What is Salvation?

The book Follow Me, by David Platt,  starts off by telling a story about a Muslim girl who asked him how she could become a Christian knowing that she would be beaten and killed by her family if she does. Platt states there is two options he could have offered her. First option is he could tell her it is easy to be a Christian, just believe Jesus is the Christ and repeat a simple prayer and she will be saved, or he could tell her the truth by telling her that in the Gospel God calls us all to die. Die to life, family, friends, and future, and that in dying, to live. To live in Jesus.

Anytime someone asked Jesus how they can be saved, or how they could become his disciple, he would say things like this: "If anyone is going to follow me he must deny himself." Mt 19 Jesus tells the story of a rich young ruler who asked how he can know for sure if he is saved. Jesus told him to follow the commands.  The Ruler said that he does, Jesus then says then sell everything you own and follow me. Another man asked how he could be a disciple of Jesus and Jesus answered, I have nowhere to lie down at night, you sure you want to follow me? Yet another time he told a man to follow him, the man replied let me bury my dad first, meaning that he had not yet died but his health is failing. Jesus lovingly replied, let the dead bury their own, in order to follow me, one must hate his family.

Does Jesus really mean to stop caring about your family in order to be a real Christian? No. Most of these stories were told in a parable which were stories that made you ask what he meant if you really wanted to know. But since we can't really ask him what exactly he meant, we can assume. We assume, that he was merely stating the importance of what is expected. To deny oneself. To set our own priorities aside for the sake of the Kingdom.

Now today churches are filled with Christians that seem content to have casual association with Christ while giving nominal adherence to Christianity. People considering themselves to be Christians live in a world of self: protect, comfort, care for yourself. What Jesus was saying was "slay yourself". To Jesus, following him meant giving up our own little world, to us it means praying a prayer and "inviting Jesus into our world."

I "invited" Christ into my life when I was 8 years old after the pastor was talking about hell. I knew I did not want to go there so I asked my parents how I could go to heaven. They did what their pastor told them to do, and most likely your pastor would have told them to do.  They led me in a prayer asking Christ to cleanse my heart and enter my life.

The Bible never mentions such a prayer. It should concern us that of all the times Jesus was asked how to be saved, he never once said to kneel down and pray that he will enter our hearts or just to invite him into our lives.

This type of understanding allows people who are not saved, believe that they are. 

There is a verse in Matthew 7 that most people do not understand. It comes right at the end of Jesus' most famous message known as the sermon on the mount. He is teaching this to his disciples, which tells us this is directed at those who believe in him. Mt 7:21 says “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

Another verse that gets taught the wrong way is in the same chapter, 7:13, so he's talking to the same people, believers. “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it." I was always led to believe that the wide gate symbolized non-believers and the narrow gate was for believers. But in this type of context, and as Platt states, both of these gates are for believers. You can float through this life clinging to that prayer you said asking Christ into your life, or you can die to yourself and take the narrow path that will be difficult, yet very rewarding.

So what is it that makes us truly saved?   There are signs around our youth room at church that state, "Those who love God, Worship God." This does not mean that our salvation is relying on our works, but that our works are a result of our love for Him. We also rely on God's grace to allow Him to forget about our past. We also must have a heart of repentance, willing to turn from whatever keeps us from walking with Him.

Jesus says many believe in him, including the demons, but only those who obey his commands will enter the kingdom

This post was the message for our youth ministry, and was taken directly out of the book, Follow Me, which can be purchased here: http://www.amazon.com/Follow-Me-Call-Die-Live/dp/1414373287/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1427737926&sr=8-1&keywords=follow+me+platt

What is Faith Pt 2

God is often referred to as Father. He is not a reflection of our earthly fathers, he is the perfection of our earthly father.

Because he is the perfect father is why he wants to hear our desires it's why he wants to give us the best life possible. He gives because he enjoys giving.

I love how Tim Hawkins displays the idea of a earthly father. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLOsRlI-eKE 

As a perfect father, he does not give his children all the ask for. He knows that most of what we desire is not good for us and some can be deadly to our spiritual lives. Because he is a perfect father we need to know we can trust him even when we don't understand what he's doing. Our lives provide room for lots of disappointments. We need to be able to distinguish between gods promises and our own expectations. "There are many things that God has not promised that we may wish he had. God has not promised to keep bad things from happening to us, he has not promised to heal every illness, he has not promised to reverse the consequence of sin, yet there are occasions when God intervenes and does these things. Why? Because he is a perfect father who loves to give good gifts to his children.

Hebrews 4:14  Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens—Jesus the Son of God—let us hold fast to the confession. ¹⁵ For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tested in every way as we are, yet without sin. 16 Therefore let us approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us at the proper time..

Later in Hebrews  it states "let us approach the throne with confidence that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

He experienced temptation at the hands of Satan him

He was rejected by both friends and family members

He could be viewed as a failure because he saw everything he had worked for crumble down around himself

He knew fear when he spent the night in Gethsemene dreading the events of the next day

His friends abandoned him when he needed them the most

He faced his death alone

He will never respond with "I can't believe that you..." Or "what is your problem" he knows he need for mercy from experience.

Grace is the strength to endure and the ability to carry on. He has not promised to deliver us from our circumstances, whatever they may be, but he has promised to deliver us through our circumstances. We have the freedom to ask God to change our circumstances and we can count on him for the grace to endure them in the meantime.

Here's what we know about faith.

Faith must always have an object. If I told you I was going to come over to your house for dinner, the object of your faith would be me. If you were told to buy a particular bar of soap due to its ability to stop acne in its tracks, the object of your faith would be the soap. The object of your faith is the who or what you believe in.

Faith must also have content. When you believe in a product, you believe it will do what it claim it can do, like erase acne. And if you believe in a person , you believe they are trustworthy and will do what they claim they will do. the content of faith is what a person or product claim they can do. It is the what you believe in.

Saving Faith has a very specific object, Christ,  and a very specific content, promises. Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father,  except through me", making Him the object of our faith. As for the content, Paul says in Romans 10,  ⁹ If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  The promise of salvation. If we believe, if we confess. we will be saved. Another promise connected to authentic faith is found in proverbs 3: ⁵ Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding; ⁶ think about Him in all your ways, and He will guide you on the right paths.
 Can we trust the Lord with all our hearts? Yes. Do we? probably not.

 

This lesson on Faith is inspired by the book by Andy Stanley called The Seven Checkpoints: 7 Principles Every Teenager Needs To Know

What is Faith?

Why is faith important?

What does it take to have real faith?

Sometimes there are events that happen in our lives or in the life of someone we love that can take a little chunk out of our faith, or even wipe it clean. So what is faith and why does it waver so much?

To me, faith is believing that God wants what's best for my life. Faith is also knowing that nothing happens without God knowing. When you have a strong faith, you are committed to doing whatever God wants you to do because you believe so strongly that his will is perfect and that in the end, will be the best life for you.

So what does the Bible say about faith?

The book of Hebrews, ch 11, says that faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. What is that in English? Faith is the confidence that God is who He says he is and that He will do all that he has promised to do.

Let's say you invited a friend over to dinner. If they do not respond right away, do you have faith that they will come over? You may be hopeful, but you cannot have faith that they will without an affirmative response. The Bible offers us the bridge between wishful thinking and authentic faith.

Noah spent 140 years building an ark because God promised it was going to rain, Abraham left his home and without a destination in mind because God promised to lead him to a new home. Gideon charged into an enemy camp totally outnumbered because God promised him victory. Joshua marched around Jericho until the walls fell down because God promised success.

I believe what makes faith a reality is our perspective. We all have different issues. Most of us have control issues. We do not like to give up control of our lives. We keep praying and acting like God is the genie in a bottle that gives us unlimited wishes. But authentic faith requires us to want only what He wants. As long as we are trying to get something from God, We find it very difficult to surrender our lives to God. 

Oprah and Ellen are telling us to believe in ourselves. To trust our hearts and don’t worry about what anyone else says. This view is very common across our world today and has been widely accepted as truth. But the Bible says differently. In fact, the Bible warns very strongly about where not to place our trust. In Proverbs, it says, He who trusts in his own heart is a fool. Proverbs also says to trust in the Lord with all your heart and in all your ways acknowledge him.

We all need to make the decision for ourselves. Are you going to trust Him?

What is love?

Love has been defined as a feeling, an attitude, or a presentation of feelings. We can define love however we want, but what does it truly mean? In this video, random people were asked this same question.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-9kDodq2x0

Love actually has many parts to it. It can encompass several feelings and attitudes. In this next video, Rob Bell describes some different styles of love. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBhc6_bqP9s 

We have been given the ability to love others in different ways, uniquely. In those relationships, we need to make sure we love others properly. There are other elements involved in how we love, like trust, mutual respect, and even sinful feelings.

In Galatians 5 Paul wrote,
¹³ For you were called to be free, brothers; only don’t use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love. ¹⁴ For the entire law is fulfilled in one statement: Love your neighbor as yourself.^{[a] 15} But if you bite and devour one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another.¹⁶ I say then, walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. ¹⁷ For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want.

Sometimes, what we want to say or feel about someone, is not how the Holy Spirit desires us to. God says love is sacrificially giving up of your own desires to in order to love others fully. Otherwise, we will just destroy each other emotionally.