I first wanted to say that the last several weeks have just been awesome. I have seen the start of God working in people's hearts, and it is wonderful to start to see some effect from the efforts of faith on post. My friend Jay gave his testimony to some guys at Christmas, I think between that and seeing our living testimonies the guys around us are connecting the dots and seeing how Christ really does change lives. In addition, by living in the barrack and being available to fellow soldiers to help them when they need something I am seeing God opening their hearts. I think I have mentioned this a bit before, but I think it also has much to do with the current topic.
For some reason, one which I do not understand, many people have gotten the idea that it is a bad thing to question Christianity when they are earnestly looking. Those who adamantly oppose our God question it without wanting to consider the answers. Those that seek the truth have an apprehension about questioning their beliefs and what they thought to be Christianity. That brings me to the most recent pondering.
Perhaps the most frequent question I receive about myself is "Are you religious?” usually time permitting I say "not really, but for what you mean, yes." This might be a form of churchese that has yet to be really addressed. Most of churchese is simply objects, activities that are church oriented like communion, pulpit, Pentecost, things of that nature. When we get into the adjectives though it becomes two languages that I think occurs more frequently then we realize. I have found when asking people if they want to attend something that has to do with Christ, usually church or bible study they say they are not religious. Religion as the Pharisees practiced it is still being practiced in what I have seen by the majority of churches throughout the nation. That is the best explanation I can come to why so many people from so many different walks of life think the same thing when I say religion. It is a belief system about rules and control. It has abused people and is responsible for thousands of deaths and horrible crimes. Religion is not something that people like to study, talk about or identify with others. So far, these attributes are about the opposite from Christ and his teachings.
I do not prefer to be referred to as a religious person for just these reasons. I think as I have been around the barracks these months and the conversation I have had others are starting to realize that I live the way I do because I want to. Many people initially think that I am a brain-washed churchie who has never seen the world outside the church or made a decision for myself. I think that is one of the mindsets people have that are synonymous with "religious" or someone who is devout.
The next important miscommunication/interpretation I think has happened both within the church and outside the church is "believe". When I say "I believe" something that can range from Christ rising from the dead, the literal six day creation account or that I believe Kobe Bryant is entirely too much of a ball hog. Beliefs are very subjective, after all what each person believes is validly can be different from every other person. Where it has gotten mixed up though is what it means to believe in reference to Christ.
As I recall from the Romans Road, we are to "confess with our mouths and believe in our hearts Jesus is Lord" and he will become our Savior. This is where I find my theology differs from several pastors I have heard speak at conferences throughout. My uncle first pointed this out to me. I have not seen a reference to scripture where people are able to make Christ their Savior without him being their Lord. I looked through the nifty mini-concordance of the words "savior, save, saved" and most of them were from prophecy, Psalms while it seemed all the New Testament references always phrased God as Lord and Savior. For example the introductions to all the epistles, I like to call the "Grace and Mercy Schpiels" because from face value they seem like they same the same thing in each letter. 1 Timothy is the first to include the savior portion in the introduction while all the others always mention Lord Jesus Christ. Titus and 2 Peter mention God as Savior in the greetings, yet every single other greeting mentions something about Jesus Christ as Lord. I tie this in that I think mainstream Christianity has greatly underestimated scripture's meaning of "believe".
This in turn reflects that when we see a Gallop poll or something of that nature most show 60-80% of the population believe themselves to be Christians. From a previous blog I would be overjoyed to see 60-80% of the church practicing Christianity as it is meant to be done. So why is it that I have heard so many sermons with the phrase "Accept Jesus as your Savior" or something along those lines? I recall a friend from high school that claimed for years that he was a Christian and when I asked him why he talked and acted the way he did he responded "I am ready to have Jesus as my Savior, but not as my Lord". I was speechless to think that, at first thought was "how can this be, scripture does not offer that option". Yet how many of us have attended how many services that invite Christ like that? As I noticed other mentions of "believe" through scripture it is far deeper than what many pastors preach it to be.
From my interpretation believe goes hand in hand with action, such as lifestyle. I suppose it is easy to mix up belief that requires works because that would appear to be working our way to heaven. I think sincere belief will overflow into one’s lifestyle. Take this example, if I believe that the Kings are the best basketball team in the league and I believe myself to be a basketball fan, then I would be talking about the Kings constantly. I would watch and try to attend every game, I would share with my friends how great the Kings did the night before, all of this seems reasonable and I know we have encountered sports fans like that. Now translate that kind of belief into something like Jesus... how many of can say we know more Jesus fans than sports fans?
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