Whenever Christmas season rolls around once again many of us are reminded to think about "the baby lying in the manger".
That brings to mind an old saying that goes something like this, “careful you don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.”
It’s a saying that’s hard to disagree with, and yet when it comes to God’s message to us all, that’s what many people do.
There is absolutely no doubt that there has been confusion, lies, greed,
hypocrisy, selfish ambition and every other bad human behavior among church leaders and those proclaiming to be followers of
Jesus. (That’s the bathwater.)
But the
important thing, the thing that we mustn’t throw out with that dirty bath
water is indeed “the baby” and yes, unlike the character Ricky Bobby from the
silly movie Talledega Nights, I do know that “baby Jesus” grew up to become a
man.
The precious
part that we need to hold onto in that scenario is the truth of who Jesus is
and what He has done for each and every one of us.
 |
| A Statue of Jesus in a little prairie church |
If you’ve
never heard it before, hear it now.
Jesus is God. He came to the earth and lived among us as a completely sinless man until He was betrayed, humiliated and crucified as the ultimate, willing sacrifice to atone for the sins of all humankind.
After three days He was resurrected and appeared before many witnesses who have left their testimony for us so that we also can believe and have hope.
He did this
so that we all could have the chance
to freely make the choice to be forgiven.
We do this (be
forgiven) by choosing to recognize and admit that we are sinners in the eyes of
the God that made the universe and by choosing to accept Jesus as our Lord and
Saviour so that we too can be forgiven and have new life, eternal life.
That’s the
good news also known as “The Gospel”.
The first
line of a popular Christian book from a few years ago began, “It’s not about
you.”
What the
author was trying to get across is that we were all created for a purpose and
that purpose is to be in a relationship with God, through Jesus. Many people
today, for various reasons, reject God out of hand, without knowing this simple
truth, “God is real and He wants to have a relationship with you.”
Every person
who has somehow stumbled onto this truth has a duty, a responsibility and hopefully
a desire to share this good news with the other people in their lives and of
course, I’m no different.
So that
means, even though this is my story, my testimony, still, it’s not about me. In
fact, it’s much more about you than it is about me.
The reason
for that is this: who I am and where I’ve come from, my experiences and life
story is mostly in the past, yours on the other hand, at least in how it
pertains to your relationship with Jesus is most likely in your future.
I can say
that because in this country of Canada, the vast majority of people have only a
vague, distorted and incomplete idea of who Jesus really is and most have no
relationship with Him at all.
There are
many, many, reasons why people reject the idea of “religion” and they may be
good reasons. But what is missing from our understanding of who Jesus is and
our perceived or experienced reality of religion is that Jesus and Christian
religion are not the same thing and are mostly very far apart from each other.
So before I
begin to tell my own story I want to get across one very important point.
The
historical church and the church that exists today, even though they may try
very hard to be what they were intended to be, fall far short of God’s mark,
just as you and I fall far short of God’s design for our lives.
Sure we may
try hard to do what is right just as the church tries, but the problem is the
same, human nature and sin corrupt our lives just as they corrupt the church.
It has been
said that “all religions lead to God.” But the sad truth is that “NO RELIGION necessarily leads to God!”
Jesus Himself often spoke warnings about the hypocrisy of religious zealots who put religion ahead of people.
He often warned
against focussing on the trappings of religion and He instructed His followers to
concentrate on doing good, loving others and being in a right relationship with
God.
Originally
believers and followers of Jesus referred to themselves as followers of “The
Way” and unfortunately over the years, many people and churches have lost their
way.
The
Christian church today (just as it always has been) is composed of people;
flawed, imperfect, damaged people who for many reasons have “joined the club”
that is the church and these people may or may not have an actual relationship
with Jesus.
For the
first few years that I attended church with my family I didn’t have a real
understanding of what it means to be a Christian and that’s on me. I was afraid
to totally commit to anything in life and my Christian faith was no different. Like
many people, I had one foot in my new Christian life and one foot still in my
old life and that doesn’t allow you to move forward very easily, as a matter of
fact it’s an extremely uncomfortable pose making it very easy to fall on your
face!
But
thankfully I stuck with it, mostly because I enjoyed the life; I enjoyed the
people and the sense of belonging and being part of something much bigger than
me. Eventually, in spite of my reluctance, I managed to soak up enough of the
atmosphere and information so that God finally got through to me and I did “get
it”.
I finally understood that God is real and accepting Jesus is the way that we come into relationship with Him.
I wish that
I were one of those people who are just blown away in the love at first glance
sort of way and thereby avoid the slow arduous journey to faith that I
experienced and if that first scenario describes you, then lucky you! Perhaps you’ve
managed to avoid a lot of the heartache and wasted time and probably a few of
the big, life sucking mistakes made by those of us who are slower to make that
move to faith.
God calls us all to be in a relationship with Him but we are free to ignore that call and many of us do just that. We lump Christianity into the bag with all of the rest as “just another religion” and in some ways that’s not wrong. But as I explained earlier, Jesus is far bigger and more important than the jerk across the alley that calls him-self a Christian but insists on feuding with you over some petty grievance.
If you are a
human being and I’m assuming you are (welcome aliens if you are also reading) you
will occasionally hurt those around you, sorry but it’s the truth. You will
also be hurt by many people, ranging from strangers, to authority figures and
especially by those that you love. It is inevitable.
This world
that we live in is a fallen world, full of sin, evil and pain and alongside all
of that yucky stuff there is also kindness, generosity and beauty.
It is important to note that we do have an
enemy here with us, we find we are trapped here with a being the Bible calls “a
liar and the father of lies.” There is
no making peace with this enemy.
I believe that anyone who takes an honest, eyes wide open look at the world we live in will see that the evil that exists is not just a dumb, blind evil but instead it is a directed force that hates us and wants to destroy everything that is good.
Much of what
we know of Satan comes to us directly from the mouth of Jesus and He is very
clear that Satan is a dangerous adversary who will “devour us” if we are not
careful. Our defence is our faith and the power that comes from being in an
authentic relationship with Jesus.
Some of us
are determined not to believe in God or Jesus and are apt to summarily dismiss
the Bible but we do this at our own peril.
Years ago I purchased a book to send to my sister called “The Case for Faith” by Lee Strobel and as I traveled around Edmonton for work, the book sat in a bag beside my seat, waiting to be mailed. It just so happened that day as I worked on a POS system at a service station, I was talking to the attendant, a middle aged woman that I knew from previous visits.
After a bit she confided in me that her life was a mess and
she was going through some serious issues with one of her kids. I was feeling
bold that day and when she asked how I dealt with life’s big problems I
mentioned that I was a Christian and my faith got me through a lot of stuff.
I went out
to my van and took the book that I had bought for my sister out of the bag and
brought it inside to give it to the woman. I told her that it was well written
and explained a lot and how it had helped me to understand much better that
faith in God is not some crazy delusion but that there is real evidence that the
God of the Bible is very real.
She said
that she didn’t believe in God and if she was going to change her mind then He
was going to have to show up in her life and speak to her.
As I handed
her the book I just looked her in the eye and said, “well, maybe He just did.”
I don’t know
what happened after that, I don’t think I ever saw her again but I often wonder
what she did with that book and if the encounter that we had perhaps led her to
give God a chance. It was up to her at that point to choose to open and read
the book and maybe to open her mind to the words and ideas that were written in
it pointing the way to the Bible.
She had her
own choice to make, just like we all do.
God rarely appears in person or speaks directly to us, although it has happened. He prefers
to work through people, He has often operated that way, right from the very
beginning.
People can
be positive examples to us; they can actively pray for us, they can speak into
our lives by showing us love and kindness or reminding us that we can be better
people and calling us to a higher standard. Or they may give us a Bible or a
Christian book and invite us to Church where the transformation of our lives
through exposure to the Word of God can truly begin.
People can
also influence us to pull away from God, convincing us that God isn’t real or
if He is real then He must be a terrible hating being that is a destructive or
uncaring force.
They say
that ”misery loves company” and that tendency sometimes comes into play here, after all if you
start following Jesus some of your old friends may be afraid that you will be
“less fun” because all of a sudden some of the more destructive behaviour will
begin to lose its appeal for you.
Hopefully
they will say to you something like, “you’ve changed” and that’s a good thing
because if we are following the ways of this world, we are likely doing a lot
of behaviors that are bad for us and the people around us. Some people don’t like it when anyone
(especially God) says anything that might spoil their “fun”.
When we hear the Word of God we are absolutely free to reject it out of hand, to say that it contradicts science or that Christians are intolerant maniacs or we may point at the abuses of the “church” over the years and the harm that resulted.
Many
people will summarily reject God for various reasons, denying His existence or
relevance and that is their prerogative of course, but if they/you will thoughtfully
and carefully examine the evidence with a truly open mind, you may be
surprised.
Hearing
about God through others, whether it is friends, celebrities, media outlets,
scientists or some other source is not the same thing at all as reading the
Bible with an open mind, after prayerfully asking God to speak to you and to make His
word come alive to you (even though you may not believe that God exists at
all).
This is a subject that shouldn’t be decided
upon without careful consideration and a thorough, personal examination of the
Bible and the history behind it.
The Christian Church, flawed as it may be, is God's creation and is part of His plan for us and it is within these flawed local churches that most Christians first hear about Jesus and learn that they too are called to be in a relationship with their creator.
It has been
my own personal experience that if you give God a chance, He will reveal
Himself to you in ways that right now you can only imagine, taking away your
doubts and confusion through His Word and your own spiritual journey to faith, and
replacing them with His Truth.
(See my blog
post - Room 1219 - An Appointment With Jesus)
https://thedoorinside.blogspot.com/2011/11/room-1219-true-story.html
Please don't take my word for any of this, or the word of anyone else. Instead, search the scriptures for yourself.
At Christmas when you hear the music and see the nativity scene with baby Jesus lying in a manger, I hope you will at least consider that His birth and life are historical fact.
We are still celebrating two thousand years later all over the world for the simple reason that "God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16
So please don't throw the baby out with the bath water!
Each one of
us owes it to ourselves to make a truly informed decision about the most
important choice that we will ever make.
Blessings all!
