UNCERTAINTY ABOUT ONE'S RELATIONSHIP WITH CHRIST
Start by asking the basic question: "Has there ever been a time in your life when you trusted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior?"
1. If the answer is YES, ask him or her to tell you about it in order to determine just where he or she really is.
A. If you feel that he or she has made a commitment, but is uncertain, go
over "Assurance," page 15.
B. If the person seems firm in the commitment, perhaps he or she needs
help with some other spiritual problem. Go over the section called "Seeking Forgiveness and Restoration," page 17.
2. If the answer is NO, then share "Steps to Peace with God," page 11.
3. If the answer is vague—"I have doubts," "I'm not sure"—then ask the question: "If you were to die tonight, would you go to heaven?"
A. If he or she doesn't know, share "Steps to Peace with God," page 11.
B. If the person believes that he or she would go to heaven, then share
"Assurance," page 15.
C. If he or she is still vague, using such phrases as "I have always
attended church," or "I'm doing the best I can," or "I try to be a moral person," etc., then say:
(1) "Let me share with you how you can know for sure that if you died
tonight you would go to heaven."
(2) Share "Steps to Peace with God," page 11.
4. Always close your conversation with prayer. Remember to offer the Bible study booklet, Living in Christ, which will help in the caller's Christian life and future witness.
ADULTERY
Background
God's Word makes it clear that marriage is a commitment for life to the one individual chosen as a mate. This commitment means "forsaking all others." "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." (Matthew 19:5).
Sexual unfaithfulness on the part of both husbands and wives has become epidemic, according to polls and reports on sexual practices. Adultery is both forbidden and condemned by God in His Word:
"Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral" (Hebrews 13:4, NIV).
"Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers . . . will inherit the kingdom of God" (1 Corinthians 6:9–10, NIV).
"Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man [or woman] commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body" (1 Corinthians 6:18, NIV).
Consider some of the consequences of adultery:
• Emotional: guilt, fear, anxiety, loss of self-esteem, shattered personalities, depression
• Physical: illegitimate births, venereal disease, abortions
• Spiritual: loss in this life and in that which is to come
Billy Graham writes: "How many homes are broken because of men and women who are unfaithful! What sin is committed every day at this point. God will not hold you guiltless! There is a day of reckoning. 'Be sure your sin will find you out' (Numbers 32:23). They will find you out in your own family life here in your relationship with your mate; they will find you out in the life to come."
Adultery is sin, but it is also a symptom that all is not well in a marriage. There are many reasons for adultery:
• Our own sinful, selfish desires: "Each one is tempted when he is