Cut the Stuff and Nonsense
As a believer I have always found God’s word and His truth to be fascinating and awe-inspiring. The more I dig into it the stronger my faith becomes and the more I grow in knowledge and discernment. I also realized something else…Christians believe a lot of stuff and nonsense. There is a great deal of nonsense that Christians (in general) accept as truth that is not in the Bible or is a twisted version of what the Bible actually says. So many people want nothing to do with Christianity, and who can blame them when it seems so rigid or random? If being a Christian is about following a set of rules, than no thank you—I was disqualified from that game a long time ago. If it’s about believing what is most commonly accepted, then I’ll have to pass again, because what is commonly accepted changes based on the feelings or whims of imperfect people. I will take Christ, however.
Scripture testifies Christ from the first page to the last and He emerges as the only thing worth staking your life on. He is what brings Hope. Most people claiming Christ as Christians (surprisingly, not all) believe He died for their sins, but many have no idea what else the Bible actually says about Him, or sin, or a million other things. There are a LOT of man’s ideas out there, but without knowing what the Bible says, it’s hard to tell the difference between man’s ideas and God’s truths. There are also many people who profess Christ and read the Bible, but don’t believe some or much of what it says. Often we wrestle with what we think and what we read in the Bible and how everything fit’s together, but what if we just took the Lord at His word? Why would the part of the Bible about Christ’s death and resurrection be true, but not the rest of it? God desires the entirety of our hearts. He desires for us to put our Hope in Christ alone. We can’t straddle the fence and still claim Him.
As my faith has matured, I’ve realized the implications of wholly accepting the teachings of Christ. It can bring difficulties or criticism, and that can be hard to face. It takes courage to put your faith in His word. Once you cut through the bilge invading our minds and hearts through traditions, culture, ideas, philosophies, and outright lies, you can see Christ for who He really is. He is worth serving. He is worth risking difficulty and criticism. He is worth everything. I am still growing and I constantly make mistakes, but I’ve given my heart to Christ and I am convinced that His word and His power are changing my life for His glory and my good. As I’ve matured I’ve come to the conclusion that it is important to take the God who saved me at His word, and to measure my life against it regularly. It is important for me to put my hope in Him and not in myself, people’s opinions and advice, or the things of this world.
I will choose hope that is real and defies the hopelessness of this world.