Sovereign Grace
From Gospel Translations
(New page: === Sovereign Grace and the Glorious Mystery of Election === He chose us in him before the foundation of the world — Ephesians 1:4 '''C.J. Mahaney''' ==== First Impressions ==== ...) |
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“Let’s go into the back room and pray,” she said. I can’t explain what happened....But I will say this: at age five I suddenly felt as though I were the worst sinner who had ever lived. My sense of sin nearly crushed my little heart. The prayer, however, had not ended. It began with remorse, it grew into joy. I felt this newly discovered bur- den lift from my fragile soul. The presence of God overwhelmed me. Without my looking for him, or asking for him—indeed, without any knowledge of my need of him—God came looking for me, asking for me...a five-year-old kid.<ref>James Cantelon, ''Theology for Non-Theologians''(New York, NY: Macmillan, 1988) p.3</ref> | “Let’s go into the back room and pray,” she said. I can’t explain what happened....But I will say this: at age five I suddenly felt as though I were the worst sinner who had ever lived. My sense of sin nearly crushed my little heart. The prayer, however, had not ended. It began with remorse, it grew into joy. I felt this newly discovered bur- den lift from my fragile soul. The presence of God overwhelmed me. Without my looking for him, or asking for him—indeed, without any knowledge of my need of him—God came looking for me, asking for me...a five-year-old kid.<ref>James Cantelon, ''Theology for Non-Theologians''(New York, NY: Macmillan, 1988) p.3</ref> | ||
| - | First impressions are indeed lasting impressions. Mr. Cantelon’s description of his conversion experience is revealing: “God came looking for me.” What is your understanding of your conversion experience? Who pursued whom? Did God come looking for you? Or does it seem that, in essence, you were pursuing God? What stands out the most to you: God’s initiative and intervention, or your repentance and faith? | + | First impressions are indeed lasting impressions. Mr. Cantelon’s description of his conversion experience is revealing: “God came looking for me.” What is your understanding of your conversion experience? Who pursued whom? Did God come looking for you? Or does it seem that, in essence, you were pursuing God? What stands out the most to you: God’s initiative and intervention, or your repentance and faith? |
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| + | {{LeftInsert|When I was coming to Christ, I thought I was doing it all myself, and though I sought the Lord earnestly, I had no idea the Lord was seeking me. I do not think the young convert is at first aware of this. I can recall the very day and hour when first I received those truths [of the doctrine of election] in my own soul—when they were as John Bunyan said, burnt into my heart as with a hot iron, and I can recollect how I felt that I had grown on a sudden from a babe into a man—that I had made progress in scriptural knowledge, through having found, once for all, the clue to the truth of God. | ||
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| + | One week-night, when I was sitting in the house of God, I was not thinking much about the preacher’s sermon, for I did not believe it. The thought struck me, How did you come to be a Christian? I sought the Lord. But how did you come to seek the Lord?The truth flashed across my mind in a moment—I should not have ought him unless there had been some previous influence in my mind to make me seek him. I prayed, thought I, but then I asked myself, How came I to pray? I was induced to pray by reading the Scriptures. How came I to read the Scriptures?I did read them, but what led me to do so? Then, in a moment, I saw that God was at the bottom of it all, and that he was the Author of my faith, and so the doctrine of grace opened up to me, and from that doctrine I have not departed to this day, and I desire to make this my constant confession, “I ascribe my change wholly to God.” | ||
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| + | —Charles Spurgeon<ref>Charles Spurgeon, ''A Defense of Calvinism'', www.spurgeon.org/calvinis.htm </ref> }} | ||
Revision as of 19:22, 14 May 2008
Sovereign Grace and the Glorious Mystery of Election
He chose us in him before the foundation of the world — Ephesians 1:4
C.J. Mahaney
First Impressions
Author James Cantelon presents this moving and insightful remembrance of his conversion experience:
“First impressions are lasting impressions.” So goes the old saying, and I suspect in most cases it is true. My first impression of God is with me to this day. It happened at a musty old church camp in Central Saskatchewan, Canada. I was five years old.
Back in those days we were into tabernacles. Not only were most of our churches called tabernacles, but our camp meeting buildings were also given this Old Testament name for tent. On one especially hot day my parents were in the adult tabernacle and I, with my fellow junior campers, was in the children’s tabernacle. The teacher was tak- ing us through Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. As she taught, something sparked within me.
After the lesson the children exploded into the sunshine to play. I lingered. Miss Brown seemed to know why.
“Can I help you, Jimmy?” she asked gently. I nodded dumbly, bit- ing my suddenly trembling lower lip, tears welling in my eyes.
“Let’s go into the back room and pray,” she said. I can’t explain what happened....But I will say this: at age five I suddenly felt as though I were the worst sinner who had ever lived. My sense of sin nearly crushed my little heart. The prayer, however, had not ended. It began with remorse, it grew into joy. I felt this newly discovered bur- den lift from my fragile soul. The presence of God overwhelmed me. Without my looking for him, or asking for him—indeed, without any knowledge of my need of him—God came looking for me, asking for me...a five-year-old kid.[1]
First impressions are indeed lasting impressions. Mr. Cantelon’s description of his conversion experience is revealing: “God came looking for me.” What is your understanding of your conversion experience? Who pursued whom? Did God come looking for you? Or does it seem that, in essence, you were pursuing God? What stands out the most to you: God’s initiative and intervention, or your repentance and faith?
One week-night, when I was sitting in the house of God, I was not thinking much about the preacher’s sermon, for I did not believe it. The thought struck me, How did you come to be a Christian? I sought the Lord. But how did you come to seek the Lord?The truth flashed across my mind in a moment—I should not have ought him unless there had been some previous influence in my mind to make me seek him. I prayed, thought I, but then I asked myself, How came I to pray? I was induced to pray by reading the Scriptures. How came I to read the Scriptures?I did read them, but what led me to do so? Then, in a moment, I saw that God was at the bottom of it all, and that he was the Author of my faith, and so the doctrine of grace opened up to me, and from that doctrine I have not departed to this day, and I desire to make this my constant confession, “I ascribe my change wholly to God.”
—Charles Spurgeon[2]Cite error:
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