Wednesday Cocktail: How Can I Be Sure I’m a Christian?

Every Wednesday, I try to share something inspiring that I have read online within the last week. 

Today, i take a break from the series on falsehood to present the weekly round-up. Personally, if I had the right, I would have reprinted the lead article word-for-word. This is because I believe that the topic is one that many Christians encounter from time to time, either personally or in answering other people’s questions.

Justin Taylor of the gospel coalition ‘reprinted’ a post that I am glad to reprint-albeit in an abridged version. Please try to read the details here. It is very important that you do.

1. Assurance of Salvation—Is It Possible?

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Cocktail

It is possible, for the Christian to experience assurance of salvation.

It is possible, for a non-Christian to have a false assurance of salvation.

2. Having Doubts about Your Salvation

It is possible, indeed normal, for Christians to have occasional doubts about their salvation. The causes of doubt are many:

·         Spiritual immaturity may contribute to doubts about assurance.

·         Sensitivity to sin may cause confusion about assurance.

·         Comparison with other Christians may cloud assurance.

·         Childhood conversion affects the assurance of some.

3. The Basis of Assurance

The assurance of salvation rests primarily on

·         the character of God 

·         the works of Jesus Christ

·         the truth of God’s promises

4. An Inner Confirmation

Assurance may be experienced partly through the inner confirmation of the Holy Spirit.

How does the Holy Spirit give Christians this assurance?

·         He opens our minds to understand the Bible in ways that give us assurance.

·         He guides our thinking about the biblical marks of salvation in our lives.

·         He brings Scripture and its truths to our minds in various ways that assure us.

·         He causes an inner sense of assurance without words.

5. Signs of Eternal Life

Assurance may be experienced partly through the presence of the attitudes and actions the Bible says will accompany salvation [1 John].

·         Do you share the intimacies of the Christian life with other believers?

·         Do you have a deep awareness of your sin against the word and love of God?

·         Do you live in conscious obedience to the word of God?

·         Do you despise the world and its ways?

·         Do you long for the return of Jesus Christ and to be made like him?

·         Do you habitually do what is right more and sin less?

·         Do you love other Christians sacrificially and want to be with them?

·         Do you discern the presence of the Holy Spirit within you?

·         Do you enjoy listening to the doctrines the apostles of Jesus taught?

·         Do you believe what the Bible teaches about Jesus Christ?

6. A Spiritual Mind-set

Only those who are spiritually minded are Christians.

You are spiritual minded when you think about the things of God:

You are not spiritually minded if “God is not in all [your] thoughts.”

7. Things That Erode Our Assurance

A true Christian may lose a sense of assurance of salvation because . . .

·         he or she refuses to deal with known sin

·         of spiritual laziness

·         of satanic attacks

·         of trials or harsh circumstances

·         of illness or temperament

·         God seems to withdraw a sense of his presence and blessing.

8. Common Problems with Uncertainty

Those converted as children, without adult or dramatic conversions do not.

Stay-at-home mothers of young children may experience special difficulties with assurance.- I am wondering why this is true.

Those worried about the unforgivable sin have not committed it- Boy, am I glad to hear this!

9. False Assurance of Salvation

Sources of a false assurance of salvation

·         A public commitment or outward response to the gospel

·         Baptism

·         Involvement with church

·         A strong Christian family heritage

·         An abundance of good deeds

·         An extraordinary experience

·         A dramatic personal or lifestyle change

·         Material blessing and financial security

·         A false understanding of God

·         A false understanding of sin and hell

Characteristics of the falsely assured

·         They are either unconcerned or angry when warned about false assurance.

·         They are either legalistic or loose with spiritual disciplines and duties.

·         They are either very weak in or very confident of their Bible knowledge.

·         They have either a vicarious Christianity or an overly independent spirit.

·         They may be constantly resisting the truth or never able to come to the truth.

10. What to Do If You’re Still Not Sure

Don’t take for granted that you understand the gospel.

Think deeply about the gospel.

Repent of all known sin.

Submit everything to the Lordship of Christ.

Meditate much on 1 John.

Don’t doubt the promises of God.

Believe as best you can and pray for greater faith.

Practice the spiritual disciplines.

If you really love God, take assurance because non-Christians don’t love God passionately.

If you hate your sin, take assurance because non-Christians don’t hate sin deeply.

If you’ve never been baptized, present yourself as a candidate in obedience to Christ.

Seek godly counsel if the doubts persist.

Pray for assurance.

Wait patiently upon God to give you a fuller experience of assurance.

Here are other posts worth considering

·         Where Did The Bible come from: This post gives a general overview of the origin of our Faith manual. I like how it combines faith with history. This post helps us to know that ‘For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty- 2Peter 1:16

·         Expecting a marriage to complete you: This is a post many singles ought to read. We sometimes set ourselves up for huge disappointments by ‘over-expecting’ things from other people. I sincerely think that many of us have our hopes on a marriage that will make all the pain go away. Dear friend, except you are thinking of the marriage of the lamb; where you and I are the bride and Jesus is the groom, you are about to be disappointed. No marriage to any human will make life completely perfect. Life will be brighter, fuller and happier (with the right spouse), but never perfect.

·         I stumbled on another Nigerian Christian blog and I think it is very good. Here is the link: http://www.samadelspeaks.blogspot.com/

What have you found inspiring online this week? Please drop a note in the comments section.

Enjoy the rest of your week.

PS: The aim of Wednesday weekly rounds is to share with you things I came across online and found useful. It could also be a way of saying that “if I can’t share it on this platform”, I should rethink reading it.

Would you be able to freely share what you have been reading online in the past week? If you consider it inappropriate to be shared amongst believers, maybe you shouldn’t be reading it to start with.

PPS: The usual disclaimer: I am not affiliated or endorsing the people mentioned in this post. As you know, they are waaaayyyy out of my league J

Picture from dazzlejunction.com

10 Shades of Falsehood: The Blatant Liar and the Joker

Last Monday, I started a series on 10 shades of falsehood. For the next five Mondays, I will take two different shades each and show what the Bible says about them. What is the point? Because for a Christian, lying often happens subtly. Nobody actually plans at the beginning of the day to be a liar for Christ. There is no such thing. The Bible affirms that the devil, our adversary is the master of subtleties, wiles and deception. Thus, we are encouraged to be wise as a serpent, but gentle as dove. It is wisdom for us to be aware of the various sly ways through which our Christian testimony may be stained- so that by the grace that the Holy Spirit gives to us, we can triumph over falsehood (2Corinthians 2:11).

Falsehood happens to be on a spectrum. I do not mean that a liar on one side of the line is better than one on the other side. At all! The Bible emphatically states that all unrighteousness is sin (I John 5:17).

Like I said last week, falsehood is not a laughing matter. I believe it is one of the little foxes that can rubbish the testimony of a child of God and limit the extent to which such person can be used by the Holy Spirit. Jesus Himself stated that the devil is the father of all liars. We cannot claim to have God as our Father and still want the devil to adopt us. It can’t work. It won’t work and since God respects the will of a man, continuing in falsehood may just be us insisting on whom we want to call daddy.

If you missed the story (about Nnamdi) that prompted this post, here is it. I refer again to Nnamdi’s story because for me, he comes tops on the ranking of how people lie. Please bear in mind that Nnamdi told all of us in the bus that he was (is) a Bible believing, church attending Christian. So this is not a struggle that is exclusive to ‘the infidels’.

1.       Blatant Lying. The name says it all. This is almost an obsessive, compulsive urge to lie. You may remember people like this from secondary school. Folks who told us about their father’s 7 cars- 1 car for each day of the week. I was particularly blessed with these people. Everywhere I turned- from my bunkmate to class mates, I found them. They told me ‘true-to-God’ stories of how the president visited their homes, how they have seen real mermaids, how they have a whole room devoted to chocolates in their home…I can go on, and it gets more ridiculous.

Unfortunately, some people don’t outgrow these things. They carry into adulthood the ever expanding sore of the soul, festered by the need to impress; to be ‘something’ when one actually is ‘nothing’. You may have people around you who are like that. We have them at work, the neighbourhood, and unfortunately, at church.

The aim of this post is not only to diagnose ills, but to prescribe healing paths as well. What can heal the soul of a man than the Word of God (made flesh for us in Jesus.). People who fall in this category are primarily victims of insecurity and low-self esteem. Who they are is not enough for them, so they have to be somebody that they think everybody aspires to be. The disease of insecurity cannot be treated in one article but permit me to say that it is not of God. God has made us fearfully and wonderfully. He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing and He has given us ALL that pertains to life and godliness (Psalm 139:14 Ephesians 1:3, 2Peter1:3).

If you would devote time to realising, celebrating and trading with the amazing talent(s) that God has given you, perhaps, you will be less inclined to makeup highfaluting stories about who you wish you were. Nnamdi, why does it matter that people think you can drive from Benin to Lagos within two hours? Why say you have a fiancée in Timbuktu when he exists only in your prayers? Why does it matter to you that people think you have a certain net worth? You real worth has been irrevocably dictated by the One Person that matters, and He says you are priceless, precious and worth dying for (Isaiah 43:4).

The truth of the matter is, wise people do not believe your lies; they see through it and feel sorry for you. Some people are repulsed by it and those who would have thought of helping you through your obvious financial struggle will simply leave you fend for yourself with your imaginary gold.

See Philippians 2:3-11 for more help.

2.      Jokes and Coarse Jesting. The book of proverbs 26:19 aptly defines this category of falsehood as “one who deceives their neighbour and says, "I was only joking!” (NLT) or “is someone who lies to a friend and then says, "I was only joking."(NIV).

I understand that some belief systems mark professional comedians in this category in that they lie to people to laugh, and then say’ I was only joking”. Except I get a different scriptural understanding in the future, I am not referring to professional comedians. I refer to people who lie for the fun of it. At my place of work, there is a young lady who takes delight in her ability to lie to boss, colleague and subordinates without being caught. In her presence, they praise her prowess, behind her back, heads shake dismally at her reputation. When she says something, nobody believes her.

Are you a joker? Or perhaps you are not a joker but you talk too much. I think that the fellow who frequently makes a clown of himself so that he can be the life of the party may unconsciously be suffering from the insecurity of the people I label Nnamdis. It is extremely difficult to talk excessively and not stumble into telling lies, gossiping or dirty talk for in the multitude of words, there wanteth not sin (Proverbs 10:19). Dwight Eisenhower once said “never miss a good opportunity to keep your mouth shut!” That is a precious saying indeed.

If you are compulsively compelled by your own self to be funny all the time, one day, you will lie to be funny- without getting paid anything except the wages of sin, death.

See Philippians 2:3-11 for more help

As I continue this series, I find that I repeatedly ask myself exactly why I am doing this. Isn’t this a waste of time? Isn’t a lie a lie? Truly, lying is lying. But the aim of this series is that by the grace of God, our eyes would be open to the subtle ways in which the sin of falsehood can creep up on a Christian. I personally find that as I focus on the subject, I am increasingly aware and conscious of my own speech. Regardless of the shape it takes, falsehood is of the devil, for as Jesus told the lying law keepers, “You people are from your father the devil, and you want to do what your father desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not uphold the truth, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44)

A man who finds himself enslaved to falsehood ought to cry for repentance and grace for victory in holiness like the man who is enslaved to immorality. Bear in mind that false teachers started from somewhere- probably from telling lies.

If the Holy Spirit is convicting you of falsehood or any other sin, rejoice first and then repent. For at least, I take it to mean that my conscience has not been seared beyond repair. Then I still have hope. God is still interested in me. I fear for and pity the man whom the Holy Spirit no longer pricks his conscience on sin. That man deserves the world’s pity for he is a tragedy that has happened, waiting only to be revealed.

Has God at anytime convicted you of lying or any form of falsehood? Do you have a testimony of overcoming falsehood? Share your thoughts in the comments section, and strengthen other readers.

I leave you in God's care,

Ms. August 


PS: Picture from eternallifeblog.com 

Free Friday Music Revue: I am Grateful For My Pancreas!

Like my name insinuates, it is my birthday this month! Having thought through many events across different phases of my life, all I want to say to God is “thank you!”. He is the one in whom we live, move and have our being. You know how life alarms (such as birthdays, death and stuff) wake us from the reverie of routine daily living. I have tried to assess the past one year of my life. I wanted to be sure I didn’t just add a whole year without significant growth. While I agree that you can hardly complete a sincere version of this assessment in one day, don’t be put off. It doesn’t hurt to try and if like me, you can’t do a thorough analysis, the little you do may just open your eyes to many things about you.

Life may not be this picturesque, but we will praise Him

In addition to many other benefits, you will:

1.       Be able to track personal your progress in different areas of your life. Say, your relationship with God, family and friends, your career/ business, health, finances, etc

2.       You will see which area of your life needs more attention.

3.      You can begin to think of ideas on how to improve relevant areas

4.      Based on number three, you have ideas on habits to drop and ones to pick up

5.      Set yourself up for a much better year for at least the next one year.

It can end up being a very sobering experience but it is truly an honour and a rare privilege to be able to number your days so you can apply your heart to wisdom. This exercise is sure to make you wiser and get a better grip of your life in God.

However, of all these points, my favourite reason for doing a one year assessment is that: I GET TO COUNT MY BLESSINGS! Where do I start from? First, there is: the eternal privilege of being a believer in and follower of Jesus, The Christ, the love of countless family and friends who love you enough to drain your phone battery with birthday calls and texts (this list does not include the people who send HBD, LLNP, GGMUB, IJN). If you can’t spare a few minutes to type the full “Happy Birthday, Long life and prosperity, God go make you bigger, In Jesus Name”, I wonder exactly where I stand with you- but I digress. I was counting my blessings: I am in good health, I have my sanity (if you see the number of crazy people that I see in Lagos daily, you have to thank God), all my senses are working, my parents are doing good, so are my siblings, I have not been robbed, mugged or abused, I have not met an Ariel Castro to ruin 10 years of my life, I have not been a victim of a fire/motor/ or air accident, I have a beautiful Bible believing church where I can worship and feed on God’s word, I can get on my bed and get a good night’s sleep without fear or medication, I have the privilege to talk to God daily, I have this blog, my book is almost published, my friends are making progress such that I do not have to hesitate before sharing a good news with someone who appears to be having an extremely hard life,… don’t get me started because I can go on and on and on- ask Jesus, He will tell you than when this daughter starts her ‘thankful list’, things get interesting. You can hear her talk about how all that is within me praise you O lord; my spleen praises you, my pancreas gives you thanks, my liver, my kidneys, my…let’s not start- seriously.

However, sometimes, we just can’t find something to be thankful for. We are tempted to ask God what in the heavens in going. Sometimes, all we have is a long list of owes, sorrows, pains and disappointments. Sometimes, all we have (which is much actually) is just life and other daily blessings that we have come to see as ordinary. At that winter season of life, when I cannot seem to find something to be truly thankful for, I have a song. That song is what I want to share for this ‘free Friday music revue’. It is by Lara George, a Nigerian female Gospel music artiste. The song is based on Lamentations (imagine a song of praise from a book aptly titled ‘Lamentations’!)

Believe me when I say this song truly takes me through winter. God has blessed me with it to weather the storm. I hope it blesses you as much and even more than it has blessed me.

Got anything to be thankful for? I'm sure you do. Kindly drop a comment and let the whole world know!
 Enjoy!

I leave you in God’s care, 

Miss August

FIG TREE- Lara George

Though the fig tree may not blossom
Though the rivers run dry
Though the world around me crumble
Though I heave and I sigh
I remember where my hope lies
Where my help comes from
If you could care about the sparrow
I know you won’t forget me

Verse:
Lord there is much 
That my mind can’t handle
Puzzled by
The billowing of waves
Of this one thing 
I am certain
You remain the God unchanging
Lord you’re watching me
Keeping me
Restoring me
You will never
Forget your own

Bridge:
Through the raging storm
Through the fiery blaze
I will hold on strong
I’ll stay in your face
Let the howling wind
What it chooses bring
Even through it all
I will always sing….

From www.sweetslyrics.com; picture from crosscards.com