Who Saved You?

Mark 1:17-18 - "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." At once they left their nets and followed him.

I have an unusual question. Who saved you? I am guessing there might be four answers out there:

• God. God Saved us! God so loved the world, that he sent His Son! God loved us, and saved us!
• The Father. The Father saved us! Jesus was just obeying the Father! It was clearly His will to save us!
• Jesus. Jesus died for my sin! Faith in the blood of Christ saved me at baptism! If Jesus did not die for me, I would not have a chance to be forgiven!
• Dale. Dale? What? Who is Dale? Well, Dale is the person who invited me to church.

Did Dale save me? No. God did, the Father did, and Jesus did! Right? So what was Dale's role, then? Did God know me, before I met Dale? Yes. Did I know God before I met Dale? Yes. Was I saved then? No.

Did the Father know me before Dale brought me to church? Yes! Did I know of the Father? Yes, I even prayed to him! We had connected! Was I saved then? No.

Did Jesus know me before I met Dale? Yes! Did he die for me? Yes! Did I know about Jesus? Yes! Did I believe he was the Christ, that he died on a cross and was resurrected? Yes! Was I a Christian at that point? No.

So how did I get saved? Well, God sent Dale, Damon, and Mark into my life. They opened the scriptures with me, they inspired me to believe and they called me to repent. All the things I thought I knew, they all came together in one of those life-changing moments. I repented and was baptized for the forgiveness of my sins!

Paul had an event like this. Did he know God? Yes! At one point he even met Jesus personally and called him Lord! He spent time fasting and praying. Was he saved after that? Not yet. Jesus sent a man into his life. Ananias called him to get baptized and have his sins washed away.

What is my point? Salvation is a work of God, and we as humans play an extremely small role. But it is a role. And it's a role God refuses to do in our place. He made it clear in the letter to the Corinthians, that he gave us this ministry of reconciliation. He is not going to take it back. It is ours.

If we don't do our role, the world will remain in the dark. God does not just want people to find the truth in a book, he wants them to find it in His people. Life and teaching have to be correct, or we wont save those around us, nor will we make it ourselves.

Jesus is the bread of life, and we are the delivery men. It's a starving world, that only Jesus can satisfy. He has done his part--let's make sure we do ours!

Pray for the Leman Church of Christ!

God has blessed us this past month with 2 baptisms: Bruno, a teen from the church, and Yollande, a single woman. Another couple has also come back to the Lord. In 2003, we had 28 members and 19 kids. We have now grown to 49 adults and 47 kids!

We are currently working on a campaign for a conference in  the begining of June. Douglas Jacoby has been invited to speak on "the logic of having faith." Please pray for this campaign to bring the open hearts to the church! Last September we had 80 visitors for a special invitation service. Unfortunately, very few of these started to study the Bible. We pray that the next conference will bring lots of people who want to study the Bible.

Right now 10 persons are studying the Bible in the church, and another couple is studying to be restored. Please pray for them. We also pray to find a christian student to serve as a part-time intern in Geneva, to help us rebuild the campus ministry and build the teen ministry with me and Richard.

We also need prayers for a few disciples who are looking for jobs in Geneva. And please, a special prayer for Richard Raemy who is suffering alot for a long time now because of his back. Finally, pray for us to be outward-focused and to reach out to the visitors when they come. We tend to be a bit shy--please pray for us to be more bold for Jesus!

Thank you also for praying for me (Thierry Fender) to grow in faith for the French speaking world in Europe.