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Getting saved is like the proverbial example: Staying in a garage does not make you a car. So it is true that: Liking Jesus does not make you a born again Christian.
…like the piglet
that suckles with the kitten’s mother cat.
The piglet thinks he’s
a kitten
because he likes the milk.
But he’s only a pig, not a cat.
*See Hebrews 3 & 4 below
A growing number of so-called “Christians” are following their own beliefs – not the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Are you truly following the real Jesus, or merely really really liking the church experience?
Excerpt from: It is what it is
Do we come to God to hear Him, or do we create a “faith” of our own making – [a belief] that is comfortable for us? A reader [of the Bible] deceives himself or herself when words and passages are purposely not accepted as-is. It is so easy to “reinterpret” it, and “analyze it critically”, and see it in the light of “political correctness”, or just plain not believe what God has told us so plainly right there.
If we truly want to follow Jesus, then we must not maintain beliefs and practices that God rejects. He knows the heart that is proud of its own way and rejecting His truth.
See: Concurring with the Devil; Tolerating Evil
How can anyone say “I am a Christian” — and yet not follow in practice what Christ taught? Christ said it is impossible to serve two masters. You either follow Him — or not. [Matthew 6:24; Luke 16:13]
There is no middle ground: You are either following what God Himself teaches, or you are rejecting Him in practice and thus not a genuine believer.
The truth is – you can say anything, but your actions indicate your true heart. God knows your true intentions and inner heart. So if your confession is not a true yielding to God, He knows that.
Scripture uses farmers terms to illustrate this. It calls true believers “wheat”, and fake believers “tares”. A tare is a plant that grows up with wheat, but is not true wheat.
Tares are like the piglet that suckles with the kitten’s mother cat. The piglet thinks he’s a kitten because he likes the milk. But he’s only a pig, not a cat. [See: Matthew 13: verses 18-30; Matthew 13:36-53]
The same is true of folk who like the idea of being blessed by Christ, but never yield to Him. Hebrews 3 & 4 explains it quite clearly.
Hebrews 3: verse 12, warns people in the church that one can have “an evil, unbelieving heart”. They are fake “believers”. They might be in the church building, and they really like what’s going on there, but they are in reality “falling away from the living God”. Living a lie. They are the type that is slowly putting God away from themselves – not actually yielding to Him.
Hebrews 3: verse 19, says of this type of church goer that their shortcoming is their lack of belief.
“…they were not able to enter because of unbelief.” – Hebrews 3: verse 19
Hebrews 4: verses 1-2, says some fake believers love to hear the preaching… but never actually put their faith in the Gospel being preached!
Therefore, let us fear
if, while a promise remains of entering His rest,
any one of you may seem to have come short of it.
2 For indeed we have had good news preached to us,
just as they also;
but the word they heard did not profit them,
because it was not united by faith in those who heard.
3 For we who have believed enter that rest…
– Hebrews 4: verses 1-2
God is patient towards us, and is working in your life to draw you to Himself. At least for today!
as long as it is still called “Today” (Hebrews 3:13)
“Today if you hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts.” (Hebrews 4:7)
It is up to each of us to personally accept what God is offering. Change your “unbelieving heart” (Hebrews 3:12). Put your faith in the message of Christ (Hebrews 4:2). Don’t be “hardened by the deceitfulness of sin” (Hebrews 3:13), letting it twist you away from the One True God, Jesus. In Christ there is life eternal in God’s Kingdom.
FOR MORE:
God eventually gives you a free rein
Growing into our natural new life in Christ
One thing you lack (Jesus said to the rich young ruler)
We know what Jesus believes. Do you agree with Him?
About Being Apostate… following “another gospel”
Are you in The Book of the Living?
Flesh and blood absolutely cannot inherit the Kingdom of God
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