Distinction
Many people think that to be a Christian you have to join
a church or follow a religious leader. That is not true.
That does not make you a Christian.
You can only become a Christian by coming into
relationship directly with God - Literally making a
contract with the Almighty (a 'covenant' in bible-ese).
Fortunately all the important promises are on his side,
not yours.
Only God can make you a Christian, not a man or a church.
Although a church or man might help bring you to
understand your need for God, only he can actually awaken
your spirit so that you become born again. That's what
being a Christian is.
Connection
A Christian is someone who's spirit has been brought
alive - a connection has been made, a frequency opened up
- someone who has been brought into relationship with the
Almighty.
When that happens you begin to understand why you are
here, why you were cut like you were cut, why you were
bruised like you were bruised, why you are gifted in some
ways and crippled in others. Most of all, you understand
maybe for the first time, the love of the God for you
personally. That is an awesome thing to behold.
Decision
But you still have a choice - you can accept God's
invitation of friendship. There is an outstretched hand,
iIt's up to you. Why is that?
Conscription?
If God wanted an army of robots he wouldn't have given us
our free will. None of us would have freedom of choice
and consequently God wouldn't need to bother us for a
decision! But we do have free will - you can either
accept or reject God. You can be sure if this: He doesn't
want you as a slave, he wants you to respond willingly to
his love or not at all.
So what is church for?
When you are a Christian, you go to a church because you
belong to a family - That's right, God brings you into
the 'family' of believers. You need to be in a family
because you will soon discover that being a Christian is
not all sweetness and light. -- At the centre of the
Christian tradition is the cross of Christ - 'an emblem
of suffering and shame'. The world system is
fundamentally opposed to Christianity, the more you
announce your faith the more they will despise you. It is
not easy to follow Christ, and like a cinder cools when
taken out of the fire, you will lose your glow outside of
Christian fellowship.
Why all that clapping and waving?
At every football match, you will see people shouting,
throwing up their arms in joy - dancing, gesticulating,
laughing and crying. Why? - Because they are emotionally
stirred - the pain and pleasure of belonging, of winning
a victory, of egging on 'your side'. Yet strangely, it is
seen as repulsive to have displays of emotion in church.
Well, that's nothing but a double standard - a prejuidice
- because people clap, sing and dance in church pretty
much for the same reason they do it at a football match.
Cults
Some movements claim a sole pathways to God saying in
effect 'you must belong to us' to go to heaven, or be
saved. 'Cults' for example, follow doctrines which
promote the speciality of their own movement to the
exclusion of all others. In fact a defining feature of a
'cult' is a belief system dismissive of all others flowing from a claim to solely represent God on
earth.
Exclusive
You can also identify a cultic movement by it's claim to secret
knowledge or special revelation. Invariably they believe they have
a unique standing
before God because of revelations not given elsewhere. This 'revealed truth' is guarded by, and passed
down from, a 'high priesthood' - the leadership. Apart
from this teaching, all other streams of thought are
deemed dangerous and false. Cultic churches are always
aggressively exclusive, closely monitoring and
suppressing outside influences upon their membership -
much like dictators are in the habit of doing.
A Christian is someone who has made a contract with God
and not with any particlar church. There is no 'high
priesthood' of men before God, the only person now
appointed to intercede on behalf of man is the Lord Jesus.
No secrets
Christianity is not a secret society and Christian
believers do not greet one another with special
handshakes, or communicate in coded messages. The bible
is available for anyone and Christ came to save the
entire world.
There is 'revealed truth' but not from any contempory
man, but in one of the most ancient documents known, the
bible. There are no revelations to be handed down from
church leadership that cannot be gleaned or verified by
each Christian with the help of the Holy Spirit .
So if somebody tells you 'you must go
to church to be a Christian'
---- they are wrong.
If somebody tells you 'you must go to this
church to be a Christian'
---- they are dangerously wrong.
If somebody tells you 'you must be born again of the
spirit of God'
---- they are gloriously right.
Why not put God to the test?
It doesn't matter where you read this, whether in church or on a desert island - God can come into your
situation wherever, whatever it is.
Ask him to do that, to come into you
life and make you a real Christian (a follower of the
Christ). Say you are sorry for rejecting him, maybe bad-mouthing
him. Tell him you need his help to become everything he
had in mind for you when he created you.
Believe on him - enough to call on him! (that's all the
faith you need). And then be prepared to....
Confess him to others. If you speak about him to men, he
will speak about you to His Father.
(Matt 10:32)
| Home Truths Whether Roman Catholic, Buddhist, Humanist, Communist or Fascist; whether liar, rapist, embezzler or mugger - God loves each one. God is able to guide each Christian through the intervention of his Holy Spirit on earth. |
Christianity includes all who have accepted God's gift of salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ, and that includes people in all denominations (and many outside of any 'church').
Dave Feb 2001
The Falling Away Dwindling Church attendance - it isn't just falling- it's plumetting! This week I learned of a nation-wide survey showing dramatic drops in church attendance during the 90's. In fact, if current trends continue, the Christian church in Great Britain will cease to exist around about the year 2040. Of course practically speaking, churches will close long before that as the number of faithful falls below 'critical' levels. All of us know someone who has stopped going to church recently, whether this church or another one. Myself I can think of several people.... Lets make no mistake about it, interest in the Christian message is at an all-time low. If you are experiencing opposition, mockery or just being actively ignored, you'd better get used to it! The survey demonstrates the phenomenom is not a local one - it's not just happening in Northfield, or Birmingham, but all over the country. It is a wave sweeping over our land and stripping it of all that is not firmly rooted. Such a thing has to be seen as a wake-up call - a siren to alert us - so that we can identify, know and understand the season we are living in.... The Bible says this about a 'Falling Away': 2 Th 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first,... the day of Christ will not come until after the time of the 'falling away' - that means former Christian brothers and sisters denying faith and villifying and betraying each other. How can we endure and prevail in these circumstances? The communion reading in 1Cor 11 admonishes us not to come to the table unless we 'recognise the body of Christ'... I believe therein lies a vital message. That though other Christians might upset us, offend us and make us feel like leaving the church altogether (for make no mistake, everyone who does leave has a reason for it, a real slight or offence) - as long as we can keep focussed on the fact that we are all caught up into one family - called the 'body of Christ', we might endure this time. For what is happening now also represents the beginning of the great end-time sifting - the sorting of the wheat from the chaff. Those who endure will come forth as gold. It's a sobering thought. "Lord, help us to recognise you in each of yours." Dave, April 2000 |
At Church on the Hill we have been blessed to see something of the Kingdom of heaven in operation - God's government on earth, with conventions and methodology that is different to the way of the world.
We held a jumble sale in August 1999. - Many people donated things for to sell and we had a hectic day on Saturday setting up tables full of goodies in the church and then afterwards, breaking everything down again for the Sunday meeting.
After we got home Saturday evening, we had a phone call day from someone who had bought a *******. 'What's wrong?' we asked. 'Well, nothing really, it's just that upon opening it up, we found £100 inside!' !! 'Did we know where the ******* had come from?'
From the description of the piece, Mandy remembered a pastor's wife who had donated some items. We contacted her and described the piece. Yes it was hers. 'Could there have been anything of value inside?' - 'Oh No!' she gasped (meaning Oh yes??). ...it had been given her as a Xmas present. It was from a relative (cousin?) who had since died, and he had been in the habit of giving cash gifts stashed inside presents.
The £100 was repatriated back to her thanks to the honesty of God's people.
In Bible stories tax collectors are mentioned many times and always in the most disparaging terms.
Why were they referred to so often and so badly? - we might dislike the Inland Revenue but this is nothing compared with how the Jews of Jesus's time viewed the tax collector. We need to picture those times to have some idea why:-
The Roman army was in occupation with King Herod as their willing ally, ruling the Jewish people on their behalf. The Romans didn't depose the ruling classes and Jewish life continued in its tradition with the monarchy along with religious leaders doing their part to keep the people in check.
Rome at that time was the most awesome military force the world had ever seen, and armed resistance was futile. They were well organised and brought many benefits to those they conquered by way of law and order, civilised ways of living, and new technology. Some land owners must have done well out of the Romans, while despising them - keeping herds of pigs for example, which the Jews had no use for, and considered unclean, while the Romans loved pork. But to the Jews, the Romans were pagans worshipping many gods instead of just one. The Jews must have appeared quaint to them, and apparently fairly easy to control.
An army needs paying, and bureaucracy is always hungry for money, with many pockets ready to be lined. Roman currency was in common use, with coins that had Caesar's head on them. Taxes were imposed by the Romans on top of other taxes such as those by the temple leaders. Life must have been hard enough without this extra burden on the working man.
But how would the Romans collect their taxes? by force with a Roman official? No, the crafty Romans used Jews to do their dirty work. It was a good number - tax collecting, a real money-spinner. The tax collector was given a specific amount to collect but anything above that he could keep. There were plenty of willing volunteers, and the job would go to those in some favour.
But those collecting the taxes were referred to along with prostitutes, sinners, pagans - people the Jews regarded as unclean - little better than pigs, or Romans for that matter.They were reviled, and considered so lowly by their own people that they could only socialise with each other. The decent God-fearing Jews - keeping the laws of Moses and following Jewish tradition - were being heavily taxed by the system, with their own people helping it. They were in need of deliverance!
Strange then, one might think, that Jesus should choose one to be a disciple. - Levi, who became Matthew, was called by Jesus right from his tax collectors booth! This story is related 3 times to underline its significance, and it is Matthew the gospel writer who refers to tax collectors the most. What a change of heart he must have had! The other disciples, honest hard working types, must have wondered at Jesus's choice and would have been wary of such a turncoat for quite a while.
But there we are, Jesus shows us through this, that even the most reviled character, someone despised by all sides, a real weasel, could be chosen, and go on to do such great work in his name - a true follower and man of God.
How significant it was then; what a powerful message it is today. How the world may see us, judge us, maybe even despise us, makes no difference to God and when Jesus calls us, and we choose to follow, we have a change of heart, a change of attitude and a new life.
Living for the Lord, leaving our old ways behind, going on to do God's will as 'born-again' disciples.
Praise the Lord - what a man - what a God!
Terry White, April 2001.