When Christians understand the blessing of salvation

Many Christians nowadays do not act their spiritual state (makes you doubt if they’re really Christians). They act as if having eternal life is not that a big deal and that it’s God’s duty to save them. Gratitude is very much absent. The reason to this is the watering down of the Gospel message. Sin is trivialized and God is portrayed as simply loving, ignoring His holiness and justice.

But if a Christian has fully realized how undeserving he was for God’s mercy and forgiveness, things will take a 180-degree turn. He will feel so indebted towards God and will have a natural need to show God his deep gratitude for what He has given him. Truly, this person has never imagined ever what he will find himself doing for his Savior. In a way, he is left surprised with how different he has become ever since he made the decision to repent of his sins and place his trust on Jesus for his salvation.

First thing you will notice is a craving to know more of God and for time in prayer to Him. You will suddenly see him spending a regular time reading the Bible, attending church for the message that will be delivered there, conversing with other Christians about the things of God which in the past would be the last thing he will ever think of doing. A quiet time in prayer also becomes an important part of his day for he has found how essential it is to always give God his trust for whatever thing he engages himself in.

As a result of his study of the Word and time spent in prayer on a regular basis, you will see him giving importance to living a holy life. As what a song said, “Everything is different now. He’s not the same anymore. The wrong places he used to go, are now the places that he avoids. The old crowd he used to hang around he understands will only pull him down. He’s not the same anymore. His life has been changed!” His desire is to conform to his Savior. He obeys what the Scriptures said, “Be ye holy for I am holy (1 Pet. 1:16).” His taste has changed drastically, from enjoying pig’s food to only what’s pure.

But the most exciting result of understanding the blessing of salvation is the desire to share what they have received to others. They understand how precious the gift is and so, they want others to also have it. They know how tragic the experience will be for others if they will not know of the Savior. And so, they swallow their pride and fear and deliver the message to anyone that needs it.

I’ve seen this result several times in Christians. In our ministry, we were witnesses to how a college girl, a month after her conversion, committed herself to active participation in our regular street evangelism session. In our church, a new convert father right away organized an event in his home so that he can invite his friends and relatives so that they can hear the preaching of the Gospel. This same guy also joins our church’s street evangelism sessions where we give out Gospel tracts. One couple I personally know, for their 15^th wedding anniversary, instead of organizing a get-together with family and friends, chose to give out tracts in a crowded mall. What a way to honor God in their marriage!

To sum up the effect of understanding what a big blessing salvation is, I can’t find a better word for “selflessness”. Yes, someone who is overflowing with gratitude to God for his unmerited favor becomes selfless. It is natural for him to forget himself in God’s favor. He understands very well that the price for his forgiveness was God’s own life-blood. Oh, he knows how truly amazing God’s grace to him was! He does not look at God as unfair for his demand that he be a partaker of His sufferings and for him to take up his own cross and follow Him. He sees it a privilege to die for Him!

The experience is captured in a story of a young Englishman miner in the 1800s who, after a successful search for gold in California, made a stop at New Orleans where he witnessed slaves being sold. Below is the full story:

The Englishman was surprised with the auction that was taking place for the slave trade had been outlawed already for years at England. As he drew close to the crowd, he saw that the next to be auctioned was a beautiful young black girl who was made to walk around so everyone could see her. The miner heard vile jokes and comments that spoke of evil intentions from those around him. When the bidding began, bids quickly surpassed what most slave owners would pay. As bids went higher and higher, two men apparently really wanted her. They were outbidding each other while laughing at the jokes and comments of evil intentions each of them made. The miner stood silent and angry all throughout these. Then one made a bid too high for the other to outbid. The poor girl looked down. The auctioneer called out, “Going once! Going twice!”

Just before the final call, the miner yelled out a price that was exactly twice the previous bid. An amount that exceeded the worth of any man. The crowd laughed thinking that the bid was a joke. The auctioneer motioned to the miner to show him his money. The miner opened his bag of gold. The auctioneer shook his head in disbelief and waved the girl to him.

When the girl was eye-to-eye with the miner, she spat straight to his face and said, “I hate you!’ The miner, without a word, wiped his face, paid the auctioneer, took the girl by the hand and walked away the still laughing crowd.

He seemed to be looking for something when they walked up one street and down another. Finally, he stopped in front of some sort of a store. The girl waited outside as the dirty faced miner walked inside and talked to an elderly man. The girl couldn’t make out what they were talking about. At one point, the voice got louder and she heard the store clerk say, “But it’s the law! It’s the law!” Peering in, she saw the miner pull out his bag of gold and pour what was left of it on the table. With what seemed a look of disgust, the clerk picked up the gold and went inside a back room. He came out with a piece of paper which the miner signed.

When the miner came out of the store, he stretched out his hand to the girl and said, “Here are your manu-mission papers. You are free.” The girl did not look up. He tried again. “Here. These are the papers that say you are free. Take them.” “I hate you!” the girl said, refusing to look up. “Why do you make fun of me?” “No, listen,” he pleaded. “These are your freedom papers. You are a free person.” The girl looked at the papers, then looked at him, and looked at the papers once again. “You just bought me… and now you’re setting me free?”

“That’s why I bought you. I bought you to set you free.”

The beautiful young girl fell to her knees, tears streaming down her face. “You bought me so you can set me free!” she said over and over.

Clutching the miner’s heavy boots, the girl looked up at the miner and said, “All I want to do is to serve you- because you bought me to set me free!”

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Shielding our children from the atheistic belief

It is no secret that atheists (people that do not believe in the existence of God) have grown in number in the recent years. More and more atheists are becoming very brave in declaring in public their unfounded belief just so they can convince others to likewise deny God’s existence. What seem to be “harmless” movies for children (e.g., Land Before Time), unknown to their parents, so masterfully disguise a strong suggestion to children that “probably, there is no God that made this world.” Centers for learning have included subjects and courses that clearly attempt to convince young minds that the Bible’s Creation account is just a product of creative thinking.

This is so dangerous, especially to our children! Our desire is that we be able to lead our children to Christ. All of you who are faithful in sharing the Gospel know that this is already so difficult, even if the person you are witnessing to believes in God’s existence. If our children grow up not believing that God does exist, the work will be doubled… you have to first convince them that their belief is wrong before you can start showing their state before a just and holy God and their need for His forgiveness. And so, how do we shield our children from the atheist belief?

The work should start at our homes. Is God a prominent figure in our homes? He should because if not, unknowingly, we are helping our children grow to be atheists. Our children should see us recognizing God as the source of everything that we have. Be sure that you show them that you entrust the whole day to God at the start of the day. Be sure that you give God a prayer of “thanks” before every meal. Be sure that your children see you praising God for His guidance throughout the day before you retire to your bed.

It is also obvious that we should screen what our children watch in the television and what they read in children’s books. To be safe, just give them books that talk of stories from the Bible. There are a lot of those in bookstores. There is also an array of animated movies of Bible stories available in Christian bookstores and online (go to Christianmovies.com). Of course, don’t forget to bring them to church every Sunday and have them attend Sunday school classes.

Very crucial to the goal of shielding our children from the atheistic view is our choice of the school they go to. Most schools in the Philippines do not really screen if their science books suggest that evolution is a fact. Because of this, I strongly suggest that you enroll your children in Christian schools. But still, don’t be too sure that your child is already safe just because you’ve enrolled them in a Christian school. Make a request to see the books (especially the science text books) your child will be using just in case the school overlooked atheistic suggestions in their books.

I praise the Lord very much because Living Waters Asia has an affiliation with Children For Christ Ministry (CFCM). They are a group that goes to public schools here in the Bulacan area distributing Christian literatures for children and conduct short classes that talk about God. I believe that this group has such a big role in leading these children to Christ. Maybe not all of the children respond right away to the call for them to get right with God from the classes CFCM conducts and the literature they give out. But the mere fact that they have introduced God’s existence early in these children lives makes it easier for some Christian in the future to preach the Gospel to them. (If you want to support CFCM, email them at CFCM@livingwaters-asia.com)

Satan is really busy in deceiving as many people as he can for he knows pretty well that his time is almost up. He is merciless as he wants even our children to be with him in Hell someday. Let us not allow it. Let’s be sure that God is as real as possible to our children so that when we show them that they are not fit to be with Him in Heaven someday because of their sins, they will readily respond to the Gospel with true repentance and faith on Jesus Christ.

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QUANTITY does not mean QUALITY

After a person gets saved, maturity in the Christian walk should be his next natural desire. This is where a regular time reading the Bible will come in really handy. The church should be the main body encouraging Christians to have seriousness in Bible-reading. It should help them in understanding what the Scriptures is saying if it wants them to turn out to be “quality Christians”. And so, it is essential that the Church creates programs that will lead to this.

Once I was asked if it is also important that the Church focuses on achieving quantity along the efforts of developing quality Christians. My answer is simple. If what you mean about quantity is the need for Christians to go out and share the Gospel so that souls will be added to the Church, my answer is definitely “Yes”. But if what you’re talking about is, plain and simple, adding people to the roster that we will declare as members of our congregation that were talked into joining the weekly worship services even through non-biblical means, my answer is a big “NO”.

First of all, we should be reminded of a basic truth from the Gospel--- no one can be saved by church membership. And so, why will we engage in creating quantity in the church through gimmicks if the people we manage to bring in to our local churches will still end up in Hell when they die? This has been a sad scene in our present time… people being nurtured in mega churches and they don’t have the slightest clue that they will still be residents of Hell someday! These churches rarely talk about sin and God’s distastes of it but instead, talk at length about things that tickle the ears of people (2 Tim. 4:3-4), even if the talk is more pop-psychology than Scriptural. There are members of these churches that still go to places that they shouldn’t go to, look at things that their eyes should be close to, do things that are so unlikely of biblical-Christians, etc. Their pastors don’t tell them that these are wrong because of fear of offending them which may lead to their exodus from their congregation. The goal is to make people stay as long as they can in the church, and not anymore helping them see their true standing before a just and holy God so that they will repent and put their trust on Jesus for their salvation.

Another thing we must remember is that if we do things our way and not God’s way, He is not pleased with whatever results we bring. Jesus never embraced gimmicks when he was here. He always operated along the principle of “Law to the proud and Grace to the humble.” It is only after a person realizes his failure to reach God’s standard of what is “good” that Jesus gave grace. The disciples and Paul followed Jesus’ footsteps and so God was for sure pleased with them. Jesus knew that gimmicks do not turn in converts, but the preaching of sin, righteousness and judgment. And so, if Jesus did not do it that way, why should we?

I told the person that asked me the question that we must always focus on quality, and never on quantity. The reason? Because if quality is achieved, quantity will naturally come. Why? Because a Christian that has been nurtured well (has quality in his Christian walk) knows that it is his duty to tell others of the true gospel. He does it Jesus’ way and so the Holy Spirit works in his evangelism efforts, resulting to souls being added to God’s family. One reason why churches engage in gimmicks is because the members of theses churches lack the quality needed to push themselves to share the Gospel to people. But find me a church that truly (in the biblical sense) cares for the growth of its members and I can guarantee you that it’s a soul-winning church and therefore, is growing in number.

We should be reminded that the first step in developing quality Christians is to preach a biblical Gospel message, one that clearly shows the need for a person to repent of his sins before he comes to Christ for help. Repentance is an understanding that sin has strained our relationship with God and so we make a conscious decision to forsake it which will result to a change in lifestyle, from a sinful one to a God-honoring life. Using the Law makes a person understand the importance of repentance as well as makes it a natural response to the sacrifice of Jesus at the cross. The Law makes sin abound but helps makes Grace abound more (Rom. 5:20).

It will definitely be a big source of joy to someday see our churches filled with true worshippers up to the rafters. But let’s not confuse the increase of people in our churches as a sign of God moving in our gimmicks. Let’s achieve quantity God’s way. Let’s achieve quantity by first developing quality in people who have already been called to the family of God.

When we fail to see the urgency

When we fail to see the urgency,

Of man’s need for God’s mercy

Oh, what suffering awaits him in eternity,

All because of our insensitivity.

Preoccupied with what Solomon calls vanities,

We move through life not minding

The souls that daily trod to an eternity

Of unspeakable pain and agony.

We tell ourselves, “There’ll be a tomorrow,

When I can tell them of the Savior.

And so today, I’ll keep myself busy

Of things that matter most to me.”

Sometimes we say, “It’s just not my gift

To eloquently talk of Jesus’ story.

To sing praises and give, that I can do!

But to witness? I’m sorry, that I can’t do.”

And still there are those that make the assertion

That we really don’t need to make any action

For the Holy Spirit is so powerful

To convict souls though we snub the Great Commission’s call.

Can’t we see how great our responsibility,

So that man can avoid a Hell-ish eternity?

We are God’s lips to bring man the Good News---

“Jesus has paid the price and it was the cross He used.”

But until we embrace our earthly duty

Souls will continue to march to Hell unknowingly.

Right now, billions are screaming in suffering so helplessly

Simply because we forgot our responsibility.

(A poem by Dennis Mark Y. Aglosolos)

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Rich Christians... better witnesses?

Yesterday, I was listening to a pastor/businessman talk about his ministry and how he claims that God has blessed his business because of his involvement in the ministry. Together with me in the conversation was a man who had been struggling financially for several years who could not seem to decide if he wants to serve the Lord or concentrate in chasing his goals of professional success. The pastor/businessman said something that really made unbearable a headache I've already been experiencing during the day. He said something to this effect, "How can wealthy and powerful people listen to me preach about the Gospel if I am a 'nobody' by their standards? If they will not see that my God is able to bless in a tremendous way, they will not listen to me." He also believed that the line from the Lord's Prayer that said, "Thy kingdom come, thy Will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven" means that what God intends to give us in Heaven (e.g., a comfortable life, wealth untold) He also intends to give here on Earth.

First of all, when you witness to an unsaved, the issue is not about his happiness but of his need for Jesus' righteousness to be placed on him. If my message is that God intends to give you things you want in life that's why you need Him to be in your life, then I need to be a wealthy soul-winning Christian. And if I will be witnessing to people like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, I must be sure that I've amassed wealth more than what they have before I go to them. But because the real message is that man, with all of his sins, have failed to reach God's required standards for him to be fit for Heaven, and that only Jesus' sacrifice can both erase the penalties of our sins and give us the perfection that Heaven demands, I need not be the person that prosperity preachers demand I be. Here's one BIG truth--- if we will be biblical with our Gospel message, everyone, and I mean every person living in this world (rich and poor, powerful and powerless) will need to listen to us, even if we are the poorest person on the face of this earth.

Secondly, to say that God's will is that we start experiencing on Earth what He plans to give us in Heaven is clearly an assertion without biblical basis. Jesus' promise to His disciples was tribulations (John 16:33). He stated a very scary life--- that we will be "lambs among wolves" (Luke 10:3). I don't believe that this will be our experience in Heaven. This statement also tells us that we can have a taste of Heaven on Earth. This makes Heaven unexciting for us when the truth is "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him" (1 Cor. 2:9) and that "the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.." (Rom. 8:18).

Thirdly, the pastor/businessman's statement brings to the heart of Christians a wrong motive for serving the Lord. Remember the person with me who has been struggling financially for years? He got really excited in serving the Lord for he now expects that all of his financial woes will be turned around once he starts with it. Service to the Lord must be done out of gratitude for the salvation He gave us which, in the first place, we don't deserve. That's what happened with the disciples and the apostle Paul. Their gratitude moved them to spend their lives in serving the Lord, even to the point of death. I always ask this question to people, "If obedience and faithful service to our Lord yields material blessings, then why were the disciples and the apostle Paul not rich people considering that none among us now can probably match their obedience and faithful service to our Lord?" Think about that, please, especially YOU who preach a prosperity message.

Now, am I saying that God does not bless materially? My answer is, He may, if He chooses to. We should understand that God's blessings to man will depend on what He sees man needs the most. If He feels that what we need more is peace of mind, then that is what He'll give you. If He thinks that what we need is to be more patient, then patience is what He'll give us . And if He feels that the blessing you need is material, He'll definitely give that to you. What I am saying is that material blessings are NOT "automatic" when you obey Him. I know a lot of faithful Christians who are not that financially blessed compared to less faithful Christians, but I believe are blessed with other things which are far more better than any financial blessing. Is it God's will that ALL of us be rich? My answer is a big "NO". His will is that all of us receive the fruits of the Spirit.

It saddens me to think that because of the prosperity message, people are given a wrong reason for coming to God for salvation. Church attendees of churches with preachers that preach this distorted message are probably false converts. All the while, because these church-goers were made to believe that all they needed to do to get to Heaven and receive the blessings untold from God here on Earth is a simple prayer, they think that when they die, they'll be allowed entrance right away to Heaven when the truth is, they'll never even get near the gate. This places a big responsibility to us who have understood the real issue. Let's convince them to go back to the biblical message before they create another false convert who will unknowingly make a smiling walk to Hell.