Acts 11.21 records a great number who believed turned to the Lord.
Believing in God does not make a person a Christian. Demons believe in God but they will be cast into the fires of hell when God establishes His permanent residence upon the earth and Jesus reigns supreme.
The Lord Jesus commanded men to repent and follow Him, denying themselves completely if they wanted to be His disciple and thus inherit eternal life in the kingdom to come.
Repent means to turn away from all that is evil in the eyes of God. If someone would call themselves a Christian they must cease doing all things God has forbidden.
Many believers are not willing to stop their pleasures that are an abomination to the Holy One and thus they are not going to live with God forever.
Second, Jesus commanded His disciples to follow Him.
The goal of this command is that His people would live as He lived upon the earth. Jesus obeyed His Father perfectly and became the Savior of the world.
Jesus’ disciples are to be fishers of men and demonstrate their love for Him by obeying His commands.
True Christians are about the work of winning people to Jesus as Savior and living lives that please God in every way.
Finally, Jesus commanded His disciples to deny themselves symbolized by death through the cross.
All of the time, talent and treasure a person has is to be at God’s disposal for God’s work if that person would truly be a Christian.
The accumulation of treasures and titles is the antithesis of the Jesus follower for He Himself owned nothing but gave everything He had in order to become the Savior of the world.
True Christians repent, obey and give so others come to Jesus as Savior and glorify God on earth as He is in heaven.
I agree – kindof. This article seems to give an awful lot of credit to humans actually “winning” people to Christ. I’m pretty sure the Holy Spirit should get the credit for that. We humans should be obedient and be privileged to work along side of the Holy Spirit as seed planters and sometimes be there when the sowing happens. “Romans 10:9 (NKJV) that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” That’s the bottom line. Believing in our heart – not in our head. If we truly believe in out heart, then the repentance, obedience, and giving will be something we want to do for our Lord and Savior.
you are certainly correct that God through the Holy Spirit really does all the work at winning people to Himself yet He has chosen, for the most part, not to make personal appearances, nor send angels but to use people to do His work. The real point of the blog was more along the lines of the Apostle James whose comment faith without works is dead. Or as the Apostle John wrote in his first letter to say we have fellowship with God but to continue in sin is to lie and deny the truth. Those who love God truly will serve God wholeheartedly and by their works you will know them.
Indeed this is truth.