Simplicity.
Christianity.
These two words have more in common than I typically recognize. These two words have also found themselves frequent in my vocabulary.
There are a lot of people that give Christianity a bad rep because they forget about how simple it truly is. There are people that just straight up don't believe that Christ can save you, there are those that think Christ can save you, but He can't save you all by himself - there's all this extra stuff you have to do, and then there are those that recognize that Christ alone can save.
I was blessed with the opportunity to share the Gospel with a national in Botswana and as I reflected on our conversation later, the simplicity of the Gospel just sort of smacked me in the face. I can't tell you how many conversations I've had about predestination, free will, the infallibility of the Bible vs the fallibility of the Bible, women in the Church, homosexuality, liberalism vs conservatism, naive sin, baptism by dunking or sprinkling, being stewards of God's creation, all this stuff that can get so tangled and convoluted and can raise people's blood pressure. Amidst all this extra stuff I sometimes looked past what the simple truth is.
In the beginning, God created everything. He created man and woman as perfect individuals and He gave them one command to follow. Man and woman broke that command and sinned, and so God cast them out of paradise because He is so Holy that He could no longer be in the presence of mankind. God still loved man, so he gave him more commandments to follow. Anytime someone broke a commandment, they had to make a blood sacrifice - because the only thing that can cover a man's sin is purifying blood.
Man was still constantly sinful and wasn't real big on this whole sacrificing thing - we were too busy doing our own thing and didn't want God. We think we're pretty awesome on our own. So, God still loved us and He wanted to have a personal relationship with us, so He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to be the final sacrifice - the blood atonement - for all of mankind. He gave freely and suffered just so He could be close to us. Why doesn't this 'wow' us more often? Why do we shrug off this sacrifice like it's no big deal? After Christ died, all a person had to do is proclaim that Jesus was the final atoning sacrifice, that He is alive and the head honcho now, and that person must also ask for forgiveness for their sins. (Check out John 3: 34-36).
When you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus is King, then you will be saved.
When you confess, you then receive the Holy Spirit to guide you and to regenerate you into a Christ-like creature. C.S. Lewis said, "Every time you make a choice, you are turning the central part of you, the part of you that chooses, into something a little different from what it was before. And, taking your life as a whole, with all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing either into a heaven creator or into a hellish creature…" This process of regeneration isn't quick. For me it took approximately 1.5 years to go from feeling nothing and being hopeless to truly understanding forgiveness. Within those 1.5 years I felt a lot of hatred, a thirst for revenge, anger, bitterness, and slowly God changed my heart in each of those situations. He began to take those things away from me, He opened up my eyes to show me the monster that I was. He did NOT open my eyes, point at me and say, "SARAH JOHNSON, GO TO HELL!!!" No! He opened my eyes and He said, "My child!! My child!! Look at what you are doing! Look at who you are hurting! Did I not already forgive you?! Look! I can give you mercy to extend to others, I can give you grace and understanding so that you can love others, I can show you why to be patient, and how! My child, I love you! Please, I beg you to love others!"
God isn't screaming at people condemning them to hell. There WILL be a judgment day, but that day is not today. Instead God is begging and pleading for people to love Him and to turn to His Way. He sacrificed for you and me. He's waiting to teach people and show people love and joy and peace and kindness and goodness and gentleness and patience and self control. We get so caught up in our struggles and politics and what we view as fair and equal that we forget the still, small voice of God saying, "I have what you need!! I have the one thing you truly need!!" And that thing is forgiveness.
Forgiveness because we, all of us, every single human, have done bad things. We're not all murderers, but I haven't met a person that has never told a lie. We're not all evil rulers out to kill anyone they deem unpure, but I'm fairly certain everyone I know has (at least once) thought, "Screw them, I'm going to do what I want." We've all considered ourselves more important than others, we've looked down on others, or we've been too afraid or lazy to help someone in need. God doesn't call us to be perfect in our own power. He offers us His power and He perfects us as we walk with Him. He shows us how to be like Him.
This may sounds complicated to you, and I hope it doesn't. Because the simple truth is that we have to give up living for ourselves if we want to be happy. We will never find true joy when we're constantly seeking satisfaction in wealth or success or a spouse/significant other or drugs or whatever your choice of substitute is. The only thing we can find true satisfaction in is God, and God wants so desperately to satisfy us. We're just too selfish to let Him.
So, what about you? Do you want to find peace? Do you want true satisfaction? Do you want to know how to solve your problems? Or do you want to keep turning to your own means? Do you prefer depending on your own reasoning, or your own love, or your own capability?
I know I've depended on myself way too often and it burned me every single time. God is SO good!! He is SO great!! He can love me better than my parents can! He can provide for me better than I can for myself! He treasures me more than any amazing husband ever could. He is so amazingly awesome. :)
So, I'm living for Him always. My life is His. He paid the price for my sins and I've said, "Thanks God! You're awesome! What do I do next to love and please you?" And I have to tell Him that constantly as a reminder to myself that I'm His and I'm here to obey His instruction.
What about you?
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