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Posts Tagged ‘religion’

Christian or Christ Follower

Posted in christian living, Jesus follower, tagged , , , , , on August 8, 2013| 14 Comments »

I recently saw a news article about one group of christians picketing another church group. Supposedly they were picketing because they felt the church group, who allowed gays and women who had abortions into their assembly, was being soft on sin.

I can only assume that the picketers thought the gays and the abortion people were to big of sinners to be in with the religious folk.

Seems the church assembly was being more Christ-like to me, but the whole situation made me feel a little ashamed to be called a christian. In fact, I think it is a good idea to give up being called a christian. It is just another man-made religion, and I feel that I am done with religion. Rather than being called a christian, I think it makes more sense to say I am a follower of Christ. Jesus didn’t start christianity and he didn’t come to start any kind of religion.

Being a Christ follower is a daily, 24/7 lifestyle, not something to be done once a week in a building. It isn’t following a doctrine, or set of rules and regulations.

As a Christ follower, we accept all people and we love all people, like Jesus did when he walked this earth.

This doesn’t mean we agree with everyone. It doesn’t mean people can live anyway they want and have fellowship with the Father. But once they come to God, the spirit comes to live within them and he will guide them in their daily lives and actions. It is not our job to condemn others. Jesus’ command under the New Covenant is for us to love God and love others.

Like the picketers and church group mentioned above, a lot of christians today spend more time fighting and arguing amongst themselves while the world watches and laughs.

As followers of Christ, we need to keep in mind that we, the Church, are the body of Christ in our world. We may be the only “Jesus” many people see. We should keep our focus on Christ as our all in all, and forsake our personal feelings. In our lives, Christ should increase and we should decrease.

 

This post was a Guest Post at New Covenant Grace
You can view it at http://www.newcovenantgrace.com/christian-or-christ-follower/

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The religious way or God’s way

Posted in christian living, tagged , , on March 6, 2013|

Jesus didn’t come to start a new group or new religion. He came to provide fellowship with the Father by cleansing us from our sinful nature.

Christianity is not a religion. True Christianity is a relationship with God. I think it is more accurate to say we are followers of Christ.

The Church is not an organization, it is a living organism. It is not a denomination, it is not Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Catholic, or any other man-made group based on a doctrine you are expected to believe and follow. The Church is all of us who have trusted in the grace of God provided by the sacrifice of Christ. We are all kings and priests and ministers of God. We are all equals and are holy and righteous in God’s sight because of Christ​​.

There are many people involved in organized religion who truly love God and who are wanting to live in close fellowship with God. There are many pastors who truly feel called to preach and lead in their congregation. The problem with modern day church is not the people who love God, it is the organized system itself that says you have to be involved and support the system to truly be a Christian.

For those who have left organized religion, many are looked down upon and called back-sliders. They are said to have walked away from God and avoid fellowship by not attending church. Truth is, fellowship was never required to happen in a certain place, at a certain time, on a certain day. Fellowship happens anywhere, anytime two or three gather in His name.

As followers of Christ, we should be loving and accepting of everyone we meet, whether in church, out of church, believer or non-believer. Many in the church today want to prove their point and argue with those of different interpretation, doctrine, those who don’t attend church and those who are not believers. Jesus told us under the New Covenant we are to love God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind and love others as we love ourselves. That doesn’t mean we have to agree with everyone, but it is not our job to point out others sins and mistakes. We are not to condemn and convict. The Holy Spirit will work in each person’s life in His time and His way. We are to love. Jesus loved and hung out with all kinds of people. Funny thing, it seems the ones He had the most problem with were the religious people, the ones who thought they were better than all those sinful, second class people that Jesus associated with.

​A lot of us Christians will argue that we are called to be separate and come out from among them, thinking that means we separate ourselves from the sinful people of the world. Jesus said he came for the sick, those who needed a physician. Being separate cannot mean we don’t associate with people of the world. Jesus said we are in the world, but not of it. We don’t need to separate ourselves into Christian churches, Christian schools, Christian clubs etc. We are to live daily in the world, rubbing shoulders with those who are not part of the ‘religious’ crowd. We are to be Jesus’ hands and feet on earth today and show everyone we meet the love of Christ, not the condemnation of religion.​

We should love and accept everyone, male-female, black-white, rich-poor, Hindu-Muslim-Atheist-Christian, gay-straight. We are called to love and accept all people. Stop letting the religious spirit separate us from the ones that God loves. He wants to show His love through us. Again, loving and accepting people doesn’t mean we agree with them, or approve of what they do, it is not our job to be the judge. Let the love of God flow out of you to everyone you see each day. Don’t worry who they are, what they believe, what they do, just love them with the love of Christ. Everything else is in God’s hands.

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Going to church or Being the Church

Posted in christian living, Community, Ekklesia, tagged , , , , , , on November 29, 2012| 5 Comments »

As a person that has grown up in organized religion, I can honestly say that today’s church has fallen way off course. What we call church today many times seems more like a large corporation.

We seem to be more focused on our programs, building bigger buildings, having a bigger and better worship band, getting on radio or TV and being a step ahead of the church down the street.

Our churches today are so divided by denominations that it makes me think of Heinz 57 Varieties…..and that’s just the Baptist! It seems like there is a church building every mile or two from each other, yet our world seems to get worse and worse.

We are all brothers and sisters in Christ, yet we divide ourselves and fight and argue amongst ourselves. I’m sure it makes God want to turn us over his knee and spank us all.

It amazes me how upset and defensive people can get when you mention that going to church is not a requirement. They seem to forget that the church is not a building and is not a place we go to, but the Church is the body of believers. Usually the first verse that is quoted when we talk about not going to church is Hebrews 10:25 – not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

No where does this verse say that we have to assemble in a building on a certain day at a certain time. No where does it say we have to have a pastor to teach us, or a worship band to lead us in praise and worship.

I feel that sometimes we Christians want to be entertained and told what to believe, then go home feeling satisfied that we have fulfilled our duty until next Sunday. We have become lazy and don’t want to spend the time with God, reading His words, letting the Holy Spirit teach us. As 1 John 2:23 states – as for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you (the Holy Spirit), and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.

Jesus said where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them. That can be in a restaurant, in a home, in a park etc. To many people put more emphasis on where we meet and not enough emphasis on spending time with the one we love. Why is it we feel the need to go to a building anyway, God said we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. God told us that He is always with us, so why is it people say they are going to the house of God to meet with Him. We are the house of God, and He is always with us.

Going to an organized religious building is not wrong, but let’s start calling it what it is. The Church are those of us who are saved through faith in Christ. The building that people go to on Sunday morning is a place where the members of the Church get together. We do hear the word of God in most places, and we are together with other believers, but how much true fellowship happens during an organized service.

How many times do people get more involved with the things about Christ, the services, the meetings, the up-keep of a building and the money to keep the bills paid, that we lose sight of our first love. Jesus is the head, He is to have the preeminence. We need to put our focus on Christ, loving Him with all our heart, soul, strength and mind, and loving others as ourselves. Stop the arguing over different interpretations and denominational doctrines, and start loving others no matter what. It is then that the world will know we are His disciples and see a difference in the way we live as Christians.

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Jesus was Tempted Too

Posted in christian living, tagged , , , , on November 16, 2012| 1 Comment »

Jesus was tempted just like each one of us. The only difference is He did not give in to the temptation.

We tend to think about Jesus being above humanity while He lived on earth. He lived a perfect life while here, but we usually say He did this because He was God and above being tempted.

We are told in the Bible that Jesus was actually tempted in ALL things just as we are today. He was completely human and was tempted just like us. This goes to show that temptation is not a sin, but we sin when we give in to the temptation.

Jesus had such a close and intimate fellowship with His Father, that he was able to overcome all temptation and live a perfect life. Because He did this, it made Him worthy to be the perfect sacrifice for us.

Because we lost the relationship and intimate fellowship with God through the fall of Adam, we were unable to live up to the Law of the Old Testament.

Jesus fulfilled the Law. He died to take away our sins and destroy the Old Covenant. He then rose from the dead and thereby began the New Covenant of living by grace.

All of us who accept His sacrifice are now living in grace, God’s perfect gift of salvation, and we are seen as perfect and righteous in His sight because of that gift.

Our old sin nature is dead and buried, and we have been raised up as new creatures in Christ. We now have the power to overcome those temptations when they come, and to live a life pleasing to God. None of this was accomplished by our own strength or works. It is the gift of God through Christ.

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He Must Increase

Posted in christian living, tagged , , , , , on November 2, 2012| 1 Comment »

As Christians, we are always striving to be more Christ-like. We try to accomplish this in various ways.

Most of us think to be a better Christian we need to go to church more, read the Bible more, pray more, witness more, go on mission trips and a wide variety of other works. We get so busy with things about Christ that we forget the person of Christ. We are so works oriented we burn ourselves out trying to be more like Christ.

The problem with this way of thinking is it just don’t work.

We can’t work our way into a closer fellowship with God, we can’t work our way into being more Christ-like. Basically, we can’t work our way into anything in regard to relationship and fellowship with our Father.

Christ paid the price, Christ did all the work necessary, Christ took our sinful nature and crucified it on the cross. We can’t do anything to earn it or pay for it. It is by grace that we are saved, and it is by grace that we live day by day.

What Christ asks us to do is decrease. What we can do is let Christ live through us and there is no way for Him to do that as long as we are full of ourselves. No amount of work can empty ourselves of our natural way of acting, thinking, living.

As an example of emptying ourselves, if you want a glass of milk but the glass is full of water, the only way to get the milk in is empty the water.  In the same way, if you want to follow Christ as He told us to, the only way is to empty ourselves of our natural way of doing things and let His life increase in us.

The thing that we all overlook while trying so hard to work our way into a close fellowship is that only by truly following Christ, allowing Him to work in us and through us, will anything change. The only way to let Christ do His work through us is to die daily to our natural self, our wants, desires, our way of living and let Christ’s life increase in us.

To me, dying daily means we start each new day asking Christ to live His life through us and daily remind ourselves that because Christ died once for our sins, we are also dead to sin. Christ has defeated the power of sin over us and we need to daily remind ourselves of that fact. Our flesh is always there waiting for a chance to show itself, and we need to daily commit to the fact that the flesh has been defeated. We also daily yield the members of our bodies to God as His instrument and ask for His strength and power to live through us.

We can do nothing on our own, all our works are just as filthy rags in comparison to Him. He is the vine, we are the branches. We can’t live and grow apart from Him.

Stop doing all your works in hope of becoming more Christ-like. Do what He told us to do by dying daily to self and follow Him. Once His life is filling us, the works will happen naturally but they will be done by Him through love, not out of obligation or necessity.

He must increase, we must decrease.

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Commandments of Christ

Posted in christian living, tagged , , , on July 17, 2012| 3 Comments »

A lot of us grew up in organized church and were taught that we needed to live by the 10 commandments to be pleasing to God.

Fortunately, I have come to realize that this just isn’t true. Many well meaning people over the years taught this, but I am finding that they were mistaken. Christians today still want to combine the New Covenant with the Old Covenant, and that just don’t work.

There are a few places in the New Testament that refer to following Christ’s commands, but we need to take a look at just exactly what are His commands. We find that Christ’s commands in the New Testament are something different from the 10 commandments of the Old Testament.

Another thing we need to remember is that the New Covenant doesn’t start where men have divided up the Old from New Testament. The New Covenant starts at the death and resurrection of Jesus. For the 33 years that He lived on this earth, He was following the Old Covenant laws, “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law ” Galatians 4:4 (NASB). I think this is where a lot of us get confused.

Once Christ lived and fulfilled the Old Covenant, He became the perfect sacrifice needed to provide forgiveness to us. We were unable to live up to the standards set by God, and we still cannot do it. It is by grace that we are saved, and because of Christ’s death and resurrection, we are new creatures in Him. We now have an inner man that is righteous in God’s sight because of grace. We are no longer required to try and live up to the 10 commandments and all the law, rules and regulations of the Old Covenant. In fact, under the New Covenant we are told that if we try to follow the law, we are under a curse, “For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to perform them.” Galatians 3:10 (NASB)

The Old Testament Commands have been fulfilled in Christ. The New Testament Commands we are told about are John 6:28, 29 “They said therefore to Him, what shall we do, that we may work the works of God? Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent”;  John 13:34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another”;  John 15:12 “This is My commandment that you love one another, just as I have loved you”;  and John 15:17 “This I command you, that you love one another.” (NASB)

Jesus Commandments continue in 1 John 3:23 “This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. 24 The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us”.

The commandments of Christ are based on the grace He provided for us at the cross. We never could live up to the Old Covenant with its rules and regulations. Christ did live up to the law and fulfilled it. He is the only one who could ever do so. It is because of His grace that we no longer follow the Old Covenant teachings. Once we accept Him and the grace He provided, we become new creatures and no longer have the sin nature controlling us. Our inner man is now perfect and righteous in His site, we have become the righteousness of God, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him”. 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NASB).

Enjoy the freedom you have in Christ. We don’t have to worry and strive to fulfill any law other than the law of loving God and loving others. Don’t worry that this freedom with lead you to sin. We have died to the law and the power of sin. We now live for Christ out of love, not out of obligation, “For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. 14 For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Galatians 5:13, 14. (NASB). This gives us a new freedom from the sinful lifestyle. We are new creatures in Christ.

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Love Each Other

Posted in Acceptance of Others, christian living, Community, The church, tagged , , , , , , , on June 29, 2012| 1 Comment »

Do you read many Christian forums these days, or Christian blogs and all the comments made on the article?

If you are like me you may find them all very disheartening. In fact, I have about come to the decision to stop reading comments or forums at all.

When I read that in Bible times Christians were known by the love they had for one another, and then read all the arguments, disagreements, disrespectful comments on these sites it just depresses me.

LoveEachOther

I know we are not going to agree on all things. We all have our own interpretations and beliefs, but I thought we should be able to look past all those and still love one another and respect each other.

Here in the USA we have grown up in religious freedom and in a land of plenty and we Christians, me included, sometimes seem more like a bunch of spoiled brats.

I love the freedoms we have here and I love the freedom of religion, but sometimes I think the only way we are going to have close fellowship with God and true love for our brothers and sisters in Christ is when this country is under some non-Christian dictatorship. When we can not get a Bible, can not go to church, when we are afraid of being put in jail for our beliefs or worse yet being put to death because we proclaim Christ, it is then that we will forget all our differences in interpretation and doctrine and will come to have real love for other Christians.

I do not want to see it come to that. I wish that all of us Christians, no matter what denomination, what doctrine we hold to, whether we are a part of the institutional church or if we do not attend a church at all we can come together because of our love for the Father and love for one another.

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Be Holy

Posted in christian living, tagged , , , , on June 20, 2012| 2 Comments »

1 Peter 1:16 –  because it is written, “you shall be holy, for I AM holy.”

I used to read this verse and think of it as a command. I thought God was telling us we had to live a holy life. Of course this made me wonder how that could ever be possible.

As I became more aware of God’s grace and what all it means, I found my answer as to how to be holy.

God’s grace is a gift. Our sins were crucified with Christ when He died on the cross. Our old sinful nature was buried with Christ and we were raised up a new creation.

Because of God’s gift of grace, our souls are now made perfect. Our hope is fixed completely on the grace brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ. We no longer have a soul that is sinful. We are a new creation in Christ.

Our soul has been made perfect by the grace of Christ. Our body and our mind are still in process of being transformed. As we allow the spirit of Christ to change and transform us, our body and mind will start to come in line with our soul. Of course, that will take a lifetime to complete.

I now realize this is not a command, but a statement. We are holy, because God is holy. Now that Christ has given us the gift of grace, we don’t have to live a Holy life by works, but God sees a perfect and holy soul within us.

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Love One Another

Posted in christian living, tagged , , , , on June 14, 2012|

Whether you are part of an organized religious organization, or what we today call church, or if you are not part of one, we as followers of Christ are the Church.

We should be able to get past our differences in doctrine and interpretation, get past what church we attend or if we attend at all, and focus on our love for God and our love for one another.

We obviously aren’t going to come in contact with every person in the world, but we are to be ready each day to allow the Spirit of Christ, which is within us, to reach out to those individuals we come in contact with each day.

All our organized services and plans to get people in to a service so the pastor can get the good word out will never make a huge difference. It is our job to go out into the world and live a life of love. Again, that doesn’t mean all of us has to become a missionary and go to some far off land. The people we come in contact with each day during our regular routine are the people we need to be showing love.

This is the way we will make a difference in our world, when non-believers see the love Christians have for each other and for God.

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Discouraging

Posted in christian living, tagged , , , on May 18, 2012|

You know what bothers me? The way we Christians can’t seem to get along.

Now I don’t expect everyone to agree with each other. God gave us minds and personalities and we are all different. But as I read different blogs and postings, I see a trend sometimes that is more than just disagreeing. It seems to get down right ugly sometimes.

Obviously we are going to disagree on things, but can’t we still disagree and yet respect and love the other person? It discourages me so much when I read a blog and go through the comments and see disagreements that turn into arguments. It gets to a point sometimes that I have to get away and stop reading.

I always wonder why it is we just can’t accept each others views and go on. Seems like a lot of people really get upset when they can’t get someone else to think the same way they do. We’ve got to go on and on, trying to prove our point or our way of thinking.

I know when you write a blog you are opening yourself up to comments and disagreements, but do we have to go to some of the extremes of getting mad and losing our tempers because someone else has a different viewpoint.

Aren’t we being just like the worldly crowd? Aren’t we supposed to be known as Christians by the love we have for one another.

Humans are never going to agree with others on every point, but we Christians should be able to disagree with our brothers and sisters in Christ, and yet do so in a way that the non-Christians will still be able to notice that extreme love we have for God and for one another.

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