On Being Christian

Read Luke 11:37-54

“Jesus replied, 

‘And you experts in the law, 

woe to you, 

because you load people down

 with burdens they can hardly carry

 and you yourselves

 will not lift one finger to help them.’”

                                                                                   Luke 11:46 Niv
One friend of mine looked at this verse and quipped jokingly “proof lawyers have never changed.”
Here’s another trivia statistic the majority of lawyers in the world are in North America and most of them in the United States.
Sometimes I look at our churches and wonder if they are not all in them.
Take a quick look around at church culture. I’ve seen churches filled with you must do this or you can’t do that, or this is wrong, or only this is right.
In two thousand years the Church has picked up a lot of baggage. Within every denomination there are things that are of men not of God. Likewise there are men and women within the church who wish to enforce these things.
The early church had this dilemma the leaders then deciding in acts 15 that the law was burdensome and in Acts 15: 29 made things simple.

“You are to abstain from foods sacrificed to idols.

 From blood from the meat of strangled animals

 and from sexual immorality.

 You will do well to avoid these things.”

That being said the Apostle Paul makes it clear how we obtain our salvation.

“For it is by grace you have been saved, 

through faith–

and this not from yourselves,

it is a gift of God-

not by works 

so that no one can boast.

                                                                                   Ephesians 2:8,9

Paul in his writing in Romans makes it clear that 

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 

                                                        Romans 3:21 

John writing,

“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins 

and purify us from all unrighteousnes,”

               John 1:8,9

We have no need to go through a mediator such as a priest of minister. We can confess our sins directly to God and He will forgive us.

That’s why Jesus paid the ultimate price.

Something to think about.
The key to a Christian life is simple.
 First with a sincere heart we must come to Christ and confess our sins and be willing to change our life. To one that reflects Christ.

 Second we must be willing to put Christ first in our lives always remembering that God will not call us to do anything we are not capable of doing.

 Thirdly and while this is not a prerequisite for getting into heaven, we should read and study the word of God. The Bible. Always remembering that the more we know of God the more we can do for him and the less chance we have of falling away from Him.

It’s really that simple.

The Samaritan Woman and Jesus

Read John 4:1:30

“But the hour coming, and now is , 

when the true worshippers will worship the Father 

in spirit and truth;

 for the Father is seeking such 

to worship Him.

                                                                                            John 4:23


Here is the story of the Samaritan woman. Jesus in speaking to her breaks the social rules of his day.
Samaritans and Jews had a great deal of problems with each other. They ridiculed each other’s holy places and generally would not tolerate each other. Even the Samaritan drinking vessels were ceremonially unclean to Jews.
The Samaritan woman was possibly a further outcast from her own people some have suggested in that she was at the well alone. The meaning being that possibly because of her life style, she’d had five husbands and was now living with a man not her husband, she was not welcome in most social circles.
On top of all of this in Jewish culture there was a gender barrier in force. Many of the teachers of Jesus day warned about talking to women you were not related too. The reasons being one could fall into temptation and one might get a bad reputation.
I feel here Jesus was giving an example to His disciples.
Here’s the modern day scenario. You could find yourself in.
You see a woman you vaguely know sitting in a coffee shop drinking coffee who well may be a so called ‘lady of the night’. You a man sit down and talk to her.
Immediately anyone who you know sees you and assumes the worst.
Are they not the guilty of Judging you without all the facts?
Jesus didn’t really care it seems about social mores of his day. He concentrated on doing the true will of God. On following God’s laws. He didn’t break any of them.
Speaking to the Samaritan woman was not against any of God’s laws.  Jesus had one purpose and one purpose alone to present the salvation message to the entire world.
The world in which Jesus lived was really a microcosm of the world as a whole. There was everything from a very secular civil authority who allowed wide range of practices to exist. A pantheon of god’s were worshipped, there were ethnic and social prejudices among the people.
Even among those who held God’s word, the Pharisees and Sadducees had differing opinions on God’s word.
There was a lot of customs and ritual built up that God had never intended to be there.
It was in this context that Jesus was teaching His disciples and us how to spread the gospel to the whole world.

 Something to think about

Many churches today for what seem to be very good reasons place restrictions on who can minister to who. Which is a good thing in many ways. It prevents the wrong message being given out.
Many churches have good rules about cross gender witnessing. These restrictions are necessary sometimes. It can and has on many occasions prevented the wrong message being sent out to both the parties involved and those who see them.
However if these rules become a barrier to spreading the gospel we should rethink those restrictions.