Let’s trade in the ole ‘sinner’s prayer’ for this approach.

I admit that I’m not someone who recalls the exact moment of my salvation as a glorious transformation for which the date and time is indelibly etched in my memory. In fact, I question whether I was really saved when I recited the “sinner’s prayer” as a child. It wasn’t until adulthood that my life exhibited any fruit of salvation that anybody noticed. As a child I was simply trying to avoid hell by “clipping” the Bible’s “redemption coupon” for free “fire insurance.” For me, the sinner’s prayer was dangerous because it never connected my need for a savior with God’s desire to save me, although it gave me the false sense of security that it had.

There is no substitute for Biblical knowledge.

The sinner’s prayer is one of those well-meaning devices of Christendom intended to help believers evangelize non-believers. But in my experience, having Biblical knowledge and being able to articulate it concisely is what allows the Holy Spirit to supernaturally bring non-believers to a genuine point of decision as to whether or not they accept or reject God’s grace. That’s far better than leaning on the crutch of a scripted prayer that isn’t actually found anywhere in the Bible… Ok, one passage gets close.

The original “sinner’s prayer.”

Only after realizing his sin (Luke 15:17) did the Prodigal Son resolve to repent and reconcile with his father. He even rehearsed his own sinner’s prayer (Luke 15:18-19) before arriving back home. But his words poured forth from of a truly repentant heart. And look what happened: “And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.” (Luke 15:20).

Notice how the father had compassion and ran toward his son. That’s how God reacts to repentance! The two were reconciled the instant the son repented! And the father was more than willing to restore everything the son had foolishly forfeited (Luke 15:22-23). Then there was a whole lot of rejoicing because the son was all but dead to the father until they reconciled (Luke 15:24).

People don’t need me to tell them what to say to God.

Sinner’s prayers don’t save people; the gospel saves people (Rom 1:16). Many years after praying the sinner’s prayer, when I realized I was guilty of what amounts to an eternal capital crime against God, the convicting power of the Holy Spirit showed me exactly what I wanted to say to Him. And a canned sinner’s prayer could hardly contain it. The contrite heart of a sinner knows exactly what it wants to say to God. My job as a Christian is to help people understand that they can do it themselves, not script it for them. Because the instant a person’s eyes are opened, and they truly want to be saved… they are. Salvation is already done. And no sinner’s prayer is needed to make it stick.

What would you like to say to God?

‘Please allow me to introduce myself…’

America is being plagued by senseless acts of violence in shopping malls, movie theaters, and schools. Politicians are quick to use these tragedies as a means to advance their particular ideology. One side says take away the guns; the other side claims a well armed citizenry is the best deterrent to the madness. Meanwhile Americans cry out, “When is it all going to stop?” The answer may be, it never will. And my heart breaks for grief-stricken families when I think about the obvious reason why.

First, to correctly identify the root cause of the violence.

It’s not too many guns; it’s not too few guns; it’s not mental illness. It’s evil.

American culture has so fictionalized evil that people really have no understanding of what it truly is? Take Halloween for example: Kids these days would just as soon dress up as the villain in their favorite movie as they would the hero. (In full disclosure I did masquerade as Darth Vader three years in a row as a kid.) And what is with America’s obsession with zombies, and this infatuation with vampires! (And bacon too. But that’s a different blog post altogether).

So when people are asked to define evil they typically struggle to do so. The go-to definition is to play the Hitler card, but that’s cop-out  Hitler was an embodiment of evil, but he wasn’t evil itself. What is the source of true evil? Maybe we should be looking to God for the answer?

What history teaches us.

Many people say they believe in God. But it’s easy to hope and believe in something good, especially in a world so full of bad, and seemingly little hope of it ever be overcome. So people rename this abstract concept of “good” as “god,” and slap a face on it — maybe even pray to it. But that’s not God.

I think about the Biblical history of ancient Israel. In a nutshell, they were in and out of conflict and bondage, depending on their relationship with God. No, God never bailed; they did. Israel became reacquainted with God time and time again because He allowed them to become reacquainted with their enemies. So also has America bailed on God.

A healthy belief in the devil.

The Rolling Stones sang, “Please allow me to introduce myself…” Could it be that America doesn’t need to believe in God as much as it needs to believe in the devil?

Having a healthy belief in the devil clarifies mankind’s distorted view of, and lacking devotion to, God. God used to be America’s first love (Rev 2:4-5). But maybe the best way to rekindle that romance is for God to let us flirt with the devil. The glorious news is that God is waiting with open arms for humanity to run back to Him. When that happens, He wipes away the tears, and the desperate cries are quieted!

Is it too late or is there still hope for America?

23 Truths that can get anybody into heaven in 10 minutes flat!

Prior to understanding these 23 truths I was only “clipping” the “Redemption coupon” out of the Bible and clinging to it as some kind of free fire insurance. I never realized that this short jaunt through the Bible was all anyone needed to understand exactly why God created mankind, and why mankind can only go to heaven this way. And to think that I was once fooled into thinking would somehow make it to heaven because I was a decent person who went to church. And that’s the most dangerous place in the world to be.

Here are 23 truths that anybody can understand in order to make sure their eternity in heaven is secure:

1. God created heaven and earth.
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” (Gen 1:1)

2. Angels were created to worship God.
“You are the Lord, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you.” (Neh 9:6)

3. God established the penalty for disobeying Him as death.
“…but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Gen 2:17)

4. Hell was created for the angels who rebelled against God.
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.’” (Matt 25:41)

5. God created people.
“…then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.” (Gen 2:7)

6. God created all things, including people, for his glory and just because it made Him happy to do it.
“Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” (Rev 4:11)

7. God created people so He could love them as His children, and so people could love Him as their Father.
“See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.” (1 John 3:1a-b)

8. What does it mean to love God?
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (John 14;15)

9. God wanted this love to be real, so he gave mankind an opportunity to choose to love Him.
“And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’” (Gen 2:16-17)

10. The archangel, Lucifer, chose to turn away from God.
“You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper,
sapphire, emerald, and carbuncle; and crafted in gold were your settings and your engravings. On the day that you were created they were prepared. You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created, till unrighteousness was found in you. (Ezek 28:13-15)

11. The archangel, Lucifer, wanted to be worshiped like God.
“You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’” (Isa 14:13)

12. Lucifer staged a rebellion against God and was thrown out of heaven.
“Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world — he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.” (Rev 12:7-9)

13. Lucifer, now known as Satan, motivated by vengeful hatred of God, took the form of a serpent in order to deceive the first people, Adam and Eve, into disobeying God, knowing that God would have to sentence them to death just like he was.
“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.”

“He said to the woman, ‘Did God actually say, “You shall not eat of any tree in the garden”?’ And the woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.”‘ But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’” (Gen 3:1-5)

14. Adam disobeyed God, just like Satan did.
“So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.” (Gen 3:6)

15. Sin, and therefore the sentence of eternal death in hell, spread throughout the entire human race because of Adam’s first sin.
Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men…” (Rom 5:12a-b)

16. When people sin they are rejecting God and rebelling against Him and following the devil. God says to these…
“You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44)

17. Perhaps Satan thought he had backed God into a corner: Now God would be “forced” to treat humanity justly, which means death. Remember…
“For the wages of sin is death…” (Rom 6:23a)

18. Blood is required to atone for sin.
“Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” (Heb 9:22)

19. For the time being God established a system in which people would symbolically place their sin on a perfect and highly prized animal, and shed its blood instead of their own.
For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. (Lev 17:11)

20. The sacrificial system was only a symbol. It could never really pay the infinite price of a crime against an infinite God.
“For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” (Heb 10:4)

21. God Himself, gave His perfect Son as an eternal sacrifice to atone for mankind’s sins — past present and future.
“But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified… then [God] adds, ‘I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.’ Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.” (Heb 10:12-14, 17-18)

22. Why did God sacrifice His own Son for our sins?
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

23. How to be saved.
“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, ‘Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.’” (Rom 10:9-11)

So what did you decide?

Is ‘sharing Jesus’ enough?

As a Christian I know that my mission in life is “make disciples of all nations,” and I’m pretty excited about it! But evangelism, sharing my faith, sharing Jesus — whatever you want to call it — can seem like a scary thing. (That’s why I love Bill Fay’s Share Jesus Without Fear!) I realized that one of the reasons I was so uneasy about evangelism was because I only ever knew two approaches:

Being a tour guide of Hell.

So my typical stratagem when sharing my faith had always been to ask, “If you died right now do you know for sure that you’d go to heaven?” It’s a good question, and it usually jumpstarted the discussion. From there I would take people on a detailed tour of hell. I’d include the “Jesus died for your sins so you could avoid hell and go to heaven” part; we’d pray the old “sinner’s prayer”; and they’d seemingly “get saved.” It’s a sales pitched designed to get a high close rate! I mean, who wants to go to hell, right? But today I question whether or not this approach really leads people to Christ. Think of the ramifications if it doen’t.

Stop Biblical couponing.

Let me preface what I’m about to say with this: The gospel of Jesus Christ is sufficient unto itself to save. Period. But did that person I just described really accept the Christ as his Lord and Savior, or did he just think he picked up some free “fire insurance?”

I can think of a lot of people I’ve seen “got saved”, yet their lives bear no evidence at all of a relationship with Christ. When I accepted Jesus Christ (for real) I was never the same again. So how can so many people “get saved” and still not know Jesus?

Often times witnessing Christ is distilled down into “sharing Jesus.” And yes, Jesus is all one needs to be saved. But for the “Jesus part” to really take, I need to show people why they need Jesus — other than just to avoid going to hell.

My former approach to sharing the gospel amounted to little more than “Biblical couponing” — clipping the Bible’s “Jesus coupon,” and handing it out. But with no real knowledge of the real need for Jesus, I wonder how effective I’ve been.

Tell the whole Truth.

The gospel never returns void because the Holy Spirit actually does the work! Where I’ve fallen short, God is completely sufficient. So even my misguided Biblical couponing hasn’t been in vain. His Word always gets a response if I will tell someone!

An understanding of God’s reason and intent for creating mankind is what showed me my need a Savior. But that’s a lot of Biblical history to share with someone on a plane, or standing in line somewhere, or over lunch? So I learned to distill it down into the “CliffsNotes’ version, which shows people their desperate need for Jesus.

How do you share the gospel?

The most dangerous place in the world can be a church.

I’ve attended church most of my life. So I’ve probably been exposed to enough Biblical knowledge to at least qualify for an Associate’s Degree in divinity! But all that knowledge could have easily been part one of the devil’s most sinister and eternally destructive tactics.

I lacked a key understanding.

The good news is that the lack of church membership, denominational affiliation, orthodoxy allegiance, or religious heritage in my life won’t doom me to hell. The bad news is that none of it will get me to heaven either.

I was learning about God, and even claimed to have a Biblical worldview. But the devil’s plan was to make me feel like I was good. At that point the most dangerous place in the world can be a church.

Religious knowledge had at least soothed my conscience about my eternity. But the problem was that my view of what it meant to be a Christian was seriously flawed. I had religious knowledge but I lacked saving knowledge. I lacked a key understanding of what it meant to be saved from hell by God.

Saving knowledge is like a jigsaw puzzle.

My wife’s grandmother always had a puzzle going every time we visited. Like most people she began with the edges and worked her way in. There was always a big gaping hole in the middle until she began to fill in the pieces and reveal the picture. Religious knowledge alone, or organizational affiliation is like having an incomplete jigsaw puzzle for faith — faith that is supposed to get me to heaven! I was always wondering, will it?

This described my early church experience. Week after week, Bible study after Bible study, I would fill in missing pieces along the edges of the puzzle, but there remained a big gaping hole right in the middle. But when I was finally confronted with my fatal misconception about my “faith” I had a real encounter with Jesus Christ.

People want to avoid hell.

Who can blame them? That’s what kept me in church all these years. But the missing puzzle piece in my understanding of salvation was that I didn’t see why I needed a Savior. I only saw Jesus Christ, and His gospel, as a Biblical “redemption coupon” that got me free “fire insurance!” So I cashed in on the coupon by praying that standard “sinners prayer” and thought I was good to go! Literally!

The temptation now.

The temptation in evangelism now is so to cut right to the “Jesus part.” Start in the middle of the puzzle and save people a lot of time! But the entire Bible is the gospel. So I share the gospel with people from the beginning — before the beginning actually — a condensed version.

Hell was never meant for human beings. God originally intended to live with mankind, not separated from mankind (because of my sin). Only Jesus Christ can restore that relationship. And therein lies my need for Him.

6 Things most Christians won’t tell you.

My grandfather had undoubtedly heard the gospel many times throughout his life but was never saved. When I shared it with him for what would be his last opportunity, his response blew me away: “No one ever told me that before!” What had I done differently?

I told him why God created heaven and hell.

God had created heaven as His dwelling place. He also created hell, where angelic beings who disobeyed Him, would face the justice of eternal death.

Little is known about the conflict in heaven between God and Lucifer. Lucifer wanted to be like God so he staged a coup; God wasn’t having any of it; so Lucifer and a third of the angelic rebels were thrown out (Isa 14:12-15).

But for whatever reason God chose to carry out His enemies’ death sentence later. In the meantime they were banished to earth… where they would unwittingly serve God’s purpose anyway. Beyond that I have to “plea” Deuteronomy 29:29: “The secret things belong to the Lord our God…” The key thing is that hell was never intended for human beings.

I told him why God created people.

Ok, this one seems much simpler. People were created just because it pleased God to do it (Rev 4:11 KJV). Humanities’ purpose on earth is to do good works (Eph 2:10), which glorifies God. I can somewhat relate to that; I created this blog because writing makes me happy, and I hope it serves a good purpose (albeit not for my own glory).

I also believe that humanity plays a glorious purpose in God’s war against evil.

I told him why people have a choice.

God gave humanity free will. Why? God wants a love relationship with people; that would be impossible if humans were “pre-programmed” to love Him. Love for God must be proven. My wife chose me, and I chose her (Obviously my taste in women far exceeds her taste in men!). Therein lies the beauty of the love relationship. Jesus (God the Son) defined loving Him as obeying Him (John 14:15).

I told him how Satan fooled man, but God fooled Satan.

Call it some kind of cosmic vendetta, but Lucifer, or Satan (literally translated “the enemy”), decided to try to stick it to God. He masterfully tempted God’s first man, Adam, into the same sin he harbored — pride. It worked: Deception caused Adam to eat from a the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil, which God had forbidden. Satan knew God’s Law is preeminent and eternal, and all of creation — angelic or human — is subject to The Law and its penalty.

Adam became the original host for the hereditary virus of sin that infected mankind (Rom 5:12). Imagine Satan’s twisted pleasure — thinking he checkmated God by forcing His justice on mankind: destroying mankind for eternity. But Satan unwittingly started his own doomsday clock.

I told him how God deals with the crime of eternity.

God created the process of animal sacrifices as a symbol of His solution for dealing with humanity’s crime of sin. Atoning for sin was to cost a person his most perfect and valued animal — pricey to someone who made their living by livestock. Symbolically, people’s sins were “transferred” to the sacrificial animal — many times a lamb — which died in place of the people who sinned. But it would never come close to truly atoning for sin, and God knew it (Heb 10:4).

A crime against an infinite God requires infinite atonement to avoid infinite death. There’s no way around it; but there is a way though it!

Jesus Christ, God the Son, left heaven and entered human history to become that sacrifice once and for all. All of mankind’s sins — past, present, and future — were placed on Jesus, and He was killed. Only His death could satisfy God’s justice, and reconcile mankind with God the Father.

Why God’s plan is so ingenious!

God ingeniously created a way to save  guy like me from eternal death without having to simply overlook my sin. He saved me while still remaining completely just. Once I accepted His free gift He began to sanctify me — sending me up against the enemy every day in order to simultaneously batter me into the perfect image of Jesus, defeat Satan by dismantling evil, and glorify Himself in the process. We are more than conquerors! (Rom 8:37-39) And one day we’ll reign with Him when the fullness of His plan is carried out in this world! Talk about turning the tables on Satan’s rebellion and our downfall! Brilliant!

Have you ever told anyone that before?

4 Essentials that no Christian can live without

There are four essential elements to Christian living that I needed to solidify if my life wasn’t going to be a complete and total waste of time. The first three seemed easy! The fourth one is what every Christian longs to realize!

1. I determined the basis of my Worldview.

My worldview is the lens through which I see the world. (Profound eh?) It effects how I interpret everything around me, and how I respond to it. If I reject Absolute Truth and don’t believe I have any accountability to a higher power, how would I view the people and events in my world, and interact with everything and everyone? But how differently I live if I believed that God would not only hold me accountable, but that my obedience brought Him great joy now and in eternity?

Ravi Zacharias says that a coherent worldview must answer four questions: that of origin, meaning of life, morality, and destiny. While every major religion stakes a claim on truth, Christianity is unique because it answers all four of these questions.

2. I discovered the Purpose for which God created me.

There is a purpose for all of mankind, and a purpose for me personally. Let’s consider the former right now. I just love the Westminster Shorter Catechism. These Westminster guys nailed it for me!

The chief end of man is to glorify God [1] and enjoy Him forever. [2]

[1] Psa 86, Isa 60:21, Rom. 11:36, 1 Cor. 6:20; 10:31, Rev 4:11
[2] Psa 16:5-11, Psa 144:15, Isa 12:2, Luke 2:10, Phil 4:4, Rev 21:3-4

What more could I add to that? Well, in his book, Desiring God, John Piper makes one tweak: The chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever.

Perfect!

3. I realized my Mission in life.

Christians share the same Mission, given by the Son of God Himself in The Great Commission in Matthew 28:16-20:

“Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’”

4. I developed a Personal Ministry Vision.

Purpose equals why I’m here. Mission equals what I’m here to do. Vision is the specific and unique call of God on my life to accomplish the Mission and serve the Purpose. Here is ours:

To invest our time, effort, and resources in the lives of others. [1] To provide living proof of a loving God to a watching world so the light of Jesus Christ within us may shine before all people. [2] To reach into the lives of others and touch something sensitive with the love of God. [3]

[1] Isa. 6:8, John 21:17, 1 Cor. 11:24-25
[2] Matt. 5:16
[3] Rom. 5:5

What is your Personal Ministry Vision?