At Willoughby Hills Friends Church our leadership believes that following Jesus involves more than simply accepting Him as your Savior through a prayer of commitment. The prayer of commitment is the initial step and is vital to pursuing Jesus but no matter how sincere it may be it does not make one a disciple of Jesus. A disciple is one who emulates the life of Christ. A follower of Jesus uses His life as a pattern for their own. The Bible calls the person who emulates Jesus a "Christian" or "little Christ."
The term "Christian" has become way too generic and needs to be refined back to its original use. Saying we are a Christian means we adopt the values embodied in Jesus' life and teachings. It means embracing His hospitality and generosity, a commitment to speaking the truth in a world of lies and deception, it requires one to embrace selflessness, sacrifice and suffering as the norm.
It is our goal at WHFC to re-establish ourselves as an authentic church in form and style. We want our witness to be consistent with the life and teachings of Jesus. To eliminate anything that is incongruous with His faith and practice. Our goal is to bring continuity between Jesus Christ and our faith and action that bears His name.
To this end I need your prayers. Pray for God to give me wisdom and discernment that extends well beyond my human limitation. Pray for the Spirit's anointing on the administration of WHFC. For unity of human thought, purpose and passion among laity and staff. Celebrate through prayer and testimony the sufficiency of Christ at WHFC in meeting our financial need and funding the vision and mission He has ordained. Pray for Holy Spirit to honor our effort to this end by calling men, women, boys and girls in from all points of the compass to join us in our pursuit of emulating Christ. Pray for God to be glorified through us corporately and individually in who we are and what we do.
Thanks for stopping by!
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Adrian
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Well written. A question I ponder is this; can someone pray a "prayer of commitment" if they are not commiting to be a disciple? Can someone be a "Christian" if they are not "committed" to following Jesus as you outlined? Prayer or no prayer? Are there two steps or is the "prayer" not really transformative if the commitment to discipleship is not there yet? Not a commitment to works but a commitment to follow where ever he leads.
ReplyDeleteGreg,
ReplyDeleteIn my economy of thought I still think interms of santfication: initial, entire and final. I define sanctification as the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer to recreate the lost image of Christ.
I view the prayer of commitment or what is commonly referred to as "getting saved" to be initial sanctification. Through a prayer of repentance/commitment personal sins are forgiven, name written in the Lamb's book of life, sealed with the Spirit, and a hunger and thrist for righteousness is instilled which then drives the believer towards entire surrender (full consecration to Christ and emulation of His life).
I do not personally believe emulating Christ is possible without receiving the fullness of the Holy Spirit (entire sanctification) through total consecration of life to Christ and emulating His ways. I would also say that discipleship must involve both a study of the teachings and behaviors of Christ and the emulation of Christ in the world through service to the world. We must lead people outside the walls of the meetinghouse in service for true discipleship to occur.
Interesting.
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to follow the math.
The terms we use tend to confuse things for me.
Can we use "salvation" as the "initial sanctification commitment rather than an all encompassing term? Let's make things simple, we're not all professionals, ya know.
We had a rather long discussion on just this subject last nite after ManChurch. Got rather heated(in a good way), hearts were shared and there appears to be interest to keep the dialog open.
Ok, here we go.
Ezekiel 36:22
Therefore say to the house of Israel, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went.
God created the New Covenant not for us but for Himself.
Verse 24 tells of God gathering His chosen people.
25 Describes "salvation". We are washed clean, on the outside. He makes us clean in His sight.
25b tells of the progressive cleansing of the internal. It's not a process, it is the natural progression of spiritual growth. We adopt, many times unconsciously, the customs of the Kingdom.
26 tells of initial sanctification, the dying of the old man thru the power of the Spirit. We receive a new Heart and Spirit. This comes thru great crises of heart, soul, mind and spirit. The scourging of Christ.
27 tells of the filling of His fully sanctified disciple with the very Spirit of the Living God. After the death of the old man and a time of waiting His Spirit is imparted, co-mingling with every aspect of our being.
He adds that He empowers us to live a fully consecrated Life. That He will cause or move us to walk in righteousness with our Hearts bent upon His will in every moment.
This is Christ likeness. Christ emulating actions will naturally be manifested.
As we walk in the Light of a new Heart and Spirit, governed by the perfect Spirit of God, we take on more and more Jesus attributes and characteristics. The more we rest in the reality of what He has done to and for us the more He will be imparted into our worlds.
We are now in perfect oneness with the Father.
We are the exact representation of Jesus.
Discipleship 101.
Been up since 3am. I'm tired.
Carry on!
Narrow,
ReplyDeleteIn my mind, the only problem I see with using the term "salvation" to describe intial sanctification is in the fact it refers to the completed process (the full restoration of man back into the image of God/Christ, i.e., full salvation).
My question is, is someone who is newly saved then,a Christian? Or is someone who has "prayed the prayer", yet continues to live a life of sin, a Christian? I have a friend who is a regular church attender, claims to be a "christian", says he prays for me, yet he sleeps with his girlfriend several nights a week and seemingly has no intentions of committing to marriage. Is he a Christian? Can we "get by" on just that prayer, or by choosing sin, do we rebel against God and are cast aside? Fence riders cannot possible be comfortable, but they seem to convince themselves that they are "good". Is that satan's lie to us? To pacify us into a sense of well being that we are saved in spite of how we live. How does God view one who thinks they're saved, but abide more in sin than in Him? I've been there. As I shared at Easter, I prayed to not get caught in my sin. God in his infinite grace allowed me to get caught so He could set me on His path. Do we as individuals and a church confront people on their sins? It seems like the church has taken such a soft stance on sin,that it becomes inconsequential to live in it!
ReplyDeleteto follow up, does fire insurance really work?
ReplyDeleteNot everyone "desires" to be His disciple.
ReplyDeleteIs there such a state as "newly saved"? Or as Phd states, salvation "refers to the completed process (the full restoration of man back into the image of God/Christ, i.e., full salvation)".
I assume that includes glorification.
In truth no one is "saved" until after death when His "process" is complete.
Funny how we can be partially sanctified, fully consecrated, un-glorified, wholly justified and not fully saved!
I love blogging, it sure clears things up, doesn't it?! ;@)
Carry on!