Red Buckets, Clanging Coins, and Ringing Bells (Part 3)

The definition . . . it caught my attention and rang in my heart more profoundly than all of Salvation Army's worldwide inventory of red buckets, clanging coins, and ringing bells ever could. It gripped me. It deeply moved me. It was as if I could not escape.

I felt compelled to make a decision. And I knew that no matter how many times previously I had been confronted with the same decision . . . this time it was different. It was beyond the rational and beyond the emotional. Piercing much deeper, to the very core of my being, I sensed the overwhelming conviction of the Holy Spirit . . . bringing me to a place of no choice but to act. No doubt, I could not have produced the circumstances, either externally or internally, that brought me to that place of response. But nevertheless, I had to make a choice; I had to respond.

That compulsion was certainly not present when I was nine years old . . . when I walked an aisle because a lady came to me during an invitation saying, "Your brother is down front getting saved; don't you want to?" The decision I recall at that moment is one to not disappoint the poor lady. So I said, yes. I went to the altar and allowed someone to pray with me. Before I knew it, I was supposedly forgiven and was thrust into baptismal classes. A few weeks later, I proudly displayed my baptismal certificate and considered myself headed for heaven.

However, there was one problem. I was still boss of my life. I was making the same decisions I had always made. I was in control of my life. I wanted God but did not want to turn from my sin. I thought I could have both. I was declared saved, but if I was truly delivered, it was only from hell and not from myself, from sin, or from influences of the world.

Fast forward to age 25. After four years in a Christian college, three more years serving as youth director, Christian Education chairman, choir member, teaching vacation Bible school and being sent as a missionary to serve the Lord . . . I was confronted with an understanding of the term repentance. So what was the definition that changed me forever?

Simply this: Repentance is a heart attitude that says, "Lord, everything I know to be sin, and everything in the future You show me to be sin, I am willing to give it up for You!"

I spent nearly two days contemplating the reality of the great turn of heart required to experience conversion to Christ. And when I finally said YES to Jesus and NO to self, I was set free. I knew my prayer was different this time than all those other times since age nine when I would pray, "Lord, if I am not saved, then save me now." My focus was on me and my being saved, not on Jesus and yielding my life to Him. It made all the difference.

Today, among evangelicals, there continues to be an "easy believism" that promotes forgiveness declared without repentance experienced. That is why some estimates state that over half of our church members are not truly converted. After being in 6,000+ churches since the inception of our ministry, we would not argue that stat. In fact, it may be higher.

For 16 years I experienced what General William Booth predicted when he included forgiveness without repentance as one of the chief dangers facing the 20th century.

Religion without the Holy Ghost
Christianity without Christ
Forgiveness without repentance
Salvation without regeneration
Politics without God
Heaven without hell

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