Hmmm… I’m not sure it is our job to “reach down and lift them out of darkness”
Declare the gospel – yes, emphatically, yes! But I think it’s the work of the Holy Spirit to do the lifting 🙂
I know that may sound like splitting hairs, but it’s the difference between encouraging people to share the gospel, and placing a burden of performance on them to see people saved. I have no control over who gets out of the pit. In fact, if we really want to take the analogy to its full, the person in the pit has no choice about getting out of the pit even if I were able to reach my arm down! (said with my best Calvinist hat on, and thinking about Ezekiel and the dry bones in the valley 😉 )
I’m NOT NOT NOT saying not to share the gospel, but I am saying that she is presenting a very “self” focused idea of salvation – pretty much leaving God out of the equation.
Corrie
on October 21, 2010 at 6:26 pm
Christine Caine is a passionate woman who loves God….she has a powerful testimony and practices what she preaches….I heard this sermon live many years ago and it is the most memorable explanation I have ever heard from a pulpit about how to be in the world and not of it….
Brilliant!
Oh that is how I have been feeling for a while but was unable to articulate it. Fantastic!
Hmmm… I’m not sure it is our job to “reach down and lift them out of darkness”
Declare the gospel – yes, emphatically, yes! But I think it’s the work of the Holy Spirit to do the lifting 🙂
I know that may sound like splitting hairs, but it’s the difference between encouraging people to share the gospel, and placing a burden of performance on them to see people saved. I have no control over who gets out of the pit. In fact, if we really want to take the analogy to its full, the person in the pit has no choice about getting out of the pit even if I were able to reach my arm down! (said with my best Calvinist hat on, and thinking about Ezekiel and the dry bones in the valley 😉 )
I’m NOT NOT NOT saying not to share the gospel, but I am saying that she is presenting a very “self” focused idea of salvation – pretty much leaving God out of the equation.
Christine Caine is a passionate woman who loves God….she has a powerful testimony and practices what she preaches….I heard this sermon live many years ago and it is the most memorable explanation I have ever heard from a pulpit about how to be in the world and not of it….
Brilliant!