What is it to be a Christian? Is it that we’ve had a one-time experience of salvation? Or is it that we experience growth in Christ daily, some evidence of change? I know the argument is endless, but I wanted to share this quote from Clyde Crandford’s book Because We Love Him.

Repentance that is not ongoing is not genuine; faith that does not involve surrender is not adequate; a life in which holiness does not develop is not Christian.

You may or may not agree, but I think if nothing else, this statement should serve as a wake-up call for believers. We argue about this issue because we haven’t lived consistently. A life in which we are ever being changed into Christ’s image should be the norm, not the rare exception. How are you changing today?Technorati Tags: discipleship, salvation, repentance, holiness, clyde cranford, growth

Various Scriptures

ONE GREAT TRUTH: God inspired His word to define the church in such a way that our greatest goal becomes to draw together around a common mission. Read the rest of this entry »

Earlier this week I attended the annual Missions Symposium of the BMA of America. As usual, it was quite challenging. The first night, Bro. Grady Higgs, our Director, opened by referring to a song released in the late 70’s that said something about “standing on the corner of the street, watchin’ all the girls go by.” He reminded us that what personal missions is all about is standing on the corner of the street, watching all the souls go by. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m not going to be preaching at Bethel today since I’m in St. Louis visiting my in-laws. My Father-in-law, however, did ask me to preach for him at Lindsay Lane Baptist Church in Florissant, Missouri. I’m going to be speaking from 1 Corinthians 3:10-17. The message was inspired by the second half of my Bible study lesson this past Wednesday night from Zephaniah. Let me share with you some of the principles I plan on teaching today at Lindsay Lane…

1. Our foundation matters the most. You can’t build anything on a faulty foundation - it has to be torn down so that you can start all over. Paul asserts that Jesus Christ is the only proper, only possible foundation for a life that counts for eternity.

2. What we build on the foundation of Christ matters almost as much. Of course we’re to be concerned with the foundation we have in life more than anything else. We need to be making sure that everybody has a relationship with Christ and is going to heaven. But what’s next? We don’t just get raptured as soon as we’re saved, so what is this life for?

3. We’re all going to build something. We have this life, we have time, we have our bodies. So we’re going to use our time on earth, in this body, to do something, to build a life. The only problem is, much of what we build will be useless as eternal building material. It will rot away, be thrown out, or worse yet be burned up at the judgment seat of Christ.

4. We can build something that lasts. When we build lives properly on the foundation of a relationship with Jesus, what we build lasts. Are we building heavenly lives?

5. All that we build eventually passes through the fire of Jesus’ judgment. That’s not meant to scare us, but to encourage us. The judgment seat of Christ will be commencement day, a final graduation ceremony for all those who name the name of Christ. But what special achievements for the glory of God will we have to show for the energy we’ve expended on this earth?

6. We will all enter eternity, prepared or not. We Baptists are bad about assuming that to be “prepared” for eternity means to be saved. I have recently come to believe that there are many saved people in the world who are not prepared for eternity. They are going to heaven, but they are not ready to enjoy it. Their lives are too wrapped up in sin. They have too many compromises remaining, too many unshaped areas, unharnessed opportunities, and too many undeveloped heavenly qualities.

7. We can judge our lives here, or pass through God’s fire someday. I once wrote a short blog article entitled “Prune Thyself!” It had to do with the fact that we have a choice. We can either prune ourselves in this life, or God, the husbandman (vinekeeper) will prune us someday. The impurities will be removed, and it will be painful, either way. We can go through the painful pruning process now and be ready for heaven, or we can endure it at that fiery judgment seat someday, suffering the loss of some of our enjoyment of glory.

Heaven is a free gift, but our degree of enjoyment of it rests upon how much we decide to prepare ourselves for it in this life. Tough truths, but life-altering nonetheless. Are you preparing for eternity? That’s not simply a question of your salvation. Rather, it’s a present, active question. Are you actively, now, in your life, preparing daily to be a permanent resident of heaven? Is it going to be the place you’ve longed for? Or will you miss this world too much?

I just finished reading C. S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity for the first time (I’ll be perusing it again in the future). Until purchasing the book, I had little idea just how much influence the book has had on modern Christianity. I was amazed at how many conversations my copy of the book started. Once in a hospital waiting room, in my office, and in a church camp college class, I met all sorts of people who had not only read the book, but who were deeply impacted by it. In fact, just yesterday I was reading in the appendix of R. Kent Hughes’ book The Disciplines of a Godly Man where he surveyed 35 of today’s greatest Christian leaders and thinkers. Ten listed Lewis’ epochal work as one of the most influential they had ever read (it was mentioned more than any other book, second was Calvin’s Institutes).

Now that I’ve completed it, I must agree with all of them. Surprisingly, Lewis never quotes Scripture or refers to the works of other theologians at all. There are no references, citations, or endnotes. Instead, Mere Christianity is a collection of informal, conversational “talks” given over the radio waves. Lewis compiled the transcriptions together, edited them for print, and the world was changed.

The book is as much a philosophical treatise as a theological one. Lewis gives to us the thinking of a man who has not grown up in Christianity. His theology is practical, gritty, and brutally honest. He raises questions that nonchurchgoers are bound to ask, and he tackles them without hesitation. Many within the Christian faith today are threatened by the possibility of such questions being hurled at the faith, but Christianity, since it is true, will stand every test.

I wish that I could recall all of the particular lessons I gleaned from Lewis’ thoughts. This book, however, has a surprising effect. Rather than being a simple outline of truthful points and principles, it is a book that simply works your mind over. You can’t get it out of your head during the day and you end up working its words into your thought patterns.

I would highly recommend that every young person entering a life of ministry read this book at the outset. It took me far too long to stumble upon it. I would also highly recommend every Christian layperson to obtain a copy and see how the world around us thinks, and how to answer them. It will certainly help prepare us to “give a reason of the hope that is in us.” And I certainly recommend the work to anyone seeking truth, who wants to know why it is that we can’t ever earn God’s favor on our own.