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"But don't ever suppose it came easy. If a mother suffers
birth pangs that her child may be born, most of us have to suffer
that WE may be born again of GOD -- even in this first begettal
stage we call conversion.
"And what does all this mean? It means that millions of
professing Christians have been deceived into believing in a FALSE
CONVERSION! It means, as Jesus said, 'whosoever will save his life
shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall
find it.' Or, in another place, 'He that loveth his life shall
lose it.'
"It means that the individual must be CHANGED! It is a
change in what you ARE! Jesus Christ never pictured the way of
salvation as the broad and easy and popular road. Rather, He said,
that popular road is the way that leads to destruction -- and the
MANY are traveling that road. He said that many would desire to
enter the Kingdom of God, and should not be able! Why? Because
they are not able to give up this world -- this world's WAYS -- to
give up being concerned primarily with 'what will my friends -- my
club -- my associates -- my relatives say?'
"Repentance means GIVING UP your way -- the world's way --
the world's opinion of you! It means turning to the WAY OF GOD
-- the way of His law! It means SURRENDER -- unconditional
surrender -- to live by EVERY WORD OF GOD. Since the Bible is the
Word of God, it means to live by the BIBLE! It means utter
voluntary submission to the AUTHORITY of God, as expressed in HIS
WORD!
"When you come to fully realize what is the full implication
of your rebellion against the AUTHORITY of God -- of the Bible --
it is not so easy to give up! It is much more than a change of
direction. It is a change in what you ARE! The old SELF doesn't
want to DIE! This true repentance is excruciatingly painful. It
is agony! Jesus said FEW find that way!
"It wasn't easy for me. How about YOU?
"The only people of God, going His way, that we knew at that
time were at the opposite extreme of human society from the great
and the near great I had been proud to associate with. I thought
immediately, of course, of what my former friends and business
associates would think of me. They would regard me as a fanatic
embracing superstition. It was humiliating. I knew it meant giving
up all such associations. I knew it meant giving up my life's
ambitions. It meant giving up everything I had driven myself so
hard to attain. But now I was disillusioned. All that had been
pure ego -- pure inflation of VANITY. It was a blown up balloon
-- and the balloon had been punctured.
"When I literally gave my life over to God, I meant it!
did not count it mine any longer. Yet, had God brought me merely
to this agonizing experience of conversion, and then restored me
to economic ease and prosperity, I probably would have reverted
back to the same goals and ways. The old cocky SELF-confidence