Christianity

[phareztamar]

CHRISTIANITY

…and the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.

We all hope to find heaven, eternal life, and real meaning. The stage we find ourselves on, is large beyond shorelines. Perhaps the complexity of life…biologically, chemically, and socially…are the fingerprints of our invisible God. They are the keys, which unlock our meaning and purpose. Death…and the fear of it…are life’s loudest wake-up call:
and deliver them who through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
Death was meant to rattle your cage. Your fear of death should point you to God…or at least in that general direction. And after weeding through many gods, and many religions, only the God of the Hebrews is the real God. No brag…just fact. Only in the Hebrew scriptures, will our real meaning be found. The purpose behind God doing this whole life thing. But even though we’ve dodged Shiva, and Buddha, and Vishnu, we’ve come to no sheltered cove in Christianity. It’s a spaghetti pie. Christianity, for all of its fractures, is at least the correct fallopian tube. At one time, it defined a group of people who follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. 2,000 years later, there is much latitude here...many answers to what God hath said. Beneath this huge Christian umbrella, are thousands of beliefs, doctrines, isms, and schisms. We’re at the bright end, here, of the moon cycle. The strongest influences of the enemy, here apply. The most beautiful, the wisest, and the most melodic. The work of O Lucifer, son of the morning.
I was amused by a caller on talk radio some time ago. She was commenting on certain liberals who were trying to take the “Christ” out of Christmas. Unwittingly, I think she summed up today’s Christianity better than I ever could have: “It doesn’t matter if you call him Allah, God, Jehovah, Buddha, Shiva, or whatever. As long as we’re acknowledging him; that he is the source of our blessings here in the United States and abroad, that’s what really matters.” Yeah right; tell that to Cain.
This cotton candy view of God and his Word, is one of the downsides to our whirlwind of knowledge and technology. I mean, let’s face it; the speed of life has drastically increased. We’re no longer just busy with our lives and toys and inventions… we’re consumed by them. We work in technology, live in technology, and its only getting faster. We spend our weeks running ragged; working longer days for more money, to maintain our rapid pace of life. At day’s end, we have television (mind bubblegum), movie theatres, telephone calls, web surfing, the kids’ sports and after school activities, shopping, bars and night clubs … the list is endless. The hum and bling of mammoth progress has come at a cost. Little house on the prairie, has lost quality family time, theistic thought and meditation. So few today even read their bibles, save following along in Sunday service. Fewer still actually study their Bibles. Scarcely a handful studies it with Holy Ghost understanding.
Am I exaggerating? 24 hours times 7 days gives each man 168 hours per week. Let’s say you go to church on Sunday and Wednesday, each service lasting two hours. We’ll further suppose that you show up an hour early to pray before each service, and that you pray an hour a day at home, when there is no church service. We’re up to 11 hours a week…or a whopping 6% of our 168 hours devoted to God. And you know I’ve been overly gracious here. In reality, most folks are giving 2 to 3% of their time to their Creator. You’ve made it to the right ballpark at Christianity. But it’s a big park. You really need to master His book…until it masters you. It alone, can guide you through thousands of strands of theology, and find the truth about salvation…Creation itself bearing witness. There is a single creed, where the fracture of unity is restored among brethren. The like faith, birthing a tenacious one accord.
In the bible, we have the very diary of our God. Its value to the human soul cannot be told. Yet it is foreign to the millions who own one. We have pocket computer bibles, cassette audio tapes, bible VCR’s…it’s the 21st century. We know the big stories. Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah, Moses, and Jesus. What need then, to sacrifice the little spare time we have, studying the bible? Many before us have already solved the bible’s mysteries. Someone has already figured out what I must do to be saved. It’s common knowledge today. All it takes, is to follow what someone else has carefully documented for us. Having done that, we can just coast on into heaven. Forget that the Finney’s, Spurgeon’s, and Henry’s of old couldn’t agree, leaving us todays denominal splits. Never mind the Lord’s axiom to us: few there be that find it. Hey, we’re all huddled under the same umbrella here. Maybe we don’t agree on some of the details. But God is love, so as long as we share the essentials of the Christian faith, and do our best, we’re all going to heaven…right? Who cares that these volumes of works handed down, are as lifeless as today’s bible fads? What matters most to us, is that the work has been done, and we are the benefactors. Why spend our precious little time ensuring that we are on the strait and narrow? We haven’t the time, the energy, or the appetite, to go any deeper in God. If we do encounter difficulties in the bible, or in life, we don’t run to a prayer closet and ask God for wisdom. We Tweet. We text. We Google. We reach for a commentary on the subject, written by one of these pioneers of the faith.