What Really Matters?

Christ followers are not the same as Christians. There is a saying: “Let’s put Christ back into Christmas.” I’m not going to get into any theological discussion on whether Christmas is a pagan holiday or any of that, but it’s a running board for where I see the holy spirit taking me next.

Instead of a futile campaign about putting Christ back into Christmas, how about we put Christ back into Christians???

There are many professing Christians I see who are on all these soapboxes about politics, black lives matter, blue lives matter, fill in the blank on your favorite “Christian” lead debacle. And I am not going to dispute the importance of each and every one…but what about God’s children matter?? What about that? That would encompass EVERYONE on this planet!! Black, White, Asian, Indian, Hispanic…. If I forgot you, I’m sorry…but God hasn’t forgotten you.

I’m not Mr. Perfect Christian either.. I got my faults and my own soapboxes.. I’m not gonna even pretend I’m better… But what I do stand for is being a Christ follower who constantly seeks how JESUS can improve on my shortcomings, my downfalls and my idiosyncrasies, laying them at the cross and striving to be MORE LIKE JESUS. Wouldn’t it be great if all Christians or what I like to call true believers, Christ followers… if we all strived to be more like Jesus??? What would that look like? I’ll tell you, that would look like the bride of Christ!

So, let’s talk about Merry Christmas here for a second:
There’s not one word in the Bible that says the world will know we are Jesus Christ’s disciples by our trying to force corporations to say “Merry Christmas” or use Christmas coffee cups. I know of no place in the Bible where either Jesus or His apostles tell us to get governments to put nativity scenes on public property. I’m not judging anyone’s Christianity, but this supposed battle to defend Christmas that people fight each year in the name of Christianity is a sham. They think it makes them out to be defenders of the faith struggling against the pagan hordes, but, in fact, it exposes them as trolls picking fights over non-critical issues. Apparently, they don’t have a clue that there are better things to which they should be applying their time and resources.

Jesus didn’t say that the world would know us as His disciples by our contentiousness, but by our love for one another (John 13:35). He also said, “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust” (Matthew 5:44-45). And James, the brother of Jesus, said, “If anyone among you thinks himself to be religious while he doesn’t bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this man’s religion is worthless. Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world” (James 1:26-27).

But aren’t these people helping Christ by keeping Him in Christmas? No, emphatically, no. The Gospel is a serious message involving the sinless Son of God taking our sins upon Him and suffering and dying for them in our place. It is our only hope of salvation and eternal life (Romans 1:16).

So, Church. The body of believers that gather together a few times a week to get equipped for the mission and then get released for the ensuing battle in the world that we live in… (at least that’s how we are supposed to look at it!)

Tradition and continuity has its place in a gathering of believers in a “church” setting but when we let that become the focus of our worship and not the one who is the perfecter and finisher of our faith then we are truly not in worship. We can sing songs, listen to a sermon, and break bread but if this is the end all for you then you are watering down anything that Jesus stood for or taught. The Pharisees got an ear full about tradition and asked weighty questions like “where is your heart here?” because where your mind is your heart will follow. When “churchy things” go before your relationship with God… Then you are no better than the Pharisees that Jesus in Matthew 15 said “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.” we are missing the point when it becomes all about the four walls and less about the blood that Jesus shed. When we stop seeking after God’s people who He wishes for no man to perish then we miss the boat and ultimately hinder our relationship from the almighty God thru His son Jesus. It’s no better or worse than the love of money because the legalistic tradition becomes an idol to you. If any church institution or element becomes the focus over the living God then it’s an idol. Jesus told us to remember him but if we use communion as a staple then it’s an idol over the Savior.

We are right to remember him…. But the standard isn’t once a week when we are supposed to gather together.. It is living our lives DAILY for Him and then the lot of us broken people gather in a temporary building observe and worship together… Listen to a broken pastor and sing songs about brokenness so that we can finally come to a savior that has the glue, the duct tape, and the nails to put us back together.
The perfect church is the bride of Christ… And we ain’t there yet. So let’s emulate the FATHER thru his Son. Love on each other and those that dont know him yet and get back to work! The work is on the inside of us and Outside the house! Let’s get to the Father’s work!!

When we get offended by an action or deed, or even by something that is said… And we use that offense to fuel our defenses of how WE think things should be done. Are we really being Christlike in our actions? It’s like hitting your sibling and mom asks why you did it and you wail… They started it! At what point do we as Christ followers finally “get it” start following HIS example on how to deal with human nature and how to react to it?? We certainly aren’t doing that now because unbelievers only see what we are against and not what we are for! Which should be love above all things. Stop letting trivialities come between you and others…. And ultimately our SAVIOR! Because our blindness to what really matters becomes the most biggest hindrance to our blessings from God and our relationship with his son!

In Matthew 22: Jesus was asked about taxes and He said “render unto Caesars what is Caesars” I’d like to look at it as “render unto the world what is the worlds” get off your secular soap box, speak on things that matter.

Also in Matthew 22, vs 36-39, one of the Pharisees asked Jesus,
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” sound familiar church? And then
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Paul said,
1 Corinthians 13:11-13 New International Version (NIV)
11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
So, it doesn’t matter if you like Trump or not.. Mad at Colin for kneeling, starbucks for not putting Merry Christmas on their cups, or in church that they didn’t do communion one week, didn’t dress up for church, or didn’t sing your favorite worship song?

The only thing that will ever truly matter in the end will be our souls in eternity! I like how Got Questions puts the Gospel: “The bad news that all are guilty of sin and condemned by God is countered by the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. God, because of His love for the world, has made a way for man to be forgiven of their sins (John 3:16). He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to take the sins of mankind on Himself through death on a cross (1 Peter 2:24). In placing our sin on Christ, God ensured that all who will believe in the name of Jesus will be forgiven (Acts 10:43). Jesus’ resurrection guarantees the justification of all who believe”
And what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:3-8
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

Jesus said go into all the world… And preach the GOOD NEWS!!
If we are not preaching or acting like Jesus, the world will think that when we profess to be a Christian and act like the world, that they don’t need our Jesus… the only Jesus that is live giving, life saving, life altering… I want people to know the Jesus I KNOW…the Jesus I LOVE, the Jesus I adore and know the truth, the way and the life that I KNOW.. so that we can all gather together to be the bride of Christ and be forever with Him in paradise…
So be the only Jesus that the world may ever see, stop fighting about trivial matters that will be thrown into the fire and burned up…love on them, pray for them, and show them the way.