Kary Oberbrunner writes...
The excerpt below is taken from his new book "CALLED:Becoming What You Were Meant To Be"
In my experience, the extent of Christianity that I’ve been presented with goes something like this:
1. Accept Jesus and ask Him into your heart.
2. Don’t do bad things now.
3. Withdraw from culture.
4. Hang out with Christians.
5. Go to church.
6. Read your Bible and pray.
7. Be happy that you are saved and not going to Hell.
8. Tell other people about how happy they can be if they follow
these seven steps.
Is it just me, or is this a lame life! Where is the passion? Where is the adventure? Where is the abundant life that Jesus promised us? No wonder we’re bored. The Jesus we’ve been presented with asks for way too little. No one wants to devote their lives to something that requires nothing of them. Like the saying goes, “people figure, if it don’t ask much then it ain’t worth much.”
THE PLANTER: It's time we get stirred up!
posted by Bob Carder @ 11:00 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
Now, what is wrong with that? A lot. Acts 1 verse 8 tells us the following: But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
Where is this Power? Your life is empty without this Power. Lets look at our own lives. Do you still suffer with pride, gossip, jealousy, self-righteousness, and having no patience? How do you try to get over it? Read more from the Bible. Pray more. Read books about how to overcome this problem. Listen to tapes and CD’s. If this does not work you go for counselling and get told to pray and fast. What does the Bible teaches us?
Matt 10: 38 “And he that doth not take his cross and follow after me, is not worthy of me.”
The Bible does not say we are going to have a whale of a time as Christians. It is going to cost me something. It is going to ask of me to take up my cross, and to follow Him, to die. We always see the cross only as something that the Lord died on for our sins, but we do not see it as a place where we have to go and to lay down our lives. We see it as a place where He fulfilled His part of the covenant. We don’t see it as a place where we have to lay down our lives. But we cannot be born again if we don’t die. It is impossible to be born again while we are still alive. I have to lay down my life, my self-righteousness, at the cross in order for me to be able to be raised with a new life, and to follow Jesus. You have to die, to be born again. Then my prayer won’t be “Lord I bring all my sins to you and ask forgiveness for these sins. Thank you that I am a new creation.” No, my prayer will be: “Lord, I cannot save myself from death and hell. I trust you to do this. I now lay my life down before you and receive your gift. Thank you for saving me and dying for my sins”.
This is also the first step of faith, as I now trust the Lord to save me. Before I died what I did was religion, now it is a life laid down to serve Him, to exalt Him, my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
What does it mean to be a Christian?
I would like to use the following definition: The right to stand before God without blemish, sin or inferiority. In other words, to have a covenant relationship with our Maker, to stand as His creation before Him, our Creator, without fear. That can only be accomplished once you have received the gift of righteousness.
"Where is the passion? Where is the adventure?"
Who want's that? Remember the Chinese curse "may you live in interesting times" ?
No thankyou. I've met people who have fled from "adventurous" countries as refugees. They never want to return to "passionate" living again.
This type of blog post can only come from a comfortable, Western, middle-class, well fed person who does not need to struggle for material existence. But that's not going to last for much longer...
Oh, I see Christianity is dying out in the West but growing in China and Africa.
You won't be fed that watered down version of Christianity when America is overun by hordes of poverty stricken people from other countries. They'll bring true, missional Christianity along with a mix of exotic disease, corruption and cultural extinction.
Can you say "Jesus loves you" in Mandarin?
David said: Can you say "Jesus loves you" in Mandarin?
We can probably learn by the time those poverty stricken hordes of Chinese swim or hike here. ;)
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