“Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” Neh 8:10
may the Lord return and take the Church home.
“Just a few more days and I’ll be going home, Just a few more hours and I’ll be flying. It could be any minute now, that you’ll take me away. Maybe just a few more days…a few more days. To you a day is like a thousand years and only you know when the clouds will clear, so let me not forget and fall away, because a thousand years could be today.” – Matthew West.
(This article is geared towards the conservative Christian, both theologically and in practice)
Christians should not be conceited.
We who call ourselves the children of God, the followers of Christ, the co-heirs of the coming Kingdom, often think that we exclusively are experiencing true humanity, as we float far above the rest of the pagan world. But in this series of events called life we’re actually all on level ground. My fellow brothers and sisters, We are not the only ones who laugh and cry and hurt and feel deeply. Depth of spirit was not introduced to us with the introduction of Christ. Since the beginning of time, unregenerate people have know that they are deeper than chemicals and random selection. The term “Christian” does not equal the term”Human”. Rather, a Christian is a human who has been undeservedly saved from his sins, he is innately nothing more than his fellow man.
There is a horror that I have seen unraveled in my own heart these last few months. That horror is the assumption that non-Christians are less than human. Of course this assumption never blatantly occupied the forefront of my mind. And I would be appalled if I heard myself even whisper such a statement audibly. However, buried under my thoughts and musings concerning my interactions with my Non-Christian friends, I have discovered to my shame, that at one point in time, part of me actually subscribed to it.
You see, in college, I distanced myself so much from Non-Christians that they became something closer to an urban legend than anything else. Because of that, I dehumanized them, and when I read the Scriptures, my mind fell immediately upon the sinfulness of man rather than the humanity of man. Here’s what I mean. The Bible calls Non-Christians “by nature, children of wrath and sons of disobedience.” (Eph 2) That is, Non-Christians all have a bent to sin, an inner nature that locks the will from doing things that are pure in intention and hence glorifying to God. The Scriptures say that they cannot help it. Plain and simple. Now, my conviction in the Scripture’s truthfulness has not changed. However, what has changed is my understanding of where I personally stand in that very verse. In the past I did not even think about my own position in the verse, but rather saw it only as a prooftext to the state of man before salvation. But I missed the point. Because positioned before those words “by nature…” are the words “We too were also.” Meaning, we who are Christians, in the past were no different than non-Christians… hence the call for humble gratitude, not pride… not distancing. But I’m not going to stop there. As I see it today, though we have been saved from sin, the problem of sin also has not been dismissed from the Christian life either. As much as non-Christians struggle with the inability to do good without being tainted by sin, Christians also fall under the same diagnosis. Truly, even when we are in the very act of repenting for our sins, sin is not absent from us. The saying is true, even the best men, are at best, men.
So Christians ought not to be conceited. Though we have been saved from the penalty of our works. And though we have been reborn as it were with a heart that is now able to do things which are good (because they acknowledge and honor God as He Is), we still sin. We still fail. Sometimes terribly.
Though we are different, Christians and Non Christians are of the same. Though we may live differently, we all live together. The people we walk amongst walk beside as well. So often we highlight the existence of “Sin” as the main characteristic in Non-Christians, rather we should highlight the existence of a “Soul.”
Now, this is no call for Unitarianism ,or Ecumenism for that matter. Rather it is a plea for Christians everywhere to consider the humanity of their friends who do not know the Lord. Speak to them as you would like to have been spoken to when you did not call yourself a Christian. And in your heart, believe the best… search for the good in them. After all, your friends are not your friends for no reason.
Merry Christmas.
Truly, Jesus has come to take away the sins of the world.
Repent, and believe and you will be saved into a life, and an eternity, of ultimate Joy.
how the time flies.
“Note the order men, the order is first to confess that we have sinned, and how we have sinned, and in what way we have sinned, and then to confess, I am a sinner. So often I have heard men stand before a congregation and seek to confess their sins and all they really say is “well you know me, I’m weak, I’m fleshly, I’m a mortal, I’m a man like you, and I have my faults and I am a sinner by nature so you just have to realize that that’s why I acted as I did.” And then they sit down. That is not confession. That is not confession. True confession begins with “I have sinned”, and acknowledging that sin specifically before God and before His people when it is necessary.” - Dr. William Barrick: Sermon on Psalm 51.
school is getting harder folks.
for the dwindling number of my faithful readers, I’ll still be posting occasionally, but don’t be expecting any essays.
go read your bibles.
You don’t need to be smart to understand the Scriptures or to study theology. My gracious and long-suffering friends, you should all realize by now that I’m not smart. I just read the material.
but that’s not a big deal. Even unbelievers read the material and are allowed to deduce the correct meaning from it. What is a big deal is being changed by the Scriptures, being changed by the theology, and having it all well up into a big bucket of doxology.
Most of us who like “to know”, just take the extra step to read up on our curiosities. Sometimes we’re just driven by the novelty of knowing something new. But I’ve gotta say, curiosity never made people more holy, and novelty never helped anyone walk more closely with God.
