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Thursday, March 14, 2013

Willing to Think About Conversion?

I am rereading Spiritual Birthline aby Stephen E. Smallman. First read in 2006, it confirmed a lot of my thinking, and with each rereading I am refreshed.

Why?

Because the evangelical community celebrates and promotes conversion as an event, rather than a process. Though our personal experience must not define the exact paramaters for every conversion, the Spirit of God captured me over a period of time...I was 26, totally ignorant of the gospel, in jail, read a pretty-whacked book that led me to the Book...and in reading the Book I was convinced of the reality of the gospel and turned from sin and turned to the Savior.

Gasp...I didn't even pray "the prayer." I simply believed, trusted, clung to (and cling to) the gospel and the Lord Jesus.

Here's a snippet from early in the book:

"...spiritual birth, just like physical birth, is fundamentally a process. The delivery of the baby is an important event, but it is clearly understood to be the result of something that took place earlier followed by a season of gestation (pregnancy). Furthermore, the event of the delivery is not the end of the process but is just the beginning of a new chapter in life begun nine months earlier."

Jerry Bridges writes, "'Born again' is a common expression that few people understand. In a compelling way Stephen Smallman helps us understand that it is the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. This book will prove profitable to all who read it."

I'm a confessing bookaholic. There are few books I reread.

This is one.

I urge you to read it.

And, if you order it from Amazon off the link below, your purchase will put a few pesos in the account of a home missionary...me!



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