Tag: Bible

Bible, Christian Living

To See Jesus – 2

Chris

We started some thoughts on whether it is good for us to long to physically see Christ while we live on this earth. For whatever reason, many have come to believe that they must see Him. Some believe that it will be a sort of seal of approval on their conversion. Others believe that you cannot truly profess to be a Christian until you have seen Him.

There are few in the New Testament who saw Christ following His ascension into the clouds. We talked about two of them in the previous post. Let’s look at one more, and then see if we can tell why they were allowed to see Jesus.

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Bible, Christian Living

To See Jesus

Chris

What do you hope or wish for? What is that you long for? Where would you go? Who would you see? What would you do? We all have dreams and desires, for our present, for our future and for the futures of others.

These dreams and hopes are often our motivation for dealing with the ins and outs of our daily lives. We drag ourselves out of bet and push through another work day because we hold to the hope that our will work will be noticed, we’ll get that promotion, start making more money, and be able to buy a home of our own, or take the family on that special vacation.

Most of our hopes and dreams are related to this physical life. Work, home, family, relationships, achievements. We don’t often wish for something in the spiritual realm. If we do, it’s usually related to healing, miracles, or another kind of blessing that actually affects our temporal lives.

That is, of course, with exception. I’ve run into some people who simply want to see Jesus. But is it really as simple as it sounds, and should we be hoping so intently for it to happen?

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Christian Living

Infamous Christianity

Chris

I hinted at this post at the end of “famous” Christianity, but haven’t had a chance to get to it because of some changes around here. Another reason is that I’ve had so many other thoughts floating around my head that these were lost in the shuffle.

So far we’ve talked about three other pitfalls of Western Christianity: Mindless, Lonely, and Famous Christianity. You could say that the previous posts primarily affect those of us who are part of the Church, participating in Christian circles. For example, “mindlessness” hurts the individual. The desire to be famous impacts an individual church. Infamous Christianity starts within us, but its impact is felt more outside of the Church.

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Christian Living

Lonely Christianity

Chris

According to Adherents.com, Christianity is the largest world religion with two billion adherents (defined as “all members, including full members, their children and the estimated number of other regular participants who are not considered as communicant, confirmed or full members”). According to ReligiousTolerance.org, about 75% of American adults identify themselves under the title Christian.

It’s safe to say there is no shortage of “Christians” in our lives. In many towns and cities, to open the Yellow Pages and look under churches, you’ll find not just a small handful, but pages of listings. And yet, when things happen in our lives, where do we turn?

In most cases, we pull away from everyone. We try to figure things out, working with all our might to fight through some of the most difficult times in our lives. But is that the answer God prescribed for us?

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Christian Living

Mindless Christianity

Chris

The stuff that makes us up as human beings boils down to three parts: spirit, soul/mind, and body. In the Christian world, you don’t have to go very far to find some rules about how we use our body. Don’t go here, don’t eat or drink this, don’t listen to that, don’t say this. . . There is also a lot of talk about what it means to be have our spirit in tune with God. There are teachings (and debate) about what it means to be Spirit-filled, to be lead by the Spirit, to move in the Spirit.

But what about the mind? What role does it play in the Christian life? Are we living a mindless Christianity?

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