Sunday, then Monday ...
It was a great Sunday. In addition to enjoying a truly enjoyable Father's Day with my father and my kids (3 in person, 1 by phone) ... we got to attend Cedar Ridge this morning - too rare a treat for me with my travel schedule. The music was beautiful (Teresa Thomas leading mostly hymns, plus a beautiful original song of hers), the atmosphere was warm and relaxed, and every chance I get to celebrate the eucharist enriches my soul. I was especially struck by meeting two people after the service who told me they were in the process of becoming Christians. One told me that he began attending Cedar Ridge a few months ago and immediately felt at home. "I'm in the process of becoming a Christian," he said, and I thought that was a wonderful way to say it. Then a young fellow who had grown up in a more or less fundamentalist home and then left the faith told me that he was now coming back to faith, but a different kind of faith this time. "It's not like turning on a light switch," he said. "It's more like a new day dawning."
Do you often think of salvation as a "process of becoming" or a "new day dawning"?
We often emphasise the decision stage, but neglect the work of the Holy Spirit in bringing a person to the point of making a decision.
In one sense, even after we decide to follow Jesus, we remain in the "process of becoming a christian" until the day we leave the planet.
I see it as a beginning.
ReplyDeleteYes, but there are also all the steps that get us to the "beginning" as well. I like to think that God is working in the lives of people wherever they are on the continuum of faith.
ReplyDeleteYes, I believe He is working in all of us to bring others to that beginning as well as many other things I'm sure.I think He works very gently most of the time, giving us opportunities to learn or to do things that we will need to know or have done to finish the tasks He has for us.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree
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