Comments on: Abba! Father!

By: Esther Dexter

Esther Dexter — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 00:59:17 +0000

Thanks for another thought provoking post! In the initial post we were taken to John 3 and it reminded me that the process of physical birth comes at a specific moment of time after the period of preparation and waiting. It is a meaningful experience. In a manner of speaking we don’t really belong to our natural family or can know a true relationship with them until we are born. I believe this to be so in the realm of the spiritual birth too. We may not always remember the exact date when the Spirit of God awakened us, but it is possible to clearly remember the occasion. When there is a definite experience to remember, it is a strength in times of doubt, to be able to look back and know that God received me into a relationship with Himself to be a part of His family. It seems to me the whole of Scripture is God longing for an intimate relationship with people and so I believe it should be a mark of a believer and an indication of our position with God to long for that intimacy. What closer relationship is there than ‘sonship’? Levels of intimacy with God will depend on how much we want that relationship with Him. That is so in the natural realm too.

By: Becky Douglass

Becky Douglass — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 00:02:50 +0000

I know I have always been extremely grateful for the very distinct transition I made from death to life at the moment of my conversion – and I was only 3 years old at the time. I still remember the feeling I had of moving from darkness and confusion into light and peace. There was also a dramatic change in my behaviour according to my parents. It has been something for me to look back on and treasure.

As I work with very young children now, it something I seek to pass on to them. I believe that once a child has been reborn, their understanding of being a Christian grows and deeps as they grow, but that does not invalidate their earlier conversion – they are just understanding more of what happened. For others, I think there may be a more gradual dawning of understanding and a developing relationship with God, but I think we should work with them so that at some point they say, “I may have been a Christian before, but today I am making a deliberate decision to turn from my sin and accept God’s salvation. I am now a child of God.” This is a gift we can give children to help them weather the doubts and pressures which will come.

By: Ron Frost

Ron Frost — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 08:20:52 +0000

That’s interesting, Duane . . . if ever someone had a sense of God’s dramatic intervention in his life, Luther was one! But to your point: I know that if I ask the question of this post on the basis of personal experience (i.e. of meeting some wonderful and compelling Christians who cannot identify a specific point of conversion) I find one answer; but as I read the Bible and follow its logic (i.e. that God’s new life, in displacing our former state of being “dead in our trespasses and sins”, makes us a new creation) a different answer emerges, one that suggests a notable moment of spiritual awakening.

By: DUANE WATTS

DUANE WATTS — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 00:39:12 +0000

I don’t know. Once upon a time I would have agreed. Now I belong to a Lutheran Church (not Lutheran myself) where many were baptized “into the faith”. I do not know whether everyone recognizes is aware of their moment of conversion. I believe there must be such a moment. I do not believe that water baptism is salvific. Again, I believe that there are a great multitude of Christian paupers walking the earth, unaware of the infinite wealth available as close as their breath.

By: dave

dave — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 21:54:00 +0000

Yes, yes, yes!