The Birthmark of a Christian: Change

Biblical Word Studies

As I pursue strengthening my tools in witnessing, one of my weaker points is the reassurance of salvation to a fellow Christian who is struggling.  In this writing, I am continuing with part 2 of 5 for the birthmarks of a Christian.  This is taken from a sermon of Dr. David Jeremiah, where he list five birthmarks of a Christian, titled the Assurance of Salvation.  With the first birthmark, I learned confession is a coming into an agreement with a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ our Lord, and when this happens, something changes on the inside.  One of my evangelist friends explains to others this way, “There was a person you once were, and there is the person you are now.”  Something is different about the person you are becoming through Christ. 

 Dr. David Jeremiah expresses the change in four parts. 

       i.     If you…

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Pray Scripture – Psalm 51

Psalm 51 (ESV)
Confession – Repentance
³ For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
⁴ Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment.
⁵ Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
⁶ Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,
and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
⁷ Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Restoration
⁸ Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
⁹ Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right  spirit within me.
¹¹ Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.

Empowerment
¹³ Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will return to you.
¹⁴ Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
O God of my salvation,
and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.

Boldness
¹⁵ O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
¹⁶ For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
¹⁷ The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Compassion
¹⁸ Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;
build up the walls of Jerusalem;
¹⁹ then will you delight in right sacrifices,
in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.

A Daily Prayer for Confession, Repentance, Restoration, Empowerment, Boldness, Compassion

Birthmark of a Christian: The Sinner’s Prayer

Biblical Word Studies

After publishing the first birthmark of a Christian, confession, I had a witnessing experience, where after a lady from Jamaica prayed (what some would call a Sinner’s Prayer), she said she felt the same as before.  I felt it didn’t work, but it should work!  She had been in church for 18 years, but was not saved.  She admitted she was not going to heaven, so I used the training God has given me over the past year, attempting to lead her to the first steps of Christianity, Christ and Him crucified. 

In the birthmark of confession, I learned of an example for the Hebrew word confession (Yadah) and knowing (Yada), and concluded with the Greek, Aramaic and Hebrew, that confession as used by Paul in Romans 10:8-13 was “a covenant between two people or between a King [God] and his people and was considered to…

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