A couple friends of mine just posted this on Facebook and it hits on issues I've thought a lot about and have cause much soul searching in me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtCdbZr9GGE
“It's easy for American Christians to forget how Jesus said his followers would actually live, what their new lifestyle would actually look like. They would, he said, leave behind security, money, convenience, even family for him. They would abandon everything for the gospel. They would take up their crosses daily...”
I think this video is quite right. I came to a realization about this a few years ago and I had to come to grips with a few things. I wasn't really living the selfless, sacrificial life that the Bible calls for. Other than being a missionary (which I don’t want to do) I wasn’t even sure what that would look like for me. I also didn’t really think that I wanted to lead a sacrificial life (there is a cost to it that I began to measure and didn’t want to pay - Luke 14:28). That was just me being honest with myself.
I think much of American Christianity is of the half-hearted, compromised, fence-sitting variety. Americans are so comfortable and well-off in general that we don’t want commit to this “extreme” Christianity. But the “extremeness” is what it really takes to follow Christ if one is really following what's in the Bible.
For me, the issue of being willing to pay the price goes along with measuring the value of what I'm buying into for that price. Because at the same time I was losing confidence that what the Bible says is true, or that God really is how it describes him. If you find something in the Bible that you just can't accept as true or logical, then it calls the validity of the whole thing into question. (I'll dig deeper into that issue in another post.) And then as logic follows: how can I sell my whole life for the ideas in a book I'm not finding to be reliable?
It's a pickle, isn't it? the americanized jesus does not work for me either. The gospels call for radical living and calls for all or nothing. There is no middle ground and nice happy self focussed life. I think if it is real (i question it too btw) then there will be a whole lot fewer people going through them pearly gates than than the american church might think.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course Jesus himself says, in Matthew 7:13-14, that the gate and road that "lead to life" are narrow and few find it. So I think you're right: there will be a lot fewer people going to heaven than so called Christians might think.
ReplyDeleteI think there are other options than becoming a Missionary. If that was the only choice, there would be no (true) Christians living in their own land. Do we find that in the Bible? I don't believe so. Paul wrote most of the Epistles and so the missionary life is pretty clear to us. But there are other characters in the New Testament. Lydia for example, not much is said about her, but she is a Christ follower and not a foreign missionary. I'm not entirely sure what it looks like, nor do I have any readily available clear examples of Christ following without leaving your country is, but I believe it exists. This is something I am working out myself right now. Jesus said to make disciples of all nations. While that includes foreign missions, it doesn't leave out home missions. Although both would include living a sacrificial life.
ReplyDeleteYou bring up a valid point about finding something in the Bible that you just can't accept as true or logical, then it calls the validity of the whole thing into question. I look forward to you digging deeper into that.