| January 10th, 2001 - Friendship with God (Part 2) If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you? Though at various times in my life I had prayed to God and even mouthed the words to different prayers to receive Christ as my Lord and Savior, there was very little evidence in my life to convince me, or others for that matter, that any real change had taken place. I continued in my self-ruled lifestyle and went back to life as usual. It was not until October of 1979, when I was 22 years old, that a strange thing occured: I had been living my own way and doing my own thing and had come to a place where I was sick and tired of the fruit of my own way. I had been praying for God to help me make positive change. I was ready for a new life. I had met a fellow sailor who spoke to me of my need for Jesus. I tried to tell him I was already a Christian once and that it hadn't worked for me. He knew better. He wouldn't give up on me and seemed convinced that I needed to get into a church which taught the true message of the Bible. I ended up going with him and heard afresh the message of the gospel: that a man must be born again before he can enter the kingdom of heaven (The Gospel of John, chapter 3) . Each time at the end of the message the preacher put out the invitation to come to the front of the church and publicly receive Christ as Savior. I felt the very same sweet presence of God's Spirit that I experienced a year previous when my cousin was witnessing to me of my need for Christ. Each time I wrestled inwardly and resisted the embarassment of such an act. But finally after attending the meetings, doing some personal bible study, and spending some time at sea, I realized what I must do. God opened the eyes of my heart and made it clear to me that I must go forward and receive Christ in front of that church. I wasn't sure why at the time, but now I know what God was after: "For if you shall confess with your mouth, the Lord Jesus (that Jesus is uniquely incarnate deity) and shall believe with your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved." (Romans 10: 8) Praying is important, believing is essential, but confessing Christ as Lord with your mouth somehow consumates, solidifies and seals the deal. A heart of faith coupled with a mouth that speaks brings about the outworking of that inner conviction. This is also the purpose of baptism in water after one's conversion. It is the first step of obedience to God and is a symbolic enactment of your being crucified to this world and its ways, the old way being buried with Christ, and a new man being raised with Him to a whole new world. Not that baptism or confession of Christ is what saves you, but it is the follow up acting on your faith which produces results in your life. Another very important aspect of all this is this: others will see and witness the truth of the Gospel (the Good News Message from God) being acted out in your life and the Holy Spirit will cause faith to be kindled in the hearts of others through that. This is what every Christian is called to share in. The heart cry of the Father God is to reach others with this good news. We are not saved to serve Him out of some slavish duty, we are called to show forth His glory. How do we do that? We'll look at that in tomorrow's message (Friendship with God, Part 3) |