What Does It Take
I stand back and look at student and adults and wonder what does it take for us to “GET IT.” Get what you might ask yourself, well what it really means to be a Christ Follower or Christian. I talk to students and adults alike and get the same answer or the same attitude about what it takes to be that Christ Follower. That answer does not surprise me because pastors, “church people,” older Christan’s all say the same thing to that question, a prayer is what it takes to be a Christian. Is this entirely true? With this attitude or belief we are teaching and holding to a view that Christ Himself did not hold to. Let me explain before everyone hangs me as a heretic. We look at the calling of the disciples. Christ never asked His disciples to pray a prayer before they followed Him. Christ basically said drop what your doing because it is not as important than what I’m doing. He said said to Peter, “hey peter you like to fish, come fish with me, become a professional angler for other people.” Looking at scripture we only see in Roman 10:9-10 “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” So yes, confession with your mouth is a part or the starting point of salvation, but is that salvation? So many times we stop there and never continue reading the verse. Not only do you confess with our mouths but we believe in our heart. With that in mind lets go to Matthew 12:34b “For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.” So if we confess with our mouth and believe in our hearts, there should be something coming out of our mouths right? Is there a connection between our confessing and heart. Well lets look at James what does it say, in a nut shell it says that the faith we have should be backed with stuff or things we do that show the faith in our lives? If that’s not enough what about Titus 1:16, “They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.” So I guess the question is, “is it either a prayer or a belief that saves you?” We would have to say and agree with scripture that it is both but I would say that the aftermath of the prayer will be seen by everyone we come into contact with on a daily basis or in our circles of influence.
