"Salvation is a serious issue. Scripture commands us, on the one hand,
to 'work out our salvation with fear and trembling' and, on the other,
paints beautiful pictures of believers walking in great assurance. J.D.
helps us see what conversion really is and what it is not. 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, and president, Acts 29 Church Planting Network
"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, pastor, The Church at Brook Hills, Birmingham, AL, and author of New York Times bestselling Radical
"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
"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, pastor and author of Humble Orthodoxy
"Don't let the provocative first half of the title scare you away from
reading this important book! Emanating from his own personal and
pastoral experience, yet with feet firmly planted in the sufficiency of
Scripture, Greear is far more interested in helping us have genuine
biblical assurance of salvation than anything else. He rightly reminds
us we must emphasize the absolute indispensability of repentance and
faith as necessary for salvation. Though I might quibble over a few
things I would express differently, the vast majority of J.D.'s book I
wholeheartedly endorse. Timely, engagingly written, and thoroughly
practical, it deserves a place on every pastor's shelf. Buy it! Apply
it!"
-Dr. David L. Allen, dean, School
of Theology, Southwestern 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 Barker, pastor emeritus, Briarwood Presbyterian Church, Birmingham, AL
"A sensitive conscience can be a curse from Satan or a blessing from
God. Does your conscience drive you from God, or to Him? 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."
-Dr. Mark Dever, pastor and author of 9 Marks of the Healthy
Church
"Every Christian struggles with doubts 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."
-Dr. Ed Stetzer, president, Lifeway Research
"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!"
-Dr. Daniel L. Akin, president, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary
"As someone who works with young people, I often see the pitfall that
my friend J.D. Greear explores in
Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart; How
To Know for Sure You are Saved. I have sat with many eighteen to
twenty-four year olds that say they had no clue what they were doing
when they repeated a prayer with someone as a young person. 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
"
Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart by J.D. Greear is a biblical
clarification for the assurance of salvation to the Christian based upon
the finished work of Jesus Christ. The invitation to eternal life is
more than a prayer! It is a living, breathing, real, relevant,
relationship with God through Jesus Christ while being sealed by the
Holy Spirit. The gospel saves and sustains! Read, reflect, and rejoice
in the ability to know of the assurance of your salvation!
-Ed Newton, Bible Communicator, Memphis, TN
"When I first read the title, I was caught off guard-because I am an
evangelist who continually urges hearers to repent and ask Jesus into
their heart. Once I began to read, however, I began to understand the
big idea-praying a prayer of repentance and salvation ought only to mark
the beginning of a lifetime of repentance and faith. 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, and
campus
pastor, Liberty University
"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.
Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart is especially helpful in answering
many follow-on questions, too. Faith seekers and faith sharers alike
will benefit from J.D. Greear's clear thinking on what effectuates and
evidences true salvation in Christ."
-David A. Spence, An Executor of Dr. Stott's Literary Estate
"Improper methodology and sloppy theology have paralyzed at worst and
confused at best many of our churches today when it comes to evangelism.
J.D.'s book is not only timely but crucial."
-Mike Calhoun, executive assistant to the president, Word of Life
Fellowship, Inc., and author of Where Was God When: Real Answers to Hard
Questions
"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."
-Dr. Alvin Reid, Professor of Evangelism & Student Ministry/ Bailey
Smith Chair of Evangelism, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and
author of As You Go: Creating a Gospel-Centered Culture of Missional Students
"I wore out 2 Sharpies worth of ink writing 'Amen & WOW' in the
margins of this new book. 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/author/evangelist
"I have to admit the title of this book made me uncomfortable. It
sounded to me like a tract against the so-called 'sinner's prayer,' and I
find it biblical to cry out 'Lord have mercy on me, a sinner!' But as I
read this book I found that is not what it is about at all. In this
volume, J. D. Greear, one of the most dynamic and brilliant pastors in
evangelical life today, addresses a common problem among Christians: the
sense that we can never get assured enough that Jesus hears our sinners
prayer and receives us, just as we are. 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."
-Dr. Russell D. Moore, dean, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and
author of Tempted and Tried: Temptation and Triumph of Christ
