Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2003 - 11:58 a.m.

A puzzle to me

We had a visiting speaker last month. He is very young, new in the faith, from a non-Biblical background and of very limited knowledge. But he said something that that has been ringing in my heart.

"Don't call yourself a Christian if you're not acting like Christ."

I know all the various theological faith and works vines that can sprout from a statement like that, and so did he as he added he wasn't talking about salvation. Then he went on in his message, leaving me to ponder his statement.

It goes along with a question I have had for a long time. Why aren't folks who call themselves Christian (even in a very broad sense) honest in what and who they believe? Unless we are talking about Allah or a supreme being, we are meaning the God that tells us all we know about Him in 66 books. How come we can just pick and choose what parts of those books we are going to believe?

Wouldn't it be more honest to say, "I believe but God and I are having trouble with (whatever chapter and verse), isn't that more honest than trying to convince oneself and others that those words aren't really in the books, or that God didn't really mean this or that?

I find it hard to accept that one could claim to be a Christian of what ever flavour, and still blithely go along pretending something had not been stated already by the very One they claimed to be a follower of. What is the matter with admitting wrong?

Actually that is the answer to the puzzle. The very first step is admitting I am wrong and that I desperately need Someone who will pay the penalty for that wrong. The rest of my life is spent getting in step with what has already been said.

This little rant has been brought to you courtesy of the cultural, legal and spiritual(?) decisions of the last 50 or so years. I want to be a Christian, a follower of Christ; and He wanted to do the will of His Father. It is hard to get the 'want to' and the 'will do' together.

EE's devotional

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