Don't you think that every person should be able to tell the Truth as a Statement of their Faith to share with others?
This is what I have come up that applies to my faith and how I interpret Scripture and the Gospel ( with the help and counsel of the Holy Spirit and the the counsel of numerous books, sermons, study groups, prayer and Christian mentors that are much more educated and mature in there faith then myself ).
First there is a faith that Christ grants us to believe that Jesus is the promised Messiah of Israel and Savior of the World.
Second, Scripture tells us none of us are righteous...but...Jesus lived a perfect life and died as our Savior, a Holy sacrifice for everyone that believes the Truth and trusts in His sacrifice on the Cross. For these believers that accept the life and then death of Christ as a substitute for our payment of death we are justified by faith and belong to the Kingdom of God - the Church Universal. By placing our trust in the Cross, the Holy Spirit draws us to repent of our sins and with the Spirits counsel to follow the teachings of Christ. While many books have been written interpreting the teachings of Christ for a believer to follow...Jesus has boiled it down to simply Loving God first and then Loving your neighbor as yourself. You do that and everything else falls in line.
Who is your neighbor that we are to love? Jesus explains that as the Good Samaritan in his parables. Jesus says we should love others that show mercy and compassion on the weak and helpless and strive to do the same ourselves.
Does that mean we love everything and everybody? Scripture also tells us that we should hate those things that stand between us and God and the purpose God has for our lives. Jesus even called the founder of the Church... St Peter..."Satan" when he tried to dissuade Jesus from giving Himself up to his fate on the Cross.
Modern Christian authors can write all the 450 page books they want to try to add to, explain away or complicate Scripture but the Truth really isn't all that complicated. I believe that Christianity is a simple religion that offers the same invitation of eternal fellowship with God to the uneducated farmer in Guatemala, the peasant in China or the Aids infected African orphan as it does to soccer moms and business executives in Dallas Texas that spend hundreds of dollars a year at Starbucks and Lifeway Christian bookstores while searching for this simple Truth. Surely God has designed the Gospel to fit the needs of a guy on a camel just as it does the guy in his Mercedes Benz. Not that reading Christian books is wrong...I have read, learned from and enjoyed many of them myself...but the Bible tells you all a person really needs to know in very simple terms and you may need to pray to ask God for the faith to believe that Truth much more then you need to buy more books. ( But keep the coffee coming ! )
How do we spread the Truth ( that is the Gospel message of Jesus ) in a way that is easily transferrable, understood and accepted by the seven billion people of the World today?
Next post!
Believe the Truth, live the Truth, tell the Truth.
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