To answer the question of how we should treat foreigners perhaps we should first answer the question, “Who is our neighbor?” Jesus answered that question by telling the parable of the Good Samaritan. When it was the despised Samaritan who offered aid to the beaten Jewish man and not the Jewish priest nor the Temple assistant, Jesus asked, “Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attached by bandits?” The answer – the one who showed mercy.
Mercy. Compassion. Are these qualities missing from society today, or at least, in hibernation? The Today Show ran a story recently about the growing rudeness of society by running a hidden camera segment showing a pregnant woman standing in a crowded subway car. The point was made about how rude society has become by showing how few people, already in seats, stood up to give the pregnant (and fatigued) women their seat.
The message from Jesus is to show mercy and compassion to those in need. He did not make a distinction between race, nationality, or gender for that matter. In the parable of the Good Samaritan we see the story of a person in great need and that it was the foreigner who showed mercy.
The Bible has a lot to say, in fact, about how to treat foreigners. When Abraham wept over the death of his wife, Sarah, he was a foreigner at the time in the land of Canaan. There, in this foreign land, he was shown mercy by the Hittites who gave him land to bury his wife. (Genesis 23: 4-6) In fact, they let him chose from their finest tombs.
Mercy. Compassion. And respect. God tells us not to oppress the foreigners living among us, (Exodus 23:9). To mercy, compassion, and respect, we also add kindness.
In the book of Leviticus, God’s Holy Handbook to the Hebrews for how to live and worship, God instructs his people, “Do not exploit the foreigners who live in your land. They should be treated like everyone else, and you must love them as you love yourself. Remember that you were once foreigners in the land of Egypt. I, the Lord, am your God.” (Leviticus 19:33-34, see also Deuteronomy 10:19).
Mercy. Compassion. Respect. Kindness. And now we add love.
On a short-term mission trip to Dangriga, Belize, Central America, I had the opportunity to experience all of the above, especially love. I thought I was going there to bring love, aid, teachings, and the message of God. But what I got from the people of Dangriga was more than anything I ever gave.
In February of this year, eleven people from my church, a small Lutheran church in Covina, California, embarked on a one-week trip to Belize through a mission organization called, “Praying Pelican.” They specialize in taking groups on short mission trips to Belize. Belize is an English speaking country, so for those with a missionary’s heart, but who also hold down a mortgage and a 9-to-5 job, it offers the opportunity to share the message of Christ’s love in a foreign land.
So there I was, the foreigner in a foreign land. While there, we led Bible studies and worship, witnessed to the neighborhood, visited the sick in their local hospital, painted the church and did some yard work. It was a great experience I have to say. But what I really got from it was the love, kindness, and gentleness that the Belizeans showed me and our entire group. The first day there, one of our group slipped and broke her arm. She was immediately taken to the hospital and cared for. They fed us, probably better than they fed themselves, and they shared with us a genuine love for Christ – they truly did love us as much as they loved themselves.
I kept thinking while I was there that if a group of my Belizean friends came to America, would they be treated the same? Would they be taken care of as if they were one of our own, as we were treated? Would the love of Christ that showed in their smiling faces be shown in ours? Or would we be too busy with trips to the beach, laundry, going on the Internet, Ipods, movies, Xbox, cell phones, and so many other distractions of life that keep us from truly interacting with each other as Christ commanded? With mercy, compassion, respect, kindness, and love.
I live in California where discussions around illegal immigration are at the top of the list. How do we treat these foreigners, these illegal immigrants? Going beyond my home, what about our soldiers in Iraq, how are they treated and how do they treat the Iraqis? And the rest of the world – what about all the full time missionaries in all the nations – how are they treated by their host county? In nations of great struggle like Africa – what about the ongoing crisis of genocide from Uganda to Rwanda to Darfu where neighbor rises against neighbor, nation against nation, tribe against tribe? In religious circles, how does the person of Christian, Islam, Buddhist, Jewish, Hindu, etc. faith get along with their religious neighbor?
The question isn’t about how we actually get along in the world today – the answer to that question is as varied as the grains of sand on a beach – with both positive and negative stories we see on the news every day – but the question is, how should we get along? How should we treat each other? Christ said the second greatest commandment was to love your neighbor as yourself. Our neighbor includes not only the family living next door but the one who comes from a foreign land and everyone in between. Does that include our illegal immigrants, our soldiers in a foreign land, our missionaries across the world, our surrounding nations, our neighbors of different faiths, etc.? Of course. Think again of the Samaritan – the foreigner in foreigner land – the one who showed the most mercy. It all comes down to how we treat each other – “Others will treat you as you treat them,” Jesus says in Matthew 7:2. As far as God is concerned we are all equal before Him, and all are subject to the same laws (Numbers 15:15).
At one time or another, we are all foreigners. Just as I was the foreigner in Belize, just as Abraham was the foreigner in Canaan, as Christians, we need to keep in mind that we are the biggest foreigners. Remember how the hymn goes: “I’m but a stranger here, heaven is my home.” In Matthew 17: 24-27, the tax collectors asked if Jesus paid the temple tax. When Peter asked Jesus about it, Jesus asked if the kings taxed their own people or the foreigners. Peter answered, the foreigners. And so they paid the tax. As Christ’s people, we are the foreigners on earth. Our loyalty is to the real King – Jesus, not the kings of the earth.
Perhaps the clearest (and strongest) message from the Bible on how to treat others (that is, everyone) is given to us in Romans 12:9-10. “Don’t just pretend that you love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Stand on the side of good. Love each other with genuine affection and take delight in honoring each other.”
That’s the way the people of Belize treated me, the foreigner.
At the end of the Good Samaritan parable, Jesus gives us a command. In the same way that the Samaritan showed mercy and love to his neighbor (and remember, everyone is our neighbor) Jesus tells us, “Now go and do the same.”
To that we answer, “Yes, Lord.”
With mercy.
With compassion.
With respect.
With kindness.
With love.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Sunday, October 14, 2007
What is “Planting Seeds?” - Sharing Your Faith (1)
Want To Do It, But Don’t Know How
Do you ever want to do something so much that you feel your heart ache and your whole body yearn for it to happen? Do you feel an inner calling or sense that someone is urging you on to fulfill some purpose? To be more specific, do you deeply desire to share the wonderful message of salvation in Jesus Christ? Do you feel God urging you on to spread the Good News? You do?
Me, too.
But at the same time that you feel this deep, inner urging from God and the desire to serve His purpose, are you also:
a) Scared from your head down to your toes at the idea of speaking to your friends, let alone a stranger or co-worker, about Jesus
b) Completely clueless on how to start a conversation about your faith
c) Confused or worried about coming off as “intolerant,” “bigoted,” “narrow-minded,” and so on, to those whom you want to share your witness
d) Intimidated if they start asking you questions that you don’t know the answer to, especially when the questions are meant to challenge you (you know those kind of questions—ones like, “If your God is such a God of love and mercy why does he allow death, murder, etc., etc., blah, blah, blah...”)
e) All of the above
Me too.
I am basically an introvert. That’s one of the reasons I like to write. I can sit here in front of my computer and type happily away as thoughts form in my brain and flow down through my fingertips. But I am also trying to be an extrovert in my daily life. I took a job in sales to help hone my skills in talking to people, meeting strangers and developing relations with them, with the goal of helping them meet their needs in business. I should be able to apply that confidence and experience gained as a salesperson to my witness for Christ, right? Then why don’t I?
You Have Beautiful Feet – God Calls Us to His Purpose:
For “anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” But how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells him? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? This is what the Scriptures mean when they say, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news!” But not everyone welcomes the Good News, for Isaiah the prophet said, “Lord, who has believed our message?” Yet faith comes from listening to this message of good news—the Good News about Christ. Romans 10:13-17
Why can we engage in seemingly meaningless conversations with our co-workers, friends, even strangers when it comes to things like the latest blockbuster movie out, a top ten song on the air that’s really cool, a favorite sport, or even the weather?
It’s because nothing is at stake.
When we share the saving message of salvation in Christ, everything is at stake. We are sharing something that is deeply personal and meaningful to us, but at the same time may touch a nerve in the person we are speaking to. More than that, it touches their soul. And it makes people uncomfortable when they hear it because deep down they know the message of Christ is true, yet they refuse it.
Look at what Romans 1:19-23 says:
“For the truth about God is known to them instinctively. God has put this knowledge in their hearts. From the time the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky and all that God made. They can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse whatsoever for not knowing God.
“Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. The result was that their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they became utter fools instead. And instead of worshipping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people, or birds and animals and snakes.”
Can anyone say, Golden Calf? Hello!?
What’s up with that, huh?
So here we are with this desire to serve God. We are all over Matthew 28:19-20 and the Great Commission given to us from Christ – His last words on earth before being taken up into heaven. We are fired up and are jumping for Jesus. But then we look to the left, we look to the right, and say, “Okay, what next?” We are a little nervous, a bit timid perhaps, and unsure of how to get started doing this witnessing thing. And on top of that, the people we want to witness to are for the most part not in the least bit interested in hearing what we have to say. “No thank you, buh-bye. Take a hike.”
Hmm. So now what do we do?
That where the idea of “planting seeds” comes in. It’s a pretty simple idea. People have already been doing it for some time, whether on purpose or by instinct. What I aim to do with this book is provide you with a whole bunch of tools, examples, ideas, resources, and suggestions to help you tap into your own way of planting seeds.
Be a Seed Planter
My job was to plant the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God, not we, who made it grow. The ones who do the planting or watering aren’t important, but God is important because he is the one who makes the seed grow. The one who plants and the one who waters work as a team with the same purpose.
1 Corinthians 3:6-8
Here’s the basic idea:
We all have things that we are interested in doing. Some people love art. Others love music, or sports, or reading, or...you know what you like to do. For me, I am a big movie nut. I love the cinema, love going to movies, watching them on DVD, love discussing the plot points and characters with friends. Yeah, I’m a movie geek.
Well, what if we could take something that we enjoy doing already, something that we get all jazzed and excited about, and use it as a way to get a conversation started while also weaving into it the message of redemption and salvation in Christ? We’re not attempting a full-on conversion here, but instead simply introducing the message (kind of an under-the-radar approach—think “guerilla Christianity”) and then letting the Holy Spirit take it from there. In essence, we are “planting seeds” for God to water and grow. God may continue to use you to help the garden you planted grow, or He may move you on like lil’ Johnny Appleseed to plant seeds elsewhere while bringing in another farmer to tend the seed you planted. Who knows? But at least it’s a place where we can start and it’s an easy, non-confrontational way to begin sharing your witness. Just to give you an example of what I mean, I will use a movie example (movie geek that I am, and hey, it’s my book so why not, right?).
Most of you, or many at least, have seen “The Matrix.” We’ll talk more about this movie later in the “Examples” section of this book since much has been written about the religious symbolism in the movie. Neo (or the “One”) is played by Keanu Reeves and his character’s main purpose is to free the people from the “Matrix” – a computer enhanced dream world where people live while their bodies are held in captivity by the machines. Neo learns that another world, the real world, exists, and he is called upon to be the savior of the people. Neo is a true Christ-figure – he dies near the end of the first film and is resurrected, coming into his true being and power, to vanquish the enemy.
When you’re sitting around the water cooler at work talking about your favorite films with a co-worker and you bring up “The Matrix” – can you see how relating Neo to Jesus Christ in your conversation could be the opening you need to begin witnessing? Can you see how you might help a person who doesn’t really know about Jesus (but may think they do) begin to understand when you use something they do know (e.g., Neo in “The Matrix”) to provide context and make a connection? For example, one connection between Neo and Jesus would be to parallel the sacrifice Neo makes at the end of the trilogy—his very life—for the “salvation” or continued life of the people. Sacrifice, unconditional love, being a servant – these are all discussion points that could possibly come up in a conversation and be steered toward the sacrifice, love, and servant attitude of Christ. As well as the differences! Whereas Neo dies and that’s it, Christ dies for his people and yet lives! Do you see how many different ways your witness could take you? And all from a simple conversation on common ground about the movie, “The Matrix,” which you both like.
God Has Plans For Us
For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. Ephesians 2:10
Of course these examples only go so far and you will always want to be careful in how much you draw connections between the pop culture examples of our society and the message of salvation from sin through Christ Jesus.
But it’s a place to start, isn’t it? A place to get the conversation going and get past the fear of how to start and the worry about “coming on too strong” and turning people off. Hopefully, this idea of planting seeds can work for you, who, like me, cannot “preach like Paul” as the hymn goes:
“Hark, the voice of Jesus calling, ‘Who will go and work today?
Fields are white and harvests waiting, Who will bear the sheaves away?’
-----
If you cannot speak like angels, If you cannot preach like Paul,
You can tell the love of Jesus; You can say he died for all.
----
Let none hear you idly saying, ‘There is nothing I can do,’
While the multitudes are dying, And the master calls for you.
Take the task he gives you gladly; Let his work your pleasure be.
Answer quickly when he calls you, ‘Here am I, send me, send me.’”
(Traditional hymn: “Hark, the Voice of Jesus Calling”)
More to follow...
Thursday, October 11, 2007
The Essential Christian
Sometimes I wonder what heaven will be like. I close my eyes and think about my fellow Christian brothers and sisters and ponder spending eternity together with them. And then my thoughts stop and I open my eyes, my brow creasing, my mouth frowning. It’s not that I don’t want to spend eternity with my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. No, my confusion is over the question: Just WHO ARE my brothers and sisters in Christ? By last count, there are over 1,500 variations of Christian denominations. That’s one thousand, five hundred.
Break that number of 1,500 down and we start to see the denominations by their smaller, core groupings – such as Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, Catholic, Presbyterian, Orthodox, and then you got your “non-denominational” types like Calvary, Mariners, Assembly, Emergent, well, the list goes on, but any way you look at it, there are lots of variations to the Christian faith.
That’s a lot of “different” Christians. But wait. Isn’t a Christian, a Christian? That is, don’t we all believe the same thing? If we don’t all believe the same thing, are we all getting into heaven? Or are there various levels of heaven? For example, I go to a Lutheran church. A Lutheran church – Missouri synod, that is. Now we Lutherans got that Sola Scriptura thing going for us. We’re all over theology and doctrine – we got it down! So does that mean we Lutherans (Missouri synod, don’t forget) get the penthouse suite in heaven because we understood the Bible better than other “Christian denominations?”
Of course I’m being silly here, but all to make a point – just what does being a Christian mean? And do all Christians go to heaven even though they disagree, quite vehemently in some cases, with different parts of the Bible and its interpretation?
God only knows.
So what then, does it mean to be a Christian?
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the light. No one comes to the Father except by me.” (John 14:6)). At the very heart of Christianity is Christ. Without Jesus, then Christianity may as well be some kind of generic, feel good philosophy about doing good deeds and believing in yourself. But if Christ is at the center of our faith, then we must all have the same understanding of who He is and what we believe about Him.
You see, there’s something at the core of what it means to be a Christian. That is, if you say you are a Christian, there are certain non-negotiable beliefs you must have in order to hold on to that membership card to the Christian faith.
As Christians, you may have some differing opinions on some parts of the Bible and how they are interpreted, for example, the sacraments of baptism and communion. Lutherans, Catholics, Baptists, Methodists, the list goes on, have both similar and different views. Concerning baptism, do you believe in infant baptism or baptism only as an adult? In communion, do you believe the bread and wine actually become Christ’s body and blood after they are blessed or are they always symbolic?
How about the beginning when God created us and the world in seven days? Do you believe it was an actually seven days as we know time – that is, seven, 24-hour days? Or do you believe that since God is not restricted by time as we are, that “seven” days is a relative term and that, while you believe God created everything, you think it’s possible it took longer – that perhaps a “day” in God’s terms could have been anywhere from a hundred to a million years?
And what about the end of the world? Do you believe there will be a tribulation? A 1000-year reign of Christ on our earth before we go to heaven? Are you a pre- or post-millennist? Okay, we’re just scraping the tip of the iceberg on some of the different things that everyone who calls themselves a Christian believes in.
So are there differences among fellow Christian beliefs?
You better believe it.
But lets go back now to those non-negotiable beliefs, the basics, if you will, that all Christians must have in order to really be able to call themselves a Christian and be assured of a place in heaven to reign with Christ forever one day.
What then, makes up the Essential Christian?
It’s very simple, actually. Since Jesus is at the center, that is, the heart, of our Christian faith, lets see what He has to say.
To begin with, Jesus declares that there is only ONE way to eternal life with God and it is a way that few decide to follow. In Matthew chapter 7, verses 12 and 13, Jesus says, “You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose the easy way. But the gateway to life is small, and the road is narrow, and only a few ever find it.” The Essential Christian has but one road to walk down, which sounds simple and straight-forward. That’s because it is! How ironic then, that only a few ever find it.
So we know that being a Christian means we’ll have challenges and is not the most popular choice to choose, but still, what does it mean to be a Christian?
Jesus tells us more about who a Christian really is when he speaks to the rich young man (Matthew 19:16-30 as well as in Mark and Luke). One day, a rich young man approached Jesus and asked him what good things must he do to have eternal life? First, Jesus tells him to keep the commandments, that is, obey God. The rich young man tells Jesus he has kept the commandments. What else must he do? Jesus then answers, “If you want to be perfect, go and sell all you have give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. The come, follow me.” After this, the rich young man walks away in great sadness. Here, Jesus exposed that the rich young man was putting his money in front of God. Money was his God.
Now we have a few more answers to who the Essential Christian is – a person who obeys God and who puts God first.
There’s something more, though. Something that unites all Christians at the very core of who Jesus is and what Jesus did for us. And how interesting that we have one of the best examples of the Essential Christian in a criminal. I’m speaking, of course, of one of the two criminals who was crucified along with Jesus. Here was this person, who, for most of his life we can assume, led a life of crime. Certainly he had no thoughts of a God except the ones he probably created for himself in the things he stole. Even earlier when he was placed on his own cross next to Jesus, this criminal scoffed and mocked Jesus as recorded in Matthew 27:44. But something miraculous happened during the time this criminal hung on the cross next to Jesus. Somewhere along the line, this criminal came to believe in Jesus – to believe that Jesus was God – and believe that Jesus could save him:
“We deserve to die for our evil deeds, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong,” said the criminal. Then, turning his head towards Jesus, he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.” And Jesus answered, “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23: 41-43).
There, in this dying criminal, is the key component of what it means to be a Christian – believing in Jesus as your Lord and perfect Savior. Though we don’t know for sure, it’s a pretty good bet that this man was never baptized, never partook in anything resembling a communion (the first one, in fact, had just recently occurred in the Upper Room). He probably didn’t even know one of the commandments, for that matter. But he did believe in Jesus. And in that belief, he was given the blessed assurance and promise of spending eternal life in heaven with his Lord and Savior, Jesus.
He was and is a Christian.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I am not dismissing baptism or communion or anything else in the Bible as inconsequential. The Bible speaks clearly about the importance of baptism in Christ’s Great Commission to tell the world about him with part of his command included the words, “Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved.” (Mark 16:16) Christ also tells us to partake regularly of communion with him when he said in the upper room, “Do this in remembrance of me.” (Luke 22:19c).
The point, however, is that to be a Christian is to simply believe in Jesus. As we dig deeper and deeper into the Bible we uncover more and more about God’s plans for us and how we should live. And as Christians, we need to continue to spiritually grow in knowledge and wisdom. God, in fact, commands it in the Bible in Hebrews 5:12-6:1a:
“You have been Christians a long time now, and you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you the basic things a beginner must learn about the Scriptures. You are like babies who drink only milk and cannot eat solid food. And a person who is living on milk isn’t very far along in the Christian life and doesn’t know much about doing what is right. Solid food is for those who are mature, who have trained themselves to recognize the difference between right and wrong and then do what is right. So let us stop going over the basics of Christianity again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding.”
So yes, Christian growth in the knowledge and understanding of God’s Word – God’s will for us – is part of what is means to be an Essential Christian. Who doesn’t like solid food, after all? We need to keep growing in faith and wisdom, while at the same time not get bogged down in differences and disagreements. We must not separate our unity in Christ, of which that essential core is a simple faith in Jesus as our Savior. We all know the verse that sums up the Essential Christian best:
“For God so loved the world that he gave us his only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
It is this central core, the heart of Christianity, that we must keep beating in unity as those who profess to be Christians. Instead of being divisive and allowing differences of theology and doctrine to keep us separate and detract us from going out into the world to share the message of that simple faith in Christ with those that do not have it (which were Jesus’ final words, his command, that is, to us on earth, by the way), no, instead of fulfilling Jesus Great Commission, we spend our precious time on earth locked in internal debate while the unsaved look on us while scratching their heads saying, “Yeah right, I’m supposed to believe in that? You guys can’t even agree on it amongst yourselves so why should I?”
In Ephesians 4:12-16, God tells us that we have the responsibility to equip each other “to do His work and build up the church, that is, the body of Christ, until we come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature and full grown in the measuring up to the full stature of Christ. Then we will no longer be like children, forever changing our minds about what we believe because someone has told us something different or because someone has cleverly lied to us and made the lie sound like the truth. Instead, we will hold to the truth in love, becoming more and more in every way like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. Under his direction, the whole body is fitted together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.”
I’m looking forward to the day when I’ll be fully united with my brothers and sisters in Christ and there will no longer be divisions of faith in multiple denominations. We’ll all be one in Christ. And as long as we profess that core belief while we are still on earth, as professed in John 3:16, that simple yet powerful faith in Jesus as our savior, then I can already say that, at our core, that is, in our hearts, we ARE one in Christ.
I can leave it to God to work out the details of who gets the penthouse in heaven. It doesn’t really matter to me – as long as I’m in heaven with my savior, that’s all that matters.
So who is the Essential Christian? As I said earlier, God only knows. But believing in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, well that’s both the place to start and the place to end.
Break that number of 1,500 down and we start to see the denominations by their smaller, core groupings – such as Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, Catholic, Presbyterian, Orthodox, and then you got your “non-denominational” types like Calvary, Mariners, Assembly, Emergent, well, the list goes on, but any way you look at it, there are lots of variations to the Christian faith.
That’s a lot of “different” Christians. But wait. Isn’t a Christian, a Christian? That is, don’t we all believe the same thing? If we don’t all believe the same thing, are we all getting into heaven? Or are there various levels of heaven? For example, I go to a Lutheran church. A Lutheran church – Missouri synod, that is. Now we Lutherans got that Sola Scriptura thing going for us. We’re all over theology and doctrine – we got it down! So does that mean we Lutherans (Missouri synod, don’t forget) get the penthouse suite in heaven because we understood the Bible better than other “Christian denominations?”
Of course I’m being silly here, but all to make a point – just what does being a Christian mean? And do all Christians go to heaven even though they disagree, quite vehemently in some cases, with different parts of the Bible and its interpretation?
God only knows.
So what then, does it mean to be a Christian?
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the light. No one comes to the Father except by me.” (John 14:6)). At the very heart of Christianity is Christ. Without Jesus, then Christianity may as well be some kind of generic, feel good philosophy about doing good deeds and believing in yourself. But if Christ is at the center of our faith, then we must all have the same understanding of who He is and what we believe about Him.
You see, there’s something at the core of what it means to be a Christian. That is, if you say you are a Christian, there are certain non-negotiable beliefs you must have in order to hold on to that membership card to the Christian faith.
As Christians, you may have some differing opinions on some parts of the Bible and how they are interpreted, for example, the sacraments of baptism and communion. Lutherans, Catholics, Baptists, Methodists, the list goes on, have both similar and different views. Concerning baptism, do you believe in infant baptism or baptism only as an adult? In communion, do you believe the bread and wine actually become Christ’s body and blood after they are blessed or are they always symbolic?
How about the beginning when God created us and the world in seven days? Do you believe it was an actually seven days as we know time – that is, seven, 24-hour days? Or do you believe that since God is not restricted by time as we are, that “seven” days is a relative term and that, while you believe God created everything, you think it’s possible it took longer – that perhaps a “day” in God’s terms could have been anywhere from a hundred to a million years?
And what about the end of the world? Do you believe there will be a tribulation? A 1000-year reign of Christ on our earth before we go to heaven? Are you a pre- or post-millennist? Okay, we’re just scraping the tip of the iceberg on some of the different things that everyone who calls themselves a Christian believes in.
So are there differences among fellow Christian beliefs?
You better believe it.
But lets go back now to those non-negotiable beliefs, the basics, if you will, that all Christians must have in order to really be able to call themselves a Christian and be assured of a place in heaven to reign with Christ forever one day.
What then, makes up the Essential Christian?
It’s very simple, actually. Since Jesus is at the center, that is, the heart, of our Christian faith, lets see what He has to say.
To begin with, Jesus declares that there is only ONE way to eternal life with God and it is a way that few decide to follow. In Matthew chapter 7, verses 12 and 13, Jesus says, “You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose the easy way. But the gateway to life is small, and the road is narrow, and only a few ever find it.” The Essential Christian has but one road to walk down, which sounds simple and straight-forward. That’s because it is! How ironic then, that only a few ever find it.
So we know that being a Christian means we’ll have challenges and is not the most popular choice to choose, but still, what does it mean to be a Christian?
Jesus tells us more about who a Christian really is when he speaks to the rich young man (Matthew 19:16-30 as well as in Mark and Luke). One day, a rich young man approached Jesus and asked him what good things must he do to have eternal life? First, Jesus tells him to keep the commandments, that is, obey God. The rich young man tells Jesus he has kept the commandments. What else must he do? Jesus then answers, “If you want to be perfect, go and sell all you have give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. The come, follow me.” After this, the rich young man walks away in great sadness. Here, Jesus exposed that the rich young man was putting his money in front of God. Money was his God.
Now we have a few more answers to who the Essential Christian is – a person who obeys God and who puts God first.
There’s something more, though. Something that unites all Christians at the very core of who Jesus is and what Jesus did for us. And how interesting that we have one of the best examples of the Essential Christian in a criminal. I’m speaking, of course, of one of the two criminals who was crucified along with Jesus. Here was this person, who, for most of his life we can assume, led a life of crime. Certainly he had no thoughts of a God except the ones he probably created for himself in the things he stole. Even earlier when he was placed on his own cross next to Jesus, this criminal scoffed and mocked Jesus as recorded in Matthew 27:44. But something miraculous happened during the time this criminal hung on the cross next to Jesus. Somewhere along the line, this criminal came to believe in Jesus – to believe that Jesus was God – and believe that Jesus could save him:
“We deserve to die for our evil deeds, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong,” said the criminal. Then, turning his head towards Jesus, he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.” And Jesus answered, “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23: 41-43).
There, in this dying criminal, is the key component of what it means to be a Christian – believing in Jesus as your Lord and perfect Savior. Though we don’t know for sure, it’s a pretty good bet that this man was never baptized, never partook in anything resembling a communion (the first one, in fact, had just recently occurred in the Upper Room). He probably didn’t even know one of the commandments, for that matter. But he did believe in Jesus. And in that belief, he was given the blessed assurance and promise of spending eternal life in heaven with his Lord and Savior, Jesus.
He was and is a Christian.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I am not dismissing baptism or communion or anything else in the Bible as inconsequential. The Bible speaks clearly about the importance of baptism in Christ’s Great Commission to tell the world about him with part of his command included the words, “Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved.” (Mark 16:16) Christ also tells us to partake regularly of communion with him when he said in the upper room, “Do this in remembrance of me.” (Luke 22:19c).
The point, however, is that to be a Christian is to simply believe in Jesus. As we dig deeper and deeper into the Bible we uncover more and more about God’s plans for us and how we should live. And as Christians, we need to continue to spiritually grow in knowledge and wisdom. God, in fact, commands it in the Bible in Hebrews 5:12-6:1a:
“You have been Christians a long time now, and you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you the basic things a beginner must learn about the Scriptures. You are like babies who drink only milk and cannot eat solid food. And a person who is living on milk isn’t very far along in the Christian life and doesn’t know much about doing what is right. Solid food is for those who are mature, who have trained themselves to recognize the difference between right and wrong and then do what is right. So let us stop going over the basics of Christianity again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding.”
So yes, Christian growth in the knowledge and understanding of God’s Word – God’s will for us – is part of what is means to be an Essential Christian. Who doesn’t like solid food, after all? We need to keep growing in faith and wisdom, while at the same time not get bogged down in differences and disagreements. We must not separate our unity in Christ, of which that essential core is a simple faith in Jesus as our Savior. We all know the verse that sums up the Essential Christian best:
“For God so loved the world that he gave us his only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
It is this central core, the heart of Christianity, that we must keep beating in unity as those who profess to be Christians. Instead of being divisive and allowing differences of theology and doctrine to keep us separate and detract us from going out into the world to share the message of that simple faith in Christ with those that do not have it (which were Jesus’ final words, his command, that is, to us on earth, by the way), no, instead of fulfilling Jesus Great Commission, we spend our precious time on earth locked in internal debate while the unsaved look on us while scratching their heads saying, “Yeah right, I’m supposed to believe in that? You guys can’t even agree on it amongst yourselves so why should I?”
In Ephesians 4:12-16, God tells us that we have the responsibility to equip each other “to do His work and build up the church, that is, the body of Christ, until we come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature and full grown in the measuring up to the full stature of Christ. Then we will no longer be like children, forever changing our minds about what we believe because someone has told us something different or because someone has cleverly lied to us and made the lie sound like the truth. Instead, we will hold to the truth in love, becoming more and more in every way like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. Under his direction, the whole body is fitted together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.”
I’m looking forward to the day when I’ll be fully united with my brothers and sisters in Christ and there will no longer be divisions of faith in multiple denominations. We’ll all be one in Christ. And as long as we profess that core belief while we are still on earth, as professed in John 3:16, that simple yet powerful faith in Jesus as our savior, then I can already say that, at our core, that is, in our hearts, we ARE one in Christ.
I can leave it to God to work out the details of who gets the penthouse in heaven. It doesn’t really matter to me – as long as I’m in heaven with my savior, that’s all that matters.
So who is the Essential Christian? As I said earlier, God only knows. But believing in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, well that’s both the place to start and the place to end.
Monday, October 08, 2007
The Greatest Commandments God Gives Concern Love
When asked what was the greatest commandment, Jesus said:
“You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and allMatthew 22:37-40 (The Bible – New Living Translation)
your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is
equally important – Love your neighbor as yourself. All the other
commandments and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two
commandments.”
God is Love
Agape is a Greek word that means love. Agape is the highest level or expression of love. It is the kind of love that is expressed through words like: divine, unconditional, self-sacrificing, devotion, and thoughtful. But the most pure definition of agape is to say that God is love. Not that God has love or gives love, which He certainly does, but simply that God is love. The Bible tells us this:
“Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is born of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God—for God is love.”
“God showed us how much he loved us by sending His only Son into the world so we might have eternal life through him. This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.”
1 John 4:7-10 (The Bible – New Living Translation)
“Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is born of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God—for God is love.”
“God showed us how much he loved us by sending His only Son into the world so we might have eternal life through him. This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.”
1 John 4:7-10 (The Bible – New Living Translation)
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