Casual Christianity

As we get older it seems that relaxing becomes more and more inviting. I’m not talking about engaging in diversions such as hobbies or following sports teams; I’m talking about doing less and less; avoiding activities that require effort. Sometimes it’s necessary whether we like it or not. I used to love to participate in pickup basketball games at the local fitness center. Standing around waiting for an opportunity when one of the players had to leave, or when a set amount of points had been achieved, ending the action. I still remember the first time I had to bow out of a scrimmage because I came up lame. For no apparent reason one of my knees wouldn’t work without significant pain. It’s one thing to get injured from a fall or a collision, but when your body stops working for no obvious reasons you have to ask yourself: why? And in this case I had to come to the conclusion that I was getting older. It would be a while before I had to stop playing the game, but I knew I was on my way. Nowadays I can’t jump much higher than a foot off the ground, and even that might end with me lying flat on my back. No more basketball for me…so sad. As I’ve aged I’ve learned to watch what I’m doing and avoid actions that could end in injury: stairs are tough…especially going down; “gotta” hold on to that railing! It happens to everybody. What you used to do can’t be done anymore. At first it’s disturbing and you try different things to maintain an active lifestyle, but eventually such activity becomes less and less appealing, until finally relaxing and maintaining appropriate limits on your actions becomes acceptable: less pain…less risk. Now why am I bringing this up?

As Christians we’ve been given a call to action, and that action should never be neglected! It can’t be! We’ve been called to serve the Lord and His purposes regardless of the costs. What those costs involve depends on who you are and what agenda the Lord has in mind for you. Not everyone is called to be a pastor or a missionary, but we’re all called to “seek the Lord while He may be found!” We’re called to get to know Him. We’re called to learn His ways, to seek Him in all the affairs of our lives, to submit ourselves to His oversite; and to bear witness to His truth. And that never ends! Our bodies may wear out, our minds may slow down, but the Lord always has an agenda for our current circumstances…if we’re willing to listen and respond! I suppose this more obviously applies to retirees than to those who are still engaged in careers and the needs of their families. However, maintaining a posture that emphasizes an effort to know and discover all that pertains to our God cannot be neglected by anyone. To do so is to miss the point of being a Christian. Saying this reminds me of the admonition of the Apostle Paul when He said:

            But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

            Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect (i.e. mature), have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you; however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained. (Philippians 3:7-16)

Paul wrote this letter from Rome where he was imprisoned at the time. This was after many years of ministry in which he helped plant and develop churches in locations around the eastern Mediterranean Sea. During that time he experienced all manner of hardships that included such things as imprisonment, beatings, stoning and ship wrecks; surviving them all through the Lord’s miraculous intervention. He was also witness to, and participated in, miraculous events in which the Lord manifested Himself. It could be said that the Apostle led an extreme life in which he experienced our God in extreme ways.  Paul was called to a life that was dangerous and demanding and probably ended with his execution at the hands of the Roman authorities. And yet when all was said and done, he still recognized  that his understanding of the Lord and His ways was incomplete; there was still more to know and understand about our God and he was determined to “press on.” Most of us are not called to such an extreme life, but we are all called to a greater and greater understanding of our God; and it’s not just “gee whiz” information that I’m talking about. Understanding the nature of the Trinity or the dual nature of man and God in the person of Jesus is interesting and has some benefit, but understanding the nature of our existence before our God is something that is pertinent for everyone. Who are we here and now? What does it mean to be alive in a created environment that’s superintended by our knowable God? Do you ever ask yourselves questions like that? If not, why not? We’re told how to think of ourselves by those around us from start to finish. What we’re told may be true and informed by the Word of God, but often it isn’t because we live in a fallen world that’s been compromised because of sin and the curse that resulted from that sin. The Lord presides over our compromised world and He works through this imperfect environment to achieve His own agenda. But that doesn’t mean that we can just absorb a proper understanding of our lives without effort on our part. As Christians we’ve been informed by the revelation of our Messiah but that doesn’t mean we can obtain a full understanding of ourselves and this world by osmosis, we’ve got to seek to know our God and ourselves.

Most of you who have followed this bog know that I’ve been emphasizing the primary features of an aggressive Christian walk that focuses on study of the Bible, rigorous and regular prayer, and involvement in an active, evangelical church. What I’m attempting to do here is to stimulate your expectations. We can have good habits of Bible study and prayer, and participate in an assembly that shares a common faith. However, the question is what are we expecting to gain from these things? Protection and support in a fallen world? Yes. Maybe it’s guidance in making good decisions concerning the direction of our lives? Hopefully that will happen. Yet what I hear Paul saying sounds much more dynamic than such things as these. They may be necessary for us to find our way in this strange place that is modern society, but they don’t seem to measure up to the goals that the Apostle set before us. It seems to me that the Lord, through His intermediaries, is challenging us to investigate our very “existence” in the light of His Word. We develop a primary understanding of ourselves through the lens of a fallen world that in many ways denies the supernatural except in hocus pocus terms. Yet our Lord is Spirit and we’ve been prompted to seek Him and know Him. And this challenge has been made available through our reconciliation with the Lord through the efforts of His Son. Perhaps it wasn’t such a stretch to think in these terms in an ancient world of superstition and idolatry, but in our modern world self-understanding is largely addressed as a “science” of sorts. Even if we’re convinced that the Bible is true, our understanding and application of it can be skewed because of the residual effects of this environment. My response to that is to affirm my conviction that what the Apostles had to say about knowing and walking with our Lord is as relevant today as it was then. Science can’t tell us how to know the Lord and ourselves. It’s fellowship with the living God that opens the way to understanding who and what we are.

With that being said, we all need to hear the challenge the Lord has presented to us:

            For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

            Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:14-21)

It’s a challenge that was relevant for those of the ancient world, and it continues to be relevant in these strange days that we live in today.

Halleluiah!