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Thanks for visiting my diary. I've been journaling since 1984 and have chosen to share some of my entries online. They are not all positive thoughts, but I hope that reading them might be a blessing to someone who needs encouragement.
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The plan of salvation... I've always hated tracts, and I've always cringed when I heard this phrase. Why? It all has to do with these deficient foundations. Rattling off verses and having someone repeat a little prayer does nothing to build a real foundation for a relationship with Christ, especially if the person is a stranger. There are certainly people who are called to preach to strangers and gifted in that area; but the average person simply shares a testimony with people he/she knows. The Samaritan woman didn't go talk to strangers. She went out into her own village telling what Jesus had done for her. No doubt she was stigmatized. But people saw the change in her and believed because of it. When I've seen people "witnessing" door to door, it's always seemed so fake in my mind, so contrived. It's a work, not something that comes from the heart. It's a project. I think that both the method and the response would be quite different if it came from a deep understanding of truth and a relationship with Christ that was very personal. I still don't have those things, and I think that is largely why my "witnessing" has been ineffective.
The "plan of salvation" is discussed in great detail on pp. 10-12 of The Foundation Stones. I actually enjoyed the discussion. It presents concepts and shows how the concepts are brought to light in various places throughout Scripture. I got the impression that this was intended to be a starting point. And what a concept: that I should read the Bible myself and share the "plan" using verses that God reveals to me instead of memorizing a bunch of verses from a tract! Yes, I'm being sarcastic.
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