Weird "Christian" Sayings - Part III

"I prayed the sinner's prayer someday and therefore I am Christian".

I know I am going to raise the hairs on the back of a few necks with this blog entry. I can't count the number of times salvation has been reduced to a formula, a series of words that someone is instructed to pray and BAM! They are now followers of Christ with the assurance of eternal life. Don't get me wrong, I know there can be sincere conversion and life change that occurs along with the utterance of that prayer but as my pastor pointed out during his sermon this past Sunday, the "sinner's prayer" is a modern human innovation. If you search for more information on the history of the sinner's prayer, you will find that 'receiving Christ' was a technique introduced around the time of the reformation and grew in popularity with our growing need for instant everything.

As a child and teenager, I have said the sinner's prayer many times, longing for that promised peace to flood my heart and to forever be transformed. Only to fall back into a lifestyle that so clearly did not show any signs of Christ living in my heart. I would wonder why I was still disrespectful, still slanderous, still a liar, still rude, still... still unable to walk in freedom. So what does the Bible say about being saved? I love the Message translation of Romans 10:9-11.

"Say the welcoming word to God—"Jesus is my Master"—embracing, body and soul, God's work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That's it. You're not "doing" anything; you're simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That's salvation. With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: "God has set everything right between him and me!" "

The first part is the declaration that Jesus is now the Master of our lives. A declaration that our lives are now aligned with His words and lived in obedience to Him. We declare that God has set everything right between Him and us. We have the love of God in us and when we bump into people some of that rubs off on them. More than anything else, it becomes an everyday walk. A deep relationship with God, not a religion with a mandate that we fulfilled at some point. What freedom!

One person who loves to declare that Jesus is her Lord is Rifqa Bary. If becoming a follower of Christ was a one-time prayer and did not show some obvious changes in lifestyle, her life would not be in danger today. Please lift her up in prayer. The next court hearing is on September 3.