The Everyday Club

3/31/10 Jeff, 26
Jeff was sitting at a picnic table near a fishing pier in North Carolina, and gave me permission to ask a few questions. He told me all about a past growing up attending a Christian High School, with atrocious stories of the hypocrisy he experienced, yet he was very impressed with the deep joy he saw in a Christian youth leader and his family, and wanted that same joy for himself. Jeff said he had a salvation experience and felt like he walked in that same joy for about two years until he moved away and lost touch with God in his life. He has since heard of more stories of hypocrisy in churches where he now lives. I told him that a big reason people become Christians is because of Christians, but a big reason people turn from God can also be because of Christians, or at least those who claim to be believers. Jeff told me about his ungodly lifestyle and said he goes weeks at a time without even thinking about God, yet he believes he will go to heaven because he had heard that once a person is saved they will always be saved, and he asked me how I felt about that. I told him I believe that God keeps His promises to people but that some people who think they are saved may never have been Christians to begin with. We talked about the meaning of repentance and Jeff's understanding had more to do with being sorry than it did with truly turning from sin. We covered a lot of ground in our half-hour conversation, and before I had to leave I prayed with Jeff, that God would bring him to repentance and a daily walk with Jesus. I am becoming increasingly convinced that we as Christians shouldn't take our salvation for granted, but instead should "examine yourselves to see if you are of the faith" as Paul advises in 2 Corinthians 13:5