Monday, October 18, 2010

Now That I'm A Christian

I can remember receiving a book following my baptism and because I was "really" devoted at the time of my baptism, I can remember reading the book, "Now That I'm A Christian." If I still have the book anywhere in my possession, I'm sure that there are no notes made in the book and hopefully the pages are stuck together so none can waste their time in the reading. In fact, it has been so many years that I might not even have the name of the book right. One thing I do remember about the book is that it was an instruction manual to the acts of worship and what I needed to do if I was going to please God and be "found faithful."

Since I can't even be sure of the book title, I'm not about to critique it in this blog and instead would offer a few things coming to mind I wrote down in some notes to myself to consider under this topic of now that I'm a Christian.

The first thing I wrote down was to build a relationship. I'm not sure of everything I thought at the time but this relationship I'm thinking of might have many facets. I think you need a relationship with another individual who is also a Christian and someone you can share with as you mature in your Christian walk. I also think you need a relationship with a fellowship of believers. I grew up thinking there was only on "approved" fellowship of believers and it was the Church of Christ. Meet with anyone else behind any other label and you are stepping on the path to condemnation. Currently, I think it important to build a relationship with a fellowship of believers who know God and hold Jesus to be God's son and the one giving himself so our sins could be forgiven. The next relationship and while most might put it first, I am listing it third because I think these others are needed to help build your relationship with God.

I think the relationship with God is founded in my second listing of my notes and I wrote down you should desire to pray. I have to admit (don't have to but will anyway) that I still find my prayer time rather shallow. I attempt to spend the drive to school each morning in prayer and talk to God as if He were sitting right there in the car with me. It is great to realize, however, that he has taken up residence inside me and so I don't have to picture Him there with me since it is a reality. Possibly, my feeling of shallowness might be similar to the concept of sin I got from my minister. He uses the illustration of a net and large fish to describe how we see sin when we are newly aligned with Christ and desire the be Christ-like. We catch the big sin and can easily keep from it but really don't see all the little sins (fish) slipping through the net. As our righteousness gets closer to the righteousness of Christ, our net gets pretty fine and we start seeing how really filthy our lives are because of all the sin we can now see in our maturity. I suspect prayer might be much the same and as we desire and actually pray more, we discover how really weak we are to speak with God.

As I am giving credit to the minister for helping me understand something, I realize and think he would admit how the credit does not belong with him but rather God and I get to my next point. Place credit for what happens in our lives where it belongs! I don't think anything in our lives is accidental and if we have opened ourselves to God, I believe He will orchestrate our lives based upon what He wants to happen and who He wants us to reach. I have no success and last night, when discussing the fullness of Christ we receive immediately from God, we have no chance at failure as members of His family. We are a success already because Jesus was successful. Yes, I used past tense because the whole story has been written.

This in mind, I come to the concluding thought in my notes and think we must allow our joy and realization to be evidenced to others. No, it will not be our work but the joy of God is infectious and instead of isolating ourselves in church buildings each week as we display our joy, we need to be the picture of Christ all day and every day. We need to walk among others, infected as we are, and allow the infection to spread to all we touch in a day.

Do I need to say it? The books like the one I mentioned and the legalistic views we face daily would and have, in the past, boxed the infection of God into a building hidden away from the public needing to "catch a whiff" of godliness. Yes, my fourth suggestion is to allow ourselves to spread the infection.

May I be so bold as to alter the words of Jesus and declare "go forth and INFECT the world!"

Sorry, but another thought entered my mind as I wrote what was supposed to be the LAST sentence in this blog. Infection and disease never seem to take exactly the same path and so our goal should not be to CONTROL the infection, but rather simply spread the infection and allow God to follow whatever path He has chosen for the individual.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Does God Exaggerate?

"for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God" Romans 3:23 NIV

"...death came to all men, because all sinned-" Romans 5:12 NIV

"But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God" Hebrews 10:12 NIV

"Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself." Hebrews 9:26 NIV

Not sure what started me thinking today but I remembered my brother telling me something to the effect that there was no "unforgiven" sin in the world. It may have been stronger than I remember and he may have said there is no longer any sin. Then, again, I may simply be out of my mind and if so, this is simply my current thinking which needs further evaluation as I look to grow spiritually.

One of the verses above says that Christ offered his sacrifice to forgive all sin and then sat down at the right hand of God. Another says to do away with sin after appearing once for all.

I know I am often speaking before thinking but my current belief system is one believing my sin as a Christian is forgiven even if I fail to "officially" ask for the forgiveness. If I was driving down the road speeding to get to Abilene this past Saturday morning and running off the road I killed myself (actually my wife was the one "officially" reminded to drive the speed limit), I do not think I would be condemned for speeding and breaking the law. My family will be my best defense if I ever get a ticket for speeding because I usually drive below the speed limit. Just for the sake of this blog, however, God probably already knew I would be speeding if it is truly the case and I believe the sacrifice of Christ would have already forgiven the sin.

Is this the case? Has all sin been forgiven? The bible seems to say this and yet it is not something I hear regularly taught by other Christians. In fact, I usually hear the opposite and many would have me perish due to the sin I commit later today or even tomorrow and fail to make the "official" request for forgiveness. I can't help but wonder if the Holy Spirit (God) was exaggerating when giving the words in the writing above or is it possible, even likely (like so many other things) my understanding is skewed by human reasoning impressed upon me as a child.

While I never gave as much attention to my writing in school as I now wish might have been the case, I seem to remember the concept of returning to what you started with as you wind things down and prepare to make a conclusion on your thoughts. The first quote above has to do with all have sinned and fallen short and in 53 years of life, I have probably not gone two weeks (while involved with a church congregation) without hearing this phrase used and yet I am not sure I actually know anyone who believes this statement the way I read. If the statement is accurate, then all have sinned. Using the "official" thinking I was brought up with, "how hard can it be to see what is actually said. Anyone with a brain can see it says all and all means EVERYBODY!"

Almost in the same breath, I can hear someone saying, "and the wages of sin is death" (most don't believe this either). I guess I could be accused of starting controversies like Timothy was warned about in the letter from Paul but if you want to see some people squirm over the discussion of all just bring up the "unforgiven" sin of a child or mentally handicapped person. Suddenly, I/you are faced with the non-biblical teaching of some not being accountable for their sin (if they even believe these individuals have sinned). Being faced with challenges like this one has helped me move past the idea of needing an answer for everything.

I continue to desire answers and wanting these questions answered from a biblical position, the idea of no one being accountable for his/her sin is much more reasonable than some of us being accountable and some sins being condemning in nature because we fail to "officially" ask for forgiveness. Of course, this brings up another question of what actually separates us from God at judgment. If we are not faced with our condemning sin, how can any be lost?

Just my opinion (like everything else) but I currently think it is the choice we make to be like God. The choice, to have the loving heart (nature) of a child. Then again, it may not be the nature of a child but rather the nature of God ever so present in the child when Jesus told us of those who would inherit the kingdom!

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Who Then Can Be Saved?

The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, "Who then can be saved?" Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God." Mark 10:26-27 NIV

While I hope the kids in chapel got something out of the message this morning, I saw something entirely different from what was taught. Concerning the rich man coming to Jesus and asking what he must do to inherit eternal life, the message I have been taught all of my life was taught this day in chapel. Yes, the message of all of us having something we put before God is a good message and one I think is represented in the bible. This morning, I saw how "off track" we can be when we try to take more from a story than is said. In the last post, I mentioned some of the things one could draw from the story of the rich man and Lazarus and man has taken more from the story than the concept of us not being able to change who we are after this life is over.

This morning, I considered how we also make more of the rich man coming to Jesus and asking about eternal life. The man asks the question we all ask at some time in our lives because we would like what Jesus has to offer. We go to the bible and make it a rule book because we want to have control over our destiny. We/I grew up believing I was responsible for "working out my own salvation."

As I look at Mark 10, I see the same story of "what must I do to be saved" and Jesus gives a simple answer. There is nothing humanly possible for you to do that will save yourself. The rich man in this story had kept all of the commandments and I can see those disciples in the crowd thinking, "man this guy has it down." When Jesus says that it is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, it absolutely crushes the spirit of all those listening because this man is a gleaming example of all that is RIGHT!

We have worked hard in my faith heritage to be RIGHT. We have worked hard to be like the rich man and I'm not talking about building wealth but rather building upon the correctness of what we do. Jesus has the answer for all of us. You can't be right enough to get there.

Yes, it is impossible to enter the kingdom of heaven from a human position of being RIGHT. The great thing is that with the GRACE of GOD, It's A SNAP!

Sunday, October 3, 2010

What Would You Give To Be Immortal?

...God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen. 1 Timothy 6:15-16 NIV

Just recently, I was in a devotional and heard the comment made that we were going to live forever and so we needed to be with God. The basis for this plea comes from the belief we possess an immortal soul which will either spend all of eternity with God in heaven or spend all of eternity without God being tormented in hell.

There are still a few people I know who are surprised to discover I am not party to the belief of the wicked spending all eternity being tortured. In fact, I would guess the majority of those I am around believe differently than myself. In my reasoning, I have little problem with those having this belief but I think there may be a problem with not wanting to examine what the bible says on this topic.

I come from a heritage where many are still fighting the bondage caused by simply agreeing with the belief system formulated and held coming out of the reformation. We have had those in the past who, without thinking for themselves would turn to a commentary in order to form their belief and the commentary turned to for the "proper" belief had to come from one of the primary leaders in the Church of Christ heritage so the "correct" information would be learned.

When I started questioning some of the concepts I have been taught in my youth growing up in the churches of Christ, the idea concerning the wicked not being tortured for all of eternity was foreign to me and I was sure I would find no person within my own faith heritage believing such nonsense. Oddly, the curiosity following my thoughts led me to discover this topic is far from being decided within our own group and there are many on each side of the subject.

I mentioned earlier how I did not have a problem with someone believing differently from me and yet, I think there may be a problem with not wanting to examine the issue. I am not sure reformation is a process ever meant to cease and yet the attitude towards learning is often one of having arrived. In other words, I know about God and I know what the bible says and so there is nothing new I can learn seems to be a dangerous mentality. As I read, discuss and consider various topics, I find the eternal nature of God and all He has given to be exciting and I wonder what happens to us when the excitement of learning comes to an end.

I told my preacher this morning how I appreciated him because he stimulated my mind to think on God and all He has done for His creation. I would hope all of us would desire to stimulate the thinking of others toward God and I hope we all believe God is thrilled when we find success in this area.

As I consider the verse above, I am amazed, first of all, how anyone can consider themselves to possess immortality. The passage seems to read how only God is immortal. In fact, I think most of us have grown up wishing to have immortality or supernatural power. We find in the first temptation of Adam and Eve the lie of them being like God if they eat of the fruit.

We learn in Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." When discussing the topic of our end being one of eternity with God or eternity being tortured, I like to turn this verse around and remind people they are saying the wages of sin is eternal life. I find it very comforting to know the hope we have for eternity is that we will receive eternal life. We will receive immortality! The wicked get no eternal life but they get DEATH!

I don't have all of the answers and I promise I will never get to the point where I have any more than a belief or opinion based upon where I am in my path to eternity right now. There are two passages in the bible giving me some trouble with this concept but most have only read far enough to come back with one challenge to this idea of the wicked being destroyed in the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus. Yes, even with my understanding of this passage, I still have some problem with the wording (I would also like to know what was going through the minds of those making translation which causes me problem).

Without going into great detail, I'll mention some of the teachings from the parable in Luke 16. Yes, I believe it to be a parable or teaching tool used by Christ and not a true story depicting torture for all of eternity. This passage teaches 1. a judgment of the wicked and righteous prior to the final judgment (two judgments instead of one. 2. angels carried the righteous to Abraham's side and the wicked are buried (no burial for the righteous). 3. we are taught that communication will existed between the righteous and wicked. 4. we are taught that Abraham is in control (not God). 5. we are taught that the judgment is based upon whether we have good things now or bad things now (no love or grace from God and not even merit earned salvation or loss. and 6. we are taught that the wicked and righteous continue to live in the presence of each other for all eternity.

I didn't refer back to the various writers I have read on this topic, but in my current reasoning, I find it hard to accept eternal torment of the wicked from this passage and not accept all of the other teachings and yet I think I would be eternally barred from speaking in class if I claimed all of the teachings in this text to be the word of God.

I hope to get the chance to open this topic up for study in an adult class some time soon but first we have to get past the tradition of our heritage to only repeat from what has happened before. Our tradition is one of being reminded of that we know and not one of being challenged to learn something new!

After all, if you bring a "new" message you must be an apostate because there is nothing new for me to learn.

Hopefully one of the topics to be written about in the near future will have something to do with our knowledge that instrumental music was added to our worship some time between 300 and 500 AD. I didn't look up those dates from our official church doctrine writings and so the date range is used. I was surprised this past week or so to discover congregational singing was added to the church at the time of Martin Luther! Now you also know that instruments have been with us for over 1500 years and congregational singing has only been with us a mere 500 years!