Satan would have loved for this study to go by the wayside. He’d have loved if we would have let the circumstances of the beginning of this (purchasing the wrong books, books almost being completely destroyed, and realizing that the online videos were more expensive than I first thought) deter us from what I knew the Lord was calling me to do here. But, God! God knows that there are people reading this today (even those that aren’t officially members of the study) that need to hear what’s going to be said. So, we press on for the honor and glory of the Lord!
“This is the heart of Christianity, and we’re prone to miss it if we describe becoming a Christian as “inviting Jesus into your heart”. We don’t become followers of Christ by pursuing Christ or inviting Christ to do anything, for in our sin we’re totally unable to do so. Instead, we become Christians when Christ pursues us and invites us to follow Him.” -David Platt
How has God’s shocking grace impacted your life?
“Ultimately, however, to be a Christian is to be loved by God, pursued by God, and found by God. To be a Christian is to realize that in your sin you were separated from God’s presence and deserved nothing but God’s wrath. Yet despite your darkness and in your deadness, His light shone on you, and His voice spoke to you, inviting you to follow Him.” – David Platt
Day Three – Understanding Salvation
I think our churches are failing the people that walk through their doors. Not all of them, but most of them, are giving people false reassurance when they tell them to pray a prayer, believe on Jesus, and you will be saved. Not only are they falsely reassured, but they’re not being discipled, and they’re headed for hell because we can’t seem to share the true Gospel with them.
I think it’s pretty easy to tell when someone’s truly saved. The bible tells us that we’ll know them by their fruit (Matthew 7:16), but we’re doing so many people a disservice when we give them false reassurance and don’t take the time to disciple them afterwards.
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My hometown is home to one of the fastest growing churches in America. Every now and then they’ll have a big baptismal service where hundreds of people come down to get baptized. Not only does the sheer number of people being baptized alarm me, but knowing that there’s absolutely no way to disciple every single one of those people makes me insane. Knowing that hundreds of people are “getting wet” and trusting and believing that they’re saved, yet headed straight for hell is something I think we all should be concerned about. American Christianity thrives on works (going to church, being a good person, being baptized) and so many are missing the intimate and personal relationship with Jesus. We’re no longer teaching the repentance and renouncing of sin, instead we’re giving false reassurance when we encourage people to pray a prayer, sign a card, be baptized, and go on your merry way.
“Any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.” Luke 14:33
“Contrary to what many people believe today, Jesus wasn’t speaking metaphorically or exaggerating when he made that statement. He meant what he said: that in order to follow Him we must voluntarily relinquish control over every aspect of our lives. That includes our possessions, our comfort, our careers, our family, our position, our sin, and even ourselves.” – David Platt
We’re way too comfortable with our little prayers and false reassurances. It’s time that the church stops watering down the Gospel and starts telling people the truth; that Christianity comes with sacrifices; some big, some small. Because we’re doing a major disservice when we allow people to walk right back into the life they came out of believing that their eternity is secure in a false Gospel.
“We live in a world where every other religious teacher says, “Try harder, work harder, do more, become better.” But not Jesus. He offers a burden that’s light. He offers rest. But the only way we can receive that rest is to reject superficial religion and instead look to God for the work of supernatural regeneration.” – David Platt
When we realize that we’ve been saved, cleansed, given a new heart, and born again we start to live like we’re new. We stop striving for unattainable perfection and start living in the faith that only Christ can offer.
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I think the main things that keep us silent are Satan, fear, and disobedience. Satan, of course, would love to keep us quiet! We let our fear of the unknown (fear of how people will react, fear of not knowing what to say, fear of not knowing enough) keep us still. And, we’re often disobedient when we know that the Lord has asked us to go. These three things are keeping us from sharing the One thing that’s changed our lives. We have Good News and we’re not telling anyone. Why?
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Found you via prowess and pearls. The salvation portion spoke to me, as two people very desr to me are struggling with salvation so this reiterated what I tried to tell them. Thank you.
It isn’t always easy to know exactly what it is we are called to do. I think this is especially so in places like America. We have so many things calling for our attention that it is easy to fall into the habit of just wanting to be like everyone else. Thank you for the reminder that it is not enough to accept Christ and salvation. We also need to accept actually following Him.
I’m glad you shared with us on Spiritual Sundays.
Blessings,
Charlotte