Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Beautiful perspective...

A friend of mine sent this to me today and I thought I would share...

"How can you know that you are saved?"
A two-year-old boy was once staring at a heater, fascinated by its bright orange glow. His father saw him and warned, "Don't touch that heater son. It may look pretty, but it's hot." The little boy believed him, and moved away from the heater. Sometime later, when his father had left the room he thought to himself, "I wonder if it really is hot." He then reached out to touch it and see for himself. The second his flesh burned, he stopped believing it was hot. He now knew it was hot! He had moved out of the realm of belief into the realm of experience! Many Christians believed in God's existence before their conversion. However, when they obeyed the Word of God, turned from their sins and embraced Jesus Christ, they stopped just believing. The moment they reached out and touched the heater bar of God's mercy, they moved out of belief only into the realm of experience. This experience is so radical, Jesus referred to it as being "born again." The Apostle Paul said if you are "in Christ" you are a brand new creature. When Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, he said, "My speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God" (1 Corinthians 2:4-5). What Paul was saying was, "I deliberately didn't talk you into your faith, but I let God's power transform you." He didn't reach them through an intellectual assent, but through the realm of personal experience. Suppose two men walked into the room just after that child had burned his hand on the heater. One was a heater manufacturer and the other a skin specialist. Both assured that boy that he couldn't possibly have been burned. But all the experts, theories, equations and arguments in the world will not dissuade that boy, because of his experience. Those who have been transformed by God's power need never fear scientific nor any other argument, because the man with an experience is not at the mercy of a man with an argument. "For our Gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance& " (1 Thessalonians 1:5).


Be blessed today!

No comments: