What does it mean to be Christian?

Somewhere between 70 and 80% of Americans claim to be Christian. What does it mean to be 

Christian? What would one say are the basic fundamentals of Christianity?

When      Jesus asked His disciples “Who do you say that I am?” Simon answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” This was a profound response. Simon’s father, and his great-great-great-great grandfather were looking for the Messiah. What we call the Old Testament, which was Simon’s [and all the Jews’] Bible, which all his people followed as diligently as possible, had foretold for centuries that one would come and bring light, not only to Israel, but would be a Light to all nations and all generations. It had been four hundred years since the last known and recorded Word from their God. Now, inexplicably except for the Holy Spirit of Truth, Simon, who would become Peter, came to know that this long-awaited Messiah had come, and was standing before him. Jesus responded with an even more profound statement: “Now you shall be called Petros [Greek for stone] and on this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” He made that statement two millennia ago, and its truth still shines brightly in the world. The Church is still extending grace and salvation to humans all around the earth. Billions have been positively impacted or influenced by the Love of Jesus being extended through His followers. Every day hundreds of thousands of people are benefiting from the Church that was founded two thousand years ago. [I defy anyone to prove differently.] Nothing has ultimately prevailed against the Church of Jesus Christ---and nothing ever will.

So one thing we can say conclusively about what it means to be a Christian is that the person who claims to be one must say, along with Peter, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And that means that we understand, [as did Peter and eventually all His disciples, as well as the Apostle Paul who encountered the resurrected Christ on the road to Damascus to persecute Christians there] that this Nazarene carpenter was God incarnate! If this is not how we see things, perhaps we should question the validity of our “Christianity.” But if we do actually suspect this to be true, then we diligently study His teachings. We would be deceiving ourselves if we said that we believed Jesus to be the Messiah, then ignored His teachings. I wonder how many who claim to be Christians are hard-pressed to quote a single teaching of His. A true follower of any teacher or guide pays very close attention to the teachings of that guide; meditates on his words; tries to walk in accordance with his teachings. If I say I am a Christian, that means that Jesus is my Lord---the primary determiner of my inner being! It means I meditate on His teachings, the predominant one of which is love---Divine Love offered and received, and flowing through our hearts like a “river of living water” as He said. It means that we do not hate any person or group of people, no matter how wrong-minded or even “evil” we believe them to be, because our Lord has commanded us to love our enemies [Mt. 5:44]. It means that we identify with Christ above every other identity—American, republican, democrat, any minority or majority group, any tribe or family---we are, first and foremost Christian; a Christ follower. How could we be otherwise if we believe that He is God incarnate? How could His way be inferior to any other way? Why would we waste our time on anything less---any political agenda or philanthropic endeavor? {Unless we felt led by His Spirit to do so.} If we have doubts about this, we should pursue them openly and diligently because it is possible to live in the half-life, fluctuating between doubt and belief. We should examine His teachings carefully to see if there be any smattering of ego, selfishness, or meanness; any teaching that would seem to lead men in the wrong direction or that was contrary to the common good of the human family; anything that would incite violence, hatred, fear or guilt. We should diligently seek any error, because a single error would negate His claim to be one with the all-knowing Creator of this universe. Was He a liar? Was He crazy? Was He a grandiose narcissist? What do His teachings indicate and point toward? Would we better or worse for following them? Is there anyone who has offered a better solution to the world’s problems? If so, we should follow him/her. But if not we should suspect that He might indeed be the Way, the Truth and the Life as he said. And if He is, then we ignore Him to our great peril. We drift into the darkness, bereft of the Light of the only Truth that sets and keeps us free. This is what the Founders of this nation firmly believed. It is what Christ Himself warned us against. He said in end times men’s love would wax cold and that nations would rise up against nations and kingdoms [parties, tribes, corporate structures] against each other [Mt. 24:7]. He told us not to fear in these times, but to rest assured of our redemption and endure [in His Love] to the end [Mt. 24:13]. This is something of what it means to be a Christian. There is, of course, so much more---more than can ever be expressed in words, but well within the reach of the humble, seeking heart.

Democracy: Preserving It

In America [indeed, in the world, but we must start here] nobody wins unless we all win. By winning, I mean that we maintain and improve on what we’ve been given: this amazing Democracy, and all that it promises. Our wise Founders knew that we could only do so if we were a spiritually mature people. The primary result of spiritual maturity is the ability to love all humans, a palpable humility, being expandingly thankful to God for what we have, being amazed at this incredible journey that we are all, on this small planet, embarked upon, having been brought forth by some amazing Source or magnificent act of benevolence that we would all be wise to seek or meditate upon. By loving I mean that we face and, with help from the God Who gave us life, progressively overcome our own personal darkside/shadow/sinful nature. We cannot love without doing that. It is impossible. The unacknowledged darkside will always win the day. Darkness prevails if not dragged out into the Light that it hates. If we do not do this personally, individually, we will not be able to do it in the world outside ourselves. But if we do it, we will do more than preserve our Democracy, we will create the beginnings of heaven here on earth.

Mark Graham

Please share if led to do so

A Word for Terrorists From the Bible

“Assyria is there, and all her company, its graves all around it, all of them slain, fallen by the sword,
whose graves are set in the uttermost parts of the pit; and her company is all around her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who spread terror in the land of the living.
“Elam is there, and all her multitude around her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who went down uncircumcised into the world below, who spread their terror in the land of the living; and they bear their shame with those who go down to the pit.
They have made her a bed among the slain with all her multitude, her graves all around it, all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword; for terror of them was spread in the land of the living, and they bear their shame with those who go down to the pit; they are placed among the slain. Eze 32:22-25

Imagine!

Einstein said that imagination is greater than knowledge because knowledge is limited in ways that imagination is not. Imagination can lead us into places that knowledge will pave the way to. We, alone among the creatures of this earth, can imagine things being different than they are, and bring that difference into physical reality. Every good and evil thing on this planet has come from our collective imagination. Nature is neutral—neither good nor evil. What an amazing blessing, and curse, is our imagination!

Imagine that we are manifestations of a divine, beneficent Source that could best [though in a very limited way] be described as infinitely powerful and intelligent Love. Imagine that everything that is happening has deep and profound meaning, in large part because evil and suffering are allowed. Indeed, imagine that the allowance of evil and suffering are manifestations of this Divine Love. Imagine that we have been brought forth into an amazing adventure, full of infinite potential for harm and good, and that it has temporarily been left up to us to discern, cling to and move toward the good, and to overcome the unrelenting decay of the evil and alleviate as much as possible of the suffering. Imagine that we are here to learn how to love each other---to awaken to the fact of our familihood. Imagine that all the fairy tales that end with “happily ever after”; all the dramas that have come from our imagination in which the good, just and true triumph over evil; all our imagined written and visual dramas, all our high adventures of the good pitted against the evil with good winning in the end, sometimes after colossal battles---imagine that these imaginings are coming from an almost or completely unconscious place in our souls that knows the Truth, and is projecting it into this-world “reality”. Imagine that somewhere within us is an unknown but awakening knowledge that we are, always have been and will always be connected to the Divine Source that is imperfectly defined as Love—the love of a mother for her infant; the love of a soldier for his comrade in battle; the love that would cause a man to fall on a hand grenade to save his brothers; the love that would bring forth a million manifestations of beauty, manhood and womanhood, the innocence and beauty of a child. And that we can take, indeed must take an active conscious part in the awakening. Imagine that death is the doorway into a shimmering, glorious other-world with infinite new adventures extending into eternity. Imagine that the best that you can imagine is True.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. [Eph 3:20-21]

The Depth

We may think of life as an ocean. We all start out, like many fish hatchlings, in the shallows adjacent to the ocean. We are very vulnerable to the turbulence and predators. Many don’t survive. They are trapped by predators or lost in the turbulence. Many survive but never get beyond the shallow life of storms, predators, constant conflict, fears, uncertainties, trivialities, entertainment, envy, pride, ruthless competition, entitlements, discontent and meaninglessness. Those who sincerely and diligently seek wisdom discover a depth in the ocean where the surface turbulence cannot reach. They begin to merge with the Great Ones Who have lived in this depth and brought amazing goodness from it into the shallows. Their lives serve as an invitation into the depth, which, once discovered, makes all the shallow-life experiences not only survivable, but useful. No matter what is happening on the surface, one can sink down into the infinite depth and find a foundational Peace. In this place we realize that we are at one with the Source. Jesus lived and lives in this depth, and He traverses the currents of the shallows seeking those who can hear His voice, and escorting them into  freedom, peace and eternal life---the Depth.

Fear

Don’t resist fear. When you resist fear, you manifest the delusion that fear is real. Fear is something you [or some part of you] create/s because you know there is danger in the world. But your fear is limited in terms of the protection it provides from those dangers. At the end of that limit, fear becomes the problem. You don’t need it any more—if you have Love. Love overcomes everything---everything! Love overcame the Cross, and everything that led up to it. Love overcomes death!

When you stop resisting fear you do not become overwhelmed by it. It is your desperate resistance that causes you to feel overwhelmed. Stop resisting and you will see that the you that was resisting is now free. You become disengaged from your fear. The you that was resisting is something different from the fear that you were resisting---otherwise who or what would be resisting what? This you is now free, and can survey a new fearless horizon, which is now transformed because it is free from the dark lenses of fear through which it was previously viewed. There is a new clarity. The air is clean and pure in this place. You can hear the birds sing and see flowers and the unspeakable beauty of a child’s face. Your head is not filled with the smoke of all your problems. There is now infinite possibility.

“But”, one may ask, “ how can I know that I am truly safe in this fearless place? Is it wise to be fearless?” Yes, it is wise, with only one condition---and it is a very important one. Without this condition it would be wiser to retreat back into the fear unless and until you are able to meet it. And this is the condition: That your heart be filled with the pure Light of Christ’s Love. Then and only then are you safe from the darkness of this world, for it cannot penetrate that Light. Then and only then are you safe FOR the world. No harm can come through you. Now you are truly and completely free from fear.

“Perfect Love casts out fear.” [1 John 4:18].

Zach Post

OK, here goes: I’ll start with your last statement about counseling gays. The only ones I’ve counseled [the only ones who have come to me] are people who have as much reverence and trust in the Bible as I do. If I had told them that homosexuality is normal, OK, “just live the lifestyle”, they would have considered me heretical, paid me, and asked me to refer them to a truly “Christian counselor”. I would not have been able to help them deal with the load of conflict, alienation and guilt they were carrying. And if we pass laws that forbid counseling same-sex attracted folks who choose to live heterosexual or celibate lives, we will drive them into the non-professional world for the help they need. This would be a grave dis-service to them. I do not guide people into what lifestyle to choose: I help them cope with the difficulties they face in whatever lifestyle THEY choose, and this includes the homosexual lifestyle. I remind them that there are plenty of people who consider homosexuality a viable and functional lifestyle, it is no longer considered pathological in the psychology world, and they would be welcomed into those communities. I help them understand that the God THEY believe in does not reject, hate, or condemn them for something they cannot control, and that He wants them to be free from guilt and shame. Any counselor must be able to separate his own beliefs/biases from the counseling process; and this is a challenge for all counselors [not just Christians] that must be taken very seriously. I do not, as you insinuate, BTW, equate lifestyle with person. I know that the person is loved of God whatever lifestyle he chooses, and I am also commanded by my Lord to love all people. I say this with the humility of knowing that I love no one perfectly, not even my precious little 4 yo grandson Nolan. Loving people is something I always consider myself a beginner at. The Love of Christ is always an aspiration; never a final accomplishment. Without Grace, we would all be living in either guilt or denial. No one is getting it right in all arenas of life all the time. “All have sinned...” the Bible says. And it is true.

I think I can respond to the three scenarios you presented in a general way that basically covers all of them. The Christian faith/lifestyle is lived out differently [though motivated by the same Love] on the two sides of the issues we’re talking about here: serving customers of differing life orientations who come to our place of business, or being served by people of different beliefs that would give them pause in rendering the service. If I imagine Lynn and I going into a shop for a wedding cake, and the owners did not want to serve us because they considered us to be “infidels” or “breeders” [an interesting term that seems to be a pejorative term for heterosexuals, and I wonder where it originated {not you I hope}]or obese, etc. We would hastily and politely depart the store. I would help Lynn deal with whatever hurt feelings or indignation she might have and remind her that we are who God sees; not what people see. We would pray for those people because we would know as Christ on the Cross, “They know not what they do.” This would be as sincere a prayer as we could make it—not a subtle exercise in passive-aggressive indignation or self-righteousness. We would ask God to help us get clear of any smoldering resentment or feelings of inferiority. If any Constitutional rights were being violated, we may, for the sake of others, choose to take some action. But if they were practicing within the realm of their Constitutional rights, that would be the end of it for us and we would look elsewhere or bake our own cake. If we were on the other side of this issue, we owned the bakery, and a same-sex couple asked us to serve them with a cake, we would pray for guidance. It could be that the Lord would lead us to simply serve them, reminding us that we are not responsible for their choices, and that He loves them as much as He loves us, though, Scripturally, He does not ordain their lifestyle, any more, for instance than He ordains adulterous lifestyles, etc. [I pause here because this is where the catch is for most of us on this issue. The Bible is not ambivalent about homosexuality. We have got to deal with that fact in a civil and compassionate manner. Jesus has taken us beyond condemnation of sinners [“Let him who is without sin cast the first stone”] but He said He did not come to “destroy the law but to fulfill it”. His Love fulfills the law/Scripture. I do not believe that I have the authority to ordain any activities that the Bible forbids. I feel that I would be violating the God Who created me and holds me accountable for what I generate, encourage, support, etc. in this world; and that that would follow me into the afterlife. I also know, beyond any doubt, that I must not hate any person—in fact I must love all people with the Love of Christ, no matter their chosen activities. This includes pedophiles, murderers, sociopaths, etc. I counseled a pedophile—I think he’s still in jail—and I have a jasmine vine growing in my yard that he gave me in appreciation for the ministry God rendered through me. The oppression that Christians are reacting to [something you label as “utter nonsense”] is that they are feeling pressured into asserting something that is contrary to the Bible—that homosexual liaisons are righteous, good, holy, and on equal par with man-woman relations/marriages, etc. And laws are being enacted that have the effect of forcing Christians to assent to this belief in ways that violate their true and sincere religious faith. This is where, as you indicated above, your fist meets my nose. This is going to be the cutting edge frontier that we must safely negotiate: How do we allow homosexuals to be homosexual; and Christians to be Christian in light of what the Bible says about homosexuality. It seems that some folks in both realms will not stop until the other is subdued by laws or converted by coercion. Neither path is good. In some sense, we’ve got to live and let live, without imposing laws upon each other that forbid us to be who we truly are. I know that, from the Christian standpoint, laws that violate faith will generate civil disobedience. But it will not be motivated by hatred or fear if it is done in the Spirit of its original Progenitor. And if it is not done in that Spirit, it can no longer be called “Christian”. This is why your earlier term “Christian hatred” is a literal oxymoron. The only thing a Christian is allowed to hate is the evil that is not good for anyone in the human family. “We war not against flesh and blood...”. Jesus hated nor hates anyone. The primary concern I have in all this is that we not, culturally speaking, throw out the baby [the vital, life-enhancing power of the Christian faith] with the bath water [the distorted ways that some folks have expressed that faith] in our efforts to gain personal “freedoms” or in angry protest against feeling suppressed by something that, in its truest manifestation is the source of all true freedom. We all lose if this happens. I hope you and others will recognize that the God of the Christian faith is the bedrock of this democracy in which civil injustices have been and are continuing to be addressed. Any rational and honest indepth study of American history [the speeches, letters, enactments, etc. of our Founders] will attest to this, despite the fact that shallow conclusions to the contrary that appease those who don’t like Christianity for some reason and who are not willing to dig deeply enough into the truth of the matter are epithetically tossed around as if they were consummate truth [“deists”]. We have shed our own blood to end slavery. Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr. were Christians! Geo. Washington was a Christian. No Christian is a perfect person, of course, but at least you can hold Christians accountable to the commands of their Lord. And I challenge you to find a single teaching of Jesus that is harmful to any human. We should not be trying to dissuade Christians from being Christians; we should be trying to get them to be MORE Christian, whether we are or not. I firmly believe that there is serious danger lurking in the wings if we do not. Someone has likened the fires of Christianity burning in our culture to the fires of the ancient cavemen, keeping the beasts of prey at bay. If the fire is neglected and dies down, the beasts move in to “steal, kill and destroy” as Jesus said. The Christianity that you seem to disdain is primarily what has made it possible for you to live as you please. Christ has never been in the business of suppressing freedom; He came, as He said, to “set the captives free and to set at liberty those who are oppressed”. To relegate Christianity into an insulated sector of society will expose the remainder of society to a darkness that can be invaded by forces that have made the 20^th Century the bloodiest in all of history. More 100 million humans were killed by humans in that Century. Take a moment to meditate upon that. And this was done in communist, athiest or Muslim environments. Jesus commands us to LOVE our enemies. He would not allow his disciples to use the sword to defend Him against those who came after Him at night with false accusations and dragged Him to the Cross. We desperately need this influence in our world. Please, I beg you, don’t disparage or discourage this influence. It is not Jesus Who has hurt or suppressed you. He is not your enemy. Nor are any of those who sincerely follow Him. 
Thanks again Zach for stimulating all this---something I know you didn’t intend. [Perhaps God was using you for this purpose.] I pray that you and all your loved ones are prospering in all ways. I sensed in your last post what I also feel, maybe we have taken this to its current limit. I will, at your request, respond to any further posts if you desire. Otherwise I pray this ends with us as true friends who wish only good for each other. That is certainly true from my standpoint. Blessings.