Why is Christianity really all about Jesus? Sound simple? That's because it is or Why am I a Christian?
Do you really know what God wants from you? Do you know the why behind your Christianity?
Those questions stumbled across my mind as I laid awake in the night once, it was a sudden and upsetting realization that at that time, I really have no idea, what God truly wanted from me. What is His purpose? What’s the overall plan? What could the omnipotent creator of an entire universe—a creator that can, literally, have anything He wants—possibly desire? I thought to myself, Ron, “You’re not alone in asking those question? Am I”?
You go to church every Sunday. You read your Bible in the morning as you sip coffee. You pray every night before you sleep, tithe each week, and even talk to a stranger about your faith every now and then; having discussions/questions about the important of theology and doctrine. Wondering is it aboutkeeping rules and regulations, performing rituals, or even going to church. Appropriately, I relied on scripture “Jesus said that knowing him is the doorway to a special relationship with God”. “Jesus said that knowing him is the doorway to a special relationship with God”. John 14:6
But even as you do these things, do you really know what God wants from you? Do you know the why behind the thought process of why of your Christianity? Do you feel like all your striving to please God goes for nothing, and you, ask, “What does God want from me?”
King David wondered the same thing in Psalm 8: 3-4, where he puzzles, “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?” If he can ask this eternal and important question, so can we. I often wonder why pastors or some of our Christian leaders why they only hint on these questions of what God wants.
David also understood what God wanted when he prayed, “You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise” Psalm 51:16-17.
Relationship is the one word that comes to mind for me. In Mark 12:30-32, Jesus explains God’s two greatest commandments:” And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. ‘The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Simple God just wants to have a loving relationship with his children, and he wants us to take that love and make it one big happy family with our neighbors. What won me over (as a Christian that’s Lutheran) besides my faith in the scripture was the way people at church loved me. Often because of our sinful nature often tells us we have nothing in common because of a difference in culture or skin color; we are different and they loved people who were hurting and messy. It was the way they shared openly about their hurts and repeated failures. It was the way they loved Jesus and spoke so intimately, highly about it. It was the joy they had even in the midst of tears and deep suffering. It was the fact they didn’t pretend to have it all together or all the answers. Sometimes they would just say “I don’t know.”
Sometimes I am like the Pharisees in Jesus’ day, trying to put the external action before the inner heart change Luke 11:42. I place all my focus on what I do rather than who I am. But, unless love for God is my motivation, outward displays of goodness only result in pride and law. Neither pleases God. When we/I surrender ourselves totally to Him, His Holy Spirit empowers us/me to love God fully and serve Him from the right motive. True service and holiness are simply the outworking of the Spirit, the overflowing of a life dedicated to the glory of God. When our focus is on loving God rather than simply serving Him, we end up doing both. If we skip the relationship, our service is of no use and benefits nothing 1 Corinthians 13:1-2.
I am convinced that engaging in careful theological thought is an essential task of the Christian life. Recently, a fellow member and I were discussing worship styles at our church and why we attend different worship styles. My only statement or questions were, “What is the Theological message at the service you attend”? and remember it’s less about the what, likes and much more about the how. For me the theology is the act of prayer, insofar as we offer up our words and thoughts in service to God in the expectant hope—by the grace of the Holy Spirit—that they will build up the body of Christ. And this prayerful task of theology is never finished. Like God’s mercies, it is new every morning/day.
We can no more abandon theology than we can abandon God since theology is involved in some fashion whenever we think or speak about God. Consequently, every person is a theologian. The only question is whether we will be thoughtful, responsible theologians or irresponsible ones. The journey of Christian discipleship and purpose is a matter of learning why we believe, and thinking hard and carefully about this belief, not so that we can bludgeon others with our knowledge but so that we can bear faithful witness to God in the totality of our life.
It is important to take on this purpose, to place it at the center of our Christian life so that it affects everything we do, with an intimate relationship with Christ. Jesus is our way of understanding an infinite and unknowable God, and so we must carefully consider not only what He did do in His life, but also what He didn’t do. He never mocked, scorned, or turned his back on sinners. He just wants to love us, for us to love him, and for us to love one another. Will you set aside time to join Him?“Just Love Jesus”
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