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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hi</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>An interesting article relating to the salvation
discussion - <A
href="http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/march/29.72.html">http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/march/29.72.html</A></FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#008000 size=2>Jesus and the Sinner’s
Prayer<BR>What Jesus says doesn’t match what we usually say.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#008000></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#008000 size=2>[ ... ]</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#008000 size=2>In my Baptist tradition,
especially, we direct people to "invite Jesus into your heart as your personal
Savior," an act undertaken using a formula called the "sinner's prayer." Or we
simply say, "Believe in Jesus, and you will be saved."</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#008000></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#008000 size=2>But Jesus never taught easy
believism. Whether he was telling the rich young ruler to sell all and follow
him or telling a miracle-hungry crowd near Capernaum that to do the work of
God was, yes, to believe on him (John 6:28-29), he called people to abandon
their own agenda and trust him radically. Radical trust calls for both belief
and action.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#008000></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#008000 size=2>I suggest that we tend to confuse
the beginning of the faith journey with its entirety. Yes, believe in
Jesus—that's the first step. Yes, invite Jesus into your heart as your
personal Savior. Then, empowered by God's grace, embark on the journey of
discipleship, in which you seek to love God with every fiber of your being, to
love your neighbor as yourself, to live out God's moral will, and to follow
Jesus where he leads you, whatever the cost.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#008000 size=2>[ ...
]</FONT></DIV></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>David P. Gushee is Graves Professor of Moral
Philosophy at Union University, and is a Baptist.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>God bless,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Stephen</FONT></DIV>
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