Hi everyone, this isn't a big deal but bothers me at times. I have been born again for as long as I can remember, I was also filled with the spirit about 2 years ago. Their is also someone about my age at my church who is really on fire for God, and she also says she doesn't remember. I know i've said the prayer of salvation 100 times growing up. But I remember being a little boy and believing in Jesus Christ and that has never changed. I used to say I was saved in highschool, because I rededicated my life to Christ at an Aquire the Fire event and began growing, but that isn't totally true because i've believed and trusted in Jesus since as early as I can remember.
I'm going through some tough times in my Christ walk, and this seems to add to my stress. Is their anyone else out their that doesn't remember exactly when they first believed?
HI jpt21, Many cannot remember the date but the experience is another story. A real salvation, according to God's Word, includes one making a conscious decision to turn their life around; otherwise known as repentance. Look up what repentance means. At salvation, one must realize their sinfulness and total depravity and the eternal damnation and suffering in torment which their condition deserves and will get without the redemption Christ's blood brings. You say that you believed as far back as you can remember. Jesus tells us that even demons believe. Salvation must include an agreement with God about the futility of our own way and a determined decision to follow Christ's way. Jesus told us that if we were going to be a Christian, or as He put it, a follower of Him, we must DENY ourselves, TAKE UP our cross, and FOLLOW Him. These are all ACTIONS on our part which will be an ABRUPT CHANGE from our previous SELF-CENTERED mode of thinking/operation. Like I say in my signature, in effect, Christ took a bullet in the head, which was meant for us and of which we deserved. When one is saved they should have an understanding of this in some manner. This is why many believe in what is called "the age of accountability" or such for children. Until a person is able to comprehend and responsibly respond in some life-changing degree to the salvation message, there can be no assurance of salvation.
I place a significant amount of blame upon those who "bring the new convert to the Lord" or other such descriptions. A critical point of the Gospel message is our sinfulness and our pending eternal damnation and another is that true repentance involves one immediately turning their life around and changing to some significant degree the way in which they live. This is only a normal and expected result after one realizes what Jesus, the Christ, did for them and receives the gift. Such change, one would remember. Allow me to offer an excerpt from C. H. Spurgeon's autobiography:
"From Spurgeon's
Autobiography
The Great Change—Conversion
I have heard men tell the story of their conversion, and of their spiritual life, in such a way that my heart hath loathed
them and their story, too, for they have told of their sins as if they did boast in the greatness of their crime, and they have mentioned the love of God, not with a tear of gratitude, not with the simple thanksgiving of the really humble heart, but as if they as much exalted themselves as they exalted God. Oh! when we tell the story of our own conversion, I would have it done with great sorrow, remembering what we used to be, and with great joy and gratitude, remembering how little we deserve these things. I was once preaching upon conversion and salvation, and I felt within myself, as preachers often do, that it was but dry work to tell this story, and a dull, dull tale it was to me; but, on a sudden, the thought crossed my mind, "Why, you are a poor, lost, ruined sinner yourself; tell it, tell it as you received it; begin to tell of the grace of God as you trust you feel it yourself." Why, then, my eyes began to be fountains of tears; those hearers who had nodded their heads began to brighten up, and they listened, because they were hearing something which the speaker himself felt, and which they recognized as being true to him if it was not true to them.
Can you not remember, dearly-beloved, that day of days, that best and brightest of hours, when first you saw the Lord, lost your burden, received the roll of promise, rejoiced in full salvation, and went on your way in peace? My soul can never forget that day. Dying, all but dead, diseased, pained, chained, scourged, bound in fetters of iron, in darkness and the shadow of death, Jesus appeared unto me. My eyes looked to Him; the disease was healed, the pains removed, chains were snapped, prison doors were opened, darkness gave place to light. What delight filled my soul!—what mirth, what ecstasy, what sound of music and dancing, what soarings towards Heaven, what heights and depths of ineffable delight! Scarcely ever since then have I known joys which surpassed the rapture of that first hour.—C. H. S." Pasted from:
The Great ChangeConversion
