Talking About Jesus and Your Personal Conversion

What if I told you that your personal conversion story does not really matter so much in the overall huge scope of Christian theology?  Yes, it matters that you are witnessing to others and yes you are changing their lives, but your personal struggle is not the key to their salvation.  That might sound pretty cold, and you could claim of course that in some gigantic Christian evangelist meeting we converted hundreds to Christ with our own individual personal testimonies.  Yes, but your personal testimony does not actually save anybody.  You can lay it all out on the line about how Jesus saved me from drugs and alcohol, or that Jesus saved me from committing suicide, saved me from mental and physical problems, or He saved me from actually taking someone else´s life out of anger, or saved me from the filthiness of the flesh.  He changed my heart from one that is stone-cold into someone having compassion and feelings for others.  You can elaborate about how you were changed into someone like Saul that was converted into Paul and became the founder of the modern church.  Telling all the masses in the whole theater about your anguish of conversion is a good story and is entertaining and heart wrenching, making the softened hearts of the audience feel your pain and suffering, at the bleeding out of your lengthy emotional confession, about all your horrendous sins.  That is all great theater, and may seem like a really great conversion tool, but the whole thing is about to come crashing down into stark realization.

Your blood or my blood will never spiritually save anybody.  The physical blood might save lives in the use of a transfusion for some emergency, but not throughout all eternity.  Your great elaborate confession in front of thousands will not save any of them.  Only the blood and words of Jesus Christ will ever actually make the change from the flesh into the spirit.  Your life and experiences are not so important in the great light of who and exactly what Jesus Christ represents now, has represented since the beginning of time in the past, and will always represent in the future. 

 If a dead brother was able to come back to life from hell and talk to his living brothers about the terrible conditions of hell, it would not convert any living brother into a spiritual entity that turns away from his wicked ways.  If he did not believe the Prophets and the words of Jesus Christ given to us in the Holy Bible, he will not be convinced either from someone who even returned from the dead and from hell to testify.  It is the words of Jesus Christ that are important and nothing that is personal about our lives will ever convince anybody to change any of their evil ways.  Those words in the New Testament are mixed with the spiritual blood of Jesus Christ, and there is no magic in any other words but His.  If anyone does not believe the words of Jesus Christ, they will not believe any of my elaborate conversion testimony, no matter how detailed it is, with all the terrible tales of sad depression, recounting the mistakes I have made, and the sinfulness that has crept into any of our boring weak human lives.  We all are not just saved once, as Christians, but continually saved on a daily basis from a sudden and certain destruction in hell.  Jesus serves as a compass for our paths into the future, directing all of us spiritually on a constant daily walk with God.  

Luke 16:19 - 16:31

19 There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day:

20 And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores,

21 And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.

22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;

23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.

25 But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.

26 And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.

27 Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house:

28 For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.

29 Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.

30 And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.

31 And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. 

https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Luke-16-19_16-31/ 

So, what is so different about Christians and just regular people that have not even heard about Jesus Christ, those not yet saved?  Maybe they have heard, but it just did not register with their preoccupied minds?  The difference between someone who has been a terrible sinner and accepted Jesus Christ into their heart and someone who just does not worry about sin, is that the unsaved inconsequential or negligible sinner is unanimated or inanimate,  without the breath of the spirit.  My words don´t animate or fill with spirit, but the words of Jesus are immortal and without beginning or ending.  If I just told you about what a rough time I had with sin, or my ugly side that finally got relief from sin, it would not mean anything and would not even dent the exterior of an evil shell that surrounds all normal people, those without the spirit of Christ.  The words of Jesus Christ, on the other hand, have authority over sin, as they disintegrate the cover of sin, take away its hiding place, overpower the presence of evil and fill with power the person hearing them.

Luke 24:44 - 24:49

44 And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me.

45 Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures,

46 And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:

47 And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

48 And ye are witnesses of these things.

49 And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.   

https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Luke-24-44_24-49/

Acts 19:2

“He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.”

https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Acts-19-2/

So, Jesus appeared unto the disciples, even in the midst of them, while they were talking about Him among themselves, and He opened their eyes.  He took bread and ate meat, while instantly appearing among them, and opened their understanding about the scriptures and gave to them the Spirit of His words.  Christians, even though they have sinned grievously, are animated and filled with the Holy Ghost.  Those who have not received His spirit and have not believed, are merely empty human beings, inanimate, full of themselves and least able to resist sin.  They are not aware of the evil that is around them and controlling their doubts, controlling their minds, making them stumble along the way and fall headlong into eventual hopeless despair without the words of Jesus Christ.        

July 27, 2023

Cliff Rhodes Christian Ministry