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3.27.15 Do You Have to Say “YES” to Jesus in Order to be Saved?

I was playing golf with a good friend when he posed this question on the third tee box:

“Do you believe that a person has to say, ‘yes,’ to Jesus to be saved?” He continued. “If Christ’s death on a cross made salvation available to all mankind, then doesn’t everyone have salvation without saying ‘yes’ to Christ?”

I told him no.

He then asked, “Where does it say in the Bible that you ‘have to’ say ‘yes’ to Jesus to be saved?” What a great question! I had never heard it before. I want to present my answer to both questions in this post, but I want to know how you would have answered his question! How would you have supported it biblically?

Since the topic is salvation, let me lay down a foundation for it. I Peter 1:2 outlines the plan: we are chosen by the Father, set apart in faith by the Spirit, and cleansed by the blood of Christ. This passage shows a Triune God taking part in the plan of salvation:

  • From God’s vantage point, He made salvation available to everyone before He created the world.
  • From Jesus’s vantage point, He made salvation available to everyone when He shed His blood on the cross for the penalty of our sins.
  • From the Holy Spirit’s vantage point, He made salvation happen when you said “yes” to Jesus.

The Holy Spirit’s role is critical. He waits for us to say, “yes,” to Christ by acknowledging our need for forgiveness and affirming our commitment to be His disciple. So where does it say we must respond to Christ in the Bible? I found two passages that express the importance of verbalizing a “yes” to Christ, but I can’t say for sure that God mandates it:

  1. Acts 2:21, “And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
  2. Rom 10:9-10, “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.”     

In the meantime, the Bible contains a plethora of verses that connect “believing” in Jesus and “being saved.” Examples include:

  • “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life” John 3:36
  • “Whoever believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:16
  • “He who believes in me will live.” John 11:25

Is to “believe” in Jesus the same as saying “yes” to Him? Let’s look at “believe” in the original Greek language. The Greek word is pisteuo’, which means put faith in. It is an active, present verb. It means we have to take action to secure our salvation.

Christians often distinguish between head knowledge and heart knowledge. Head knowledge is agreeing with facts about who Jesus is and what He did for you on the cross. Heart knowledge is acting on the facts through a prayer to Jesus. For example, you can know all about Jesus from the Bible. You can affirm that He died on the cross for you, you can believe that He conquered death through His resurrection, but that doesn’t mean you’re saved if you haven’t said “yes” to Jesus. The danger of head knowledge is having a false assurance of your salvation. Jesus speaks to this in Matthew 25:31-46. He describes a judgment day when he will separate the sheep (believers) from the goats (unbelievers). The goats lived with head knowledge of Jesus and professed Him as their Savior. They did ministry in His name without ever entering into a relationship with Him. Jesus informs the goats, “Depart from me, I never knew you.”

I believe Jesus expects to have a relationship with us based on the passage above, which means we need to say, “yes,” to Him. Let’s think about it. Jesus loved us enough to lay down His life for us and then conquered death through His resurrection. He offered a love relationship with us, promised eternal life, and in return, we said nothing to Him! Can you imagine?!

Photo Courtesy @Shutterstock.com/sarahdesign

Photo Courtesy @Shutterstock.com/sarahdesign

We are celebrating Easter next week, and I want you to be certain that you have said, “yes,” to Jesus through a simple prayer:

“Dear Lord, I am admitting that I am a sinner in need of your forgiveness. I believe that you are the Son of God who came to earth to die on the cross to cleanse me of my sins. I am affirming that you gave me the hope of eternal life by conquering death through your resurrection. I am not only confessing you as my Savior, but I am making a lifelong commitment to do your will with the help of your Holy Spirit. Lord, thank you for offering the gift of salvation to me. I humbly say, “Yes, I accept.” Help me to be an effective servant in your Kingdom from this day forward. I pray this in Jesus name, Amen.”  Happy Easter!

How would you have answered my friend’s question? Are there passages I’ve missed that you would have included in today’s post? I look forward to your inputs. Please share them below.

 

Blessings,

Lee Ann

3.22.15 Romans 8:1-11

Download Lesson: 3.22.15 Class Notes – Rom 8.1-11

LOOK:

There is no need for the believer to be defeated. He can yield his body to the Spirit and by faith overcome the old nature. The Spirit of life will empower him. The Spirit of death will enable him to overcome the flesh. And the Spirit of adoption will enrich him and lead him into the will of God.

3.6.15 Can You Worship God While Holding a Cellphone?

I like technology and its many benefits. I especially like my cellphone. How many of us can say we imagined a device like this twenty years ago? I love these features:

  • Its portability
  • Internet access
  • Quick and efficient communication via texting.
  • GPS for easy navigation.
  • Apps that replicate software I like to use on my PC

What’s not to love about cellphones? Plenty: cellphones interfere with our worship experience. Are we so desensitized that we don’t notice how we undermine not only our own worship experience, but the experience of everyone around us?

Photo Courtesy @Shutterstock.com/Blaj Gabriel

Photo Courtesy @Shutterstock.com/Blaj Gabriel

I attend an 8:30am worship service in our beautiful chapel, with 100-150 members, more intimate than the gathering of two thousand people who arrive for the 9:45 service. I love music and feel more connected to God when we sing hymns with rich theology. Another bonus of the 8:30 worship service is the presence of Mac Bynum, a gifted musician and recording artist, who also is a masterful pianist. He can take any musical piece, create arrangements filled with beautiful arpeggios, and usher us into God’s presence.

Last Sunday was no exception. Mac had just finished playing a moving offertory piece, creating a worshipful setting. During the moment of silence before our pastor stood up to preach, a cellphone went off, a weather alert that pierced the quiet with a loud, honking noise. While this racket reverberated throughout the chapel, I noticed a gentleman frantically locating his cellphone so he could turn it off. He looked embarrassed. On the one hand, I felt sympathy for him. The last thing he needed was our glaring disapproval. On the other hand, I was irritated.

Why do any of us believe we need a cellphone while worshiping God with our fellow believers?

Is it possible that we’ve fallen in love with gadgets and all the bells and whistles that come with them? Have we become irrational to think we need to see our emails and texts right away? Yes and Yes. Whether we are willing to admit it or not, we are growing an addiction to our phones. According to one report, people check their phones 150 times a day.¹ When the Times magazine polled their readership, they learned that 84% out of five thousand surveyed said they couldn’t live without their phone. One in five people check their phones every ten minutes.²

I bet many of you have the same problem in your worship gatherings. I can’t tell you the number of times I have seen people scrolling on their phones while our pastor is preaching. I watch people texting away as if they were sitting on their living room couch. It’s not just the young people who do this!

Why bother coming to worship if our focus isn’t having a special encounter with God?

I’ve noticed new etiquette rules developing around cellphone usage. For example, I discovered online a rule regarding dinner invitations. If someone wants to open her home and create an atmosphere to build relationships, then we should put our cellphones away. Yet the norm is that we Instagram our plate of food before we even eat it! Imagine being the host. Would you consider it rude if your guests were more interested in their cellphones than engaging with you and the other guests?

I wonder if God ever feels like an ignored host. He invites us to meet with Him. He wants us to engage with His Spirit through music, Scripture, and prayers. He wants us to celebrate Him with praise and thanksgiving. Here’s what He’s expecting according to Psalm 95:1-7:

1     Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord;let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.2     Let us come before him with thanksgivingand extol him with music and song.

3     For the Lord is the great God,

the great King above all gods.

4     In his hand are the depths of the earth,

and the mountain peaks belong to him.

5     The sea is his, for he made it,

and his hands formed the dry land.

6     Come, let us bow down in worship,

let us kneel before the Lord our Maker;

7     for he is our God

and we are the people of his pasture,

the flock under his care.

 

When I read this passage, I know in my heart that cellphones and worship don’t mix. When He looks down at us, I wonder if He feels disheartened when He sees how distracted we are with our phones.

Can we honestly say we’re devoted to giving God praise while a cellphone is in hand? Don’t you think we are being rude and disrespectful to our Creator? We have to ask, “Why are we here?” Do we attend worship out of obligation? Or do we go with a strong sense of expectancy and anticipation that He is ready to minister to our souls?

I know there are exceptions—situations and people who need to be accessible: Many Children’s Ministries rely on cellphones to text a parent during a worship service to pick up a sick child. We have doctors who are on call. They get a pass. Some people access an online Bible to follow Scripture readings. If we bring cellphones to worship gatherings, it should only be for reasons such as these. The majority of us don’t need to have our phones with us.

I believe we can enhance the worship experience for all attendees by leaving our cellphones in the car. Otherwise, we become a distraction to those around us. More importantly, we can give the Lord our undivided attention as we worship Him.

 

Can you imagine how your worship experience would be enhanced if you were not distracted by someone’s phone?

If you were asked to draft a cellphone policy for worship gatherings, what would your rules be?

 

Blessings,

Lee Ann

 

¹http://www.kpcb.com/blog/2013-internet-trends

²http://techland.time.com/2012/08/16/your-life-is-fully-mobile/

2.20.15 Does Amazon Sell Spiritual Microscopes?

How do you tell the difference between God shutting a door and the Enemy trying to derail your efforts? This spiritual conundrum strikes all believers from time to time. You ask the Lord to lead you in a new venture, and then the doors open, which leads you to believe He has blessed it. But as you move forward, the circumstances begin to unravel. You question who is causing the circumstances to deteriorate? Is God pulling the reins, or is Satan creating stumbling blocks? We’ve all been there.

Photo Courtesy @ Shutterstock.com/albund

Photo Courtesy @ Shutterstock.com/albund

Some of you know I have started a book project on Living Giving titled, Only One Life to Give. A couple of months ago, my writing coach suggested I start a pilot group to test some of my ideas. She recommended no more than three to five people meet with me once a month, which sounded reasonable. She also suggested I invite the right people, i.e. committed Christians, who had a written budget, were willing to meet once a month, and were willing to give me feedback.

I jumped on the idea, assuming God was in this because I pray over my writing ministry and book project daily. I stepped out in faith, extending an invitation to potential pilot group members through my blog. Within days of publishing, I heard from five people. Two of them bemoaned the fact that they weren’t eligible because they didn’t have a written budget. The other three were anxious to start and wanted to go on the Living Giving journey with me.

The four of us decided that Monday evenings worked best and set our launch date for January 26th. On the morning of our scheduled meeting, “Sue” emailed me wondering if she missed my web link and call in number. I informed her that the group email would go out shortly and that she had not missed anything. But when evening came, I was the only person on the line at the appointed time! I waited on the phone for twenty minutes, wondering if my email had malfunctioned, before finally hanging up. I felt certain I would have heard from “Sue” if she had not yet received the contact information. But I didn’t hear from her.

I stepped back and asked myself, “Is God leading this endeavor, or is Satan creating roadblocks?” I wanted to believe God was guiding me because of the enthusiastic responses I received. But it was difficult to discern.

I felt discouraged and confused. I wrote an email that evening to our group asking them for an explanation of what happened. Did they not get my email with the contact data? Did other circumstances come up that prevented them from meeting with me?

Each group member responded early the next morning. “Sue” explained that she got home Monday evening and sensed that she was forgetting something, but she couldn’t tag it. So she just went into her normal routine for a Monday night. When she got my email the next morning, she realized instantly what she had forgotten. She wrote a heartfelt apology and assured me that whatever rescheduled time was set, she would be there without fail. The other couple also responded. They were ready for our call forty five minutes in advance. But then their son, who has a history of seizures, had an episode before the call, and they spent the rest of the evening taking care of him. They attempted to contact me that evening by asking their other son to call me to let me know what was going on, but he didn’t know my number.

I decided that God was still in this pilot group venture. Life happens, everyone spaces out on occasion, and urgent matters arise that take priority. No harm, no foul. Let’s just start over. Since “Sue” was flexible, I emailed my other couple the morning of the 27th and asked if we could reschedule for February 2nd. I waited for a reply for over a week and never heard from them! I told my writing coach that starting this pilot group may not happen. It shouldn’t be this hard to launch a meeting once a month. More importantly, I wasn’t confident that God was in this effort.

In the meantime, I felt led to email my pilot group. I shared my decision to postpone this venture until we could discern God’s leadership in this endeavor. Within ten minutes of my email, I got a phone call from this dear couple, who figured out why they never got my email for the reschedule. They had assigned my email to a “missionaries” folder, so they reassigned my email address back to their “inbox.” Moreover, they said, “Please don’t give up.” I heard in their voice a strong desire to move forward with this, which encouraged me. However, “Sue” needed an opportunity to pray about whether God was really calling her to participate in this group. So I informed them that we’re on hold for now.

I know I can’t thwart God’s purposes. I also know that spiritual warfare is alive and well. I wish there was a spiritual microscope to help me know who is behind my circumstances! I am trying to discern God’s will in this adventure by looking at the big picture. I can say with integrity that I ask for God’s leadership and guidance daily in this writing ministry and book project. “Sue” had been praying for spiritual growth in the area of giving. When she read my blog and fit the criteria, she heard it as God’s answer to her prayer. I know the other couple have already started their Living Giving, and they desire to honor God with His resources and want to do more. We all desire to move forward with God’s blessing. As of this writing, I sense God is still in this, but He may have shut the door because now is not the right time.

Photo Courtesy @ Shutterstock.com/cristovao

Photo Courtesy @ Shutterstock.com/cristovao

We are going to start over, but this time in our prayer closet! I don’t want to presume upon His will. I still don’t know who was behind the interference to launch this group, but I am comforted by Proverbs 16:1 – “To man belong the plans of the heart, but from the Lord comes the reply of the tongue.” We look forward to hearing His response.

How do you discern whether God is closing a door for you or whether it is the Enemy who is undermining your work for the Lord? We could use your wisdom. Please share your insights by clicking the link below. 

Blessings,

Lee Ann

2.8.15 Romans 3

Download Lesson: 2.8.15 Class Notes – Rom 3

LOOK:

God showed His amazing love to us by creating a plan of salvation for everyone who believes upon His Son, Jesus. We learned three elements of salvation:

  1. Justification is by grace (source of our salvation – 3:21-24)
  2. Justification is by the blood (basis of our salvation – 3:25-26)
  3. Justification is by faith (condition of our salvation – 3:27-31)