Praying the Prayer
Most Church of Christ members have a knee-jerk reaction to the phrase "pray the prayer." It's automatically recognized as what other denominations would describe as the prayer one prays to accept Jesus into your heart. My concern today is not whether the prayer ensures one's salvation. But I'll get that out of the way quickly enough anyway: Q. Are there going to be people in heaven who "only" prayed the prayer and were never baptized? A: Yes. Enough already. Rather, I've been thinking about the CofC's tendency to ignore the prayer altogether. In our adamant rush to get people baptized, how often have we left out the prayer completely? We ask them, "Do you believe with all your heart that Jesus Christ is the Son of God?" They say yes. We give them the "I now baptize you..." liturgy and down they go. My fear is that we have neglected to mention anything to them of the need for repentence. The need to tell God that we've done wrong and we're turning around now. The need to tell Him that we are giving Him our hearts. Is the confession of Christ important? It's vital. But we are so worried about pointing out to others what they are missing in baptism, that we don't even notice what we are missing in that prayer...that admission to God that we need Him, that we're lost without Him. I'm sure that I was baptized for many years before I ever prayed that prayer. I'm just as sure that I was saved before I prayed it. But praying it was a turning point in my walk, just as getting baptized is a turning point in the walk of those who have "only" prayed the prayer up to that point. I'm learning more all the time about this process of salvation.Five reasons to hate the Yankees:
1. Arrogant, front-running fans.
2. Winning by having the most money.
3. Jason Giambi.
4. Gary Sheffield.
5. Arrogant, front-running fans.
Five reasons to like the Yankees:
1. Derek Jeter.
2. Mariano Rivera.
3. Mike Mussina.
4. Joe Torre.
5. Derek Jeter.
Game night tonight at Rich's. Home to work on PowerPoint for Sunday. Lisa in Easton most of the day tomorrow so Daddy time with James. Refine sermon tomorrow night. Double duty at church on Sunday which leaves me (as BB King would say) T-I-D-E for the rest of the day. And then back to work. Man, where did the weekend GO?
posted by Thurman8er @ 1:01 PM
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