Put on the Parachute!

This post came about as a response to someone who, previously, was dedicated to going to church, but something happened, and now they have been out of church for about a year. They were requesting me to pray that they would be lead to find the church that God wants them to be in and to basically get past things that happened to them, I'm assuming, at the church they attended. This person feels a great responsibility for the spiritual well being of the children in the home and an unsaved spouse. Below is my response: 

Whether I know someone personally or not, I start off this way. Make sure that "you" have a real and true relationship with the Lord. What I mean is; are you truly saved? Many people claim to know Christ as their Lord and Savior, but there seems to be no evidence of it. I have a blog and recently posted one called "Proofs of Genuine Salvation". It can be found at: Proofs of Genuine Salvation. It was written by an evangelist. I ask that you please take a look at it as there is some good information on the subject.

I just looked at that post again and would like to add some more "proofs" that a person has truly accepted Christ and add them as a new post. Just think, God has used you to prompt me to add these. Who knows how many other people this may help.  =)

I know this may turn out to be long, but if you truly want to know what God wants me to say to you, you will hang with me. I hope you do! No, I pray you do! Here are the other "proofs":

1)     Salvation brings repentance. When we first met Christ we were walking in one direction…away from God. We sinned and had no problem sinning, we loved the things of this world, and we loved darkness. But, when we met the Savior, believed everything the Bible says about Him, and then accepted His great gift of payment for our sins, we immediately turned in the opposite direction…now walking WITH Him. That is repentance. The Bible says unless you repent you will perish (Luke 13:3). This is not to be confused with confessing your sins. We are told to confess our sins and salvation will prompt a person to do this, but God then requires that we repent (turn away from those sins) to be saved. Many confess, but not all turn.

2)    We became a new creature. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” ~2 Corinthians 5:17

And a new creature means “a new creature”. Everything about us changed. Our attitude. Our desires. Our walk. Our talk. Our friends. Everything! Old things…gone! No one, except the Holy Spirit, helped us change. We did it with His help. No one had to keep us accountable. Not our pastor. Not our Sunday school teacher. Not our friends. Not our church. After this change we are no longer recognizable as the person we were because the God of this universe now lives in us. We are COMPLETELY new!

3)     The Bible also calls it born again or a new birth. We had one birth into this world – it was into an earthly family. We cannot go back into our mother’s womb. When we accept Christ we are born again, but now, into the family of God. We do NOT have to get born again and again. It is a onetime birth – just like our earthly birth. So, now that we are a member of His family we start acting like His family, especially His Son, Jesus. (We use Jesus as our example to imitate because not everyone who calls themselves Christian is a Christian.)

From this time forward, until the day we die, God will continue to conform us to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29). He not only wants us to be His sons and daughters, He wants us to look and act like His Only Begotten Son. “Begotten Son” means that Jesus is the only child God has that is His natural born child. God used the seed of a woman. The Holy Spirit breathed onto the seed of Mary to place Jesus in her womb to become a man -- a God/man -- fully God, yet fully man.  

A baby in a mother’s womb get’s nutrients and oxygen from the mother, but not one drop of blood passes from mother to child. If it did, Jesus would have corrupted, sinful blood, but He does NOT -- He has pure, undefiled, sinless blood from His Father.

The rest of us are adopted children and God wants His adopted ones to look like the natural One because the natural One is without sin. Each day we strive to be more like Jesus. God knows that while we are on this earth we will never be able to live a sinless life. That’s why He sent Jesus – to pay the high price God demanded as payment for sin – which was eternal death. Because of our sins we were sentenced to death, but Christ died in our place. Jesus paid the price that God demanded. We accepted His sacrifice. Now, when God looks at us He no longer sees us He sees the sacrifice – He sees His Son’s blood – He sees, Jesus. When we are unsaved (haven't accepted) He sees us still in the earthly flesh passed on by our parents – sinful, lost, and dying flesh -- and not as a son or daughter, but as a child of the prince of this world (satan). We cannot serve two masters, either we serve God, or we serve satan. Only those who have been born again serve God. Many can do service, but not all do it for His glory. They do it for their own glory or to earn their way to God. This service will be rejected. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. ~Matthew 7:22-23

One of the best parts about being an adopted child of God is that we now have full rights to everything the Son has, including His peace, His humility, His strength, His compassion for others, and on and on. And we now own everything He owns. The Bible says we are “joint heirs” with the Son (Romans 8:17) just like you are joint heirs with any brothers or sisters you may have here on earth of what your parents own and will inherit after they pass on. Of course, in that case it may depend on the parent’s will. They can disown a natural child, but cannot disown an adopted child. God will not disown His adopted children. We are His forever. When we are His, we will NEVER perish and no one can pluck His child out of His hand (John 10:28-29).

4)    Because we are His child we will pursue holiness to be like God’s Son and shun sinfulness in our lives. A Christian will not live in constant, habitual sin. He will not love sinning. Since a child of God is still living on this earth and still subject to their own flesh there will be times that we will still sin, but a Christian will not look for sin or find pleasure in sin. A Christian may fall into sin, but they will be miserable while they are in it. They will find no peace or rest because they are no longer of this world and the Holy Spirit in them will make them miserable. In due time, their misery will cause them to run back to fellowship with God because, ultimately, fellowship with God is more important to them than anything else.

5)     A true Christian will continue with God. Even if we have fallen into sin and are miserable we still believe. Even when the worst possible thing happens to us, we may get angry with God, but we will still believe, and we will never turn completely away from Him and we will not stay away from Him.

6)     After we are saved we will have a love for God’s Word. Why? The Holy Spirit within us will give us a hunger and a thirst to know God completely. We will have a desire to know what pleases God so we can live our life accordingly. We will have a desire to learn what to say to others, either to lead them to Christ or help them in their times of trouble. We will want to know how to get victory over things in our own lives. We will not just want to know the basics to help us get by; we will want to also learn the deep things of God.

7)   When we are a child of God there will be a burning desire to tell others about Christ because it is His will that no one should perish. Because of the Holy Spirit living in us we are given this new desire to obey the will of God in this matter. God uses His children to tell others about His Son and His saving grace. He uses us to plant the seed of the gospel in another person’s heart and maybe even water a seed that someone else has planted. Then it is God who will give us a crop from that seed – known as “He will give us souls for our labor” – and in other words “more brothers and sisters” – more family members for His kingdom.

When we tell others about Christ we can go no further; other than to pray that they will be convicted and accept Him and we must continue to pray as long as it takes. We can’t make anyone accept our Savior. It’s a decision they must make on their own. The Holy Spirit takes over in drawing that person to Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit works to prod a person to open their eyes and see the Truth – that Jesus is the ONLY access to God. To see God’s Son for whom He is, what He is, and what He has done and help them to believe. If they refuse, they remain in darkness. Their eyes and ears stay closed to the Truth. They remain in their lost state.

And while we tell others about Christ, God gives us a compassion for the lost we are trying to reach. We know and remember what we were when we first met Jesus and we realize that apart from Him we ourselves would still be lost and on our way to a devil’s hell. We are not boastful in anything about ourselves because until we go to be with Him, we are not yet completely like Him. We are still subject to sin, but saved through faith and by His grace (His unmerited favor). We are people, whose sins are covered by the blood of His precious Son. So we witness, through tears and with love, knowing the fate of the lost and knowing that was our fate as well...until we met and accepted the Savior.

From reading God’s Word and having the Holy Spirit living in us we know and feel the urgency to tell others about Him – NOW. We truly believe that if His Word tells us He is coming back then we take Him at His Word. We know that it can be at any moment. We are not so engrossed in this world that we have lost our desire for the next. We know that this is not our home and we long for our real home with God. So, we do what we can, while we can, to get the word out that, “JESUS SAVES! and JESUS IS COMING!”

Now, none of this has come from a high level of education. I just barely have a high school diploma, a few computer courses and secretarial courses from long ago. Before I was saved as a child I lived in a godless (alcohol and abuse), uneducated (both parents made it to the 6^th grade) family. There was absolutely no Christian background. This was written without consulting any other document other than my remembrance of what I have read in God’s Word or have gleaned over the years from older, godly writers, or sermons I have heard. All I did was look up a couple of references from scriptures (that God brought to my mind) to make sure I was quoting them correctly. I sat here and just wrote as God led by His Spirit, as the Spirit pulled out of me what I have previously studied, learned, and listened to. I have no special ability in myself other than what God has given. I don’t know why God wanted me to say that part, but I obeyed.

Many churches, since the turn of the last century, have preached that if you just believe and say a prayer you’ll be saved, but even the devil believes (James 2:19). There are so many today that have been lulled into this false teaching. That is why we see so many come down to the altar, say a prayer, confess all kinds of sin, and may even try to live right for a while, but then fall away and go right back to the life they had before and are sometimes even worse than they were at the first and the sad part is that because of this teaching they actually think they will still go to heaven even though they live in sin. We call these people backsliders, when most likely they never slid forward in the first place (were never saved at all). But, not all leave the church. Some try to surround themselves with others who are like them. While they try to imitate the real children of God, they still fall short. These usually turn out to be judgmental, gossipers, obsessive, troublemakers, divisive, clique groups, the power hungry, drama kings, and drama queens who thrive on others misery. They think that if they can make you look bad it will make them look better and soothe their guilty consciences. They are what God refers to as tares (weeds that look like wheat) or He calls them goats. Real Christians are wheat or sheep. Wheat will be used to feed the multitudes and sheep hear the Shepherd’s voice and go and do as He commands. You will also know them by the fruit they produce (their deeds and attitudes of the heart).  

By now, you may be saying, “it must be hard to be saved then”. No, it is still simple. God made it so simple that even a child can understand. I was saved at the age of 7. Yes, to be saved you must believe, but it is how you believe that matters. Many people claim to believe in Jesus Christ. They believe that He is real. But, there is something missing, it is how they believe. Let me explain by using this story….

You are in an airplane and you are told that when the plane reaches 30,000 feet you will have to jump and there is no way out of it. You are going to have to jump. Then someone comes to you and says, “Let me tell you about this parachute. If you put it on it will save your life when you jump. It will save you from destruction. And it is the ONLY thing that can.” So, you ponder this for a moment.

Maybe this is the first time you have ever heard about this parachute so you are a little unsure that it will actually save you or maybe you have heard of this parachute before. You haven’t actually seen one up close, but you have seen what it did for others. You then have some choices to make. Here we find the possible responses:

• Even though you may have seen evidence that there is a parachute, you decide that there is no such thing. So, you put on your earphones and go back to sleep because you have also decided that you will not have to jump either, after all, this flight (your life) has been going along just fine so far so you think it will continue right on. 
• OR you believe there is a parachute, but you don’t want to be bothered with it. It just seems like too much work to put it on. It may even offend you because of its great claims to save, so you will just take your chances without it.
• OR you may think to yourself, “There has to be a better way.” So, off you go looking high and low for another way to save your life because you do believe you’re gonna have to jump, but that parachute just doesn’t sound too appealing or it just seems too simple.
• OR you lay the parachute aside for right now because you don’t want to be weighed down with it and it would probably be uncomfortable, but you want it close by in case you do have to jump. Hopefully, you’ll have time to put it on!
• OR you can pretend to put it on by not really fastening it to yourself because you really don’t want it to be on you too tight so you can slide it on or off at your leisure.
• OR you believe there is a Parachute and you even believe that the Manufacturer took great care in making this parachute available to you. You also believe it will save you from the destruction that will come about because of the fall when you have to jump. So, you grab it, put it on, buckle it completely, and cling to it with all your might knowing without a doubt it will save you from the jump that WILL come. Oh, how you love that precious Parachute! It will be with you and on you at ALL times.

I hope you can see in this story all the different types of people and how they believe or don’t believe in the Parachute (the parachute being Jesus Christ). We all must make a decision to either accept Christ or reject Him. Out of all the decisions above only one was correct and that was the last one. If a person chooses any of the other scenarios or makes no decision at all they have still made a choice. The wrong choice. It’s all of Him or none of Him.

Now, if you made it through all this and you can say without a shadow of a doubt that you are saved we can go on from here and talk about the rest of your response and prayer request. If you cannot, then there is no help I can offer you that will have a great, life-changing impact on your situation other than me leading you to Christ.

Let me know and I can guide you from there. Remember, there are no coincidences with God. You responded to my post for a reason. God is in control and working out everything for our good.  

Now, I want to thank you so much for the encouragement about my posts on Facebook. Sometimes it does get weary when posting things about the Lord or Christianity and not many respond, but sadly, it is a sign of the times.

Hope to hear from you soon!

Love in Christ,

The Princess Warrior

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Copyright © 2009 The Princess Warrior Ministries. All articles are copyrighted on the date they are posted, unless otherwise indicated. All rights reserved. Permission granted for not-for-sale reproduction in exact form including copyright and web address. Other uses require written permission. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture references are taken from the King James Bible.