"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.

"The Truth That Leads To Contrition"

There is a truth that leads to contrition.  There also is a truth that does not.

Imagine that a person is driving and without paying attention drives over the speed limit.  Maybe this has happened to you.  Then it happens, a quick look in the rear view mirror reveals that a police officer is following and he initiates a traffic stop.   He approaches your window and says something like the speed limit is 35 miles per hour and you were observed going 45 miles per hour.

When he tells you that you were breaking the law by speeding you have a choice to make.  The choice is in how you react.  Generally and with most people such an experience will bring forth a sense of contrition.  Another way to put it is that such an experience softens the heart.

The other choice is to respond with a hard heart.  The first kind of reaction is that of receiving the words of the officer.  The second is to reject the words of the officer,  put forth some kind of an excuse, or even argument with the police officer.

Now change the story to the person who while reading the Scriptures, listening to a sermon or a sermon in song, or simply pondering the things of God comes face to face with his failure to live by God's standards--God's truth.

Faced with genuine truth will either bring about conviction which then results in a broken and contrite heart or a heart that hardens against the truth.  The humble and contrite heart receives God's truth and remains soft before it.  On the other hand the hard hearted--the stony hearted person will on some level reject it.

Rejection takes several forms to include seeking to not be responsible with an excuse or two, seeking to rationalize one's way out of responsibility, shifting blame, denying the truth, and so on.  It does nothing more than deceive the hard hearted and such deception further hardens the heart.  There comes a point when the heart becomes so hardened that it neither hears, is convicted, nor cares that it does not conform to genuine truth.

Said again, facing truth will either soften our hearts or harden them.  That is the serious state in which we find many people today, they have traded away the genuine eternal truths of God for those things that are comfortable, acceptable, and temporal.  The consciousness they have of God is not a consciousness of God for it is only of a god that they have created.  Such temporal values masquerade as truth and it is with great danger that some have constructed a whole reality based upon a foundation that at best is subject to failure.

Truth, that is genuine truth can, if allowed soften the human heart.

If allowed it can call us to account, to realize our own failings and sinfulness, call us to conviction, and challenge us to a higher level of behavior that is the living out of our faith.  

If our hearts are soften, we are more likely to hear the voice of the Heavenly Father, more likely to take to heart the written Word of God, more likely to have a God consciousness, to feel the conviction of and communion with the Holy Spirit, and more likely to be in a position to have our hearts further softened, etc. 

If our hearts are soften by genuine truth, it adds a God dimension to life and such a view of life if allowed to germinate and grow, day by day and in greater measure give spiritual understandings to physical realities.  

Such an humble and contrite heart is key and essential for Christian growth.

There is much to be said for the one who seeks genuine and Godly truth in order to be brought to a place of contrition that results in a soft and humble heart.

How Big and Involved is God?

Do we not live in a world that suggests to us that if God exists at all He is uninvolved and limited or uncaring and distant?  A world that suggest we must be self sufficient because God will not or cannot be involved in our lives.  We might ask ourselves, do we live according to that message?  Sometimes it seems that we have such limited confidence in God that we live as if He created and left—carrying on in such a way that suggests God is but He cannot or will not involve Himself in the lives of His followers. 

Yet, most people talk of God as if He is ever present, all knowing, and all powerful.  Certainly for them and even for those of faith, there is a disconnect between knowing and doing.  How can we overcome such disconnects as we might uncover in our own lives? 

It is here that a faith is needed—faith in an able God—a big, big God.  It is a faith that leads to action, the living out of what is known about God.  Indeed faith without action is a dead faith! The reality of western Christianity is that it has become a matter of personality and/or program.   However, today in other places in our world, it is not so.  Christianity is vibrant because it is not easy to live it out and a relationship with a Big God is absolutely essential!

Such Christianity is simple to explain but a little more difficult in practice.  It comes as one: 1. learns what the Bible has to say, 2. joins in genuine fellowship with other Christians, 3. prays about the lessons learned, and then 4. lives out those lessons in the day to day of life.  Indeed that is the practice of Christianity.  There is one more point necessary and that is to understand that such Christian practice runs counter to our culture and is not unopposed and as such it can often require a big and capable God who is involved!