A Christian Nation

Christianity- It begins, lives and breathes with Jesus.  I recently spoke with an intelligent young man who, sadly, shares the view of way too many people, young and old. It saddened me to hear that he "believes in a higher power" but's just not sure about Jesus. After all, other religions speak of kindness and compassion and love to their fellow man. What makes Christianity true and the others wrong? That's an exceedingly good question...asked reasonably from an inquisitive and reasoned mind. So...let's clear the decks:

1. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There is nobody righteous...no...not one 

2. While we were still sinners Christ died for us. We did NOTHING to deserve this...yet His love moved Him to die for us. 

3. Out of God's love for the world, He sent his Son to be a sacrificial blood offering to cleanse our Sin that separates us from a Holy God. 

4. Unless we come to God with the eyes and heart of a child we'll never see His Kingdom.  Does that mean that what God offers won't stand up to Human reason? Nope...(Read C.S. Lewis or A. W. Tozer, John, Luke, Romans, Isaiah, Psalms or Daniel ) What it means is that the wisdom of Man is foolishness to God. God is supernatural...not bound by natural laws and certainly incomprehensible to the minds of men and women...Understand, a child doesn't see through those eyes. 

5. Salvation comes from faith that Jesus is the Son of God...a gift of God's grace. What other historical figure was said to be resurrected? Why did Herod kill all the Hebrew babies after the birth of Jesus? Why was Jesus born and executed during the times set forth by the prophet Daniel written hundreds of years before He was born?

6. Our righteousness is as filthy rags. Other religions state that you gain salvation or enlightenment through intentional adherence to certain codes ("doing the best you can") or through several incarnations as you move your way up through the ladder of enlightenment.  Question: If you could gain Paradise, Heaven, Afterlife with the Higher Power, by your own actions then why do you need a Higher Power? That makes you your own God. 

7. For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities- his eternal power and divine nature- have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. Get away from the digital universe (man-made worlds) and step back into a redwood forest, visit an alpine lake, a desert canyon or gaze at an endless ocean, a rolling wheat field or a star-filled sky. Listen to a baby's laugh, the cry of the hawk, a lion's roar or the sounds nature makes just after sunrise. Where does TRUTH, COMPASSION, COURAGE, FAITH, LOVE AND HOPE come from? Look at a young colt take its first steps; a bird's nest full of little scrawny squeaking feathered beings. Have the warm, tender fingers of a newborn wrap around your little finger or experience the clasp of a dying loved one as they cling to  your hand while they slip the surly bonds of earth and step into eternity. 

8. Only by the Spirit of God can anyone say that Jesus is Lord. For all of you still wrestling with this, I hope you either get hit by a Holy Spirit avalanche or that still, quiet voice that you've been running from. Either way, He knows how to reach you. After all, He knit you together in your mother's womb.

9. The conclusion that you are an enlightened human seeking enlightenment, and have  studied varied approaches and doctrines and therefore are prepared to say that you have given it considerable reflection and for now have piled up at that spiritual intersection and just don't know which way to go because all of those paths look equally good to you...then allow me to insert this disclaimer: I've been right where you are. I'm only smart enough to know I'm not that smart...but that pause mid-journey, that foot in the dirt is just saying I'm stopping where my comfort zone ends. It hasn't settled in my heart which way is the right way...and that's fine...again...I threw out an apple core on the roadside where you're parked. BUT...don't stay there. Like the church of Laodicea you are neither hot nor cold. You'll have to put on your big girl/big boy pants sometime and decide. Staying there intentionally makes you lazy or a coward. (Remember I know I'm no smarter or better than anyone. I've been scared and Lord knows, I've been so tired.) At some point, half-measures won't cut it and you'll have to take a step. Whatever decision you make will decide where you spend eternity. What other prophet, thinker, philosopher or wonderful person willingly shed their own blood for you AND (wait for it...) was resurrected as witnessed by hundreds? All I ask is for you to simply ask Jesus to show you the truth.

10. With all the evil in the world, how can God/Jesus be real? I've had more than my share of hurt and loss and sometimes it seems there's not enough whiskey in the world, but I also know that loss and hurt are spread around pretty well and just because lots of folks are just crappy people on their best day that doesn't negate the truth, existence or goodness of God. Doesn't the existence of evil prove the existence of good? Doesn't the author of evil confirm the author of good? Of course, look at the Holocaust, at the Inquisition, at all the wars, all the rapes and all the murders and all the nastiness that humans have visited on each other and scream "God where are You?" He's in the willing blood sacrifice of Jesus, in the blood that turned the waters red at Omaha beach, in the tireless devotion of a single Mom who works jobs she hates to provide for her kids, the selfless courage of cops and firemen who run toward the blazes and gunfire, in the scared unwed, teenager who chooses Life and decides no matter what, she's gonna give her little one a birth day, in the tears of a broken man who falls to his knees and cries out for God, in the business owners who do right by their employees, in the sweet voice of a child who says, "Good night Daddy" or "Mommy, I love you" and in that newly born again Jesus follower, who takes a deep breath at a social gathering and answers when asked if they believe in a Higher Power, answers, "Yeah. I'm a Christian. I believe Jesus is the Son Of God..."