Wow!

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On Fri, 30 Aug 1996 20:38:30 -0400, you wrote:

>From what I can tell, the process can take a long time, and there
>is no way to ensure you even receive the Holy Ghost.  So you can
>love Jesus with all your heart, do your best to live a Christ-
>like life, share the Good News of Jesus with everyone you meet...
>basically, spend your life in prayer and devotion to Jesus Christ
>and still not be saved?

Let me try to be as helpful as I can by way of illustration. It is not
uncommon for many of the readers of this list to be in meetings where
there is someone, or perhaps several who are attending a service for
the very first time. 

During the worship and the preaching of the word something will
evidently happen in that heart, and the person will be found praying
fervently with a group of people near, encouraging and praying with
and for him or her as the altars open up and people begin to seek God.

Most times, the response of that heart to the Word of God interacting
with the heart in the atmosphere charged with faith and the power of
God is to repent, and cry unto God. Churches that believe the Bible
have a baptismal available, and will baptize this person for the
remission of sin. Here immediately following and while yet in the
water, it is common for that person to receive the Holy Ghost witht he
evidence of speaking with other tongues.

Sometimes, the Holy Ghost will fall on someone or many in the
cogregation WHILE the preaching of the word is going on, just like in
Acts 10.

These events commonly take no more than an hour or less, or perhaps a
little more. However, God may lead a person for years, and years, as
he led the people in the wolderness, always skirting away from the
promise, or unable to find the way in.

Other times, after baptism, a person may have problems that prevent
them from receiving the Holy Ghost that they do not effetively deal
with for years and years, though this CERTAINLY is not God's will.

> it seems 
>that all these rules just make people jump through additional 
>"hoops" for salvation, and I don't think that is something Jesus 
>would have wanted.

In the doctrine practiced by the Apostles If the "hoops" were
additional, they were only in addition to the realization of the need
of salvation. Jesus desire according to the Bible, is that the
Apostles "teach ALL thingsd whatsoever I have commanded you" (Matt
28:20). The New Birth was taught by Jesus not only to Nicodemus (John
3), but to the Apostles. By their teaching us, we are leanring from,
and following Him.


May God prosper His beloved,

-mwb