True Converts

My spring break has been rainy, so instead of doing yard work or cleaning out my garage, I've been reading blogs - lots of blogs.  In my defense, they've all been related to religion and Christianity so maybe this makes it less of a waste of time.  (maybe not...)  Here's one post I really liked and felt it was worthy of re-posting,

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So, when I hear of the great numbers being baptized in North America mega-churches I ask this question, “Where is the fruit?” Is it simply in bringing more members into the mega-church - more butts to fill up the pews or comfy theatre seating.

John Wesley said, “The Church changes the world not by making converts but by making disciples.” He was known for rigorously examining people to discover whether they had really become believers. It could take up to two years of intense discipleship before Wesleyans actually accepted a person’s conversion. And though I come from a line of Wesleyan preachers on my mother’s side, and identify myself as predominantly Arminian in my theology, I’m not suggesting this kind of rigour.


But.

There must be more than simple crossing a line from darkness to light and then sitting just past that line for the rest of one’s days.


I am suggesting that we should and must have an expectation of real transformation in the lives of new believers. This doesn’t happen by having them sit on their butts in comfortable pews listening to sermons on Sunday morning and, perhaps, occasionally on Wednesday evening. It happens with older-in-the-faith believers walking alongside younger-in-the-faith believers —teaching them the historicity of the faith, the power of prayer, the longing for the infilling of the Holy Spirit, what the fruits of the spirit are, compelling them to read the Scriptures and become like the Bereans who Paul lauded, and to learn to be makers of discipler themselves. (Note that the older and younger references are not meant to suggest chronology but rather people who have been Christians longer than the new believer.)

- Taken from:  THIS  blog

Beautifully Stated

When I read the following *post, I was impressed with the simplicity with which God’s sovereignty and salvation was addressed:

"However contrary it is our our Western cultural commitment to egalitarianism, to insist on a universal application of grace is to violate the character of grace. God’s redemptive grace is a gift, a completely unearned divine favor given out of love. The giver is always sovereign in the giving of a gift. That is to say, the giver is free to give and free not to give, and he gives the gift to whomever he chooses. The words obligation and gift mutually exclude one another. The common rejection of the doctrine of election in favor of a universally dispensed grace not only denies God the divine prerogative to chose whom he will redemptively love but also makes God’s grace a necessary structure of the world. If grace is an obligation, a structure or an entitlement, it is no longer a gift, and no longer grace. Redemptive grace is always unexpected, beyond the norm, and out of the ordinary. Grace can never be taken for granted, assumed, or presumed upon. God is never obligated to redeem.”

—Michael D. Williams, Far as the Curse is Found, 105

*found at firstimportance.com

Where are You Headed?

I want to URGE and BEG everyone who reads this post to actually click on this link and listen to the following sermons; “Are You Saved” Part 1, Part 2 & Part 3 by Dr. James MacDonald. These sermons will address the most important issue in life; where you will spend eternity. Even if you think this is settled, please listen.