WHAT IS GOSPEL 'CONVERSION' ??????

   #6 – 13 TERMS OF SALVATION – CONVERSION

                

CONVERSION (Gr. epistrophe) essentially means a “turning” or “a turning toward.” The verb is hepistrepho, rendered in the N.T. “to convert” or “to turn.” When Paul and Barnabas were on their way to Jerusalem, they passed through towns and villages ^“….declaring the conversion of the Gentiles: and they caused great joy unto all the brethren” Acts 15:3. In other words, the Gentiles had turned from their sinful ways and, by the power of the Gospel, they had turned toward God through saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Hb. terms of the O.T. have a similar significance and usage (Pss. 19:7; 51:13; Jer. 31:18 and Ezek. 33:11). In Psalm 51:13 David, after his horrendous sin with Bathsheba, confesses the sin and asks God to restore him so he can be useful again: “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.” 

MORE KEY VERSES FOR CONSIDERATION:

1.   The Apostle Paul was commissioned by God to take the Gospel to the Gentiles: “…to open their eyes, and to turn them (convert) from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me” (Acts 26:18).

2.   An angel told Zacharias that his ‘soon-to-be-born-son’, John the Baptist, would have a powerful ministry: “And many of the children of Israel shall he turn (convert) to the Lord their God” (Luke 1:16).

3.   The Apostle Peter’s Gospel preaching included an appeal for conversion: “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord…” (Acts 3:19).

4.   The Prophet of old, Ezekiel, was to preach ‘conversion’. God said to tell His people: ^“As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?” (Ezekiel 33:11)

5.   After declaring the power of nature to turn people back to God (Psalm 19:1-6), David, in v.7, says: “The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.”

6.   Nominal Christians (those who sometimes are even numbered among the congregation but not truly saved) need to ‘be converted’ or ‘turned back’ by truth to authentic salvation This is not being saved again, but rather being truly saved, moved from mere profession to true possession Of Jesus Christ: “Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins” (James 5:19-20).

R.C.H. Lenski says concerning this difficult passage: “What was one of the great dangers that threatened his readers? Why, to revert to Judaism. To be sure, James also includes all mortal sins. But the most damnable and deadly sin is unbelief. Read what is written to other Jewish Christians who were thinking of going back to Judaism (Heb. 6:4-8; 10:25-31)….What erring from the truth means to James is all too apparent from what he says about turning such an erring one back to the truth; such erring means that a soul is in death and in a multitude of sins…What a great thing it is to rescue a person from physical death! This is a greater thing, for spiritual death is far worse than physical death. James states this in the third person: ‘he that turns back.’ He thereby makes the statement objective and general for every case of this kind. How this turning back is accomplished is indicated by the means: the sinner is turned back to the truth by the truth. There is only one objective means to save such a sinner, namely the truth; and only one subjective means, repentance (contrition for sin, faith in the Savior). We translate ‘shall turn back’ and ‘he that turns back’.”

-          Dick D. Christen

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DAILY WORSHIP

CHURCH IS GREAT for weekly worship but daily family and personal worship are also strongly stressed in God's Word. "How blessed is the man (whose) delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night" (Psalm 1:1,2). Every believer has the Holy Spirit Who enables us to read and understand Scripture (1 John 2:27). And so, anywhere and at any time (as often as we can, 24/7) we can sit, read, ponder and turn thoughts of  truth into praise, adoration, thanksgivings and exultations unto Jehovah God of the Bible - Father, Son and Holy Spirit! We are believer priests! I would prioritize this daily worship as more important than weekly, as vital as that (the weekly) should be. Today's Church too often behaves like 'big government.' It fancies itself to be the keeper of the keys whereby it can unlock all the mysteries of truth and also feels responsible to come up with all types of programming in order to meet ALL the needs of any person's spiritual life. The Church desperately needs to review its God ordained purposes. When ecclesiastical 'big government' steps aside or gets voted out, then individual responsibility will kick in and God's people will begin to take personal responsibility for walking with God. When the  Church gets this  straight, personal Godliness will increase. I see in such a change the beginnings of true revival. Nowadays the average church goer sits and soaks. The show starts and better stop within the hour. We clap and clap for each segment of the program, except when the preacher finishes. In some places the preaching becomes a 'guilt reducing' add-on because we don't want to forsake the traditions of the fathers altogether. Oh, no! Perish the thought! If we're honest with ourselves, a participant in such churches gets the feeling he's at just another world-sponsored 'show.' The multi-colored lighting, the flashing of cameras and lighting effects all add up to such. We finish, go home, and, well, that's it for another week. In the meantime we scarcely open our Bibles, if at all. Be honest! That's the way it comes down in the majority of professing believers' lives. 'Big government' church must be rejected and replaced with the necessities of a local church (Read the last verses of Acts 2). Such necessities are vital. But, when the superfluous is eliminated, much time, money and energy will immediately be saved. This will open the way for believers to step up and begin assuming the life of a Biblical Christian. What is such a life? We will proceed to prize and practice personal Christianity and DAILY WORSHIP. My church? It will change its philosophy about the very meaning and purpose of its existence. It will begin to aim its ministry toward the individual providing instruction and materials whereby believers can 'go-it-alone' because, when all is said and done, only so many hours can be carved out to be at church. Many believers have already decided too much church is too much church. Churches have decided the same. Services have been eliminated, BUT, instead of encouraging personal Christianity and providing instruction and educational materials to guide in such a life, a vacuum has been left and believers, tuned to the world's media, are becoming more and more secularized and their walk with God suffers terribly. Oh for the day when individuals are saying, "'As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.' And, day by day, I WILL WALK WITH GOD AND ASSUME RESPONSIBILITY TO DO SO!" "O how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day" (Psalm 119.97). Do it!

REPENTANCE, ESSENTIALLY A CHANGE OF MIND (AND THEREFORE, A CHANGE OF LIFE)

#5 – 13 TERMS OF SALVATION – REPENTANCE

        

REPENTANCE may be defined as a God-sensitive change of mind about sin, God, the gospel and life in general in ways wherein God and His truth are thereby glorified. The Greek metanoia means just that, a change of mind or to think again. Before salvation, sinners need to think differently about their sin and about the gospel of Jesus Christ. The power of God's Word  and the Holy Spirit quicken the sinner thereby  enabling such  (Eh.  2:1). After being saved, wayward Christians need to reevaluate their lives, change their minds and realign their thinking to the Word of God. Repentance is bound up with faith and inseparable from it. Repentance and faith are two sides of the same thing, sometimes illustrated by the two sides of the hand.

SEVERAL SALIENT STATEMENTS ABOUT REPENTANCE:

1.   God is the effective cause of repentance.

“Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?”  Romans 2:4

^“Him (Jesus) hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.” Acts 5:31

^“When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.” Acts 11:18                                      A pastor is to teach God’s Word  ”In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth…” 2 Timothy 2:25   (cf Acts 5:31; 11:18)

2.    Repentance is “an inward repugnance to sin necessarily followed by the actual forsaking of it.” The repentant sinner sees sin as God sees it. It is more than being merely sorry for wrong.

⁹ Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. ¹⁰ For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.” 2 Corinthians 7:9-10

3.   Repentance is an upward embracing of God and His truth.

The Apostle Paul preached “that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance.” Acts 26:20  ^“Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” Acts 20:21

Illus. When Paul was saved he experienced a complete change of mind (repentance) concerning both his sin but also his understanding of the Gospel. As a scholar he knew the Bible well, but rejected it, especially as it related to the Messiah. His salvation turned the rejection into acceptance (a complete change of mind – metanoia). And so, given his vast knowledge of the Scriptures, in repentance he was able to immediately preach. “Then was Saul certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus. ²⁰ And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God.” Acts 9:19b-20

4.   Both repentance and faith are essential aspects of the Gospel appeal throughout the Church age.

AT PENTECOST: “Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? ³⁸ Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” Acts 2:37-38

 AT ATHENS:     ^“For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. ²⁹ Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. ³⁰ And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent.” Acts 17:28-30

5.   Wayward (backslidden) Christians, in returning to fellowship with God, must repent and stay repentant.

“Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner…¹⁰ For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death. ¹¹ For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.” 2 Corinthians 7:9-11

Dr. Dick D. Christen

A LITTLE HUMOR

Jock, the painter, often would thin his paint so it would go further. So when the Church decided to do some deferred maintenance, Jock was able to put in the low bid, and got the job. As always, he thinned his paint way down with turpentine.

One day while he was up on the scaffolding -- the job almost finished -- he heard a horrendous clap of thunder, and the sky opened.

The downpour washed the thinned paint off the church and knocked Jock off his scaffold and onto the lawn among the gravestones and puddles of thinned and worthless paint.

Jock knew this was a warning from the Almighty, so he got on his knees and cried: “Oh, God! Forgive me! What should I do?”

And from the thunder, a mighty voice: “REPAINT! REPAINT! AND THIN NO MORE!”

WHEN WE'RE IN HEAVEN GOD WILL "EXULT" OVER US! REALLY!

Often, when we think of heaven we visualize Jesus being adored by all the saints, and quite rightly so! He will be cherised and praised again and again! But, Scripture seems to point to the wonder that God's saints will be loved, appreciated and treated as trophies of God's grace. And, God Himself will lead the way!

Ponder this verse: “The Lord your God is in your midst, a  victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy (Zephaniah 3:17).

Primarily this pertains to Israel in time of her Kingdom victory. After Jesus defeats the nations of the earth, upon His return after the Tribulation Period, He will be the "victorious warrior" and will proceed to "exult over" His people "with joy." He will do this in three ways:

     1. "He will exult over you with joy"
         Certainly the Jews will be super happy when they see their King and learn that He is indeed the
         expected Messiah and now all is well, but Jesus will delight beyond words ("exult") to see His
         people believing, safe and in their promised home, at long last.

     2. "He will be quiet in His love"
         Love that isn't quite sure of itself can be noisy. A man can make a fool of himself (and a
         woman too) if a relationship isn't yet secure. The antics to nail down the relationship can be
         hilarious, especially when looked back upon. But, as in marriage, once love is in place, things
         quiet down. When the sin, waywardness, frustrations of Israel are all history, and God Himself
         has established their eternal safety, His love will quietly dwell upon His people forever and
         ever. What a peaceful thought! No doubts as to her standing, no agitations as to "where is
         our God?", no insecurities concerning the future, and the list of unsure love can go on and on,
         but instead, the battles have been fought and the final victory won, and God and His people
         settle in forever by quiet waters.

     3. "He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy"
         Interestingly, the "quiet" of His love does not rule out "shouts of joy", at least now and then.
         Heaven will be perfect in its emotions, times for calm but times for exuberance. How beauti-
         ful! America presently is plagued by too much "hype" always and ever, or so it seems. Every
         TV commercial, every half-time at a sports event, every concert (and even church services)
         seem to glory is noise. The louder the better. Now and then this is fine, but all the time? At
         least seemingly so? What happened to the joys of "quiet", times of reflection, times just to
         get in touch meaningfully with a subject at hand? I say, heavens emotions will be in perfect
         balance.

Now, by way of application, apply what will be true of Israel in the Kingdom Age to the Church in heaven, the New Jerusalem. Believers will of course adore their King and Savior, Jesus Christ. They
will lay their crowns at His feet. But, in reverse, He will delight in seeing His "trophies of grace" home at last. He will make over us. He will delight in His people, saved and perfect at last, free from all sin, its guilt, its penalty, its power and now, its very presence. We will be free from the presence of sin, in His presence. Oh, that will be glory, glory at last! We will hear His exultations over us, catch His eyes and smiles and be surprised when heaven breaks forth in sharp shouts of joy, realizing they are directed toward us. But, all we then enjoy is only because of His grace and goodness, His replete salvation, and so, we will mostly worship and forever adore Him, to Whom be glory forever and ever.

- Dick D. Christen

IS CREMATION A CHRISTIAN THING?

CREMATION?

 

As best as I can tell, there is no Bible passage that attempts to give guidelines regarding acceptable burial procedures. No matter which burial practices one follows, the results are always the same: “Dust to dust, ashes to ashes." Job reiterated the final disposition of the body in Job 34:14-15: “If it were his intention and he withdrew his spirit and breath, all mankind would perish together and man would return to the dust."

The ancient Egyptians embalmed bodies to delay decay and to prepare for the afterlife.

In first-century Israel, bodies were buried on the day of death! A 60-foot length of one-foot-wide cloth was wrapped around and around the deceased while all sorts of spices were sprinkled in the wrappings in order to reduce the stench of decay. The bodies were then placed in caves or stone sepulchers.

In more recent times, it's customary to embalm a body before burial in order to delay decay long enough for the family to mourn the deceased and to give time for out-of-town friends and relatives to arrive before the funeral.

Burial procedures are rapidly changing in today’s culture. Many people are turning to cremation as the body disposition of choice. One of the primary drivers in this change is the astronomical cost of having a "traditional funeral." The costs for embalming, buying a casket and purchasing a piece of ground to put the casket in is cost prohibitive for too many families.

The only long-term difference between embalming and cremation is time. Cremation just speeds up the process.

You may do well to investigate why your family doesn't approve of your cremation choice. Perhaps they consider cremation as not Biblical. However, as we have seen, cremation is never a Biblical issue.

Perhaps they are worried that when Jesus returns at the Rapture and the bodies of long-dead Christians are resurrected and transformed into spiritual bodies — that you won’t have a body to resurrect. Frankly, since the first century, most (if not all) bodies are now dust anyway. Since God is big enough to produce a world-wide resurrection, He certainly can make a spiritual body from only a speck of dust -- or less.

Perhaps your family wants you in a casket-filled grave so they can have a place for remembering you and your lives together. This desire is natural and normal.

Recently, I've observed families foregoing the expensive caskets and burial plots by choosing cremation. They then purchase a small cemetery plot in which to bury the ashes. Others scatter the ashes over a prearranged place meaningful to the deceased. Some save a few ashes in a small locket as a token reminder of their loved one. Some ashes reside in burial urns over fireplace mantles.

With all that being said, remember that your body is still your body. Discuss openly with your family that you want to dispose of your body in the way most comfortable to you. In your case, that is cremation.

My mother just traded in her outdoor burial plot for an indoor mausoleum space. She decided that she was uncomfortable with the idea that she would be down in the ground with the “worms and maggots!” Then, she got to worrying that above ground a tornado could hit the mausoleum! She wanted to change back; but, she finally decided that worms were worse than tornadoes.

If you are more comfortable with cremation then I recommend that you do so.

Personally, I want my body cremated. I've picked out four golf courses where I want my family to spread my ashes. I think.

Recently, our church erected a columbarium with small niches for burial urns of ashes. It's on an outdoor wall of the new chapel. Recently, Julie and I exhumed our first daughter's ashes from Evergreen Cemetery and placed them in an urn in the niche in the far-left top row of the columbarium. I'm thinking about changing my mind. I just might have my ashes placed in the niche with Jessie.

After all, the chapel wall sounds like a great final resting place while we wait for the sounds of the resurrection trumpet. Jessie and I could even hold hands together on the way up!

Psalm 103:15-17 gives us a great perspective on cremation -- or on any other burial practice:

As for man, his days are like grass,

He flourishes like a flower of the field;

The wind blows over it and it is gone,

And its place remembers it no more.

But from everlasting to everlasting

The LORD's love is with those who fear him,

And his righteousness with their children's children…

-       Dr. Roger Barrier, Retired Senior Teaching Pastor, Casas Church, Tucson, AZ