At work today, we had a really interesting bible study session talking about letting our rights go, for the sake of the Christian gospel. It’s not a popular topic out of Christian circles, but in the recent year, I think there’s really been so much confusion over what Christianity really means and what it stands for.
For one, it doesn’t force its way into people’s lives. Being a Christian isn’t about standing in the street screaming the name Jesus Christ and dancing to it. I get the meme of it, but in its practical application, I don’t read where Jesus told us to do that.
It’s mainly about understanding of our lack of as humans, and to accept the help of someone bigger, namely God. Christians do believe God as the creator of the universe, and in our human freedom, we chose to go against God. There are so many options discussing human freedom, but in most cases today, we practically live with human freedom as our baseline. But our going against the Creator, it runs us into this competition: which human will rule over the rest? Which one decides their ways are supreme over the rest, and ought to be followed? The endless competition of it leads to everyone wanting to be king, in whichever way possible. But we’ll never be able to sort this out, because only the Creator can make a command decision over all creation. Then comes Jesus, who takes the form of a created being, but with the creation power and abilities of the Creator God. Proven through his miracles, and the prophecies of old, he does whatever the Creator can do, but doesn’t choose his way over the creator’s. Instead, he follows to the point of his eventual betrayal and death. As an act of atonement, the punishment humankind deserves is placed on him. He is brought back to life three days later, and as Christians we follow the rest of the teachings Jesus left with the disciples before his ascension into heaven. One of the key things is to live in a way acknowledging God the creator, and to not choose the human way of leading our own lives. The eternal life part comes before, when he atones for our sins, our wrong against the creator God.
Now, which part of gives anyone a sense of entitlement often portrayed in modern day?
Christians were known for the self sacrifice in the earlier years, and the hope for eternity when the rest of the world just saw emptiness and void. We knew there was something after this life because Jesus was our proof of it. Therefore, nothing would hurt us in this life, including the loss of our own lives, because it would all be in Jesus’ charge.
It’s tough these days because everything doesn’t seem to speak this truth about Jesus’ Christians who would go out of their way for their neighbour, to any extent. Reading books like “The Life You Can Save”, written by an atheist, but has made me think more about self sacrificial care for the poor than any Christian author has so far. It’s not the same.
I deeply enjoyed my discussion at work today, because of the deep dive into this. It’s what I hope to do with Through The Roof, and it’s what I stand for as a Christian. It’s a hard line to take, but I am happy to work on my journey to learn how to be more giving of myself, for the good of the gospel, and not for my rights.
Perhaps its the idealism of a 35 year old, but I hope to keep it somehow, this deep knowing of Jesus and God.
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