A born again person
who is right
with God knows they are born again and right with God. If they don't know
this
it is a huge red flag -
and this man was
crying out for help.....
No, this man was a strong,
solid, dedicated believer. His problem was, he had been deceived by people like
you. Again, please just leave me and my words, thoughts, posts out of your
considerations. I have ask you nicely now three times.
Bill
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, July 21, 2005 10:14
AM
Subject: [TruthTalk] John 16:13,14
How terribly sad -
did somebody counsel and pray with this man who was obviously under
conviction of the Spirit?
You are judging him
by "outward appearances" Bill. You can't know what goes on in the hearts
of ppl - folk can make
a great showing after
the flesh or some may just live in quiet desperation. I would have
taken this dear man seriously
enough to go
over the
scriptures and pray with him so he can be sure of his eternal destiny rather
than give him some
false assurance.
A born again person
who is
right with God knows they are born again and right with God. If they
don't know this
it is a huge red flag -
and this man
was crying out for help.....
Bill writes:
Yes, in Christ in his
resurrection, BUT not everyone is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, that comes
by way of belief or faith in Jesus Christ. What we call our "conversion
experience" does happen in this lifetime, and sometimes this can
be a profound and life-altering experience; other times it is not so
profound for people who have grown up in the church and spent their lifetimes
worshiping the Lord. I think we are prone to base too much of our
"faith" in religious experience and not trained well enough at basing it in
the object of that faith: Jesus Christ.
I watched a
saintly ninety year old elder of our church break down and weep because
he did not know for sure if he had been "born again." He had grown up in
the church and could not remember a time that he did not believed in
Jesus Christ, yet he had never had one of those earth-shaking conversion
experiences that others had had. We, the church, had placed so much emphasis
on that "born again experience" that we had misled godly people into doubting
their salvation. The weight of the world was upon this man's shoulders, and he
could not withstand the weight of it. He was as godly as anyone you would ever
meet, had served the Lord faithfully his whole life, yet believe in "spiritual
death" and the necessity to be "born again" and thus could not place his
finger on a point in his life when he stopped being spiritually dead and
started being a born again believer. We did that to him -- not
the Lord.
