How it feels to be a Christian

 

I have always been a chameleon when it comes to evangelism and taking a visible stand for Jesus Christ in my daily life. I put this down to hating rejection. When I first started primary school I was a rank outsider with the group of children in my cohort. They had all attended play group together and I hadn't so I was the outsider. It was three years of absolute hell and I had the lifelong emotional scars to prove it.

 

My father died about eighteen months after I started school and that began a roller coaster ride of change in my life culminating in my attending boarding school for two years. The worst time of my life being separated from my family but the single best thing that ever happened to me from both an educational and Christian perspective.

 

In any case, as a result of experiences from that part of my life I have always tended to keep a low profile in social situations, stay out of activities where I can be compared to others and avoid groups of popular people like the plague. My mantra is that I have to have peace. The funny thing is that I have always thought that this resulted in my being poor witness.

 

In reality, I didn't realise and I have been completely oblivious to the fact that the Holy Spirit is always with me. That He is also very visible to others around me. No, they can't see Him but they speak of the calm and peace that I bring to the work space. If you know me well you know that I am far from peaceful. I often don't trust God as I should and so I am nervous, irritable and often agitated as a result. The opposite of peaceful actually. So, it is not I but Christ in me that these people are experiencing and He reaches them despite my best efforts to sabotage His will.

 

Someone, once said "The end of a mans life will be far different than on the day he came to know Jesus Christ." In other words when Christ Jesus comes into your heart and the Holy Spirit writes the Law on it and puts it into your mind. When the Holy Spirit sanctifies you through the course of your life and accompaines you through the journey that is your life. He will bring about a change that will make you unrecognisable to yourself and others as he conforms you to the image of Jesus Christ. This change is inevitable and inexorable. It cannot be stopped and it must occur if the  only begotten Son of God is to present you blameless before the Father.

 

As, our Lord and Christ once said himself 'If I didn't proclaim that I am the Christ then these rocks would shout it out to all the World.' So when we believers accept Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit speaks through us even if we believe ourselves to be meek and quiet. Through our gentlest actions and words the Saviour enlists us to reach out to the poor and the lost. I would say that we can't help ourselves, regardless of how ineffective we believe ourselves to be, but I believe that the Holy Spirit commands our ship and uses us to far greater effect than we wil ever know in this life.

 

Finally, I would simply say that we need to consider the life of the serious minded Christian. We need to pray that the Spirit keeps our eyes on the goal of righteousness and that he leads us to place ourselves at His disposal as a vessel of the Almighty God. Walking in all humility and meekness but standing upright for the cause of goodness and mercey in the name of Jesus Christ

The People of the Way

The Narrow and Wide Gates

Matthew 7: 13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."

The Lord has been challenging me about this scripture quite frequently of late. In my own life he has been shining the light on various idols that I have accumulated. The place of guitar in my current program, the purpose of continuing to work while dropping the ball in my spiritual life and with family commitments.

I guess the question is what is the narrow way and what does it look like for a Christian who is living their life in the way that God intends them too? I mean, even at a macro level Christian's focus on issues that can push God's real purpose for the them off into the margins.

This can also be about Christianity and the Church in general. It can relate to issues that define sects within the Church like Calvinism or Pentecostalism. As Jesus said 'The gate is narrow and broad is the road that leads to destruction.' So when we add our own human philosophy into Christian life are we still on the Way.

If our Church turns into a kind of Christian social club for worldly folks or begins to champion a world view that sees every believer elected without any real need to place their faith on Christ Jesus or to genuinely repent. Isn't the end result a shift away primary mission of the Church and a shift onto another road that diverges from the narrow way.

Isn't the real purpose of the Church to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to the World and to gather and support the people of God with the material means to live the life of a faithful believer? Aren't we as Christians meant to share in the truth of the scriptures and to become the serious minded people of the way.

We need as servants of the Living God, to check ourselves personally, to look at the community of believers we interact with. We also need to make sure that what we are practicing is actually placing us on the center line of that narrow way that Christ Jesus was describing to the folk present at the Sermon on the Mount.

Luke 13: 23-30 "And someone said to him, “Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from.’ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ But he will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!’ ..." ESV

Matthew 28: 18-19 "And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” ESV

Corinthians 6: 19-20 "Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. ESV

Sanctification

 

From a Christian perspective, sanctification is repentance and personal holiiness. It is becoming the temple of the living God and a dwelling place of the Holy Spirit who creates in us a new heart. It is a concept that can become singularly demoralising when it is continually reinforced by bible teachers who  rant on the need for the individual believer to repent and be holy as though he, or she, must perfect themselves.

 

The reality is that sanctification is a lifelong process where the believer lays hold on the promises of God to receive the gradual perfection that God bestows on their person to make them into a new creation. A completely new creature in Jesus Christ.

 

It is as much about humility and meekness as it is about attitude and submission to the living God. If we berate other believers for their lack of holiness and continued lack of repentance we can place a heavy yoke on their shoulders. We can literally cause them to stumble and fall away from the Faith.

 

If we mistakenly believe that we are entirely responsible for our own sanctification. We can beome arrogant and misguided in ourselves and we bestow a legacy of misdirection and frustration on others as we seek to chastise them toward biblical purity and holiness.

 

Sanctification is a process of renewal and is as much about prayerfully lowering the baton as it is about gentley lowering ourselves onto our knees. It is also about entering into continual, prayerful communion with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. It is about seeking Him and allowing the Holy Spirit a free reign in our hearts. It is about developing an attitude of humility and meekness that comes from God as He perfects us and transmutes us into the dwelling place of the Almighty.

 

None of this truly comes from the believer because only God can perform any of it. Even in seeking to be obedient to the will of God we need to realise that we are as important to the process as a twig floating down a vast river. We need to surrender to God's will and just relax into the flow of the current that is taking us where he desires us to be spiritually and physically in this life.

 

Oh yes, we can lean our shoulder to the wheel and we can expound with knowledgable opinions but our input into Gods's program is of little use if it isn't directed by him personally. Look at Moses and his attempt to help his fellow Israelites by attacking the Egyptian guardian. The result was one dead Egyptian and a forty year sojourn in Midian. Definitely the long way around to finding the will of God at the burning bush but in the end Moses journey is all of the evidence you will ever need that the will of God is like a vast river. Regardless of Moses running away the river that is the will of God propelled Moses to exactly where he needed to be when God needed him to be there.

 

So, it is with holiness in the Christian walk. Just lay back into the flow of God's will. Talk to Him about your worries and accept His will for your life. Lay hold on the good things of God and trust him to make you into His personal temple of repentance and holiness, purity and righteousness. Remember you're just a twig in a vast river and God will gradually form you into the person He intends you to be in the Kingdom of God yet to come.`

Finding a Church Home

Here I am on Sunday morning. I have just been looking through some of the live streams from various Churches. You know, Life, Church Unlimited, Wesleyan Church, The Elim, and a few others. I found that most of the services were led by women.


One of the leaders advised the parishioners that if they didn’t love their church, they should give themselves a slap on their heads. Then, she proceeded to attribute the success of the church to the pastoral team. God didn’t get a mention.

The one male leader began to wax lyrical about sound corporate practice and its application in the Christian walk and to the Church. Despite being woman heavy in the worship team, the other two more community-based congregations were simply there to glorify God and teach from the word. Altogether, a bit of a mixed bag.

I was thinking of tuning into online services rather than getting involved in another church community. I already have one of those at my son’s church. I made the mistake of joining a congregation that holds a range of doctrines dear that I don’t subscribe to. 

One of the problems with joining a church is that churches tend to be about dominance behaviors and hierarchy. Part of this is fashioning doctrine into a whip to keep those in the congregation that question church dogma under control. They can use this type of dominance to make people submit and stay when they should actually leave.

Cruising into any church just to check it out is not for the faint hearted. It can be a little like a fly stepping onto fly paper. You might not be able to leave as easily as you entered. Hence, watching the Sunday services on television or online is not a bad solution if you want to avoid becoming involved in the power plays or the competitive nature of attracting and retaining congregants. 

A family friend once shared that he went where he liked on Sunday and tended to stay until the congregation concerned began to insist that he join them. Overall, he went to a variety of churches and found that worked for him. A little mercenary perhaps but certainly not without merit. 

I suppose that it comes down to finding a group of people you mesh with and finding a way to mitigate the doctrinal anomalies. In other words, how much does the difference in belief matter. Can you ignore the negatives and accentuate the positives. Food for thought perhaps.

What Scriptures Are Quintessential

 

My brother and I were having a bible discussion a few weeks back and he made the comment that Christianity would be fine if all it had of the New Testament was chapter three of the Gospel of John. I have to confess to having considerable sympathy for his position. I have reproduced John Chapter Three below from Bible Hub

John chapter three verses one through twenty;

1There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”

3Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born [a]again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

4Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

5Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

9Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?”

10Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? 11Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. 12If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man [b]who is in heaven. 14And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15that whoever believes in Him should [c]not perish but have eternal life. 16For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

18“He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.” 

Comments:

Nicodemus was an educated man, a Pharisee and a scholar. He came to Jesus to find out about Him. He spoke of the signs that Jesus had performed and enquired of Jesus what and how these things could be. 

He came by night because this was a dangerous course of action for a Pharisee to be taking. The Pharisees were already quite enraged by Jesus' words and actions and were beginning to perceive Him as a serious threat to their rule.

However, Nicodemus had a gentle heart and desired to know who Jesus was and could He be the Messiah. He didn’t ask Him that right out from the start but rather sought to enter into dialogue with Jesus.

He said to Jesus “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” Jesus replied by telling Nicodemus that no one can see the Kingdom of Heaven unless he is born again and then added that you can’t enter the Kingdom of Heaven unless you are born of water and the Spirit.

The idea of being reborn stunned Nicodemus but I think he would have identified with the idea of being ritually cleansed by water and the Holy Spirit. So, he, after thought, would have understood that to enter the Kingdom you have to be baptised in water and be born of the Spirit.

To gentiles like us we have much less idea of the concept of ritual cleansing in water to come into the presence of God. We understand baptism and receiving the Holy Spirit as Christians but not in the same way as Jews understood the significance of ritual cleansing in Mikvah (Ritual Baths), and purification as a right before God. The Nazarite vows of Samson, Old Testament, and potentially the apostle Paul mentioned in Acts chapter eighteen verse eighteen would be symbolic of the importance of physical and spiritual holiness before God.

This would emphasise Jesus' words about needing to be born of water and the Spirit before entering the Kingdom. Water baptism to symbolise ritual cleansing of the body. Spiritual rebirth in the baptism of the Holy Spirit resulting in a new creature as stated in II Corinthians chapter five verse seventeen. 

With the indwelling of the Holy Spirit we have the law of God written on our hearts and put into our minds and the Spirit works to sanctify us and reveal the nature of Christ Jesus in us. One could argue that guidance from the Spirit is superior to our interpretation of scripture anyway.

Add to this the natural man’s inability to comprehend the things of God (1 Corinthians 2:14), which while not applying directly to Christians. I often wonder whether some christian folk are genuinely converted or have the baptism of the Holy Spirit. From my somewhat arrogant point of view this could explain why they read scripture and distort it so. I digress.

So back to John chapter three. Christ must be lifted up as Moses lifted the bronze serpent up and the people looked at it to be healed (Numbers 21:4-9). So we must look at the cross and believe on Jesus Christ to receive eternal life.

Just so, all who believe will in Jesus Christ receive eternal life. The Father did not send Jesus to condemn the world but to save it. Jesus came that all men might hear the gospel and have the opportunity to believe in Him. Those who believe are saved are not condemned but those who do not believe are condemned already. So, believe in Christ unto eternal life or reject Christ’s work on the Cross unto eternal death.

So, to reject Christ Jesus the only begotten Son of God and the light of the world who shed his blood for our sins. This is to reject the light of the World and to be condemned. This condemnation is loving the darkness and choosing to do evil rather than good. To do righteousness is to choose Christ Jesus and accept the truth and to come into the light where our deeds may be seen

John chapter three verses twenty two through thirty six;

22After these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea, and there He remained with them and baptized. 23Now John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there. And they came and were baptized. 24For John had not yet been thrown into prison.

25Then there arose a dispute between some of John’s disciples and the Jews about purification. 26And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified—behold, He is baptizing, and all are coming to Him!”

27John answered and said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven. 28You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent before Him.’ 29He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. 30He must increase, but I must decrease. 31He who comes from above is above all; he who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. 32And what He has seen and heard, that He testifies; and no one receives His testimony. 33He who has received His testimony has certified that God is true. 34For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure. 35The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand. 36He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” 

My Concluding Comments:

The last section of John chapter three mirrors the beginning of the chapter. In the first section Nicodemus a jew approaches Jesus to enquire who He is? Jesus then talks to him about physical and spiritual purification and its importance in salvation and entry to the Kingdom of Heaven.

In the last section John's disciples are discussing purification with the Jews and this leads them to return to John the Baptist and to mention that Jesus and His disciples were baptising nearby and all were coming to Him. So, in baptism we have a ritual purification of the physical body as a demonstration of the salvation process. So, we hear the gospel, believe and get baptised in response thereby proclaiming that we believe and in doing so setting the path for the salvation process as we enact it to this day. This is the gospel and the Christian way laid out in John chapter three.

John then proceeds to describe how it is necessary for Jesus to increase in importance and for him to decrease because Jesus comes from Heaven and is the bridegroom and above all. Jesus has the testimony of Heaven by the Spirit and is the Son of God. The Father loves the Son and gives all things into His hand.

John the Baptist then says something which is eerily similar to what Jesus says earlier in the chapter. He who believes in the Son has everlasting life and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life but God’s wrath abides on him (Compare to John 3: 18-19).

So final opinion, yes we could survive without the bible, only having John chapter three to guide us. In terms of having the gospel to share and a model of how to preach it and to baptise the followers. Yes, we do have that model and believers have been incredibly successful witnesses under extreme persecution with far less scripture available than John chapter three.

However, to achieve a much deeper relationship with God and an understanding of God`s word we really need all sixty six books and the chapters that they contain. There is an argument that less scripture would lead to less misinterpretation and false doctrine. I certainly couldn`t dispute that allegation. What people do to scripture while using it to support their various sectarian views often beggars belief.

My final adjunct to this article is to mention my own favourite verses for sharing the gospel message.

Romans 3:10: There is none righteous, not even one.

Romans 3:22: For all have sinned, all have fallen short of the glory of God.

With these two verses there is the clear understanding that you cannot save yourself. Before God you are a helpless beggar lost in your sin requiring mercy and grace that only Jesus Christ can provide through His work on the cross.

Romans 6:23: For the wage of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.

John 3:16: For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son; that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but inherit eternal life.

Acts 2:38: And Peter said to them “Repent and be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and in order to receive the Holy Spirit.”

When you understand you are broken and can’t save yourself and the wages of your sin is death while the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. Then you can act to believe in Christ Jesus and access His grace through the power of the Holy Spirit.

So: Believe on Jesus Christ; Repent and be baptised in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins and to receive the Holy Spirit.