The Demands of Christianity

Reconcile all problems with one another- If we do not reconcile with our brothers and sisters in Christ, we should not even try to approach God with love, because the kingdom of God is all about community, and relationships. If we are not willing to fix the relationships here on earth with the little time we have, how can we do the same if we are to worship God for all eternity.

Do not resist an evil person- Most of the time we are told to resist evil, and flee from it, but here Jesus tells us that an evil person should not be resisted; now yes the evil itself should not be accepted, but to deny the person who is in clear need of something beyond themselves, is a cruel misunderstanding of our purpose.

Bill Lenz- “If we truly believe what Scripture teaches about Christ being the only way to the Father and the only way to salvation, how can we not share the gospel with those of other religions? In my opinion, the question is not if we should or not, but how.”

The First Love

                Bernard’s four degrees of love give 4 different kinds of love within a faith based relationship. There is the love of self for self’s sake, the love of God for self’s sake, the love of God for God’s sake, and the love of self for God’s sake. In 1 John, John Mark explains that we should love God for God’s sake, because he first loving us gave us love to experience with Him.  As long as we are serving God and loving God for God being God, then we can at least have confidence that God loving us, is a very secure reason for us to love ourselves.

The Commands of Christianity

1.       Rejoice and be glad

2.       Shine the light inside

3.       Reconcile all problems with one another

4.       Make friends quickly with any enemies

5.       Do not look upon another with a lustful eye, or heart

6.       Do not divorce, except for reason of chastity

7.       Do not marry those who have been divorced

8.       Do not make any oaths

9.       Do not resist an evil person

10.   Give to him who asks

 

"Little Christ's"

                Though my personal experience with modern churches haven’t always been pleasurable, and though my home church is not one to boast about by any means, I will say that my home church and most churches that I know of have been very good at teaching the basic fundamentals of our Christianity. If I must be honest, I have not experienced to this day a church that I personally feel is on the right track. Most churches either have a lot of members, yet not many ‘disciple’ members, or have few members that are ‘disciples’, but have little resources or time to give to the church. I would love to attend a church that in my opinion is actually behaving as the church should, and there are a lot of good, honest churches, but it seems that church is no longer about the people of God and what God wants from us, but rather about business of the people and what the people want from God.

Giving All To God?!?!?!

The idea of giving all to God is not a troublesome idea, in fact many if not most would agree that the idea itself is not the problem. I want to give all to God, and I try with every being in my fiber, daily, to give all to God. It is, however, very problematic. For us to give all to God, would mean to lose all of ourselves. We may say that that is not an issue, but it is. I find C.S. Lewis’ excerpts very compelling. Ever since I was saved, I have been behind the scenes of the church, and have seen firsthand the mess. It is disappointing and disheartening to work for people who claim such authority, yet live as if they have no responsibility to anyone but themselves and the people of the church. They assume that God is behind them, just because they have the position of authority. On a personal level, I agree completely with C.S. Lewis, but have been worn by the years of ‘service’. I pray that all who read these excerpts will understand it in its entirety.

                “C.S. Lewis-Excerpts from ‘Mere Christianity’”