What comes First

[tah]

It was a long time for me before I understood the significance of Christs death and the reason why it had to be Him.

I accepted Jesus as my saviour because of what He taught me, from what I read in the bible, years before I understood His death. I knew He did something very important for me, I knew I was safe with God in my life, but I didnt understand how or why.

People would tell me it was through His death that my sin was washed away (huhhh?).

I didnt know how that worked, but I accepted it, and believed, that in His time ,God would give me the understanding, which He did.

Are we too focused on telling people they are sinners and need to be saved (kind of hard to win them over when you "insult" them)?

Are we spending enough time talking about how acknowledging and following Jesus teachings can change our lives for the better?

Why do we think it has to be right now that people change?, what is the urgency? Think about it... if God has put me in their life to tell them about Him..... He's going to give me all the time I need.

It kind of makes me think about breaking a horse, you can "bust it" like the wild west cowboys did , or you can be gentle and take your time to bring them along like Robert Redford did in The Horse Whisperer.

What about someone that is living with sin and basically knows that Jesus was born on Christmas, Noah built a boat and Moses parted the sea. How would you handle that?

Would you bust em', or would you be a horse whisperer?

Do you think that we can be impatient, focus too much on salvation and, not take the time to relate how a relationship with God can effect the here and now of a persons life?

My Mom wanted me to tell her things about the Holy Spirit..I thought to myself that she was not ready to hear it yet..she died and never heard it....

It took me a long time to get over that..if I ever have..

Tomorrow you say???...

NO...Today is the day...

[chrismarc]

cymba22 said,

if you believe in him your saved, (thats what my Bible tells me).

only hypocritical if you say you believe in him and dont walk the walk.

i think the key is in what it means to "believe",

or what does Scripture tell us about "walking the walk"?

[mike2]

It was a long time for me before I understood the significance of Christs death and the reason why it had to be Him.

I accepted Jesus as my saviour because of what He taught me, from what I read in the bible, years before I understood His death. I knew He did something very important for me, I knew I was safe with God in my life, but I didnt understand how or why.

People would tell me it was through His death that my sin was washed away (huhhh?).

I didnt know how that worked, but I accepted it, and believed, that in His time ,God would give me the understanding, which He did.

Are we too focused on telling people they are sinners and need to be saved (kind of hard to win them over when you "insult" them)?

Are we spending enough time talking about how acknowledging and following Jesus teachings can change our lives for the better?

Why do we think it has to be right now that people change?, what is the urgency? Think about it... if God has put me in their life to tell them about Him..... He's going to give me all the time I need.

It kind of makes me think about breaking a horse, you can "bust it" like the wild west cowboys did , or you can be gentle and take your time to bring them along like Robert Redford did in The Horse Whisperer.

What about someone that is living with sin and basically knows that Jesus was born on Christmas, Noah built a boat and Moses parted the sea. How would you handle that?

Would you bust em', or would you be a horse whisperer?

Do you think that we can be impatient, focus too much on salvation and, not take the time to relate how a relationship with God can effect the here and now of a persons life?

My Mom wanted me to tell her things about the Holy Spirit..I thought to myself that she was not ready to hear it yet..she died and never heard it....

It took me a long time to get over that..if I ever have..

Tomorrow you say???...

NO...Today is the day...

I may be coming across as a procrastinator but thats not my intention, what I am saying is that we sometimes jump to what may be percieved as a threat... believe in Jesus or go to hell... without really explaining what, how and why, maybe we need to slow down and take the time the God is allowing us.

Tah, you have brought up something interesting. I dont know what your thoughts are on your mothers salvation, and its not my intention to pursue those thoughts, but you are making me wonder, because I think it has happened to all of us at one time or another......

....you and I cant give salvation, we can only talk of it, if someone asks about salvation and we cant reply with what we believe is an adequate answer, does that mean they may not be saved .....because of us?

Does the weight of their salvation fall on our shoulders depending on our answer?

[mike2]

Smalcald says:

"I never came to Christ, I don't think we have that ability."

SW says:

Truer words were never spoken here. The gospel and our response to it is never from reason or anything else internal. Dead men don't respond very well. Unless they are first made alive by the power of forgiveness through the Holy Spirit they remain nicely dead. Sinners can no more come to Christ on their own than the dead raccoon I saw in the road this morning can get up and walk away.

Openly Curious said; I came to the lord'

Do you think that is just an expression, of searching and finding?

[Openly Curious]

I never came to Christ, I don't think we have that ability.

Smalcald

Then how did you get to him. Did you not yield to the gentle whooing of his spirit upon your life and see your deep need for him and call out to him to save you and forgive you of your sins. Well maybe you didn't "come" to christ. but I came to christ as i seen my deep need for him cause i couldn't save myself for i needed a saviour and i called out to him in desperation. If ye don't think i'm saved so be it but i know i didn't have the ability to save myself for if i thought i did have that ability then i would have never called out to the lord to change me and ask for forgiveness of sins.

Openly Curious

[Guest jckduboise]

Is your salvation the only reason to become a Christian.

As a non believer would you think it is kind of shallow to believe in God just to save your butt.

I saw in a thread just the other day someone that would not accept God for that excuse, because, obviously, all they know of God is if you dont believe in Him you go to hell.

With that in mind, believing in God for that reason, is, rightly, hypocritical.

Why should we accept God other than for our salvation and should we be using those examples and reasons when we witness?

First of all that the person who felt that if they didn't believe in Him would go to hell is on the right track. If this person believes in hell then they have to believe in Heaven which is of God.

Every one who comes to the Lord comes differently. We are all brought out of our own personal hell's into a personal relationship with God. That is completely unique from another person's way. Yes there are set standards (commandments/laws) we all have to live that are the same for everyone but each and every person walks a different walk with the Lord.

We can look at Paul (Saul) as a perfect example of how differently he lived his life from the disciples. After all he was their persecutor therefore a persecutor of Christ. God took Saul and blinded Him, turned him to one of the parties to bring the Gentiles into the picture and gave him the name of Paul. And then he got to spend many years in prison for loving the Lord

God loved Him anyhow, in spite of what he was doing to those He loved so much. The majority of us walked a very crooked path to get to the Lord. I don't believe it matters how we get there as long as we get there.

And yes if the only reason is keeping your butt out of hell and that is your tesimony then share it. Nice about is that even though we're each unique in our relationship with the Lord someone out there will hear the testimony and it will be exactly the words needed to bring them to salvation. God is mysterious.

[Guest Streamweaver]

Hi do you mind if I join?

[ayin jade]

Welcome to worthy Streamweaver.

[mike2]

Hi do you mind if I join?

Wade on in!

What is your perspective?

Do you think when witnessing we need to get straight to the salvation part, or do you think we should take a little more time talking about the Christian life first?

[chrismarc]

Do you think when witnessing we need to get straight to the salvation part,

or do you think we should take a little more time talking about the Christian life first?

It is only right to teach the neophyte 1st what it means to be

a Christian. Salvation is the goal, not the beginning. Would you

hand an untrained person a scapel and say " now begin "?