Your Faith Box: SoYou Have Been Saved, NOW WHAT?

Huh? You mean there is more? Believe it or not, being saved is the easy part. Now you are a Christian, a child of God and the real work begins!

Paul wrote to the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 13:11 HCSB) “…Become mature…” They were encouraged to grow in their faith and their understanding of the new relationship they had in Christ. While Paul encouraged the Corinthians to grow in their faith, he knew it would not be easy. He knew they would be affected by the world around them. He knew they would have cause to question this new faith. He knew they would not understand everything. Knowing these these things he wrote to encourage them. He wrote to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 13:9-12 HCBS)

“For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when the perfect comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought as a child, I reasoned like a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now, we see indistinctly, as in a mirror but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully as I am fully known.”

We come into the spiritual family of God much like we come into the physical world; fresh, full of wonder and curiosity, a blank sheet. That blank sheet begs to be written filled and so we grow.

Little children grow and develop as they learn new exciting aspects of the mature life. We continue to learn as we age and as we age we naturally grow into maturity. And like children, new Christians grow as we learn more about what it means to be a member of the family of God.

Christians get help on Judgement Day

Guilty!

Well, I said Christians are different from other religions as it regards to a future judgement day when our sins will be evaluated and our eternity decided. To recap, we believe all men and women have sinned in some way. The sin may be small or large, but it is sin nevertheless, In other words, there are no levels of transgressions, no relativity, no point system based on the severity of the sin.

Think about that for a minute, no difference in the severity of sin? So lying to Aunt Milly about that broken flower pot is the same as stealing $1 million from a bank or committing adultery or killing someone?  Jesus raised the standard when he equated hating to killing and lust to adultery. This seems terribly unfair doesn't it?  But that's how we are different.  Christians know when Judgement Day comes, we will stand before God and answer "guilty" when asked if we have sinned. And we know the consequences of that sin is figurative death or separation from the presence of God for an eternity. Let's not talk about the conditions in that place of separation for many opinions exist about the place we name Hell. For Christians, separation from God is our Hell!

Why Believe?

A group of Christians were setting around after Bible Study.  “I just don’t understand why people do not come to Jesus.  It just makes sense.” Another piped in, "They are just too lazy to try to figure it out.  They rely on what others say.” The truth is much more complicated.  People don’t “come to Jesus” for a lot of reasons, some logical and some self serving and illogical. I came up with some 12 to 13 reasons why a person doesn’t just fall in step with the Jesus folks. I only have room to discuss three of them.

For example, some people do not bother to even think about Christianity, or any religion for that matter, simply because they believe there is no God and no eternity.  The philosophy is “eat, drink and make merry for tomorrow you may die."  There is nothing after death, no sense of being, and no feelings.  We go to sleep and never wake! With this understanding of life, we need to get everything we need/want now even if we have to kill for it. In the popular saying, “This is a dog eat dog world.” 

Wow, there is not much you can say to these folks. They are too busy with life in the here and now and