Brilliant.

 

sometimes you just gotta spell it out simple like.

 

every act of obedience is really an act of seeking...

That is it...btw, you stole my ....'s

 

My wife liked the "shut up" part the best. ;^)

 

I like when we are all on the same page at the same time. It reminds who is running things.

 

I liked that part, too. That, and "I hate you even." That's what my "brilliant" comment was referring to.

 

I actually preached a sermon two weeks ago (from Psalm 46) and I was going to title it "God Says, Shut Up!", but alas, I titled it "God Says, Stop It!"...

 

That probably was a little more radio friendly. It is one thing to speak to one's congregation in familiar language - they are family, but those without may not get the right read on that. I think you did well, ...and I am not even gifted as an encourager... lol.

 

David, without a word of a lie, it was your "brilliant" comment that gave my wife the interest to read the post. She gets enough of me first hand, that she feels no particular interest in reading my blog. Yet when I said that David wrote "brilliant" - that was enough to make her read it.

I personally liked the turn around the best myself.

Years ago, I led a married fellow to the Lord. His situation, at the time, was not good. There was strife in his marriage, and neither one really respected the other, and he had taken to playing video games in every spare minute of his time, and she to bar hopping with her girl friends. When the Lord got a hold of him, he was sorely convicted about these things, and began to seriously pursue the Lord - reading through the scriptures in about eight months, I baptized him myself when he came under the conviction that he ought to be baptized, and though the strife in his marriage continued - she was noticing a real change in his life.

Yet one day, a pastor came to visit, and I happened to be there at the time. We were all sitting at the table, and discussing the fellow's faith, when the pastor turned to the wife and inquired what it was that was keeping her from turning to Christ.

Now, I had been familiar with the couple, and something in me said - "uh-oh...not now..." - She was in the room, alone, with three Christian men, and suddenly one of them was asking her why she was on the outside and not in the group, as it were. He "Evangelism-explosioned" her, but her conversion lasted all of six weeks, if that. She prayed the sinners prayer, not because she had come to the end of herself, and understood her desperate need for God - but because she reasoned that she ought to do, and shouldn't put it off. I have always felt that she was coerced in her decision, and regret the manner in which it all went down.

She is definitely not practicing today - and she kicked her husband out of their house months after that - so that a boyfriend could live with her.

It gets my ire up just thinking about it.

Anyway, as can likely be culled from my tone - I am not a fan of telling people they are saved by saying a prayer - or by herding people with fear tactics into the kingdom. I often wonder how it is that honest, sincere people go out with a mind to "save someone" from hell - when they ought to be reconciling sinners to God instead.

 

Daniel, if you think it will help, you know, like when you're having a disagreement, to say, "David thinks I'm brilliant," feel free to use that. Don't mention it, I'm happy to help.

I've prayed sinner's prayers lots of times. The whole process confused me so much that I have no idea when I was actually saved, only that it was none of those times.

 

I prayed the sinners prayer many times myself - and though I know when I was saved - it was definitely not after praying a sinner's prayer.

I was saved the moment I understood that [1] God genuinely loved me, and [2] truly would forgive me if I was turned to Him for reconciliation in Christ. I know that this was the very last thing my flesh wanted to do - and I was utterly against doing it. There was a moment before I was saved, when I thought - I don't want to obey God, I have never wanted it - and I don't want it now. I don't care if he loves me or did this for me - I still cannot submit myself to his will - I love my sin too much for that. Somewhere in that moment - in that realization that I loved myself above God, that is, when I saw for the first time with clarity that I really did hate God, and loved myself more than God so much so that I would prefer eternal damnation to obeying him - in that moment the magnitude of my depravity came crashing down upon me, and I suddenly knew how desperately I needed God - I knew without doubt that I was lost beyond hope, and that there could never be anything in me to desire God - and I cast myself upon Him from the well of that despair - and it was as though he reached into the ashes of my heart, and opened it up to receive new life - suddenly, and beyond any reason - I loved God with my whole being, I wanted nothing more than to be ruled by him for all eternity. He could ask me to do anything, for I was his body, mind, and soul - and a joy unspeakable washed through me like a great cleansing.

I love to recall the moment. But it didn't come by chanting some shaman's salvation shanty. I don't really recall the pastor's face who led me to Christ - or much about his office, or the address even - but I recall that experience with such a clarity that it only becomes more clear as time goes on.

 

I only know the general time period in which I began to add up the evidences of genuine faith in my life and conclude that, yes, this, finally, is the real thing.

Whenever the actual moment of birth was, it was not accompanied by any "sinner's prayer." Since then, though, all my prayers have been a sinner's prayers.