Why I Said No To Salvation

Ten years ago I had the opportunity to meet one of the most incredible people I know to date. What was particularly interesting about this friend was how peaceful always she seemed to be even in the worst of times.

We instantly hit it off as friends. She was the peaceful, cool, calm and collected one and I was the complete opposite, lets just say I wasn't one of the nicest people in the planet. If Mean Girls the movie was hold auditions for their lead role I would get it instantaneously - i was a natural. I was the most negative, judgmental, annoying person on the planet.

During one of our regular hangouts, she suddenly looked at me with fiery eyes and asked “Would you like to know about the Lord”, she asked. At first I was quite shocked and deliberately wanted to walk away from her.  

Photo courtesy of Patheos.com

"Not this again", i said as i rolled my eyes preparing to leave. I had heard of these same lines before and I wasn't ready to go through the whole you-need-to-get-saved talk. In all honesty I was familiar with all the reasons as to why I should get saved (they were constantly sold to me all the time)  however I had all the answers as to why it didn't make sense to me.

1. Come to Jesus, being a Christian is fun

 My answer would be Paul the apostle never seemed like he had fun(I went to a Catholic School and hence reading the bible was a must).What about the persecuted saints in the bible and those dying around the whole because of the religion?

2. Come to Jesus and you will never sin again

 Have you seen the news we have daytime evangelist splashed all over the media because of their sins. If he/she can sin what chances do I have.

3. Come to Jesus and you wont be miserable

 Well, I am happy and I really like my life thank you very much

4. Come to Jesus, you wont have problems

Well everybody got problems, ask Oprah!

Ladies and gentlemen I had heard it all and so far it wasn't something I wanted to sign up for. I would put on my widest smile and sweetly say “Thank you, I will pass”

 However my friend took another approach. She explained to me the consequences of my then decision and what it really meant  and boy oh boy did that get my attention.

We all need to make a realistic presentation of the gospel.Salvation is not a-shallow-give me-prosperity-now idea. Sadly if that’s the idea sold to people soon the poor souls may buy it and later get disillusioned by it. It is likely to fade away in the heat of reality, persecution and doubt.

The answer to this problem would be to look at the bigger picture which is you are saved, whether you get a promotion or not, you get a spouse or not, whether you become rich or not, whether your 5 year plan comes to pass or not, whether you get your wish list or not…….all those things are irrelevant (they really are)

 For God did not send his son to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son- John 3:17-18

The idea that should be hammered in is that your eternal destiny is at stake and it is sorely determined by whether you believe in the person of Jesus. The truth of the matter is that if you receive him, you will gain eternal life . However if you choose not to, that choice has its own consequence-hell.

It has been now 10 years since I made the decision to be a follower Christ and so far i have no regrets. Life still happens but God is amazingly good. Kindly note I said God is good and not life. He makes life good.

Make your decision today J