Where have you set your affections?

I was a fairly new Christian back in the late 1980's when I was having
a conversation with my sister about what it meant to be saved or born-again.
These words were foreign to our childhood denominational background. I did
my best (meager attempts) to explain God's plan of salvation to her. The
conversation went on for close to an hour and she stopped me dead in my
tracks when she said, "I believe all that you are telling me. I believe
that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe He died on the cross for my sins.
I believe His death paid the penalty for my sins. Etc. I believe all that
you believe. So what makes you different from me? Why are you saved and
I'm not?" In my new found faith, I knew in my head the difference but
could not sufficiently explain it to her. It was one of those rare moments
in my life that I was speechless.

At this point I have been a Christian for almost 23 years and I have
had multiple opportunities to share the gospel with individuals and groups
of people. On one hand we desire for people to "make a commitment"; "Ask
Jesus into their hearts"; "Receive Christ"; "make a decision"; or "pray the
sinner's prayer". We have so many ways of describing the moment of
regeneration in the heart of a sinner. On the other hand, have we not all
met people who have "made a commitment, received Christ, made a decision or
prayed the sinner's prayer" that have absolutely no evidence in their life
that they have been changed one iota?

One day, John Piper and I were chatting. Okay, not really chatting, I
was reading his book, The Dangerous Duty of Delight. The light went on for
me when he said, "Perhaps you can see why it is astonishing to me that so
many people try to define true Christianity in terms of decision and not
affections. Not that decisions are unessential. The problem is that they
require so little transformation. Mere decisions are no sure evidence of a
true work of grace in the heart. People can make 'decisions' about the
truth of God while their hearts are far from Him."

So the answer to my sister's question and to those individual's that
have "made professions" but have no evidence in their life of transformation
is this: A person that is truly born-again has set her affections upon
Jesus Christ. It is not a commitment of the head, but rather a commitment
of the heart.

Today's Question: Where have you set your affections? In what ways have
you demonstrated THIS WEEK that you have set your affections upon Jesus
Christ?

Diane