"Christian? What is Christian?"

Though much has been written and taught on the subject, such questions as are in the title may be reduced to a very simple response.  As response we will consider in a moment.

Being Christian is not a class of religious movement, though it involves a religious movement.
Being Christian is not about church, though it involves church.
Being Christian is not a worship style, though it involves worship style.
Being Christian is not a knowledge--a set of facts, though it involves knowledge.
Being Christian is not faith, though it involves faith, sometimes great faith.
Being Christian is not a matter of mercy, grace, etc., though it involves these things.
Being Christian is not a belief, though it does involve belief

Being Christian is a life-style--it is the way one lives when one is a genuine follower of Jesus Christ as Lord!

It is the way one lives because of being totally committed to the Lord, Jesus Christ living in and through his life.  It means just as Jesus' followers in His day followed Him 24-7, so too the Jesus follower of today, seeks to emulate, to conform his life to the Jesus life and His teachings.  When?  All day, everyday, in all ways.

Jesus over and over said, "Come, follow me...."  That is the key to this Christian thing--the key to being a genuine Christian!

As surely as joining a monastic order is a lifestyle, so too, being a genuine Christian, a Jesus follower, is a lifestyle--a "what would Jesus do, think, believe, say, etc. in this situation," lifestyle?

It is the Jesus who said "If I be lifted up I will draw all men to me."  Was that the cross, He was talking about?  Well, yes, but importantly it was the "cross heart" that is the heart that says, "No sacrifice too great or too small to be a genuine follower of Jesus."

So the next time you see some excess that carries the label Christian, may I challenge you to ask yourself one question, "Is this a real and genuine follower of Jesus or is it some facsimile?"

A FURTHER THOUGHT

By Richard Johnson

"Far too often we treat Christianity as if it is primarily a set of acquired beliefs or convictions. This approach is even fostered in our churches at times. True Christianity is an adventure, a journey, and a lifelong process of growing, changing, and becoming more like Christ. Christianity means discipleship - a nurturing, learning, transforming relationship with the Spirit of Christ living in us. It may be scary or intimidating to answer, but when and how profound was the last change motivated by Christ in your life? How’s that new life and new creation in Christ thing going for you?"

Note:  Pastor Johnson does not to this point have a blog.  Even so to read more of Pastor Johnson's writing you may connect with him through my fb account and request to be added to his email list.

Thirsty? Come!

Most of us can relate to the feelings of thirst.  Of course the solution to thirst is to take in generous amounts of water--pure water.

Sometime ago as I watched a television piece on “mud” Marines in a war zone.  It was a very warm, if not hot place.  Their Gunny in no uncertain terms told his Marines to “hydrate!”  If he understood one thing it was that to get the most out of his Marines they had to have plenty of water on board. 

Then there was the story that took place in the days of sail--that time when "Iron men sailed wooden ships."  Such ship was in straitened circumstances in the doldrums near the Equator.  She had no wind in her sails and soon she had no water in her stores.  This went on for a time until the winds returned and she was able to get underway.  The sailors were struggling with thirst.  As they sailed another ship happened by and using semaphore the message went across between the ships, “We need water, can you assist?”

In the same manner the answer came back, “Let down your buckets you are surrounded by fresh water.”  What the ship's captain did not know was that just out of sight over the horizon there was a river that poured so many millions of gallons of fresh water into the ocean they were surrounded by it.  Now to be sure I do not know how true the story was or is but there is a principle present in both of these stories.

When we are thirsty—spiritually thirsty and we realize that we are so, what we may not realize is that we are surrounded by that which satisfies the thirst.  Jesus Christ said, "Let him who thirsty come to Me and drink."  So we know that there is a standing invitation to "Come" and to "Drink."  Although sometimes we tend to place a divide between genuine faith and technology, now like never before this is available to us sources of spiritual fresh water.

However, man being man there are choices to make.  First, we need to decide whether we are going to ignore and even avoid the feelings by getting involved in avoidance behaviors such as drugs, alcohol, gambling, promiscuity, or even noble endeavors and thus seek to obviate the feelings.  However, understand that those feelings are the call of God and such activities will never satisfy the feelings involved.  The other things to know is that although God's call does not change, with a continued refusal to hear, eventually one loses the capacity to hear God's call.

The second option is to acknowledge the feelings--that call to "Come" and to "Drink" and respond to them.  Here again we have a choice to make.  Are we going to respond in our way or God’s way?  If we respond in our own way it will be much like the previous point.  Such a response tends to mold God into our image of what He should be rather than molder our view into His image of who is this God.  Thus, much busyness and activity but little fulfillment and sense of connection with God.

Then there is the third way of response.  It is the way of humility which allows one to hydrate in prayer, the Word of the Lord, and genuine Christian teaching.  We are blessed with much opportunity for same in that we are surrounded by Christian radio, Christian television, and the Internet.  All one has tot do is to let down one's bucket as we are surrounded by those who rightly divide and then teach the Word of the Lord.  Historically the Church has called these and other things such as fasting, spiritual retreats, pondering the Word of God and other things, Spiritual Disciplines. 

For those who have a deeper yet thirst for the things of God, there are many Bible training courses available on the internet.  Some are from major “right on target” Christian ministries who provide such as a free service.  Then too, there are small group Bible studies, Church Sunday Schools classes, and much, much more.

So I say, “Let down your bucket, you are surrounded by those things that can deeply satisfy your spiritual thirst.”  Such activity will then lead to a life of fulfilled service.

"Struggling To Do It God's Way"

Values, be they personal, corporate, cultural, or sub-cultural are are founded upon and guided chiefly by two influences.  First and as previous submissions have discussed there are the influences of mores, that is the prevailing standards found in the individual and the previously listed social groups.

Then second and also as previous submission have discussed, there are those transcendent objective universal truths.  These values have their origin from outside of the individual and the previously listed social groups.  A new word to the discussion is the word, "virtue" which is the acting out of these transcendent truths.

There is for some a missing piece to this discussion and it is found in the following article titled, "THE SEEN AND THE UNSEEN" with the subtitle, "The Limits of Human Reason and the Knowledge of God."    

There is the seen, and there is the unseen, the material and the immaterial. That which is material can be scientifically examined and experienced, the immaterial can only be seen and experienced spiritually. These are two worlds that are only seemingly at odds with one another. If you attempt to examine that which is of a spiritual nature using a science that is by its very nature meant to explore the material realm, you will fail.

The things that are of God are far beyond the capabilities of our finite mind to comprehend. The divine can only be known through the nous, that place in the heart that is our true center. It, unlike the brain, is capable of knowledge that is beyond human comprehension, coming as it does from noetic knowledge.

The science of the soul is noetic and can be examined and experience only through the activation of the nous. The nous in Orthodox Christian theology is the "eye of the heart or soul", the mind of the heart. God created us with the nous because the human intellect is not capable of knowing Him without it. The intellect alone can not know God, for human reasoning is limited to the things that are of a material nature. God is unknowable without His divine revelation, and only the nous can perceive this knowledge. God's essence remains inaccessible without noetic knowledge. Science has it's place, but only the heart can know God.

Love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon

(article available at https://www.facebook.com/pages/All-Merciful-Saviour-Orthodox-Christian-Monastery/104578182913886)

Once again the tension between a closed (material) system and an open (Divinely influenced) system may be seen.  Transcendent objective universal truths are a reflection of the very person and nature of the Divine.  Just perhaps this is the reason that though some desire to live out these principles, they struggle.  Could it be that such understanding and practice as is necessary is only possible because of the "nous?"  Oh, yes, there are those who have such profound volitional strength that they do so but for most people such is a struggle.


It is only as God the Holy Spirit in relationship with and then because of that relationship functions within the human spirit that one can not just understand these Divine principles but also is empowered to live them out.  Such is "Christ-likeness."  Said another way "Christ-likeness" is not being conform in thought and action to mores (cultural relativism) but is simply the living out of God established principles or as others have termed it Divine character principles.  


An attendant discussion then is that to be Christ-like in a secular culture may yield the view that one does not fit in.  It might be well to remember that Jesus did not fit into His culture either.