The calendar flipping to a new year feels like a new start for many people. Setting goals with the hope that this year will be better is common.
As we think of new starts and new beginnings in the new year, let's remind ourselves of the new beginning offered to us through Christ. Jesus paid the overwhelming debt of sins—past, present, and future—for those who come to him in faith. There's freedom from no longer having the great burden that has separated us from God.
For those in Christ, this means a new family. God is our Father! The best father. A king and purely good.
It's also a new way of life. There's joy and new motivation, with the help of the Holy Spirit and in response to such amazing grace, to help people in need and to love our neighbor.
A new reason to just chill too. We have peace knowing God is in control.
Showing posts with label new beginning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label new beginning. Show all posts
Thursday, January 1, 2015
Sunday, November 23, 2014
Personality Is Not Faith or Orthodoxy
Among churches which are concerned with upholding a creed at times you will find the issue that the churches cannot distinguish between the creed and the culture of the church. It is interesting that in certain creedal churches those who have been raised in the church, who share in the personality of the church because they have been raised in the culture, are given a nearly complete pass in regards to orthodoxy.
It is interesting that in creedal churches some of the most worrisome expressions of faith come from those who have never been outside of that denomination. It is not that the denomination has failed in teaching the creed but rather the denomination is blind to the fact that those who have been raised in the denomination are at clear odds with the creed.
These people may be promoted to eldership without the bat of an eye even though they are at odds with the creed. Often it is not the easiest to see but no one ever questions them even when they say error because they have never not been in the church and feel like the other in the church.
And here is the great error. True religion is not something one is born into. True religion is not a shared culture of how we act on the surface. It is of course of great benefit to be born into a believing community and raised in a Christian way. But Christianity is not simply a lack of a rejection of what one has been taught by one's Christian family.
Christianity is a religion which must become personal and take root. It is not as if we are Christian simply by not leaving the church we grew up in and not rejecting its teaching. You see some people grow up in a church and remain and yet seem to have no active element to their faith.
They may remain because of community or all the good business networking connections they have gained. Or maybe other members of the church are clients. But faith is always active. Faith is a new beginning each person takes before God. It is necessarily more than a lack of a rejection of what one has been taught.
It is interesting that in creedal churches some of the most worrisome expressions of faith come from those who have never been outside of that denomination. It is not that the denomination has failed in teaching the creed but rather the denomination is blind to the fact that those who have been raised in the denomination are at clear odds with the creed.
These people may be promoted to eldership without the bat of an eye even though they are at odds with the creed. Often it is not the easiest to see but no one ever questions them even when they say error because they have never not been in the church and feel like the other in the church.
And here is the great error. True religion is not something one is born into. True religion is not a shared culture of how we act on the surface. It is of course of great benefit to be born into a believing community and raised in a Christian way. But Christianity is not simply a lack of a rejection of what one has been taught by one's Christian family.
Christianity is a religion which must become personal and take root. It is not as if we are Christian simply by not leaving the church we grew up in and not rejecting its teaching. You see some people grow up in a church and remain and yet seem to have no active element to their faith.
They may remain because of community or all the good business networking connections they have gained. Or maybe other members of the church are clients. But faith is always active. Faith is a new beginning each person takes before God. It is necessarily more than a lack of a rejection of what one has been taught.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)