Quote Originally Posted by alanmolstad View Post
I think the Bible talks about the path of your salvation like this:

We are saved by Grace though faith.
Faith comes by hearing,
Hearing by the word of God.


lets break it down:
Grace is the thing that saves us.

Grace = is favor where none is called for, none is owed, none is expected.


The path Grace takes to save us is faith.

faith= is seeing where you cant see, knowing what cant be known...trusting what cant be pointed to.

So where does our faith come from?

Faith comes from Hearing Jesus speak to our hearts. hearing the knock at the door of our heart....listening to that Voice of Christ speak to us and call un to himself. This is where that general call we read about in the Bible for all men to come to the cross, suddenly calls us by name....its no longer a story about people recorded in a book, its about ourselves.

and where does hearing come from?

The Bible.....the Word....the written and spoken word that God has given us to show Himself to us...



So because of Grace, the word reaches you...
a verse here, a spoken word there, a message about jesus, a fact you think about...a story that reaches you.

This sinks down into the good earth that your heart is. and grows.

The result is that the dry words of the Bible become living words in your life as you now hear them come alive to you. The calling of Christ is heard by your heart to join with Jesus.

This props you to have trust that the same Jesus spoken of in the Bible will be able to save you just as is talked about in the church and recorded in the Bible.
You see the work of God in this world ...you see yourself as "His"....and He is "Your God and savior"........

and the church population has increased by another number.....
Thank you Alan for your observations. The night I was born again the Word was preached, in a way that I had never heard before. As I mentioned my only exposure to Christianity was a 3 month summer attendance at a Baptist Church some years before.

Everything you speak of is true. The Word becoming alive is probably for me one of the most powerful aspects of following Christ, my first memory verse was Jeremiah 33:3, "call unto me and I will answer thee and show you great and mighty things which thou knowest not." Wow, how true that has been over the years.

Take care, and again, thanks for your perspective,

dfoJC