{"id":1729,"date":"2016-08-29T10:44:03","date_gmt":"2016-08-29T10:44:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theprodigalpig.com\/?p=1729"},"modified":"2016-04-30T15:01:44","modified_gmt":"2016-04-30T15:01:44","slug":"salvation-does-not-require-dedication","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.theprodigalpig.com\/?p=1729","title":{"rendered":"Salvation Does Not Require Dedication"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"12-30-15<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Prodigal:\u00a0 I have been spending some times with some other Christians and I am confused.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Me:\u00a0 What are you confused about Prodigal?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Prodigal:\u00a0 They all have a story of salvation but some tend to dedicate their lives to God and others are focused on themselves.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Me:\u00a0 Yeah, I have noticed that also myself.\u00a0 Let me have someone who is smarter than me explain this for you.\u00a0 Bruce Wilkinson in his book Set Apart Discovering Personal Victory Through Holiness.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

God is very clear–salvation does not exist except through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 What must you do in addition to genuinely believing in Christ?\u00a0 Must you consecrate yourself to Him in any way in order to be saved?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 The Bible is clear:\u00a0 “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Belief in a person and devotion to that person are different things.\u00a0 I can believe in a person without devotion my life to him.\u00a0 Although I have heard and read many arguments in favor of adding things to “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved,”\u00a0 the Bible teaches that nothing will save anyone except genuine faith in Christ.\u00a0 Adding any other condition is unbiblical.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Consecration occurs when a Christian decides of his own free will to dedicate himself to Christ in a deep and meaningful way; but consecration is not required in order to experience salvation.\u00a0 In fact, because Romans 12:1\u00a0 was written to Christian who had been saved any where from days to more than twenty years, clearly an extensive period of time may pass between the decision to trust Christ as Savior and the later decision to devote oneself totally to God.\u00a0 Or it may never occur!\u00a0 Paul does not warn that believers will lose their salvation if they never dedicate their lives to the Lord.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I was saved in middle school.\u00a0 I did not start dedicating my life to the Lord in a meaningful way until I was in my late 20’s.\u00a0 Since I have dedicated my life to the Lord.\u00a0 God has showed up in many different ways and my life is so far from boring.\u00a0 It also is not easy at times.\u00a0 The joy and peace that I have though are worth the struggles and the people I have met along the way are VERY much worth following God.\u00a0 To those who God has put in my path.\u00a0 I do not thank you enough for your support and I do appreciate everyone of you!\u00a0 May this day be a day that you know that you have made a difference in at least one person’s life and that one is mine!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Exodus 19:5-6<\/p>\n

“Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine.\u00a0 And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jennifer Van Allen<\/p>\n

www.faithincounseling.org<\/p>\n

www.theprodigalpig.com<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Prodigal:\u00a0 I have been spending some times with some other Christians and I am confused.   Me:\u00a0 What are you confused about Prodigal?   Prodigal:\u00a0 They all have a story of salvation but some tend to dedicate their lives to God and others are focused on themselves.   Me:\u00a0 Yeah, I have noticed that … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nSalvation Does Not Require Dedication - The Prodigal Pig<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.theprodigalpig.com\/?p=1729\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Salvation Does Not Require Dedication - 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