How I Began My Journey as a Christian

With Harold Camping's misguided doomsday prediction looming over us, this week I have noticed an increase in interest in spiritual things, however in most cases it has been mainly for ridicule and not for reason or rationalization. To be fair, I cannot say that I blame people for wagging their fingers and laughing, or mocking at the notion of doomsday coming today, May 21, 2011.
   This has led me to write this morning concerning what is true and right in light of what is misguided; and the best way to begin this writing is to simply state how my journey as a Christian began.
    Yes, my journey as a Christian as a beginning. I was not 'born' a Christian. I was not raised in a Christian family or anything like that. It dates back to 1979, when I was 13 years old. It was a bright August morning and I was visiting with my grandparents in Perry, Maine; who were also visiting from Westbrook, Maine. They would come down two times each summer, once for the week of the 4th of July, and once for a week in August, usually on the week of my birthday. I would look forward to their visits and for my Aunt Winnie's visits, who was more like an older sister to me than an aunt as she was only three years older than me.
   On this particular day in August I was upstairs in my great grandfather's house in Perry reading from Mark Twain's book Huckleberry Finn. Winnie and my younger sister Michelle came up the stairs and Winnie was talking to Michelle about Jesus and asked me if I wanted to come and listen. I told her that I didn't want anything to do with that. However they went in to the room next to mine and I ended up listening anyway. Winnie was talking about things that I had read about earlier in the week in some small comic books my grandfather had brought with him. The one thing that stood out to me that day was the concept that Jesus said 'I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one can come to the Father but by Me'.
   After they talked for a few minutes my sister prayed with Winnie to ask Jesus to forgive her of her sins and to be her Lord and Savior.
   I remember after they had gone down stairs sitting there on the bed and thinking for what seemed like an hour about this. I knew that this was serious stuff and that if I made a decision to accept Christ that my life would be different, I did not know how or in what way at the time but some how I just knew it would be different. In the end though, I knew that I am a sinner, that I have done things wrong and that after this life is over, I would much rather be in heaven than hell. If Christ says I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; and no one can come to the Father but by Me, then I need to give my life to Him.
   By that time I had forgotten what my sister and Winnie had prayed but I had remembered that these little comic books that my grandfather had in his room contained a sample prayer in the back that sounded like what they had prayed. So I went to my grandfather's room and found one of those comic books.
    I remember praying and asking Christ to forgive me for my sins, to come into my life and become my Lord and Savior. I thanked God for sending Jesus to die for my sins and that he raised him from the dead. I then thanked him for forgiving my sins. That moment in time was the beginning of my walk as a Christian. The following verse is the evidence for this.
    "that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation." Romans 10:9-10
   There is no baptism, tongues of fire, catechism, sacred ritual, or membership class that one needs to attend to become a Christian. Sometimes the reality of true Christianity becomes marred by humanity and its myopic and misguided self-interests. True Christianity is about re-establishing a right relationship that was broken in an idyllic garden in the beginning, it is restoring our relationship with the living God. It is nothing more, nothing less. 
   If anyone has any questions about my faith, I am more than happy to address those questions. One of the approaches I have always had in life is to be fair, firm and consistent with all my friends and family.

Job's Dilemma and our Delight

In Job 8 Bildad suggests to Job that perhaps the suffering he is facing is due to sin on his part or his children's part and that he should address the sin in order to stop the suffering. I am sure Bildad is responding out of deep concern for his friend and out of a pure motive here. He wants to see his friend to stop suffering, as any of us would want for any of our friends in crisis.
Job in chapter 9 responds that even if he were righteous he would not no what to say, how could he argue with God. The saddest verses come in verses 32 - 35.
32 "For He is not a man, as I am, That I may answer Him, And that we should go to court together.33 Nor is there any mediator between us, Who may lay his hand on us both. 34 Let Him take His rod away from me, And do not let dread of Him terrify me. 35 Then I would speak and not fear Him, But it is not so with me.
Job's response is sad in that he wishes that he had someone to act as an advocate for him, to stand between him and God as a mediator to help argue his case for him.

Here is Job, who with all his heart has tried to worship God with sincerity all his life. God even testifies to his character when talking with Satan. He is a man who offers sacrifices for himself and also for his children. He is responsible, hardworking, and well liked in the community.

Yet, in this hour of distress he senses a chasm in the relationship between him and God, he desires to come before God, to plead his case before the almighty, but he knows he cannot without a mediator.

Compare this to our relationship we now enjoy with God because of Christ who ever lives to make intercession for us (Hebrews 7:25). He stands as the one mediator between God and men (1 Timothy 2:5), arbitrating our cause before the throne of heaven. And when we sin, he is our advocate before the throne of grace turning away the wrath of God (1 John 2:1-2). Now we do not need to fear to come before the throne of God, but are told to come boldly before the throne of grace to find help in the time of need.

How many of us take Him up on that offer? How many times do I take that offer too lightly? Do I treat prayer with the dignity and honor it deserves? When I enter the sanctuary of prayer, I enter in with the King of Kings, the one who masterfully created all things and by whom all things are held together. Yet sometimes I just rush in and throw my list down and run back out like a court jester in the palace court, looking like the fool for it too. It is only by His grace and mercy and of course much patience with me that I am not consumed like a firebrand in the underbrush.

The Emmaus Road Feast

This morning I was reading the events following Christ's resurrection in Luke 24 and was thinking about the interaction between Christ and the men going from Jerusalem to Emmaus. In verse 27, the spiritual feast begins,

And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

Later the men urge this stranger on the road to Emmaus to stay with them. When Christ came and broke bread and blessed the bread it was then that their eyes were opened. It is the following verse that I found compelling.

They asked each other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?"

Here on the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus these men had dined on a spiritual feast and had not appreciated its delicacies until much later. 'Were not our hearts burning within us' should be my heart cry when I sit and dine at the dinner table with Christ and enjoy the feast from His word. However, it is not often that I can say this. Many times the words of the page just tumble across my brow and barely light upon my soul. Perhaps they catch there unknowingly to me and are set to be harvested later by the Holy Spirit, I can only entrust that work to His holy hands. I know that my God is faithful. All I know is that I wish I had a deeper and closer walk with Him and that I desire to honor Him in all I do and say.

Noah, the Ark and Fiction

I watched a National Geographic show on Saturday which was designed to show 'proof' for Noah's Ark and trying to figure out if the Biblical story of Noah and the Ark is merely allegory or factual historical events.

More coming soon ...

Joash King of Judah - Starting well, but finishes poorly

Today's reading from 2 Chronicles 24 is a good reminder not to take my walk with God for granted. Joash is King in Judah and for most of his life he walks strongly with God. He tears down the high places, he restores the temple; from all outward appearances he is trying to do what is right.

However, there is a problem here. Somehow later in life he sets aside his passion for righteousness and for following God with a whole heart. He even stoops to murder, murder of the son of the priest!

Lord, may I follow you with a whole heart. May I not forsake you in my older years. May you who have begun your work within me continue to complete it until the day you call me home. Thank you Father.

Something more than a man

In my personal studies this morning, I am focused on the phrase from I Corinthians 3:3 in which the apostle Paul states: "...and are you not walking as mere men".

As I meditate on this verse, I begin to wonder how does God view my walk? Am I walking as a mere man? Is my lifestyle, my behavior different from that of those who have not accepted Christ as Lord and Savior? What is it that makes a life a different walk?

Do Christians pick and choose which biblical laws to follow?

A recent article in the Portland Press Herald elicited a flurry of reader responses. The article which is entitled, "Maybe Michael Heath should should spend time with a civil rights team" quickly catapulted into a discussion concerning homosexuality. One recurring theme that those who support homosexuality kept raising was why do Christians like myself and Michael Heath pick and choose which biblical laws to endorse? If we are going to teach that homosexuality is wrong, why not teach that the Levitical laws for ceremonial cleansing should be enforced as well.

These are valid questions and objections; I can certainly understand why people would be confused because it does appear that we are selectively culling the scriptures. I would like to offer an explanation of why conservative evangelical Christians teach that laws against homosexuality should continue to be enforced in today's society.

Within the Jewish religious system the laws laid out in the scriptures can be categorized into several different areas. There are Levitical laws, ceremonial laws, cleansing laws, moral laws, and sacrificial laws. Levitical laws related directly to the conduct and life of the Levites. Ceremonial laws dealt with feast days and hygiene. Moral laws dealt with issues concerning adultery, homosexuality, incest, bestiality, prostitution, giving to the poor, stealing, deceit, perjury, dishonesty, treatment of the disabled, etc. For conservative evangelical Christians like myself, we believe that the moral law from the Old Testament is still applicable today.

We believe the moral laws to be applicable today because the New Testament reinforces the application of the moral laws while at the same time it teaches that the sacrificial laws are no longer needed.

Christ taught that the moral law is still applicable. Consider John 8 and the woman caught in adultery. While Christ did forgive her, he did not excuse the sin. He told her to go and sin no more. He recognized it as sin and in effect was enforcing the moral laws of the Old Testament. Christ also taught against adultery - again the moral law - in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:27.
(To be continued...)