THE REALITY IS CHRIST IN YOU
28/11/24 11:48
Having spent much of my life in church in ministry of a variety of kinds I know that it can be of some value or little at all in a fullness of life sense. While it is true that our life in Christ is life together one needs to learn that a church belonging may not be a relationship with God. A model of church that is about giving everyone a turn to be ‘up the front’, whether they are Godly or not, just wastes people’s time embedding then in impotency. It makes us like Pavlov’s dogs who salivate when they hear a bell, whether food has arrived or not.
ALIVE OR NOT?
I was having lunch with a non-believer in a cafe once and she assured me that she would never belong to a church. As a churchgoer I was somewhat taken aback as at that part of my life what I thought of as Godliness was very much associated with church. Some people are not interested in what is no more than a club of conformity.
One of the disappointing things about church is that people in them can be more interested in sustaining the institution of the church than they are in Jesus. Not a few think a relationship with church is godliness – but this is because they have a relationship with religion instead of a relationship with Christ. Unperceptive Christians think their ‘churching’ is godliness. But Jesus said, ‘unless we are born again we cannot see the Kingdom of God.’ ‘Churchists’ often oppose real intimacy with God and resent revival.
BORN AGAIN IS NOT OUR ADOPTION OF A CONTRACT
Born again is not dropping a few sins in exchange for a couple of good deeds. Born again is our dying to religion in exchange for Christ our life. The Source of Godliness/best humanity is not an institution or abstractions, aka the law, moralism or Christian religious lore. Christ come in our flesh is Godliness realised.
THE ILLUSION
I find it curious that fully secular people, lapsed Christians and confirmed Christians can think that ‘going to church’ is a sign of Godliness. Often when a non-Christian friend finds that we are a practicing Christians they may say, ‘ I must get along to church some day.’ Or when they endure a crisis in their lives they find a church somewhere in the city and sit in a pew – as though God was not with them in their Everyday lives.
As a Christian we may have been lulled into thinking that our Christianity is a set of beliefs and a couple of behaviours when what it really is, is a state of being. It’s our living in real oneness with Christ who promised to be with us and in us. When we know and understand that Christ is our life and we are not contained in religiosity we begin to live life as an adventure and become agents of Christ, rather than dead folks talking. A lived oneness with Christ frees us from the bonds of religiosity to make us truly alive and representative of real life, instead of coat-hangers for a set of religious motions.
I do not intend to discourage people from going to church. But church must never be a subtle idol or a substitute for a real relationship with Jesus, Father and Holy Spirit. In communion with them we are free to be, to become our better selves and gain the ability to love others and be people of grace and truth. There are more varieties of being the church than sitting in rows and doing three hymns and a prayer. We were sitting around the table once talking about our lives in the Lord and Beth said, ‘To me this is church.’ Real church is not an institution. It’s you and others in fellowship with Jesus Himself. It’s our life together with God.
There is a living way of being our Best Self and persons of grace to others, “For human persons this means they become more fully ‘personed’ through participation in the divine nature.” (1) This happens because Christ comes in our flesh to be expressed as us.
(1) Intro by Myk Habets to Torrance, Thomas F.. The Trinitarian Faith: The Evangelical Theology of the Ancient Catholic Church (T&T Clark Cornerstones) (p. 1). Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition.
ALIVE OR NOT?
I was having lunch with a non-believer in a cafe once and she assured me that she would never belong to a church. As a churchgoer I was somewhat taken aback as at that part of my life what I thought of as Godliness was very much associated with church. Some people are not interested in what is no more than a club of conformity.
One of the disappointing things about church is that people in them can be more interested in sustaining the institution of the church than they are in Jesus. Not a few think a relationship with church is godliness – but this is because they have a relationship with religion instead of a relationship with Christ. Unperceptive Christians think their ‘churching’ is godliness. But Jesus said, ‘unless we are born again we cannot see the Kingdom of God.’ ‘Churchists’ often oppose real intimacy with God and resent revival.
BORN AGAIN IS NOT OUR ADOPTION OF A CONTRACT
Born again is not dropping a few sins in exchange for a couple of good deeds. Born again is our dying to religion in exchange for Christ our life. The Source of Godliness/best humanity is not an institution or abstractions, aka the law, moralism or Christian religious lore. Christ come in our flesh is Godliness realised.
THE ILLUSION
I find it curious that fully secular people, lapsed Christians and confirmed Christians can think that ‘going to church’ is a sign of Godliness. Often when a non-Christian friend finds that we are a practicing Christians they may say, ‘ I must get along to church some day.’ Or when they endure a crisis in their lives they find a church somewhere in the city and sit in a pew – as though God was not with them in their Everyday lives.
As a Christian we may have been lulled into thinking that our Christianity is a set of beliefs and a couple of behaviours when what it really is, is a state of being. It’s our living in real oneness with Christ who promised to be with us and in us. When we know and understand that Christ is our life and we are not contained in religiosity we begin to live life as an adventure and become agents of Christ, rather than dead folks talking. A lived oneness with Christ frees us from the bonds of religiosity to make us truly alive and representative of real life, instead of coat-hangers for a set of religious motions.
I do not intend to discourage people from going to church. But church must never be a subtle idol or a substitute for a real relationship with Jesus, Father and Holy Spirit. In communion with them we are free to be, to become our better selves and gain the ability to love others and be people of grace and truth. There are more varieties of being the church than sitting in rows and doing three hymns and a prayer. We were sitting around the table once talking about our lives in the Lord and Beth said, ‘To me this is church.’ Real church is not an institution. It’s you and others in fellowship with Jesus Himself. It’s our life together with God.
There is a living way of being our Best Self and persons of grace to others, “For human persons this means they become more fully ‘personed’ through participation in the divine nature.” (1) This happens because Christ comes in our flesh to be expressed as us.
(1) Intro by Myk Habets to Torrance, Thomas F.. The Trinitarian Faith: The Evangelical Theology of the Ancient Catholic Church (T&T Clark Cornerstones) (p. 1). Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition.