Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart: How to Know for Sure You Are Saved

"If there were a Guinness Book of World Records entry for 'amount of times having prayed the sinner's prayer, ' I'm pretty sure I'd be a top contender," says pastor and author J. D. Greear. He struggled for many years to gain an assurance of salvation and eventually learned he was not alone. "Lack of assurance" is epidemic among evangelical Christians.In Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart, J. D. shows that faulty ways of present- ing the gospel are a leading source of the confusion. Our presentations may not be heretical, but they are sometimes misleading. The idea of "asking Jesus into your heart" or "giving your life to Jesus" often gives false assurance to those who are not saved--and keeps those who genuinely are saved from fully embracing that reality.Greear unpacks the doctrine of assurance, showing that salvation is a posture we take to the promise of God in Christ, a posture that begins at a certain point and is maintained for the rest of our lives. He also answers the tough questions about assurance: What exactly is faith? What is repentance? Why are there so many warnings that seem to imply we can lose our salvation?Such issues are handled with respect to the theological rigors they require, but Greear never loses his pastoral sensitivity or a communication technique that makes this message teachable to a wide audience from teens to adults.

About the Author :
J. D. Greear is pastor of the Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina. He has a PhD in systematic theology from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is the author of Stop Asking Jesus into Your Heart: How to Know for Sure You Are Saved and Gospel: Recovering the Power That Made Christianity Revolutionary. He lives in Raleigh, North Carolina, with his wife, Veronica, and their four children. Tom Parks is an AudioFile Earphones Award-winning narrator who has also been a finalist for the prestigious Audie Award for best narration. He has been involved in recording audiobooks and voice-overs for over thirty years and through an eclectic range of projects. In addition to performing and directing, he is also an active musician, drumming in musical theater productions in the Midwest, and is in demand as a conference speaker.

Review :
"As next generation leaders, we have to focus on true life-change, really direction change rather than just a spiritual transaction. I am thankful that J.D. was willing to take on the hard discussions related to salvation and discipleship in this new book." -- "J. Roger Davis, president, Student Life" "Chapter after chapter I was encouraged, rebuked, discipled, and compelled to be a better minister of the Gospel. Thank you J.D. for this gift to the church." -- "David Nasser, pastor" "Every Christian struggles with doubt about salvation. The comforting passages of Scripture, assuring believers of their hope in salvation, were written to build up faith in the face of doubt. Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart guides readers through both assurance and perseverance in a life-altering way. Greear's work is both an affront to easy-believism and a spotlight on the promises of God's word. A comforting wake-up call." -- "Ed Stetzer, president, Lifeway Research" "In this book, J. D. Greear gets the Gospel right. And the Gospel is the way from conviction to salvation. This book should help you know how to place your conscience in the Lord's hands, where it can be a tool greatly used by God, as it was in Augustine's life, or Martin Luther's." -- "Mark Dever, pastor and author of 9 Marks of the Healthy Church" "J.D. tackles an incredibly vital topic in our time, but from the front lines of ministry as one who stands unashamed to call people to follow Christ. Read this book and understand with fresh eyes and a hungry heart the wonder of biblical conversion." -- "Alvin Reid, PhD" "J.D. wrestles with a tough subject here and does a tremendous job of helping the church come to grips with a salvation not anchored in a one-time prayer but the finished work of Christ." -- "Clayton King, teaching pastor, Newspring Church" "Outstanding! This is a truly useful book. It's readable, engaging and packed with scriptural insight. It not only gives hope to Christians struggling with assurance of salvation, it will equip any Christian to better share the gospel and guide others toward genuine repentance and faith in Jesus. -- "Joshua Harris, senior pastor, Covenant Life Church" "So much emphasis today is on the power of personal persuasion in sharing the gospel. What to say, how to say it. Reasons to believe, proofs for the authority of scripture, methods for gaining credibility blah blah blah. Pick up a copy of my friend, J.D. Greear's book and learn the marks of a person saved by Jesus Christ. I commend it to you." -- "Dr. James MacDonald, senior pastor, Harvest Bible Chapel and author of Vertical Church " "This book is similar to John Stott's Basic Christianity in that it lays out with clarity and reasoned arguments the path to Christian belief." -- "David A. Spence, an executor of Dr. Stott's literary estate" "This book throws the spotlight on Jesus as a welcoming, merciful Savior who joyously receives all who come to him. This book could help free you, or someone you love, from the nagging fear that Jesus is trying to keep you out of his kingdom." -- "Russell D. Moore, dean, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, author of Tempted and Tried: Temptation and Triumph of Christ" "This book will be a help for those who wrestle with their position before God and a wake-up call for those with false confidence. I recommend it highly." -- "Matt Chandler, lead pastor, The Village Church" "This is a book I wish was available when I turned twenty and had a terrible season of doubting my salvation. By God's grace and the truth of the gospel I was able to settle the issue. I have lived in the full assurance of my salvation in Jesus ever since. God wants us to experience the joyful truth that we are eternally secure in Jesus. This book can help take you there. I will be recommending this book often!" -- "Daniel L. Akin, president, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary" "This is a very helpful and needed book. Untold numbers of people are thinking of themselves as true Christians when really theirs is a false assurance; while others are true Christians but lack a solid assurance. The book spells out how to teach the Gospel in such a way as to help avoid these tragic results and how to help deliver those who are experiencing them. The emphasis on clear presentation of the meaning and evidence of repentance and faith is exactly what is needed. Also the difference a genuine assurance of salvation can make in one's life is brought out. I highly recommend this book!" -- "Frank Baker, pastor emeritus, Briarwood Presbyterian Church" "Timely, engagingly written, and thoroughly practical, [Stop Asking Jesus into Your heart] deserves a place on every pastor's shelf. Buy it! Apply it!" -- "David L. Allen, PhD, dean, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary " "Warmly personal. Immensely helpful. Wonderfully practical. Thoroughly biblical. I wholeheartedly recommend this book to every Christian who longs to know, experience, and spread assurance of salvation in Christ." -- "David Platt, senior pastor, The Church at Brook Hills, Birmingham, Alabama"