Don't Miss Christ in Your Christianity

He makes all the difference

It takes little observation to see that Christians love to talk about what we should be doing.

We should be praying. We should be loving others. We should be reading our bibles. We should be fighting for justice. We should be building more bridges.

While on the surface these are all things to be concerned about, there's one problem.

In so much of our religious language—what Eugene Peterson calls our "chattering godtalk"—is a stunning absence of Jesus.

It’s all because of Jesus

The curious thing about Christianity is that we aren't a "should" or "ought to" religion.

Our faith doesn't revolve around a simple math equation to personal holiness. If you do x then you'll receive y. If we do all the right things then God will be happy. We just have to get it together.

When all we hear is what we should be doing, this is the underlying logic.

Once we get our act together, things will start moving in the right direction. Our churches will be flooded with people and all the horrible things in our world will vanish.

As great as this “if, then” Christianity can appear, the truth is much better.

We're actually a "because, therefore" faith. And our "because" is centered in Jesus' life, death, and resurrection.

Because of Jesus, we already have someone praying for us.

Because of Jesus, we have the Holy Spirit who gives us strength to love other.

Because of Jesus, we have eyes to see and ears to hear God speak in Scripture.

Because of Jesus, injustice has an expiration date. One day he will wipe away ever tear, heal every wound, and right every wrong.

Because of Jesus, all are welcome to the heavenly feast regardless of ethnicity, nationality, language, socio-economic status, or intelligence.

Because of Jesus, everything is being made new.

What’s the point?

It’s this.

All the good things that Christians do and the causes we care about are areas that God is already actively working in.

We don't do these things for God, we participate with him in it. It's Jesus' work, not ours.

And all that we are is because of Jesus. He is our peace, our hope, our life, our forgiveness, our redemption, our savior. Our faith looks at the empty tomb and shouts to the world "Look! He has done it! He is victorious! He is risen!"

Our faith isn’t rooted in us caring about the right causes, it’s rooted in the faith that Jesus has suffered and died so the world won’t just become a better place, it will be made new.

This isn’t an “if, then” faith. It’s a “because of Jesus” faith rooted in divine precedence and founded upon an empty tomb.

One Book I’m Reading: Open Heart, Open Mind

A classic on the practice centering prayer, this is an interesting read. Here’s two quotes.

The more activity in which you find yourself, the more you need times of prayer. Excessive activity has a way of becoming a drain. It also has a mysterious fascination. Like a treadmill or merry-go-round, it is hard to get off. Regular prayer is a real discipline.

If our value system doesn’t allow us to enjoy anything without putting a price on it, we miss a great part of the beauty of life.

One Thing I Love: This Song 👇

That’s it for this weeks newsletter. If you were encouraged, could you pass it on to a friend?