Sunday, April 21, 2012 - Romans 1:20

[Tek7]

For His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what He has made. As a result, people are without excuse.

Romans 1:20, HCSB

No person has ever nor will ever get a "free pass" by claiming that they were unaware there was a God. Should we view this as implied permission to not preach the Gospel? Certainly not! If a person's response to Christ's sacrifice absolutely and without exception determines their eternal destination, we should be all the more driven to share the good news of the Gospel with others.

 

[Abba San]

Amen - thanks, Tek.

 

[RiverTigress]

Romans 1:20, HCSB

No person has ever nor will ever get a "free pass" by claiming that they were unaware there was a God. Should we view this as implied permission to not preach the Gospel? Certainly not! If a person's response to Christ's sacrifice absolutely and without exception determines their eternal destination, we should be all the more driven to share the good news of the Gospel with others.

I can attest to both of these points as it was in 1999 that I had my first undeniable encounter with God and committed to Him (not having any church background, I didn't have much knowledge of the holy, but I had learned to recognize some forms of evil by that point and was doing the foolish thing of trying to fight it on my own and failing miserably, to which I guess God took pity on me and quite literally showed up one day to tell me to stop doing that and consider serving Him instead), but didn't actually get saved until 2004 because it took that long for anyone to tell me how to get there!

I did read the Bible and go to multiple churches in addition to various other things in searching for answers, but I think people who have been in the faith for a while or who grew up in a church environment can forget how difficult a lot of concepts they've long since mastered can be for someone outside of common Christian culture and without guidance from the Holy Spirit. Reading the Bible without explanation was what actually convinced me at first that Christ wasn't the right way for me because in the Gospels I identified most with the Samaritan woman that Jesus called a dog, which left me feeling like if I was persistent and annoying enough He might do something for me, but He didn't really like me or want anything to do with me. Once I finally came across someone who showed the presence of the Holy Spirit in their life that took the time and effort to explain things (and not even through personal interaction, but through a general audience posting on the internet), I immediately "got it" and got saved right away and have been serving ever since.