked before and found out that sometimes it is not. I appreciate the effort and the desire behind it, but Jesus never asked anyone to raise his/her hand when no one was looking. He said, 'come and follow me' in a very public way.
Then there is the repeating of the 'sinner's' prayer. That is when one slowly gives you a prayer to pray and then asks you if you prayed it to come forward and let others know. That is ok, I guess, because people don't know what to say. However, I get concerned that people care more about 'saying the prayer' than they do surrendering their lives. Saying prayers don't bring salvation. Surrendering your life to Christ, confessing your sins and your need for a Savior to Christ...those are the things that bring salvation.
>Some believe your salvation can come and go. They believe you lose your salvation when you commit particular sins or when you are not walking faithfully in your Christian faith. To put my question simply: What sins are the particular ones and how far from a faithful walk is too far? Who draws the lines in such a scenerio and how are we ever sure? We don't reach perfection in this life, so how can we know? I know the answer to the last two questions: the cross of Christ is how we can be sure and how we can know. We have to surrender our lives to Christ and pledge our dependence on Him with life commitment and if we do, if it is real, we can rest in that salvation. Its not going away!
I want you to rest in your salvation. I want you to know that you have given your life over to Christ by confessing your sinful need for Him, believing that He is the only hope you have, and surrendering your life to Him. Want a format or a process to go through to clarify that? Romans 10:9-10 is the best one: If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. Let me clarify because that is my burden. It is a one time commitment. It is not a private matter. A real Christian is open about that and makes it public. Jesus, by His own example, shows us that the way to acknowledge that publicly is through baptism. That public baptism after a personal commitment to Christ is the only baptism that Christ promoted. There is no need for us to wonder, no need for us to doubt, if what we did, we did it right. However, if there is doubts, don't live with them. Let's talk about them. Email me at drheeringa@bellsouth.net. That is my burden, but not only mine. It is the reason why John wrote the Gospel of John. He says it in
John 20:30-31- Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. He reiterates at the end of I John and says he wants us to know for sure. I John 5:13- I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. If you don't know for sure, let me know. You will make my day! I hope you have a good one.
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