The great Christian writer, C. S. Lewis, who came to faith in Jesus Christ after having been an atheist, said the following in his amazing book with such an ironic title, "Mere Christianity": I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say. A man who said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”
Makes sense to me.....Christ said he's the Son of God and one can only get to Heaven 'through' Him......So, he's either right or he's a liar or he's crazy! Yet, people admire him as a great teacher I know most of you have heard this, but I thought it was worth posting........
"Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6
Lewis didn't think Jesus was either lying or crazy when he said the Scripture in John. Something to think about, for sure. Have a marvelous (thinking) Sunday! Z
47 comments:
A True story in line with this:
A brilliant law student(with a photographic memory) at the University of Tennessee fell in love with a beautiful young woman who came from a family of ministers. He was not a believer and the young lady said she could not marry him as well as did her Father. The young man challenged them saying that if he could prove that the Bible was false and that God was only in their imagination would the marriage be allowed. In fairness they agreed. The time was one full year. At the end of the year the young man, now a young attorney came to the house of the love of his life.
As they sat in the living room of that house the father asked what was his conclusion.
The young man rose and said, I wish to marry your daughter and ask that you agree for you see I can not prove that the Bible is false but I can say with out a doubt that "I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
They were married that summer. That young man went on to not only become a well respected attorney and Judge but a much in demand as a minister of the gospel through out the State of Tennessee.
His reply to the father and his young lady is the only conclusion that anyone who will take time to read the Scripture can come to.
"I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God."
Anything less is not satisfactory in God's eyes.
Lewis makes a compelling casein this book. I believe there used to ne a portion of this book sold separately called A Case for Christianity
I think it's a rather simple conclusion. If one credits Jesus to be a true prophet and a genuine man of God who speaks the truth, he cannot pick and choose what he wishes to be true.
He must accept what Jesus said, or dismiss him. One cannot have it both ways.
Pris
Lunacy isn't necessarily a disqualifier from divinity. Lewis excludes the possibility that being human made God crazy.
;)
Lighten up, I'm kidding, y'all.
I've always liked Mere Christianity.
Lewis' The Abolition of Man is great for Christian politics junkies.
Interesting to read the Wiki biography of Lewis. Since he came into my life through family members who were Episcopalians, and was strongly identified with the Anglican tradition it never occurred to me that he might have been an Irishman, or that his initial encounters with England and the Anglo-Saxons roused in him considerable distaste and hostility.
Aside from the vivid imagination and magnificent intellectual life he enjoyed, his personal experience seems to have been very sad. His mother died of cancer during his childhood. His father was remote, austere, demanding and, apparently unable to feel or display affection. His first school went bankrupt for lack of pupils, and the headmaster wound up in a mental hospital. Later he was wounded by what-we-wouod-call “friendly fire” during World War One. The “Christianity” he was introduced to in childhood, apparently, gave him no solace. The tales of Beatrix Potter, his own imaginary kingdom he called “Boxen” which was ruled by anthropomorphic animals, and the grandeur of Norse Mythology may have been all that sustained him in his early years.
At age 15 he became interested in the occult and soon abandoned “Christianity” altogether. He was 32 when he converted to the unique brand of Christianity he shaped for himself through the writings many admire still today. He identified himself as a staunch Anglican till the end of his days, but retained a strong degree of Roman Catholicism from his long association with J.R.R. Tolkien and was in fact highly ecumenical and inveterately creative in his outlook on faith.
I am glad he enjoyed the friendship of Jane Moore, the mother of his deceased comrade-at-arms, who apparently gave Lewis the warmth affection, kindness and understanding he never obtained from his own family.
His admiration for Irish poet W. B. Yeats -- a figure not in favor among the English scholars with whom Lewis associated -- was also a sustaining influence that kept him always in touch his Irish roots. The pagan mysticism of ancient Ireland, Scandinavian mythology and the imaginary quasi-mythological realms of his close friend J.R.R. Tolkien are never very far from Lewis’s Christian writings.
One gets the distinct impression that Lewis ultimately committed himself to Christianity because lengthy discussion and debate with Christian friends over a period of years effectively boxed him into having to admit their arguments in favor of Christianity were stronger and more tenable than those he had been using against it. In his case the gift of faith came about by a long process of elimination. As Wiki tells it, it sounds almost as though Lewis must have been bullied into acceptance of Christ by superior intellectual firepower. He, himself, freely admitted he was a most reluctant, almost resentful convert -- at least at first.
It always seemed a pity that he became involved with Joy Davidman Gresham -- another strong intellectual influence that completely took over his life, and may have helped speed him towards his untimely demise at age 64.
”Lewis continued to raise Gresham's two sons after her death. While Douglas Gresham is, like Lewis and his mother, a Christian, David Gresham turned to the faith into which his mother had been born and became Orthodox Jewish in his beliefs. His mother's writings had featured the Jews, particularly one “shohet” (ritual slaughterer), in an unsympathetic manner. David informed Lewis that he was going to become a ritual slaughterer in order to present this type of Jewish religious functionary to the world in a more favourable light. In a 2005 interview, Douglas Gresham acknowledged he and his brother were not close, but he did say they are in email contact. Douglas remains involved in the affairs of the Lewis estate.”
What an ironic note to end on!
Jesus is my Lord and Savior. It is a choice. Either He is or is Not the Son of God. Jesus is the Son of God, my Lord and Savior and there are no grey areas.
Beamish, hanging out and caring for other humans at my job is enough to make me crazy and tempt me to start determining who gets to live or not.
;)
Ticker, wonderful story.
Josh McDowell was also a non believer, believe it or not.
As was Stanley Telchin, the Jew who wrote BETRAYED when he realized his wife and daughter had become believers and he set out to prove them wrong...took a year from his highly successful insurance business to do so.............finally, he couldn't do anything BUT become a follower of Christ...actually, that's when he wrote the book. I bought a copy thru Used Books on Amazon and happened to get one he'd signed, as a matter of fact.
I HIGHLY recommend A SEVERE MERCY for those on the fence...a beautifully written book of intellectuals coming to CHrist in as academic setting as Oxford (they say 18 of C.S. Lewis's best letters...to the author of the book while he was a student under Lewis "Jack", are in that book)...
Elbro, I know "A Case for.." is a separete book, didn't know that detail though. Sounds like a McDowell boo title!
Pris, "prophet" ...could be a moniker for CHrist. Yes, "Either you believe or you don't" but that's tough for witnessing, which I hope this post to be today. The point here is that many Christians don't even believe Jesus was the Son of God now, that's new teaching in some churches so's not to offend...the relativists like to think Jesus is ONE way to God, which isn't what Jesus said, is it! :-) So, he's a liar OR he's nuts..
God is NOT "Allah" because "Allah" did not send His Son, and Jesus says he IS the ONLY way to God.
Beamish..for "Christian politics junkies"..thanks.
FT...most of that information is under my hyperlink at the post... But, much more than a "pity", his marriage so late in life was an amazing love story shown in the story SHADOWLANDS. He was deeply in love with her and she gave him joy, as he's said.
Brooke, makes you want to do a little 'playing god' yourself sometimes, huh? :-)
Lewis is one of those I read as a new Christian. I thought his arguments very good -- particularly that one about how Jesus had to either be God or a lunatic -- and I'm sure he must have contributed much to my theological understanding, but I remember enjoying some of his other books more than Mere Christianity. I also enjoyed the Catholic Chesterton's books.
Although Lewis is honest about being brought kicking and screaming into the kingdom, I didn't have the impression there was any intellectual bullying going on as FT suggests. Just that he kept running into arguments that were solid and convincing that he finally couldn't resist and remain honest.
By the way, there's good authority, opinions vary, that Jane Moore and Lewis were lovers.
Faith, he's a man I'd really have liked to have known...had a wonderful relationship with his brother and adored his wife and stuck by her through 4 terrible years of her bone cancer. Died of renal failure himself 3 or 4 years later, I believe it was.
Have you read A SEVERE MERCY? Gorgeous book.
I am fighting through some very personal issues these days and, like many others, external circumstances (my job, my retirement, the economy, bills, the state of the nation, the Middle East, the world) factor in as well, not the least of which: the future seems so much more uncertain than at any point heretofore in my life.
That said, I submit we need more of God in our lives and certainly not less. Contrast with attempts on behalf of our current US admin to remove as much of God as possible from our lives.
This can't stand and, as such, we are facing a very large crisis -- the likes of which I cannot even quite begin to grasp. I only know this: it will be painful, it will be lengthy, and those who grasp God, who try to grasp God, at least want to know God, will be the most comforted in these tumultuous and kinetic times.
BZ
I'm sure I did read a Severe Mercy -- I went through a period where I was gobbling everything I could get by Lewis -- but oddly enough I don't really remember it. I know I loved The Abolition of Man but I don't remember anything from that one either. Long time ago I guess, and I'm sure whatever he said is in me somewhere. I did think his relationship with his wife was a deep true love and I never got any impression that she dominated him as FT suggests.
BZ, I'm sorry you're going through such personally challenging times (and you're right, ALL of us are in re to America, the world, etc.) and want to thank you so much for your comment which is very beautifully put. You could almost add that to anything C.S. Lewis had written....the comfort is staggering ..there are those who look at it as a crutch but, as one pastor I heard once say "No, it's the WHOLE HOSPITAL"
The comfort isn't sloppy theology, feel-good acceptance...it's something that only came to me through really studying and feeling a kind of 'magic' come over me where suddenly I understood things I'd never grasped before...but, I know that, for some, they don't read the Scripture and still have faith.
I personally can't do that, I've got to "stay in touch" but whatever floats our boats.
THanks for this.
Faith, A SEVERE MERCY has letters written by Lewis IN it but it's by Sheldon Vanauken.
I didn't have the impression there was any intellectual bullying going on as FT suggests. Just that he kept running into arguments that were solid and convincing that he finally couldn't resist and remain honest.
Faith is right. "Bullying" is probably too strong a term for it. My impression, however, is that Lewis was, indeed, brought to faith through the process of argumentation rather any flash of insight or sudden inspiration. He was fundamentally a creature of intellect not spontaneous emotion.
I know Lewis primarily through The Screwtape Letters, arguably his best known work back in the late 1950's. His brilliant use of negative examples given in the form of a series of letters between an elder Demon, Screwtape, and his nephew Wormwood, who might be called a Jr. Demon-in-training, gives wonderful insight into the insidious nature of evil and how it too easily worms its way into a healthy soul and spreads corruption, misery, destruction and despair.
By showing in considerable, colorful -- even humorous -- detail exactly what we ought NOT to be doing, Lewis makes a highly persuasive case for doing the opposite. I, personally have found The Screwtape Letters one of the most useful and convincing arguments in the defense and promotion of Christianity I've ever seen.
What's interesting is that Lewis makes his case not by preaching and quoting Scripture, but by evoking evil so cleverly that he strips it of the traditional "lure of forbidden fruit" and leads the reader to see evil for the wearying, debilitating, depressing, demeaning, ultimately vicious and destructive thing that it is -- all without once raising his voice.
The absence of any taint of fear-mongering hysteria or loud, finger-pointing, fire-breathing denunciation causes the reader to look inward instead of becoming defensive. What he sees is chilling and powerfully life transforming.
I still say, however, that there is terrible irony in this brilliant paragon of an apologist for Christianity having raised the two sons of the woman to whom he was briefly married before she succumbed to a long, agonizing death from cancer -- the disease that killed Lewis's mother in 1908 when he was just ten years old -- that one of the boys decided to adopt Judaism, the religion of his ethnic forbears, in order to dispel or contradict what his mother, a convert to Christianity from Judaism, had written about Judaism years before.
Sorry, but that really seems like a slap in the face both to the boy's deceased mother, but especially to C.S. Lewis and a poor reward for his devotion to duty towards children not his own -- and to the celebrated eloquence with which he defended and promoted faith in Jesus Christ as Our only Lord and Savior.
Oh well! Life is full of mysteries, paradoxes and odd contradictions to logic that only God, Himself, could possibly comprehend.
The conflict occurs when one accepts that the matter of Christ's divinity does not lead to a literal biblical truth, especially Revelations and the O.T.
It's especially difficult if you adopt Lewis' rational mode of belief.
Interesting post. I enjoyed reading it.
It's a little weird, though...I quoted C. S. Lewis in my blog today...
BTW, this is "Ceredwyn" now known as "Coffee Girl".
Z,
I think you'd like Lewis' Abolition of Man. Yes, it's a Christian politics book, but it delves right the topics of public education and the philosophical underpinnings of all of the arguments you hear today for excluding religion from education and pretty much demolishes them.
A young fellow named Andrew Arnott has done a pretty nice job of giving a précis of each of the four sections of Lewis’s Mere Christianity at this link:
http://alacslewis.blogspot.com/2004/09/mere-christianity-summary.html
His summary of Book Three resonates particularly well with me in that it stresses a theme I came to believe in many years ago:
Christian Behavior Begets Christian Identity
Three goods exist for upholding morality: society's, self's, and direction's. Cultivate virtue for its own sake. Live the Golden Rule to a sacrificing degree. Your secret reason for [your] actions is what is judged. Those struggling with sexual morality should keep trying. Christian marriage is more than civil marriage. Loving your neighbor doesn't mean being fond of him. Don't be proud you are better than others. That longing within us for a better world is a beacon from heaven. Faith is holding onto convictions when fears and imaginations press otherwise. Faith is turning ourselves [I would prefer to say “our lives”] over to God.
Does this mesh well with your understanding of the book?
Ha! No wonder I couldn't remember A Severe Mercy, never read it. Sounds good but the way things are going I wouldn't be able to get to it until oh maybe 2096 or so.
FT, I have NO idea how you could read Screwtape Letters and turn it into a message about human evil when it is so clearly an imaginative account of how devils think, real bona fide devils under the command of Satan himself. YOu do that with a great many Christian writings. You must have to ignore or mentally rewrite so much stuff it would make me dizzy trying to keep track of it all.
William Lecky, (1838–1903), sceptic, and noted author and historian said:
“It was reserved for Christianity to present to the world an ideal character, which through all the changes of eighteen centuries has inspired the hearts of men with an impassioned love; has shown itself capable of acting on all ages, nations, temperaments, and conditions; has not been only the highest pattern of virtue, but also the strongest incentive to its practice; and has exercised so deep an influence that it may be truly said that the simple record of three short years of active life has done more to regenerate and to soften mankind than all the disquisitions of philosophers and all the exhortions of moralists.”
Has any other historical figure had that effect on generation after generation? I think not and there has to be a reason for it:
God was made flesh and dwelt among us. (1 Timothy 3:16 and John 1:14) In Jesus dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead, bodily. (Colossians 2:9) And because God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. (2 Corinthians 5:19)
There is no doubt in my mind, at all, concerning the deity of Jesus...not only because of historical fact, but because of personal experiences in my own life, and the witness of it in the lives of others.
I love what you said here, Z:
The comfort isn't sloppy theology, feel-good acceptance...it's something that only came to me through really studying and feeling a kind of 'magic' come over me where suddenly I understood things I'd never grasped before...
To me, it goes along with what I mean when I, sometimes, speak of some things being a 'revelation,' because I will suddenly understand something that I've read a dozen times before, and never could grasp, exactly, what I was reading, and suddenly there it is, plain as day!
And have you ever noticed that you can read a passage of scripture, and understand its meaning, and then another time, reading the very same scripture you suddenly 'see' something else?
It isn't that what you understood another time was wrong, but only that you have discovered an even deeper meaning, and it is like it, literally, jumps out at you!
I am laughing now, because I know if one hasn't had that experience, it probably does sound like lunacy when reading what I have just written.
Can I make an admission?
I don't read the Bible, I find it extremely difficult to follow, I find myself constantly trying to place it into a geographic, chronological and historical contextual environment. I don't know scriptures. I can't quote you much of anything. And I'm pretty sure I don't even yet quite understand The Message but I know this: like a man, very much like a man in the desert clawing for water, I know I need the message and the knowing of God very much.
BZ
I think you'd like Lewis' Abolition of Man.
----------------
I did. Especially when I realized that the ultimate rulers were market capitalist and much of religion still has the critical problem of separating itself from capitalism.
Faith, please don't attribute or ascribe meanings to things others say they may not have intended. There's been a lot of that going around lately, and it's certainly not very helpful in promoting better understanding or more enlightened sense of camaraderie
My analysis of Screwtape, which I haven't read all the way through for perhaps fifty years, is still reasonably accurate. My interpretation is not at odds with yours, yet you seem to want to believe it is. Why?
I won't repeat the post, but I did say that Lewis EVOKES evil in such a manner that it chillingly causes us to recognize and confront it, and thus have a better chance of being transformed for the better by the awareness.
There could be no question that using characters with fanciful names like Screwtape and Wormwood, and having them engage in a fictional correspondence is a clever LITERARY device. These are not "real" demons, but they REVEAL the true NATURE of the demonic through their imaginary exchange of letters.
If anyone thinks I'm wrong, he or she is more than welcome to say so, but please say why.
Gad, Ducky, don't you THINK? You said "I did. Especially when I realized that the ultimate rulers were market capitalist and much of religion still has the critical problem of separating itself from capitalism."
So Jesus was all about socialism, is that STILL what you think? After so many commenters here have shown QUITE the opposite?
And, could you please explain what you mean here? "The conflict occurs when one accepts that the matter of Christ's divinity does not lead to a literal biblical truth, especially Revelations and the O.T."
Christ might be divine, the SOn of God, but the rest of the Scripture might not be true?
Revelations and the O.T.? So, what you don't like about God: wrath, punishment, judgment, you just want not to believe?
That's a very sad, kind of thin theology.
The skin of faith without the bones.
But, you're certainly not alone in this thinking.
Jan, thanks...YOu can read something and get nothing out of it and then you read it in six months and EUREKA! It's like the Holy SPirit suddenly grabbing our attention. And yes, to explain it to a non reader is NUTS, I know.
FT: There are ways of saying things which don't require this attitude "There's been a lot of that going around lately, and it's certainly not very helpful in promoting better understanding or more enlightened sense of camaraderie"
Please stop. It's better camaraderie just to suck it up and understand not everyone agrees with us and not everyone's out to get us because they do.
BZ, this is probably too personal because I've rarely heard you speak of faith and I don't mean to pry, BUT I'm curious about whether you believe in Christ's divinity. You're surely not alone if you say "No, I don't...but I believe there's a GOD" and you'll get no lip from ME! :-)
Great post, Z
John 8:56 "Your father Abraham was filled with joy at the thought of seeing my day. He saw it and was glad."
John 8:57 "You are not even 50 years old," the Jews said to Jesus. "And you have seen Abraham?"
John 8:58 "What I'm about to tell you is true," Jesus answered. Before Abraham was born, I Am!"
John 8:59 When he said this, they picked up stones to kill him. But Jesus hid himself. He slipped away from the temple area.
When one understands Jewish culture one also understands when one says they are “I AM“, they are declaring their deity.
That’s why the Jews picked up stones to kill Jesus. He had declared himself God. And, like what was said earlier, you either have to believe he is God or dismiss him as a lunatic. And if you dismiss that you also have to dismiss EVERYTHING that Jesus said, you can not pick and choose the things that Jesus said, that you like.
“I AM” is the title of Deity.
The conflict occurs when one accepts that the matter of Christ's divinity does not lead to a literal biblical truth, especially Revelations and the O.T.
Ducky, Christ’s divinity IS THE the literal Biblical truth. Based on what Jesus said in those verses you have to either accept what he said or the whole of the Bible, both the OT and NT is null and void and a lie. Because the whole of the NT and OT revolves around who Jesus is.
Z. I am sorry that you evidently chose to delete my post to BZ.
My attempt to share the plan of salvation was eliminated. I have often been silenced but you can not silence the Word of God.
I would only ask why, but then perhaps I already know.
Ephesians 6:12
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places
Ticker, if Z had deleted your comment it would say, "comment deleted". I don't see that anywhere on the thread.
Sometimes a comment doesn't publish for some reason.
Pris
Ticker, I would NEVER EVER have deleted your comment...
Please post it again, I'd love to see it.
This is happening too much lately...I apologize sincerely but it's blogger, not me.
there's NO WAY I deleted it and, trust me, if I had, I'd have admitted it. xx
Pris, actually, we bloggers on "BLOGGER" can delete and it'll say COMMENT DELETED or we can delete and then click on 'remove forever' so you'd never know there was a comment there, it's completely gone.
Obviously, the problem SAM had a day or two ago is acting up again.
THanks very much; you're right, sometimes I let COMMENT DELETED stay and then tell the person why I deleted..but I'd never just delete...or VERY rarely.
CS Lewis is one of my favorites.
Shadowlands is my favorite movie...such a touching expression of his love for Joy.
Right now I'm reading a book in which Lewis and Freud "debate" on the major issues: the existence of God, the meaning of life, sex, love, evil, etc.
I appreciate Lewis for the reasoned approach he brings to his faith.
The Screwtape Letters was excellent! Like FT said, it reveals God's love for us by taking the negative route (what's the latin phrase?).
But my favorite is A Grief Observed. It's a short diary of his that he wrote after Joy's death. It was published after he died and it is a beautiful picture of a broken man who has lost his faith and yearns to believe again.
Thanks Z and I am sure that you didn't delete my post. It was there for a few minutes and then gone so I suppose the cyberspooks did their job again. It seems to be occurring more and more from what i am getting not only from you but others as well. I just have never had it happen to me before at least on "blogger". It happened on some of the newspaper forums that I am on. Ye Gads ya reckon Obama's Cyber CZAR is practicing?? ;>)
Ticker, some of my commenters have posted against Obama pretty specifically and pretty roughly and those have disappeared.
My friend SAM wrote a big comment on Iran and how it's America supporting the Imams, etc., and that disappeared.
Your Christian witness disappeared (I'd have loved to have seen that)....and they disappear within minutes.
I hope my blog doesn't disappear. But, I won't remain quiet....
People need to hear BOTH SIDES OF THE NEWS, that's why I'm here.
AND I feel they MUST hear THE "GOOD NEWS" SOONER than some of us think, too.
I had a weird glitch occur the other day where both my blogger access AND my blog disappeared for around a half-hour. Had to have a "authentication code" texted to my cell phone to restore everything. I hated giving out my cell number because I already recieve enough spam text messages on my phone.
I sometimes think someone at Glooger is playing with the light switches.
Beamish, I think someone way up there is playing with Google, and I don't mean God :-)
But, I know you hate conspiracy theories !!
Z.
Sent you an e-mail as per your profile e mail address. Check it out soon and reply if you will.
Not true, Z. I don't hate conspiracy theories. I hate conspiracy theories composed entirely of anti-Semitic racist bullshit or fallacious thinking.
As for someone "higher up" messing with conservative / libertarian bloggers, that's not a conspiracy theory. That's a reasonable suspicion given the Obama administration's documented seizure of access to several right-wing / Tea Party activist databases and efforts to invoke an internet kill switch.
The kill switch is because it's easily to stomp the ant hill than the ants individually.
It's more likely just glitches with the Blogger platform, rather than a concerted effort to go after individual blogs. Think of the manpower that would take to pull off. How do I get hired for that kind of job? ;)
"manpower?" I'd do that all day to the left if I believed in censorship...but I don't.
It would take me a day to go through a thousand leftist blogs and kill certain comments...nothing to it :-)
Hell, I wish I could get paid for THIS BLOG! :-)
From TICKER, who responded to a commenter here but had Blogger delete it as it's been doing from time to time...I felt it was so important and well put that it should be posted again. I hope you're all blessed by it:
One does not need to know the scriptures or even have a great understanding of them. The important thing is one must realize that there is something missing in one's life .
You realize that it is God that is missing and that is the first step of knowing Him. In knowing Him he will revel to you Himself and the other truths in the scriptures through His Holy Spirit.
The Message( is the Good News that Jesus, the Son of God came to this earth as man (flesh) died for our sins, for all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God, according to the scriptures. He was buried and on the third day arose, victorious over death and the grave. He ascended into heaven and now sits on the right hand of His father and will return one day to gather those who believe in Him.
To begin this journey, this walk is as simple as ABC.
A Admit that you are a sinner: Romans 3:23 tells us that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
B. Believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God
C. Call upon Jesus to be saved. Romans 10:13 For “whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.”
Belief requires action to back it up. It is kind of like believing that your car will start and take you where you want to go but until you turn the key nothing happens and until you put the car in gear it doesn’t go no matter how much you believe it will go.
Romans 10:9-10 says “That 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. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” Continued belief calls for continued action. We should continue to put our faith into action by the way we live. We should continue to confess that Jesus is Lord of our life both in action and words.
To start this journey on a new life a simple prayer will do. Dear God: I realize that I'm a sinner and I can't save myself. I believe you sent your Son Jesus to die on the cross to take the penalty of my sins. I ask Jesus now to come into my life and guide and direct my life from this point on as my Lord. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.
I would be amiss if I failed to do what the Lord has said we should do and that is to “tell others the Good News, the Message, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. I am no preacher , just a sinner saved by Grace.
To anyone who has any difficulty understanding the Bible, may I suggest the Amplified Version of the Bible. It is much more explanatory than say the King James Version or even the New King James.
I hope that this has helped to answer some questions and that everyone takes that first step on the Journey in a New Life. I am here to answer any questions either by e mail or by phone.
THANK YOU, TICKER...thanks for anyone who reads that and is touched by it....
z
Thank You Z for re- posting what I wrote. Perhaps others will read and respond .
Ticker, may someone benefit from it and have great comfort for their renewal of their faith through it or new faith through reading it..xxx
Direct quotations from Matthew V (KJV) deleted on a Sunday FAITH blog?
How utterly bizarre! How astonishing! How WEIRD!
MATTHEW V (KJV)
22 ... Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.
23 Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee;
24 leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.
25 Agree with thine adversary quickly, while thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.
26 Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.
The words of Jesus Christ could never be unseemly or disgusting in any context.
It's astounding that anyone identifying himself as a Christian could think so.
Honi soit qui mal y pense.
FT, you really should be ashamed. I'm so sorry for you.
No one know Scripture better than the Devil, as the saying goes.
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