In 1987, after running from God for fifty years, I became a born-again Christian believer. About 1990, my mom was in the hospital in Alabama and I went home to be with her. Before leaving California I knew I wanted to be able to witness to my family and friends back home - but, still being a relative "babe in Christ" - I did not feel prepared to be an effective witness.
My solution - find a good Christian tract I could use to open a conversation and, possibly one that would guide me in sharing the Gospel. I visited several good Christian bookstores and sifted through dozens of Christian tracts. One that many of my friends were using was the "Four Spiritual Laws" written by Bill Bright of Campus Crusade For Christ. I read through it and, although it had all the right information in it - the title was a real barrier for me personally.
Why? Well, you see, when I was twelve years old, a traveling Pentecostal Revival Preacher in our neighborhood church literally forced me to come up to the altar so that he could "hallelujah and pray all over me" adding another number to his conversion resume - and that event so negatively affected me at that young age, that it drove me away from God until I was fifty years old.
Praise God that when I was fifty years old, I met a loving Godly pastor, Sam Lacanienta, who, along with the Filipino congregation at the Fil-Am Church of Irvine (CA) - loved me all the way to the altar and to eternal life in Christ.
In 1990, when I saw "Four Spiritual LAWS!" on that tract cover - what my mind and heart saw was that traveling Pentecostal Revival Preacher forcing me to the altar once again. Yes, now that I am 80 years young, I should have been able to resolve that childhood problem after all these years - but that young boy is still in there and can be reawakened at times. In my search, I quickly put that tract back on the shelf. After all those years I spent running from God - the last thing I needed was "Four Spiritual LAWS!"
So I kept searching until I found "Steps To Peace With God" by Billy Graham. In that tract I found the LOVE of God that, in 1987, had led me to Christ in the Fil-Am church where Pastor Sam Lacanienta was the spiritual leader - not LAWS.
Why am I rehashing that experience from almost thirty years ago? The recent death of Billy Graham led many of us to post blogs reflecting upon how he had touched so many lives over his seventy plus year ministry. On February 24th, I posted a blog titled "Billy Graham Is Still Teaching Us!"
And a Facebook Christian lady Friend wrote in response to my blog, "Billy Graham's tracts are unsound." Yet, when I questioned her, she could never tell me why Biblically. She just kept telling me that a person does not have to "turn away from sin" to be saved. She responded, "He (Billy Graham) says you need to turn from your sin to be saved." That was her total accusation against Billy Graham and his tract. Her contention is that "turning from sin" is works salvation.
So, what does the Bible say about repentance, turning from sin and turning to Christ?
In 2 Peter 3:9 we read, "The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance."
In that Scripture verse, the English word "repentance" is the Greek word "metanoia" which in Strong's Concordance means: "A change of mind, as it appears to one who repents. . ."
Today, one of the most common text books, other than the Bible, in seminary classes is "Systematic Theology - An Introduction To Biblical Doctrine" by Dr. Wayne Grudem. I have that one in PDF format in my computer. An abbreviated version of that book, which I have in my library, thanks to Pastor Ed Dacio, is "Bible Doctrine - Essential Teachings Of The Christian Faith." Both are published by Zondervan.
Now let me go back to 1990 when my mom was in the hospital in Alabama and I searched for a Christian tract to use in witnessing to my family in Alabama. I chose Billy Graham's "Steps To Peace With God." And I flew home with a pocket full of them.
Let's see what that tract teaches us. This is taken directly from that 1990 version of the tract:
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
STEPS TO PEACE WITH GOD:
1. God’s Purpose - Peace and Life: God loves you and wants you to experience His peace and life - abundant and eternal.
The BIBLE says:
2. The Problem - Our Separation: God created us in His own image to have abundant life. He did not make us robots to automatically love and obey Him. God gave us a will and freedom of choice. We choose to disobey God and go our own willful way. We still make that choice today. The result is separation from God.
The BIBLE says:
3. Our Attempts To Reach God: People have tried in many ways to bridge this gap between themselves and God.
The BIBLE says:
The BIBLE says:
5. Our Response - Receive Christ: We must trust Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and receive Him by personal invitation.
The BIBLE says:
To receive Christ you need to do four things:
How to Pray: Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner and I ask for Your forgiveness. I believe that You died for my sins and rose from the dead. I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow You as Lord and Savior. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
(Bill Gray Note: This is an example of a prayer to receive Christ as Lord and Savior. You can put it in your own words - for their is no magic in these words, only what is in your heart.)
7. God's Assurance - His Word: If you have prayed this prayer (or one similar), the Bible says:
Receiving Christ, we are born into God's family through the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit who indwells every believer. This is called regeneration, or the "new birth."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
To all my Friends, those who agree with what I have written - and those who disagree - I pray that some part of this blog has been helpful, that it has been fruitful reading for you and will help as you and I continue our Great Commission (Matthew 19:19-20, Acts 1:8, Mark 16:15) of sharing His Gospel with the lost world, until He comes again.
God bless, Bill
My solution - find a good Christian tract I could use to open a conversation and, possibly one that would guide me in sharing the Gospel. I visited several good Christian bookstores and sifted through dozens of Christian tracts. One that many of my friends were using was the "Four Spiritual Laws" written by Bill Bright of Campus Crusade For Christ. I read through it and, although it had all the right information in it - the title was a real barrier for me personally.
Why? Well, you see, when I was twelve years old, a traveling Pentecostal Revival Preacher in our neighborhood church literally forced me to come up to the altar so that he could "hallelujah and pray all over me" adding another number to his conversion resume - and that event so negatively affected me at that young age, that it drove me away from God until I was fifty years old.
Praise God that when I was fifty years old, I met a loving Godly pastor, Sam Lacanienta, who, along with the Filipino congregation at the Fil-Am Church of Irvine (CA) - loved me all the way to the altar and to eternal life in Christ.
In 1990, when I saw "Four Spiritual LAWS!" on that tract cover - what my mind and heart saw was that traveling Pentecostal Revival Preacher forcing me to the altar once again. Yes, now that I am 80 years young, I should have been able to resolve that childhood problem after all these years - but that young boy is still in there and can be reawakened at times. In my search, I quickly put that tract back on the shelf. After all those years I spent running from God - the last thing I needed was "Four Spiritual LAWS!"
So I kept searching until I found "Steps To Peace With God" by Billy Graham. In that tract I found the LOVE of God that, in 1987, had led me to Christ in the Fil-Am church where Pastor Sam Lacanienta was the spiritual leader - not LAWS.
Why am I rehashing that experience from almost thirty years ago? The recent death of Billy Graham led many of us to post blogs reflecting upon how he had touched so many lives over his seventy plus year ministry. On February 24th, I posted a blog titled "Billy Graham Is Still Teaching Us!"
And a Facebook Christian lady Friend wrote in response to my blog, "Billy Graham's tracts are unsound." Yet, when I questioned her, she could never tell me why Biblically. She just kept telling me that a person does not have to "turn away from sin" to be saved. She responded, "He (Billy Graham) says you need to turn from your sin to be saved." That was her total accusation against Billy Graham and his tract. Her contention is that "turning from sin" is works salvation.
So, what does the Bible say about repentance, turning from sin and turning to Christ?
In 2 Peter 3:9 we read, "The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance."
In that Scripture verse, the English word "repentance" is the Greek word "metanoia" which in Strong's Concordance means: "A change of mind, as it appears to one who repents. . ."
Today, one of the most common text books, other than the Bible, in seminary classes is "Systematic Theology - An Introduction To Biblical Doctrine" by Dr. Wayne Grudem. I have that one in PDF format in my computer. An abbreviated version of that book, which I have in my library, thanks to Pastor Ed Dacio, is "Bible Doctrine - Essential Teachings Of The Christian Faith." Both are published by Zondervan.
"Systematic Theology - An Introduction To Biblical Doctrine"
Chapter 35, Page 709, Conversion (Faith And Repentance)
What is true repentance? What is saving faith?
The word conversion itself means "turning"- here it represents a spiritual turn, a turning from sin to Christ. The turning from sin is called repentance, and the turning to Christ is called faith. We can look at each of these elements of conversion, and in one sense it does not matter which one we discuss first, for neither one can occur without the other and they must occur together when true conversion takes place. For the purposes of this chapter, we shall examine saving faith first, and then repentance.
Now let me go back to 1990 when my mom was in the hospital in Alabama and I searched for a Christian tract to use in witnessing to my family in Alabama. I chose Billy Graham's "Steps To Peace With God." And I flew home with a pocket full of them.
Let's see what that tract teaches us. This is taken directly from that 1990 version of the tract:
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
STEPS TO PEACE WITH GOD:
1. God’s Purpose - Peace and Life: God loves you and wants you to experience His peace and life - abundant and eternal.
The BIBLE says:
". . . we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, (Romans 5:1)
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
". . . I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." (John 10:10)
2. The Problem - Our Separation: God created us in His own image to have abundant life. He did not make us robots to automatically love and obey Him. God gave us a will and freedom of choice. We choose to disobey God and go our own willful way. We still make that choice today. The result is separation from God.
The BIBLE says:
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)
"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23)
3. Our Attempts To Reach God: People have tried in many ways to bridge this gap between themselves and God.
The BIBLE says:
4. God’s Bridge - The Cross: Jesus Christ died on the Cross and rose from the grave. He paid the penalty for our sin and bridged the gap between God and people.
"There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death." (Proverbs 14:12)
"But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear." (Isaiah 59:2)
The BIBLE says:
"For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus." (1 Timothy 2:5)
"For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, . . ." (1 Peter 3:18)
"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)
5. Our Response - Receive Christ: We must trust Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and receive Him by personal invitation.
The BIBLE says:
"Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me." (Revelation 3:20)
"But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name." (John 1:12)
"That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." (Romans 10:9)
To receive Christ you need to do four things:
1. ADMIT your need ~ "I am a sinner."
2. Be willing to turn from your sin ~ REPENT.
3. BELIEVE that Jesus Christ died for you on the cross and rose from the grave.
4. Through prayer, INVITE Jesus Christ to come in and control your life through the Holy Spirit ~ RECEIVE Him as Lord and Savior.
How to Pray: Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner and I ask for Your forgiveness. I believe that You died for my sins and rose from the dead. I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow You as Lord and Savior. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
(Bill Gray Note: This is an example of a prayer to receive Christ as Lord and Savior. You can put it in your own words - for their is no magic in these words, only what is in your heart.)
7. God's Assurance - His Word: If you have prayed this prayer (or one similar), the Bible says:
"For whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved." (Romans 10:13)
"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)
"He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God." (1 John 5:12-13)
Receiving Christ, we are born into God's family through the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit who indwells every believer. This is called regeneration, or the "new birth."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
To all my Friends, those who agree with what I have written - and those who disagree - I pray that some part of this blog has been helpful, that it has been fruitful reading for you and will help as you and I continue our Great Commission (Matthew 19:19-20, Acts 1:8, Mark 16:15) of sharing His Gospel with the lost world, until He comes again.
God bless, Bill
No comments:
Post a Comment