Acts 16:30-31 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.

She said, “All I have to do is believe.”

I said, “No.”

She said, “All I have to do is believe Jesus Christ is Lord.”

I said, “No.”

She said, “All I have to do is believe that Jesus died for my sins.”

I said, “No.”

My conversation is with one who goes to church regularly, attends bible studies weekly, and prays often. Somehow she has boiled down the essentials of salvation into simply believing. What value is there in hanging on to the misunderstanding of one verse and ignoring the whole sequence of events that leads up to that one moment that changes you forever? Nothing, there is no value in simply believing, if you do not understand what is being asked of you.

I have had many conversations over the years that have gone exactly this way. Perhaps they have been saved but in the process they have failed to clarify the sequence of events in a way to verbalize the process. Yes, there is a process, a sequence of events, recognition, acceptance, and choice. Somewhere along the way most people blithely forget the fundamentals. How can you explain this to the lost if you blindly say, “All you have to do is believe!”

Here I am again, explaining with greater detail, from beginning to end, the process of salvation. You might recognize the process but never verbalized it with enough detail to make in understandable to the lost. That is the point for understanding, is it not? The lost need to know the process in order to make an informed decision.

What does it mean to be lost?

Psalm 50:21 These things hast thou done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes.

This series I just completed was needful for me to write. Why me? Because God has given me a voice and talents and gifts and purpose. He did all that for me to glorify Him, not myself. Love compels me to be silent no longer.

For me this day, the meaning of reprove in this opening verse is defined as convicted. I have been indulgent upon myself, my own concerns, my own woes, and the Lord has convicted me that I have not done all that is required of me. I have not glorified God to the extent worthy of all that He has performed in me.

What He has set before me, I present to you, to glorify God in your innermost parts, in that private place, with the Spirit which abides in you. What that does for you is beyond me to see. That is between you and He who abides with you.

I can only report that which is given, without exaggeration, without personalization, without touching it with my own weaknesses. Let God be glorified.

This has been set in order before your eyes. What you make of it, what you do with it, let it be to the glory of God.

2 Corinthians 9:12-14 For the administration of this service not only supplieth the want of the saints, but is abundant also by many thanksgivings unto God; Whiles by the experiment of this ministration they glorify God for your professed subjection unto the gospel of Christ, and for your liberal distribution unto them, and unto all men; And by their prayer for you, which long after you for the exceeding grace of God in you.