I've been reading several books recently on Alternative Worship, and have found some really fascinating insight.
I read a blog this morning discussing the way we tend to do evangelism. We focus on the outward expressions such as Heaven, forgiveness, and/or happiness and use those to relay to people Christ. By doing so, we are giving them a gospel that is completely tied up in self interest.
Is this why so many of us are sensing a divide?
Is this why we feel empty and a little lost on the Christian life and exactly how we're supposed to live?
We are recognizing that a gospel based on self-interest is not sustaining and is not even attractive. I've seen this in teenagers as well. Though not able to define exactly this pull away from Christian teaching, they are able to ascertain that what they are being taught is merely on the surface.
We have become creatures of our culture. Focusing on the self, rather than facing outward toward God and the other. Maybe living as Christ is, in part, mirroring back the reflection of the obsession with self to the world and exemplifying the turning outward by extending ourselves in every possible way to others.
posted by Kelly @ 9:23:00 AM
2 Comments:
"Fire Insurance!" For many Christianity is all about fire insurance or not going to hell instead of being in a love relationship with the Creator and Savior. I commented on www.morelikesurrender.blogspot.com
on the issue of heaven. In her post she discussed the concepts of heaven that people have. I made the point that when you look in the Old Testament you don't find a developed concept of heaven. Why is that significant? Well for starters, you see a picture of what it may look like to exist in a relationship with God without the motivation of heaven being the driving force. Read thru the Psalms and you get the idea that David loved to praise His God simply because He was God not because of a glorious set of steak knives he will recieve in heaven in his New Mansion with a Gold driveway. You get the picture.
You are on to something Kelly. Our motivation to pursue holiness should not be merely because if we don't we'll go to hell. Instead, it should be because we GET to be in a loving relationship with Christ. Maybe the bigger question to present is "Would you be a Christian if heaven wasn't the reward?"
Great thought for the day Kelly, keep um coming.
i agree exactly with what you are saying...but i think it's very challenging to get selfish people to sense a need for God before they've experienced God.
Think about those who came to Jesus to be healed...were they self interested...
of course! But after encountering Jesus I think they experienced something very unique. God gave them things they didn't even ask for, things they didn't even know they needed, things they couldn't have known to ask for.
CKing asks: "Would you be a Christian if heaven wasn't the reward?"
And the fact of the matter is...why would you be a Christian otherwise?
I think CKing would have a very hard time answering the question.
Why do we love God...because he loved us first.
Why do we serve God...not just because he's all knowing and all powerful, but because he's all loving.
Being a Christian means entering means we express gratitude in word and deed because of what Christ has given us.
If all we did we did was serve someone/something from whom we got nothing in return then we are choosing to be in an abusive relationship with a false God.
--RC of strangeculture.blogspot.com
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