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I have a confession to make. I know that as a follower of Jesus Christ, I am to be a faithful witness. I am commanded to share the gospel as I go. Obedience to Christ’s command is not optional. Every Christian is to be on mission for Christ in the world making Him known. Pastors are to be at the “head of the pack.”

And my confession? Too often my sharing has been out of a sense of duty or obligation. Furthermore, I allowed “feeling” to be my guide. If the situation “felt” right, and the circumstances were right, I would share. If not, I kept the message to myself.

This is sin plain and simple. James said, “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin” (4:17, ESV). I asked for God’s forgiveness and renewed my commitment to be faithful in witness no matter how I felt.  As a result, God has brought about a transformation in my thinking and practice. I give Him the glory!!

The transformation in thinking came after reading the Great Commission for no doubt the millionth time.  It hit me, that sharing the gospel isn’t about “feeling” it is about loving obedience. I realized that if you will do what God says, in spite of how you feel (a biblical counseling principle), He will find great delight in it, and He will provide the means to follow through-His enabling grace. The transformation in my practice occurred when I then learned The Way of The Master method taught by Ray Comfort. Ray believes, and rightly so, that the Law (the Ten Commandments) must be used prior to sharing the gospel so that people will see and acknowledge their true sinful nature. This is the Law’s purpose, to bring about the knowledge of sin (Romans 3:20). Only then will they recognize the trouble they are in and turn to the only One, Jesus Christ, who can redeem them. The rule of thumb is “Law to the proud, grace to the humble.”

The transformation has been life changing. Sharing Christ with strangers is now a regular and on-going part of my life. Again, to Him belongs the glory!

The icing on the cake, so to speak, came while reading Mark Cahill’s book One Thing You Can’t Do In Heaven. Mark mentions that often we do what we do in the Christian life because we “got to.” We are driven by obligation or duty. There is little joy in our efforts. We “got to” pray. We “got to” read our bibles. And yes, we “got to” witness. Mark suggests to change our thinking from “got to” to “get to.” We “get to” pray. We “get to” read our bibles. We “get to” witness. It’s all a privilege!!

The truth is a simple one: There is no greater joy!

With each day, God sends me opportunities to share the gospel. What was once done out of a sense of duty or governed by my own personal “feelings” of comfortableness, is now the joy of my life. I cannot think of anything I would rather do! Fellow believers! Listen up! We don’t “got to,” we “get to.” We get to share the greatest message the world could ever hear–the gospel of Jesus Christ. There is no higher privilege. There is no greater joy!!!

At first glance of the title  When Sinners Say “I Do”, It is possible that an immediate response might incur a curiosity that leads to the question: “Does this book address the hard results of a marriage covenant made between two non-believers?” This is a great assumption for that matter. Yet, in its curiosity, which is warranted with a genuine desire to see such implications answered, has failed to acknowledge the foundational principals upon which this book is built.

With the difficulties of marriage on display throughout, several themes are intertwined through each chapter as foundational truths that pierce the heart of any marriage. As a unifying thread, sin is brought to light as the leading culprit in the fallen nature of man and the some of the harsh realities we face in relationships. Accompanying its challenges, sin is magnified as the root reality from which humanity has found its struggle with God. More over, Dave Harvey completes the story by making evident the beautiful song of redemption and restoration that marriages require. (more…)

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“Salvation is wholly of grace, not only undeserved but undesired by us until God is pleased to awaken us to a sense of our need of it. And then we find everything prepared that our wants require or our wishes conceive; yea, that He has done exceedingly beyond what we could either ask or think.

Salvation is wholly of the Lord and bears those signatures of infinite wisdom, power, and goodness which distinguish all His works from the puny imitations of men. It is every way worthy of Himself, a great, a free, a full, a sure salvation.

It is great whether we consider the objects (miserable, hell-deserving sinners), the end (the restoration of such alienated creatures to His image and favor, to immortal life and happiness) or the means (the incarnation, humiliation, sufferings and death of His beloved Son). It is free, without exception of persons or cases, without any conditions or qualifications, but such as He, Himself, performs in them and bestows upon them.”

- John Newton, “The Consolation”, Works of John Newton: Vol III (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1985), 32

Churches divide over carpet color, building additions and budgets.  In the meantime, our fellow church members are going to hell by the boat load.

A.W. Tozer said, “It is my opinion that tens of thousands of people, if not millions, have been brought into some kind of religious experience by accepting Christ, and they have not been saved.”

D. James Kennedy said, “The vast majority of people who are members of churches in America today are not Christians.  I say that without the slightest contradiction.  I base it on empirical evidence of twenty-four years of examining thousands of people.”

Friend, we argue over so many petty things.  May I suggest we have lost sight of the most important debate of all, “What is salvation?”  My theology teaches that salvation happens when a man repents and places his trust in Jesus Christ (Acts 20:21).

I would like to present thirteen ways that we have re-defined how a person becomes a true convert.  Have we done this intentionally?  Certainly not.  We have simply created lingo that has a grain of truth in Scripture, but it is so open to interpretation that the un-converted understand it in ways that lead to false conversions.

1.  “Make Jesus your Lord and Savior.”  We cannot make Jesus our Lord and Savior, He is our Lord and Savior.  We are living in rebellion to Him and He commands us to repent and trust Him.

2.  “Ask Jesus into your heart.”  Does Jesus come into our hearts?  Yes He does.  The question is, “How does He get in there?”  It is not by simply asking Him in; it is by repentance and faith.

3.  “Just believe in Jesus.”  The demons believe and they tremble.  We must repent and trust.

4.  “You have a God-shaped hole in your heart and only Jesus can fill it.”  We have far more than a hole that needs to be filled so we can feel complete; we have a wretched, deceitful, sinful heart that needs cleansing.  Repentance and faith applies the blood of the lamb for that cleansing.

5.  “Accept Jesus.”  Whoa.  We need to accept Jesus?  This is entirely backward.  We need Jesus to accept us–and He will, if we repent and trust.

6.  “Make a decision for Jesus.”  Decisional regeneration puts man in the driver’s seat of salvation.  When we repent and trust, Jesus decides to save us.  That puts Him in the driver’s seat…where He demands.

7.  “It is easy to believe.”  While the formula of repentance and faith sounds simple, a complete surrendering of self in repentance is anything but easy.  It’s hard.

8.  “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.”  The only promises for the convert are trials, temptation and persecution.  If that is how you define a wonderful life, fine.  Otherwise we must command all men everywhere to repent and trust.

9.  “Come to Jesus just as you are.”  We should come to Jesus just as the sinners we are, but He also expects a broken heart and contrite spirit demonstrated in repentance and faith.

10.  “Come to Jesus and you will receive forgiveness of sins and ________________ (fill in the blank with money, health, a healed marriage).”  Jesus didn’t promise healed marriages; in fact He promised broken homes because we would divide when one member repents and trusts.

11.  “Come to Jesus and experience love, joy, peace.”  Do we get the fruit of the Spirit upon conversion?  Yes.  But if we come seeking the gifts and not the giver, we will receive neither. Instead, we must repent and trust.

12.  “Jesus is the missing piece.”  Um, no, the God of the universe is not the missing piece, He demands that He is the center of our lives when we repent and trust.

13.  “Jesus is better than fame and fortune.”  That is an understatement, and frankly, it is insulting.  Saying Jesus is better than money is like saying that a steak dinner is better than eating a dung hill.  He defies comparison and we trivialize the Son of God.  Instead, we should be pleading with all men everywhere to repent and trust.

If I showed up at your door with a can of grapefruit juice and a roll of paper towels and offered to change your oil, you would say, “No thanks.”  If we wouldn’t let someone mess with our car using the wrong method, why do we allow the Gospel to be presented so ambiguously?

Would you let a doctor operate on your child who was “sort of” accurate?  The salvation of men is far more important than an appendix.

I beg you to consider how you share the Gospel.  You and I know what we are talking about when we use these phrases, but do the unregenerate?  Is it possible that we have so many backsliders today because they never slid forward in the first place?  Is it because they were never told that they must repent and trust?

If we are willing to debate shag verse plush in the fellowship hall, shouldn’t we be more concerned about an issue that has eternal consequences?

Author:  Todd Friel

Below are a few thoughts on the book of Jonah. Well, not just a few but more of a continuation of a few posts I made for the students on the student ministry website that I work for. Just a few follow up thoughts to our current series in Jonah that I thought would be beneficial to share here.

Chapter One
Jonah isn’t the first guy to flee from the presence of God. Yet what’s so crazy about Jonah is the shear audacity of his pride. To flee from an ever-present God is the most ridiculous thing to ever consider. The psalmist made it clear when he said “where shall I flee from your presence?”(Psalm 139:7) God is everywhere. Yet Jonah a prophet of God thinks he can flee. What’s so profound about this is the foundational issue at hand. None of us seek after God (including Jonah). Yet, God seeks to display who He is in some of the most remarkable ways and draw us near to him.
Jonah could have been killed when he was thrown into the water. Yet, God spared him and sought after him to go. How remarkable is God’s redemptive desires that He will go to great lengths to bring us back to Him.

Chapter Two
Wow, Chapter 2 is very insightful into what went down once Jonah was thrown over. It wasn’t quite like swimming with flounder and Sebastian. In fact it was quite the contrary. It makes me wonder: Has Jonah recognized his foolishness yet? Is giving himself over to the sea a display of defeat and admitting his guilt?  Jonah’s prayer gives insight into what had come upon his heart in the midst of sinking to the depths of the ocean.

His willing response to the circumstances reveals that his heart had hardened and it’s need for softening. He knows this must be his cue to admit he was wrong willingly or else things could get worse for himself and the crew. Was jumping ship an effort to continue running further from God by his hopes of death, or was he admitting his guilt and humbling himself to his evident “judgment” for running from God? If Jonah thought he could run that far, he had lost his mind at this point. I think what we see hear is a clear understanding that Jonah knew he was in the wrong and God was making that clear to him.

He recognized he was in the wrong and humbled himself just a tiny bit. His prayer makes this clear. He recognizes God’s hand against Him in verse 3. (vs. 3 “For YOU had cast me into the deep”) An unlikely response after seeing how deliberately he ran from God. Part of me wants to think he would have continued in his pride and not admit that God was against him at this point. Yet, Jonah’s prayer while in the fish shows that he cried out to God for salvation from the ragging sea around him.

Being thrown into the depths was not a casual swim. He was in this situation because of his own desire to flee God’s plans. He was in the waters because of his selfishness and disobedience. Jonah realigns himself with God yet God’s purposes for Jonah are not yet complete. Still more is to be done in Jonah’s heart as we will see in Chapter 4. Yes, believe it or not God spares Jonah in his distress despite all that Jonah has done thus far. Isn’t that amazing! Finally Jonah claims the most significant truth with the last words of his prayer “Salvation is from the Lord”

Chapter Three
So, Did Jonah forget that he had to go to Nineveh? Wasn’t the whole crazy storm and being swallowed by the fish a bit of a wake up call that he disobeyed. Yet, here in Chapter 3 he’s reminded again to go. This kinda reminds me of myself sometimes in my forgetfulness, but I haven’t been swallowed by any fish lately either. I think by this point I would be booking it to Nineveh, that’s if I had the strength.

Honestly it reminds me of Psalm 33:10 “The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples.” Wow… Jonah’s plans, whatever they were, were brought to nothing.

So the word of the Lord comes to Jonah. I wonder what was going through his head at this point. I’m sure he was a bit out of it to some degree, and thankful to be alive as we saw in his prayer. After three days in the belly of a fish, you are more than likely going to have a hard time standing, if you’re still alive.

Yet, the word of the Lord came to him again. An amazing thing about the book of Jonah is how it displays a few awesome characteristics of our God. Especially here, we see how His yes is yes and His no is no. God is faithful to his plans and His desires. He really isn’t going to play a guessing game with us when it comes to His will being carried out on the earth. God makes it clear to Jonah not once but twice, and believe it or not He has Jonah’s attention now. True, sometimes we struggle to perceive God’s desires, but it’s never sent to us in ways we can’t understand. Jonah was a prophet, he knew when God was talking to him at this point.

So, Nineveh was not a city that Jonah wanted to go to in the first place and several would say it all boils down to Jonah’s opinion of Nineveh’s value in being redeemed. As we will see in Chapter 4 Jonah’s heart issue comes to light once again, and God displays how he seeks out to display His glory whether we are all on board or not. It was pretty remarkable how quickly this city turned to God. To see this happen should blow us all away. God is a pretty amazing God if He can take such a twisted city and draw it to himself so quickly is what some might say. I say it is amazing that God has withheld is rightful judgment on us and has set His heart to save us.

This should transform our thoughts about God’s ability to take whatever condition we are in and change hearts! His greatness is displayed in our lives when we turn from our sinful desires to Him.  This glorifies Him for who He is. He can take even the filthiest city or people group and redeem them to himself no matter what, but just for him to take out our rightful punishment on his very own son should be magnified here. This is huge! He is worthy of our praise and adoration for his great love for us. How GREAT is HE who has redeemed our traitorous race to himself!! 2 Corinthians 5:21 “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Chapter Four
Soon to come!

I’m new to this blog.  I became a Christian at the age of 40 nearly 13 years ago.  I want to introduce myself as a guy with more questions than answers.  That’s not to say that I don’t know anything.  I know more than some about a few things.  But it’s not the answers I know that get me going.  What excites me is searching for answers to the questions, doubts and insecurities that besiege me!  And, I love it when surprised along the way by an unexpected answer to an important question I didn’t think to ask. 

And, I have a question that has been bugging me.  I’ll bet that you have had someone tell you that they have a “personal relationship” with Jesus Christ and that you need to have one too.  Well, here’s my question:  What does that really mean?  And, how does a personal relationship with Jesus Christ really work?  How can we know if we have one too if no one tells us what is meant by this non-biblical terminology?

Before I go any further, I want you to know this is not a trick question.   I have thoughts and ideas which rise in a few cases to the level of opinions.  But I don’t have THE answer.  I hope you will comment with your own thoughts, ideas, opinions and reactions.

As an experiment, find some Christians who profess a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and see if they can clearly articulate what that means and how it works for them.  My bet is you will get answers; but they will be vague and imprecise.  Mostly you may hear something like “I know that Jesus is a person and not just an idea or an historical figure.”  This is of course true, but having a relationship with a person involves something more than knowing that they are a person.  I think you will find that there seems to be general agreement that people need to have a “personal relationship” with Jesus; but most Christians are unable to articulate what that means and how it works.

To put it another way, when someone says they have a “personal relationship” with Jesus Christ they probably mean less than they should; but in the same moment they are probably implying more than they should.  That is I think it usually means less than it should to the one who says it while the thoughtful person who hears it reads more into it than they should.  Overall, I think this expression does a very good job of creating confusion among unbelievers and of promoting uncertainty among believers.  Hearing these words as an unbeliever I wondered if Jesus spoke audibly to Christians or if they saw Him in visions.  What else could account for characterization of their relationship with Jesus as personal? And as a younger believer I experienced uncertainty because I wasn’t sure but that something more “personal” should be happening between me and Jesus Christ.

Let me illustrate what I think is intended when we say this with an example:  Say Abraham Lincoln is your hero.  If so, you would probably enjoy spending time reading all that Abe had written by way of books, letters, and diaries, etcetera.  If this were a serious hobby, you might commit time to reading things written about him by his family, by his friends, and even by his enemies.  You might take a trip to visit his childhood home and the town where he grew up.  You might study the work of others who idolized Abe and spent lifetimes doing the same sorts of things you were now doing. You might even try to better understand the culture and times in which he lived to put his actions and life into a broader context.  And, who knows what else you might do to learn more about your idol?  If you really held Abe up to be your Number One hero you would want to become more like him.  As you learned more and more about what Abraham Lincoln thought and believed and what motivated his decisions, you probably would begin to “personalize” it; finding yourself beginning to believe, think and make decisions in more the same way as Abe had, because he’s your hero and you want to be like him.

It’s in a similar way that our relationship with Jesus is “personalized”.  Jesus must be our hero.  And if He is, then it follows that we would enjoy and commit our free time to learning as much about Him as we can by every means possible.  And as we come to a clearer understanding of who He is we will want to be more like our Number One hero, so we “personalize” our studies by becoming more like Jesus.  We find ourselves believing, thinking and making decisions in more the same way as Jesus.  In this way, we give the Jesus we increasingly come to know functional authority over our lives (that is, we make Him king of our Life, or we become slaves of Christ, etcetera).  Just as Ephesians 6:10-18 says, we are to put on the full armor of God and take up the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God!  So, I submit that immersion in God’s word is one of the real ways that having a “personal relationship” with Jesus Christ works.  And I would argue that if we do not have a thirst to learn about Jesus in every way we can, then we have reason to know that our relationship with Him is not as healthy as it should be.  I would go so far as to argue that there is considerable reason to question the existence of a “personal relationship” where there is little time committed to the discipline of studying God’s Word.

What’s more, no matter how much we study Abraham Lincoln to become more like him; we could not possibly fairly characterize our relationship with him as personal.  Abraham Lincoln is dead and waiting in a place where he may hear us, but where he can’t talk back.  But Jesus Christ is different.  The bible tells us that Jesus Christ died and was resurrected from the dead.  It tells us that Jesus is alive and in a place where He can both hear us and talk back.  And if we believe this, and if Jesus is our hero, we will spend time talking to Him and we will listen expectantly for Him to answer.  Although from time to time, Jesus can and has appeared to some and spoken audibly to others this is the rarest of exceptions.  So by faith we speak to Jesus spiritually through prayer and by faith we confidently await His invisible, non-audible answers.  And so, I submit that this is another of the real ways that having a “personal relationship” with Jesus Christ works.  If we really believe that Jesus hears and answers we will apply our faith and commit our time to the discipline of prayer.  Just as Luke 18:1 reminds, Jesus Himself taught that at all times we “ought to pray and not to lose heart.”  Thus, I would argue that where there is little to no prayer there is more reason to question the existence of a “personal relationship” with Jesus Christ. 

And, finally, a personal relationship with Jesus Christ should presume the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.   Now when the Holy Spirit comes, we don’t just change a little bit.  We are changed completely from the inside out.  Paraphrasing Paul’s reminder at Romans 8:6, what could be more different than “the mind set on the flesh which is death” as compared to “the mind set on the Spirit which is life and peace”?  As an older convert, I can look back at the inner person I alone know I used to be before the Holy Spirit indwelt me.  And, the person I see is shockingly different from the inner man I am today.  Because the change is in the heart, I cannot show it to you, but I know that it is there.  So in this way, God Himself has given me assurance concerning my salvation because the changes wrought inside me by the Spirit are so very obvious.  Certainly there are other ways in which God testifies to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and it would be an interesting topic to receive comments on.  But, the point is that God gives each believer clear evidences of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  And so I submit that the believer’s confident testimony that they are indwelt by the Holy Spirit is another mark of a “personal relationship” with Jesus Christ.

And so, this is my idea.  That someone who claims to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ should consider:

• Whether they enjoy and spend enough time learning all they can about their Hero, Jesus Christ
• Whether they have given Jesus functional authority over their lives, doing what they know is right and not doing what they know they shouldn’t
• Whether they faithfully spend time in prayer
• Whether they really believe that Jesus answers prayers and wait confidently for His answers
• Whether they are convinced by the testimony of God that the Holy Spirit has come to dwell within them, so much so that that they boldly proclaim it

I think it would be much better if Christians told people:  “Jesus is my hero.  I plan to invest the rest of my life studying about Him to help me better appreciate who He was and to become more like Him.  I absolutely believe that Jesus is alive so I talk to Him often in prayer knowing that He answers all my prayers, although mostly not when and how I expect.  I know all of this, even though I can’t prove it to you, because Jesus has given me the gift of the Holy Spirit which now lives in me and God has proved that by changing me completely from the inside out.”

I admit this is long-winded compared to “I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ”.  But I also believe it is likely to be a lot more powerful a message to an unbeliever and to a weaker brother.

Having made my case, it’s now time to hold myself up to the mirror of the words I have written.  And being honest, there is more reason to question my “personal relationship” with Jesus Christ; then there is cause to confirm it.  I must stop doing what I know Jesus would not!  I must be more faithful in prayer!  Forgive me Lord for my indifference; forgive me Lord for taking you for granted.

What about you?  Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ?  If so, what does that really mean to you and how is it working in your life?

I would be remiss if I did not close with a word to any who answer my question honestly, admitting; “I do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.”  It is my prayer that you wish you did, because you can.   Are you aware of the oppressive and inescapable burden of sin in your life?  Are you afraid because you know that God cannot let your guilt go unpunished!  Do you know that you are hanging over the pits of hell by a mere thread (and God’s grace is the thread by which you are suspended).  God has already pronounced you guilty.  The wages of your sin is death, which means eternal separation from God.  Are you are in a struggle:  the Holy Spirit pulling while the devil refuses to let you go?  Well, there is good news, brother!! God came in the person of Jesus Christ and took your punishment upon Himself.  In this way, He is both the Righteous Judge and the Righteous One by whom all must be justified.  You can pay for your own sins if you like, choosing eternal separation from God.  But I pray you will humbly fall at the foot of the cross of Jesus Christ and thank your Lord for what He has done for you.

If you want to read more, here’s the best article I found on the subject of having A Personal Relationship with Jesus Christ.

Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you–unless indeed you fail the test?  But I trust that you will realize that we ourselves do not fail the test. (2 Corinthians 13:5-6)

“The Spirit is compared to the wind, and, like the wind, He cannot be seen by our bodily eyes. But just as we know there is a wind by the effect it produces on waves, and trees, and smoke, so we may know the Spirit is in a man by the effects he produces in the man’s conduct. . . . We may depend on it as a positive certainty that where there is no holy living, there is no Holy Ghost.”

- J. C. Ryle

“Now, dear reader, the children of God are sanctified people, sanctified to offer spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ, and we have no right to do anything but serve God. “What,” you say, “am I not to attend to my business?” Yes, and you are to serve God in your business. “Am I not to look after my family?” Assuredly, you are, and you are to serve God in looking after your family, but still you are to be set apart.

You are not to wear the white robe nor the breastplate (see Exodus 28:4), but still you are to think of yourself as being as much a priest as if the breastplate were on your breast, and the white robe about your loins; for you are “priests unto God and his Father” (Rev. 1:6). He has made you a peculiar generation and a royal priesthood (see 1 Peter 2:9), and He has set you apart for Himself (Ps. 4:3).”

- Charles Spurgeon, The Key to Holiness
HT: Symphony of Scripture