Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart

Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart PDF Author: J. D. Greear
Publisher: B&H Publishing Group
ISBN: 1433679183
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 128

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Book Description
“If there were a Guinness Book of World Records entry for ‘amount of times having prayed the sinner’s prayer,’ I’m pretty sure I’d be a top contender,” says pastor and author J. D. Greear. He struggled for many years to gain an assurance of salvation and eventually learned he was not alone. “Lack of assurance” is epidemic among evangelical Christians. In Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart, J. D. shows that faulty ways of present- ing the gospel are a leading source of the confusion. Our presentations may not be heretical, but they are sometimes misleading. The idea of “asking Jesus into your heart” or “giving your life to Jesus” often gives false assurance to those who are not saved—and keeps those who genuinely are saved from fully embracing that reality. Greear unpacks the doctrine of assurance, showing that salvation is a posture we take to the promise of God in Christ, a posture that begins at a certain point and is maintained for the rest of our lives. He also answers the tough questions about assurance: What exactly is faith? What is repentance? Why are there so many warnings that seem to imply we can lose our salvation? Such issues are handled with respect to the theological rigors they require, but Greear never loses his pastoral sensitivity or a communication technique that makes this message teachable to a wide audience from teens to adults.

Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart

Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart PDF Author: J. D. Greear
Publisher: B&H Publishing Group
ISBN: 1433679183
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 128

Get Book

Book Description
“If there were a Guinness Book of World Records entry for ‘amount of times having prayed the sinner’s prayer,’ I’m pretty sure I’d be a top contender,” says pastor and author J. D. Greear. He struggled for many years to gain an assurance of salvation and eventually learned he was not alone. “Lack of assurance” is epidemic among evangelical Christians. In Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart, J. D. shows that faulty ways of present- ing the gospel are a leading source of the confusion. Our presentations may not be heretical, but they are sometimes misleading. The idea of “asking Jesus into your heart” or “giving your life to Jesus” often gives false assurance to those who are not saved—and keeps those who genuinely are saved from fully embracing that reality. Greear unpacks the doctrine of assurance, showing that salvation is a posture we take to the promise of God in Christ, a posture that begins at a certain point and is maintained for the rest of our lives. He also answers the tough questions about assurance: What exactly is faith? What is repentance? Why are there so many warnings that seem to imply we can lose our salvation? Such issues are handled with respect to the theological rigors they require, but Greear never loses his pastoral sensitivity or a communication technique that makes this message teachable to a wide audience from teens to adults.

Once Saved, Always Saved?

Once Saved, Always Saved? PDF Author: David Pawson
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN:
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 189

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Book Description
The majority Evangelical view is that once someone has accepted Christ as Saviour they are guaranteed salvation. But is it safe to assume that once we are saved, we are saved for always? David Pawson investigates this through biblical evidence, historical figures such as Augustine, Luther and Wesley, and evangelical assumptions about grace and justification, divine sovereignty and human responsibility. He asks whether something more than being born again is required so that our inheritance is not lost. This book helps us decide whether ‘once saved, always saved’ is real assurance or a misleading assumption. The answer will have profound effects on the way we live and disciple others.

Saving the Saved

Saving the Saved PDF Author: Bryan Loritts
Publisher: Zondervan
ISBN: 0310344948
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 208

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Book Description
White-knuckling can never get you where you want to go. But grace can. You already know because you’ve tried: repeated attempts to earn God’s love and approval get you nowhere and leave you exhausted. When performance taints our relationship with him, the Christian life can turn into an unholy hustle. It was never meant to be like this. In Saving the Saved, Pastor Bryan Loritts reveals the astonishing truth that God doesn’t want your spiritual scorekeeping. He simply wants your surrender. The punchline of the gospel of Matthew is just that—a message of grace and performance-free love to do-good, try-harder Jews who thought they had to earn their way into God’s favor. It’s an ancient message, yet it can be a lifeline to us today as we live in a world of performance metrics. Just as Matthew wrote to the Jews in his gospel, we were never meant to flounder under the pressures and anxieties of show Christianity. Make no mistake: we are called to live in obedience, but Jesus wants us to save us from the illusion that our actions can ever earn God’s acceptance of us. In Pastor Bryan’s relevant, uncompromising style, Saving the Saved proclaims the good news that once the pressure is off to perform, we are free to abide. Beyond the man-made rules and the red tape, there is a God who knows you by name. Come and meet him as you’ve never known him before.

How (Not) to Save the World

How (Not) to Save the World PDF Author: Hosanna Wong
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
ISBN: 078524333X
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
A Publisher’s Weekly and ECPA bestseller A practical, straightforward guide for Christ-followers who want to talk about Jesus without feeling weird or pushy. Ten years ago, Hosanna Wong packed her life into suitcases and started traveling the country to talk to people about Jesus. She quickly discovered lies she had believed that held her back from actually sharing God’s love. It turns out, believing lies that you’re not enough, your story doesn’t matter, and there’s no way for you to make an impact… that’s how not to save the world. Through faithfully studying God’s Word and fumbling through her own flawed progress, Hosanna uncovered what the Bible says about revealing God’s love in our everyday lives. With honesty and humor, Hosanna will help you: Embrace your unique story to naturally talk about Jesus through your real life and authentic relationships; Discover the three most effective steps to take when fighting for a loved one who is in a tough place; Overcome the lies that hold you back so you can step into your calling and empower people to encounter God. It turns out, you can naturally share God’s love in your everyday life. You can fight for those you love, and a world Jesus loves. There is a way for every person you know to realize how valuable they are to God. You’ve been created for it, equipped for it, and you’re ready for it. Let’s go!

Can I Be Sure I'm Saved?

Can I Be Sure I'm Saved? PDF Author: R. C. Sproul
Publisher: Reformation Trust Publishing
ISBN: 9781642890426
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 71

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Book Description
Many people in the church today are plagued by doubts about their salvation. However, it's not only possible for Christians to be sure that they are saved; it's their duty to make their calling and election sure (2 Peter 1:10). In this booklet, Dr. R.C. Sproul seeks to help believers reach this goal. In short, accessible chapters, Dr. Sproul defines assurance, shows how we can gain it, reveals the blessings it brings, and warns of the dangers of false assurance. The Crucial Questions booklet series by Dr. R.C. Sproul offers succinct answers to important questions often asked by Christians and thoughtful inquirers.

Does God Desire All to Be Saved?

Does God Desire All to Be Saved? PDF Author: John Piper
Publisher: Crossway
ISBN: 1433537222
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 66

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Book Description
Are There Two Wills in God? Divine Election and God's Desire for All to Be Saved In this short, theological essay, John Piper builds a scriptural case that God's unconditional election unto salvation is compatible with God's genuine desire and offer for all to be saved. Helping us to make sense of this seemingly paradoxical relationship, Piper wisely holds both truths in tension as he explores the Bible's teaching on this challenging topic, graciously responds to those who disagree, and motivates us to passionately proclaim the free offer of the gospel to all people.

The Myth of Persecution

The Myth of Persecution PDF Author: Candida Moss
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062104543
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
In The Myth of Persecution, Candida Moss, a leading expert on early Christianity, reveals how the early church exaggerated, invented, and forged stories of Christian martyrs and how the dangerous legacy of a martyrdom complex is employed today to silence dissent and galvanize a new generation of culture warriors. According to cherished church tradition and popular belief, before the Emperor Constantine made Christianity legal in the fourth century, early Christians were systematically persecuted by a brutal Roman Empire intent on their destruction. As the story goes, vast numbers of believers were thrown to the lions, tortured, or burned alive because they refused to renounce Christ. These saints, Christianity's inspirational heroes, are still venerated today. Moss, however, exposes that the "Age of Martyrs" is a fiction—there was no sustained 300-year-long effort by the Romans to persecute Christians. Instead, these stories were pious exaggerations; highly stylized rewritings of Jewish, Greek, and Roman noble death traditions; and even forgeries designed to marginalize heretics, inspire the faithful, and fund churches. The traditional story of persecution is still taught in Sunday school classes, celebrated in sermons, and employed by church leaders, politicians, and media pundits who insist that Christians were—and always will be—persecuted by a hostile, secular world. While violence against Christians does occur in select parts of the world today, the rhetoric of persecution is both misleading and rooted in an inaccurate history of the early church. Moss urges modern Christians to abandon the conspiratorial assumption that the world is out to get Christians and, rather, embrace the consolation, moral instruction, and spiritual guidance that these martyrdom stories provide.

How Shall They be Saved?

How Shall They be Saved? PDF Author: Millard J. Erickson
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group (MI)
ISBN: 9780801020650
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
Part 1 delineates the array of positions - including liberal, Catholic, and Protestant stances - taken on the destiny of the unevangelized. In part 2 the author probes the critical issues, including the role of general revelation, the possibility of salvation after death, the requirements of salvation, the number of the redeemed, and the problem of annihilationism. In the final part, Erickson tackles two practical areas: (1) the fate of those who die in infancy and others who do not reach the age of accountability and (2) how the subject of the destiny of the unevangelized affects evangelism and missions.

Way to God and how to Find it

Way to God and how to Find it PDF Author: Dwight Lyman Moody
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Evangelistic sermons
Languages : en
Pages : 136

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Book Description


That All Shall Be Saved

That All Shall Be Saved PDF Author: David Bentley Hart
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300248733
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
A stunning reexamination of one of the essential tenets of Christian belief from one of the most provocative and admired writers on religion today “A scathing, vigorous, eloquent attack on those who hold that that there is such a thing as eternal damnation.”—Karen Kilby, Commonweal The great fourth-century church father Basil of Caesarea once observed that, in his time, most Christians believed that hell was not everlasting, and that all would eventually attain salvation. But today, this view is no longer prevalent within Christian communities. In this momentous book, David Bentley Hart makes the case that nearly two millennia of dogmatic tradition have misled readers on the crucial matter of universal salvation. On the basis of the earliest Christian writings, theological tradition, scripture, and logic, Hart argues that if God is the good creator of all, he is the savior of all, without fail. And if he is not the savior of all, the Kingdom is only a dream, and creation something considerably worse than a nightmare. But it is not so. There is no such thing as eternal damnation; all will be saved. With great rhetorical power, wit, and emotional range, Hart offers a new perspective on one of Christianity’s most important themes.