The name of the church that I fellowship with, and serve as it's Pastor, is called New Life Fellowship. I like our name. I'm sure that most, if not all, of the people who read this are Christians. But humor me for a moment about what it means to become one.
I was born into a German Lutheran family. Our family of 7 kids were all baptised as infants. We were taken to church almost every Sunday, and I attended catechism and was confirmed into the Church around age 12. I walked away from my faith, and the church, for most of my teen years. I was bored, and frankly didn't see any connection between my life and the faith I was being told about for most of those years.
The only time I was interested in the church during those years was Lent. I remember during one Lenten season our Lutheran church had a Wednesday evening service in which the Pastor taught the last 7 words of Jesus on the cross. I didn't need to be forced to go to church during those weeks. Still I strayed far away from the Christian faith. I entered college without a foundation of faith under my feet at all. Those few years were filled with fleshly sin-filled actions that I'm frankly ashamed to say I did them. I was floundering in a wilderness of self gratification and instead of feeling joy, I felt emptiness.
It all turned around on a date. I met Linda, my wife, in 1969. We didn't start dating until the Fall of 1970. I knew something was different about her, and discovered it during one of our early dates. We got into a discussion about faith...I didn't have one. I had a collection of random beliefs gathered from all over the place and even I knew it was no faith at all. Linda was not judgmental, but was clear - her faith rested in the person and work of Jesus, who loved her, forgave her, and in whom her relationship was the most important thing in her life. I went home that night, and instead of falling to sleep, I laid in my bed, staring into the blackness of the night and internally reliving the conversation over and over again.
This is what I knew - I didn't have that relationship with Christ that she talked of. I prayed a simple, and not very profound prayer asking Jesus to come into my life, asking him to save me and to forgive me of my sins. I asked him to be my savior and my Lord - I wanted to live my life for Him...a New Life.
THIS is what it means to become a Christian. A Christian is a person who has accepted Jesus' person and work for themselves. A Christian is a person who accepts that God has come into the world through His Son, Jesus Christ, and through Christ's death on the cross has taken our place and redeemed us from our sins.
2 Corinthians 5:17-21 (ESV)
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
I want to be careful here. Let's not make this new life into a business transaction. This is not a "I agree to grant you that I am a sinner and you agree to grant me salvation in return." That would take the mercy, grace and love of God and make them trivial at best. Christians have a profound sense of their own moral bankruptcy and God's incredible grace in reaching out to bring us to himself. This is a grace that isn't cheap, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German-Lutheran pastor who was martyred by the Nazis near the end of WWII. This grace compels us to make a commitment because it came to us in our emptiness, and filled up everything that was necessary. That is why Paul says, "in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself..."
Many years ago there was a conference in Great Britain on comparative religions. Experts from all over the world came to debate what was unique about the Christian faith in relation to other religions.
Was it that God came to us as a human? No, other religions had that.
Was it the resurrection? No, other religions believed in that.
Was it heaven, life after death, or the eternal soul?
Was it love for your neighbor, good works, or sin, hell, or judgement??? NO, NO, NO. These were all parts of other religions.
The dialog went on for some time when C. S. Lewis walked into the room. They asked him, "what is so unique about Christianity from other religious faiths?"
He answered, "That's easy, It's Grace!"
The sense of being lost, wandering aimlessly, striving for reality without realizing that we're in a fog of our own SELF is what causes us to come to God and need His grace.
To Love God with all of our hearts, all of our soul, all of our mind, or strength - and our neighbor too - is impossible to do without that Grace.
I'll talk about those tomorrow..For now,
Peace
I was born into a German Lutheran family. Our family of 7 kids were all baptised as infants. We were taken to church almost every Sunday, and I attended catechism and was confirmed into the Church around age 12. I walked away from my faith, and the church, for most of my teen years. I was bored, and frankly didn't see any connection between my life and the faith I was being told about for most of those years.
The only time I was interested in the church during those years was Lent. I remember during one Lenten season our Lutheran church had a Wednesday evening service in which the Pastor taught the last 7 words of Jesus on the cross. I didn't need to be forced to go to church during those weeks. Still I strayed far away from the Christian faith. I entered college without a foundation of faith under my feet at all. Those few years were filled with fleshly sin-filled actions that I'm frankly ashamed to say I did them. I was floundering in a wilderness of self gratification and instead of feeling joy, I felt emptiness.
It all turned around on a date. I met Linda, my wife, in 1969. We didn't start dating until the Fall of 1970. I knew something was different about her, and discovered it during one of our early dates. We got into a discussion about faith...I didn't have one. I had a collection of random beliefs gathered from all over the place and even I knew it was no faith at all. Linda was not judgmental, but was clear - her faith rested in the person and work of Jesus, who loved her, forgave her, and in whom her relationship was the most important thing in her life. I went home that night, and instead of falling to sleep, I laid in my bed, staring into the blackness of the night and internally reliving the conversation over and over again.
This is what I knew - I didn't have that relationship with Christ that she talked of. I prayed a simple, and not very profound prayer asking Jesus to come into my life, asking him to save me and to forgive me of my sins. I asked him to be my savior and my Lord - I wanted to live my life for Him...a New Life.
THIS is what it means to become a Christian. A Christian is a person who has accepted Jesus' person and work for themselves. A Christian is a person who accepts that God has come into the world through His Son, Jesus Christ, and through Christ's death on the cross has taken our place and redeemed us from our sins.
2 Corinthians 5:17-21 (ESV)
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
I want to be careful here. Let's not make this new life into a business transaction. This is not a "I agree to grant you that I am a sinner and you agree to grant me salvation in return." That would take the mercy, grace and love of God and make them trivial at best. Christians have a profound sense of their own moral bankruptcy and God's incredible grace in reaching out to bring us to himself. This is a grace that isn't cheap, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German-Lutheran pastor who was martyred by the Nazis near the end of WWII. This grace compels us to make a commitment because it came to us in our emptiness, and filled up everything that was necessary. That is why Paul says, "in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself..."
Many years ago there was a conference in Great Britain on comparative religions. Experts from all over the world came to debate what was unique about the Christian faith in relation to other religions.
Was it that God came to us as a human? No, other religions had that.
Was it the resurrection? No, other religions believed in that.
Was it heaven, life after death, or the eternal soul?
Was it love for your neighbor, good works, or sin, hell, or judgement??? NO, NO, NO. These were all parts of other religions.
The dialog went on for some time when C. S. Lewis walked into the room. They asked him, "what is so unique about Christianity from other religious faiths?"
He answered, "That's easy, It's Grace!"
The sense of being lost, wandering aimlessly, striving for reality without realizing that we're in a fog of our own SELF is what causes us to come to God and need His grace.
To Love God with all of our hearts, all of our soul, all of our mind, or strength - and our neighbor too - is impossible to do without that Grace.
I'll talk about those tomorrow..For now,
Peace
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