I have finally come to the conclusion that in the end, however, since God did not grant me the right nor the wisdom to make that call, I’ll have to leave it up to Him and pray that He extends me as much mercy in my own short-comings, misinterpretations, and misapplications of His commands as He does to all other people who call upon His name.

“When I stand before God, my only plea to him will be, ‘Lord, save me, a sinner, unworthy, unprofitale, as you have promised by your grace. Receive me as your child who calls upon you as Father.’”

Steve, Mike and others involved in this discussion, please read Matthew 7:21-23; John 14:15; 15:14, etc…

Though this discussion of eating and praying with those of other denominations sounds very noble indeed, it can only be truly noble if there is a general call for repentance (on the part of all present) followed by works that demonstrate true repentance. Is there a cry for faithful obedience to the one and only true gospel at these meetings? Is there heartfelt sorrow for turning from that one true Gospel and following the teachings of men?

For those involved, only you know the answer to these questions. And yet, I have a feeling that part of the discussion at these gatherings is aimed at those poors folks who can’t be as “broad minded” as we are, and who can’t agree to disagree as we have.”

Should we sit and talk with our friends and neighbours of different faiths? You better believe it! Should we sit and talk with homosexuals? Again, you better believe it! But in all of this we had better (after first removing the beam from our own eye) be crying out for repentance. If we don’t we have failed Christ!

Each of us would approach that person seeking salvation mentioned in a previous post with the same message: Jesus Christ is the one and only Savior of the world and he wants to be your Savior. He can only be your Savior by grace through faith.

All of us would agree that once coming to faith in Christ as Savior, this new believer is called to humbly submit in faith to the commands of God in Scripture.

What I have discovered is that each preacher or member in the Kindgom of God has come to faith in different religious “cultures.” Baptist, Anglican, Charismatic, Church of Christ etc. Our systems of salvation did not just fall out of the Bible one day, they were developed by numerous individuals as they studied Scripture in their various cultures over the decades. These systems were then passed along to the previous generations.

By systems, I mean the path of salvation that each tribe would avocate is necessary before that person is “saved.” That path for Churches of Christ has typically been “hear, believe, repent, confess, and be baptized, live faithful to death.” This system originated with Walter Scott, a pioneer preacher in Churches of Christ, who developed this approach to help school children understand a person’s response to God. His original five steps were believe, repent, confess, be baptized, receive the gift of the holy spirit.

Every one of the men in my group grew up in a religious culture that explained the path to salvation in some sort of format similar to this one. Each of them attempt to explain in simple terms to someone seeking salvation what that person needs to do “to be saved.”

In humility and grace, each of us have to understand that none of our “paths” or “systems” are perfect. Even though we quote Scripture to back up all of our “steps” as do our tribal brothers when they teach the path in their way, not once in Scripture do you find our five steps or their three or four steps presented to an unbeliever in the format that we have presented it.

These are environmentally or culturally learned systems that we have come to equate with the point of salvation. I find the principle of salvation in Scripture to be salvation by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:1-10). The principle of the human response is linked in the condition of the heart that approaches God (i. e. Luke 9-14).

God commands me to obey him completely, in repentance, confession, baptism, avoiding adultery, not being greedy, feeing the poor, clothing the naked, visiting the sick, etc., but as a human being I will never live up to his standards perfectly. All he asks of me is to do my best as I give him my heart. Thankfully, God will judge me and us all, based not on our performance or what others think of us, but based on the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. That’s why Paul said, “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14)

When I stand before God, my only plea to him will be, “Lord, save me, a sinner, unworthy, unprofitale, as you have promised by your grace. Receive me as your child who calls upon you as Father.”

In my most reflective moments, I understand that no matter how far my acceptance and forgiveness extends, I can never be as gracious toward others as God has been to me and the whole world when he sent Jesus to the cross and raised him out of the tomb so that all of us imperfect believers can be saved no matter what our tribe.

Peace.

You said: “That’s the problem nowadays. The Truth has become “opinions” and “personal interpretations.”

But…- hermeneutical humility is not the same as truthlessness and relativism; in fact without hermeneutical humility the real Truth (Jesus) is obscured and undercut by our dogmatic and unloving appeal to truths. Is it wrong to press for truth, No! I have not given up on historical critical methods and I preach expository sermons and have strongly held views. But which of our truths is worth our losing sight of Jesus. The spirit of this joint luncheon is itself a better witness than the most well articulated, biblically-sound apologetic.

b blessed and God is peace
russ

That very thing happened several years ago this (approaching Easter) week when our neighbors from across the street walked over on Saturday afternoon to voluntarily help us with some yard work (we’re older and in need of such help, sometimes). She said her daughter was wanting to do something special for Easter Sunday because she was a young teen and no longer a child to hunt eggs, etc, yet they didn’t have a church home.

Our neighbors were a young man and woman in their mid-30s who both had children of their own, who were both in Louisiana National Guard full time and who were not married to each other. I invited them to come go with us to Bayou Oaks Church of Christ that was here in Slidell at that time the next morning.

They did and were warmly and lovingly accepted into our fellowship. Not as perfect people or without being aware they needed to make some changes in their lives, but as seekers of God and a home among God’s children and family. We all showed them a better way and loving hearts. Because of those kindnesses and love, they kept coming - to each and every worship and meeting and events. And they studied their Bibles and they learned and grew.

Within two months they wanted our minister to come talk and study further with them. One Saturday he did. After he left, she walked over saying they still had questions and asked me if I would come study with them more the next afternoon after worship. I said I would and I did. The gist of the long conversation was that they had felt welcomed and loved and wanted to be part of our fellowship. He had been raised Catholic and so was baptized as a baby. He wanted to be baptized as a faith filled believer. She had never been baptized at all and wanted the same thing.

They both said they could not do so without at the same time being married because they now realized and believed they were living in sin and that God would have them change. They had been long planning an elaborate wedding a year or so away, but now felt an urgent need to be baptized as they were both leaving for Turkey in 8 days. It was a deeply felt dilemma for them both.

As I sat and counseled with them I began to realize that because of their backgrounds, they did not understand the simplicity of New Testament Christianity and its beauty. I shared with them that they could, indeed, the following Saturday evening be married in our church building, without dispensations or lengthy “religious” “paperwork,” etc, but that our own Bible study leader could receive the proper local and state “credientials” to marry them as they wanted, that our minister could then baptize them into Christ and that Tom and I would more than happy to stand up with them as witnesses and to have the few guests they wanted over to our home following the ceremonies to celebrate both blessed events.

We did all of those things in the next week and many more and it was the most incredible wedding and baptisms I have ever been part of. Some fifteen of us were part of their marriage and then their baptism into the body of Christ and it was all because we had accepted them with love from that very first day into our fellowship where they could find a safe and loving home to want to be part of. We did not condemn them in their sins, we taught and shared with them a better way. They were not stupid and ignorant needing to be beat over the head by someone condescending to them. They figured things out and learned as we took them in as they were and where they were and taught and loved them from there.

It was a very blessed and magnificent thing to see and we added not only them, but their daughter and son into Christ and they are our brothers and sisters all because we tried to be just good and loving neighbors both here at home and at Bayou Oaks.

THAT is what all of this is all about. Danny Mercer is absolutely right. THAT is how things are for the lost people in this world and what they are seeking and THAT is what we need to share and to give them. IMHO this holy week.