Ordinary Christian

I shared this 4 years ago. Even more true today.

Another take on my recent piece about church.

As children we quickly learn that square pegs fit into square holes and round pegs fit into round holes but often in life we can feel like square pegs being forced into places where we don't belong.
I've been a Christian for most of my life but I struggle to feel at home in a church environment. For many people church is a way of life; it defines them, it defines their social activity, it defines their friendships. They enjoy the Sunday Service and the other meetings. They en...
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Great interview. Very direct and very challenging.

In one of the biggest films of 2018, "A Star Is Born", Bradley Coopers character sings these words:
Tell me something girl Are you happy in this modern world? Or do you need more?...
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What do you think of when you think of "Jesus"?
For years western Christianity hasn't done us any favours with stock images of Jesus dressed in white with a blue sash, long flowing hair and a halo, "floating" around with a perfectly serene look on his face. More recently the trend, largely from America, has been to portray Jesus on a power with the Marvel super heroes.
With Christmas not far away many see Jesus as the baby in the manger in nativity plays and on Christmas card...s but Jesus didn't begin in Bethlehem. He always existed, he was always eternal. At Bethlehem God adopted a human physique and dwelt among us in our space and time. He was fully human but retained all of the qualities of God. The Bible says "He emptied himself" - It's a flawed illustration but perhaps think of Superman in his Clarke Kent guise. Every part of God was still there within him but he was "suppressing it" (to a large degree) so as to experience life as one of us. He got hungry, he got tired, he felt pain, he wept. He was human just as we are.
Elsewhere the Bible describes Jesus as "the lamb slain before the foundation of the world" in other words it was ALWAYS God's plan for Jesus to be Crucified to take away our sin and reconcile us to God. Jesus came to earth with that knowledge - he came knowing that he would only live for 33 years, would never marry, would be falsely accused and largely rejected and ultimately die an excruciating death for a crime he never even committed. He AGREED to do it. That is the true mark of a hero. To see a human race so helpless, so in danger and so without hope that he sacrificed himself. Not so much "gentle Jesus meek and mild" as determined, selfless, sacrificial, brave and heroic.
Maybe it's time to rethink how we see Jesus.
Some men struggle to accept Jesus because they think it would make them soft. They struggle to go to church because they think it makes them less "manly". In today's world of gender equality those thoughts are perhaps less prevalent but Jesus wasn't soft or weak. He wasn't "namby pamby". He was the true epitome of strength and bravery which any man or woman can aspire to.
He is "Mighty to save" - He had to be.
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Many of us have a view of God as an angry or vindictive old man waiting to condemn us when we fail to meet his unreasonable standards.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
I employ 5 people and we get on really well - it's a real "family" environment. They are all very capable and professional and work hard for the collective good of both our clients and their colleagues. Thankfully I don't expect them to be perfect. ... Mistakes happen. Sometimes small mistakes - sometimes more significant mistakes. When this happens we often laugh at our own stupidity or make fun of each other. There's no finger pointing or shame. Who knows which one of us will make the next mistake? Always we seek to understand what went wrong and how it can be avoided in future but we know that mistakes are part and parcel of messy life. I am not a perfect boss but nor do I expect my staff to be perfect. They're human and to err is human. Giving them space to do their best whilst accepting that even the best of us make mistakes enables them to concentrate on their successes rather than be broken by their failures. I have worked for companies and in situations where this was not the case and where every shortcoming was emphasised and amplified until the weight became unbearable.
I believe that the Bible shows us God's way is the first scenario.
Hebrews 4:15 says, "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin". The high priest is Jesus who represents us before God.
Psalm 103:14 also says, "For he knows how weak we are; he remembers we are only dust".
It is because of our weakness that God provided a solution to our problem. He provided a perfect person to take our place and now Jesus' "righteousness" (his goodness and perfection) are credited to us as if they were ours.
This doesn't happen automatically - we must "receive" Jesus gift of forgiveness freely and when we do that this is what the Bible says..
"as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us". Psalm 103:12.
"Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus". Romans 8:1
Rather than be broken by our failings and shortcomings we can know true forgiveness and live the rest our lives in the knowledge that God loved us enough to accept us as we were and to make it possible for us to be forgiven - not through any effort on our own part but purely by his grace, his mercy and out of his love for us.
Do Christians still sin? Of course they do but they are no longer defined by their sin. They no longer need to live under the condemnation and weight of their sin. It is that realisation that makes us new and allows us to live lives of thankfulness and in celebration to God and look forward to an eternity with God where we can praise him and thank him with the curse of sin finally removed.
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There is one question that triggers more comments than any other - "Where is God when it hurts...?"
This could be rephrased as "Life's not fair" because what we're really saying is "life isn't the way I want it, it isn't the way I would like it to be and I think it should be my way".
We don't set the rules for life and these difficult situations reveal our own "smallness" and inability to control our own environment. We can't determine who gets sick and who doesn't. We can'...
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"Come As You Are..."
Most people are familiar with the story of Adam and Eve’s son, Cain, killing his brother Abel recorded in Genesis Chapter 4. Cain was angry that God was pleased with Abel’s offering of a lamb but displeased with Cain’s offering from his crops. Cain was an arable farmer who grew crops so he brought some of his produce to God. Abel was a shepherd so he brought a “firstborn lamb”. Seems fair enough. So why was God not pleased?
If we go back to the previous c...
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#Repealthe8th or #trustwomen don't sound like particularly contentious slogans but to understand what lies behind these two slogans is another matter.
This may well be the most contentious post which I have written on this page but it is often said that, "for evil to succeed all it takes is for good people to do nothing".
The question of abortion is not a religious question - you are not a religious nut or somehow "old fashioned" if you oppose abortion. Nor is it a political... question - it doesn't mean, for example, that you are a DUP supporter in Northern Ireland (which I'm not). It is not even a question of human rights, women's rights, pro choice or pro life. It is about what we are as a society and what we want our values to be.
The Savita Halappanavar story is a tragedy that should never have happened but it is medical incompetence rather than an open door to abortion on demand.
As someone who's wife experienced an early miscarriage after our second child I know the sense of loss. It was not a mere collection of cells or a fetus - it was a developing human being which, given the chance, would have developed into a human child - our human child. As parents we would all defend our living children against any attacker, even at the expense of our own lives, and yet parents are among those now campaigning for the right to end viable human lives before birth - lives that, without outside intervention, would develop into living human beings. Yes there are tragic circumstances which can result in "unwanted" or "unplanned" pregnancies but is there any other area of life where a life can be taken in order to avoid a difficult situation or set of circumstances. Think of some of the great people in history - what if their lives had been ended before birth, what would we as a species have lost. What if Mary had sought an abortion when, as a young teenager in a strict Jewish environment, she found herself pregnant before she was married.
Psalm 139 says, "You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mothers womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made".
A new slogan is "The North is Next" so make no mistake the pressure will be immense for Northern Ireland to cave into the demands of pro-abortionists. Whatever your religious position I would urge you to consider the implications for us as a society if this is how we value human life.
We have a group locally who use the slogan #bothlivesmatter - I would go further and say #alllivesmatter.
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Today's post is inspired by a conversation with a work colleague. What is a Christian?
It's a good question and we use the word in different ways at different times. Sometimes it's used of a country - e.g. Britain used to be considered a "Christian nation" meaning its leaders were guided by Christian principles. Sometimes it's used to mean a Protestant or Catholic Church as opposed to Jewish, Muslim or other religion.... Sometimes it's used simply of people who go to church but for many of us it means much more. The Bible never calls us to become Christians. In fact it was simply a descriptive name given to the followers of Jesus (Christ) by others of the time, mainly Jews, in Antioch.
To be a Christian really means to be given over to Jesus. To be devoted to and led by Jesus. To have accepted Jesus as our only means of being reconciled to God.
Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than going to McDonalds makes you a hamburger.
To be a Christian is to know an internal change of heart and attitude which sets our internal compass towards Jesus Christ. It's not about never doing anything wrong. It's not even about doing lots of specific good things likes going to church or reading our Bibles daily, although those things aren't bad things to do. It's not about not cursing, smoking, drinking or doing drugs. Those things are outward indicators of an internal change. It's not about living better although that often is the result. It's about knowing God and connecting with him in our daily lives. Living life in a awareness of his existence and a knowledge that he loved us so much that he did something amazing to bring us to himself. It's about knowing that our sins have been removed "as far as the east is from the west" and living in the joy and knowledge that we are loved, accepted and forgiven.
What an amazing God we have who has called us as his own. How could we resist him?
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Is it reasonable in the 21st century to believe in God?
Because belief in a Supernatural God has been so ridiculed by media and others in the 21st century most people reject any notion of God without any examination of the facts. Others create a God of their own imagination, a sort of home made, DIY collection of ideas and hopes of what God might be like if he does exist. Let me make a couple of points which you may wish to consider further... 1) Jesus was a real historical f...igure, described not just in the Bible but also in historical records from the time. I'm not aware of anyone who has researched Jesus existence who has decided that he did not exist. The evidence of his life is overwhelming. 2) The Bible, despite popular opinion, is a highly reliable textual document. There are over 4,500 copies of early manuscripts and textual experts, even those without any Christian faith, generally agree that the text we have today is 99% pure and an accurate translation of the original text and it's meaning.
Jesus Claimed to be God. He said, anyone who has seen me has seen God. He also said, I and the father are one (the father being God). Some say Jesus was a wise teacher or a good man but if he lied about being God then he was neither good nor wise. He was either deliberately deceiving people or deluded. That would make him a liar or a mad man.
So, If Jesus is a real person, and Jesus was God then the remaining question is where is he now and is he still relevant?
Christianity is the only "faith" which claims its founder is still alive. Many people have sought to explain away the resurrection of Jesus from the dead but even some eminent, atheistic scientists and investigative journalists have been forced to conclude that the physical resurrection of Jesus is the best explanation of the facts; no other explanation better addresses the facts than a physical resurrection.
So the first answer is that Jesus is alive. If Jesus is alive then surely he must also be God and if he is God then by looking at Jesus we can see what God is like.
Unfortunately most people (including Christians) think they know Jesus but often the Jesus described is a poor, watered down version of who Jesus is in the Bible. Gentle Jesus meek and mild isn't going to be much use when you need someone to defeat evil. Would gentle Jesus have been able to withstand the brutal flogging and crucifixion just so that we could be saved. No. The real Jesus is much bigger, much stronger, much more dangerous than the baby in the manger. He is the God of the universe.
The reason most people don't want to believe in God, or prefer to choose a God of their own making, or try to dismiss the Bible is because to accept that Jesus is real means we have to deal with the question of what that means for us.
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