Accepting Jesus Christ

What board were you on was that person a J.W. or Mormom.

 

Romans 10:9,10 are the closest to actually saying "take Jesus into your heart".
"That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine HEART that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
For with the HEART man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."
Those who make a big deal out of this particular wording of an invitation miss the point. God is dealing with HEARTS and that is what is important.

 

Hello. I believe from what I have gathered over the years, is that people don't like the term "ask Jesus into your heart" because it does not appear to be in the Bible as a method of being saved. BUT...the thing here is that all of this stuff about those folks trying to scrutinize the "words" of the verses, and fight over them, and fight over a "translation" even, is all so sad. What is important, as you are concerned, is being a child of God.
If you are, you are. If you are not, you are not.
If you believe with all your heart that Jesus died for you and you are following HIM, what difference does it make if you asked Him to come into your heart or asked Him to save you or something like that??? It is all the same.

When we are saved.... His Spirit IS in us.
If we asked Him to save us, I believe that Jesus never turned anyone away...so our salvation is certain. But the key is we must be born again. We must be a new creature, and only Jesus does that. And oh, it is important that we repent of our sins. And what is all that about? This indicates that we are approaching a Holy God.
Let's say that a person was constantly lying, and suddenly we was introduced to the Lord Jesus. And by The Holy Spirit the man was drawn to Him. This man has a choice, will he ask Jesus to save Him? But what is the normal reaction when approaching our Holy God? It is to repent and turn away from lying, for example, because he knows right then deep in his heart, that he can't go to God in his state of rebellion. So, he asks the Lord to help him and he himself resists the satanic forces that want him to lie or his own lust and deception. He turns away from it as best he can. Does that mean he is completely delivered when he prayed his first salvation prayer? No, of course not. I think this is what we are taught about sanctification...a process. In fact, if we were instantly delivered from all our bad things, I bet we would quickly conclude that we do not need God perhaps. For God knows our hearts. Some HE delivers and heals in a massive degree the moment they got saved, while others have quite a process yet ahead of them, day by day, hour by hour. God is in control. But when this man prays that salvation prayer, I believed he entered glory.

I believe that if we go over the Bible with a fine tooth comb and try to pick at this or pick at that wording, we are running into trouble. Just take the Bible as a whole unit. Don't cut and paste.

It is all about belonging to Jesus, loving Him and loving others. I think we complicate things that were never meant to be complicated.

Like the person above said, Jesus wants our heart. Don't look to others, but seek your salvation from God and Him alone.

 

If one reads Revelation 3:20 in the context of the whole passage, it can appear that Christ isn't talking about salvation, but about rejoining in fellowship with a church who has lost its way.

 

When I explain "getting saved" to children, I say that they need to tell God they are sorry for all the things they have done to displease God, and to ask that the punishment that Jesus took could count for them, and that God would make them His child.
If they believe that, and do that, then I assure them that God keeps His Word, and that they are His child, and can look forward to going to Heaven some day.

If that is confusing, then a child can usually understand the idea of Jesus taking the punishment on their behalf as a gift, and that they need to accept the gift in order to actually obtain its value.

 

Amen Dr. Bob! To God be the glory!

 

Amen Dr. Bob! To God be the glory! </font>[/QUOTE]Let me second that Amen! Very good point Dr. Bob.

 

I think the reason people get upset about words is that non-biblical phrasing can carry a non-biblical connotation--so we have to be careful of the words we choose.

Personally, I don't like the term "accepting Jesus Christ" because it seems to put us in the driver's seat, rather than the Lord. We do "receive" salvation as He gives it to us, but He is not frustrated, trying to give a gift that we simply refuse to accept.

I also don't like the term "get saved" for the same basic reason. We're used to "getting" things whenever we decide we want them. I prefer "be saved". It's His saving work in us that should be emphasized.

In Christ,

Tim