Sunday, February 12, 2006

Conversion, Rejoicing and Skepticism

Mark Dever at Together for the Gospell blog notes:

"When people ask me what they can pray for me and our church about, I very often ask for prayer that we would see more conversions. I thank God for the conversions we have seen, but I would like to see more, for God's glory! I'm not, however, a big fan of the big conversion numbers that are reported by some evangelical churches. I don't believe them. I think they discourage real evangelism and true conversions and actually make our towns and cities more difficult places to evangelize."

I have to confess that I have often times felt very guilty when reports of confessions of faith are reported and I find myself in a poised in a posture of skepticism at worst and apathy at best. Is this lack of spiritual sensitivity, hardness of heart, or wisdom? It’s probably a mixture of both. I find myself often holding a, "Let's wait and see" kind of attitude. I truly have no desire to be cynical or jaded so I pray that God would banish those things from my heart, but I just find that I rejoice much more whole-heartedly when I see a new believer take a risk for Jesus a year after their profession of faith than I did at their initial confession of belief. Should I feel guilty about this? Perhaps I meditate too much on the parable of the sower. I am still working this one out. I should probably qualify all of this. It’s not that don’t rejoice when I hear that someone has become a new believer, it’s just that I rejoice much MORE when I see evidence that God is truly doing the work of sanctification work in them. It's easy to say words in the flesh, but it's hard to take up the cross in that same way. Thoughts?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Do I just believe what others say and not look for fruit?
I believe that I should also look for fruit that backs up their words.
My problem is that I have this little list of fruit and if they don't fit then I judge.
What kind of fruit then am I bearing?
What is the fruit that I should be looking for? Love God-Love others? Matt 25:31-46?