Why Be A Christian?
So I read an article about quitting the Christian faith or religion, I am not sure which one the author was talking about. When I read these articles I am on one hand amused and on the other hand I am sad. So this article will discuss why be a Christian.
These people that write the articles want freedom most of the time. I think we know that a man and women living together before marriage is not right or perfect or having sex before marriage is not right but we do it anyway because we want the enjoyment now and will pay the consequences later.
Many times people want to be happy now and get rid of pain. However, being happy is not the goal in life.
Freedom
There is no such thing as total freedom. We will be a slave to our thinking, or lusts, our desires and thoughts. In life we have two choices to serve either God or Satan.
Freedom without boundaries, which Satan offers, is slavery to lusts of the heart and slavery to corrupted thinking. There is a war going on in our mind and in our thinking if you are a Christian or not (Romans 6) .
Let’s say there are two choices that can be made in a situation. There is a right choice and a wrong choice. Why do we make the wrong choice?
I use to say before I was a Christian, “I fight with myself and loose”. It just meant that I would make the wrong decision. On some level I knew that there was two sides of me. These sides would fight with each other and I would live with the consequences of the winner.
I have come to believe that we are a spirit with a mind that lives in a body. When we become believers we get a new spirit that is perfect. We get the Holy Spirit to live inside us (1 Corinthians 6:19 and Ezekiel 36:27) .
Just because we have a new spirit doesn’t mean we have a new mind. There you have the tension in life. We try to amp up the Spirit and turn down the fleshly mind.
The best freedom comes with boundaries. Boundaries to protect and to guide us, to make better decisions. Why do we tell our children not to touch hot burners, or to quit playing with sharp knives when they are young?
We want our children to be safe. God is our heavenly father and He tells us not to do something because He wants to keep us safe.
Peace and Joy
The article also talked about feeling sorry for everyone including ourselves “sucked”.
I don’t know what church they attended or what Bible they read but I don’t see people feeling sorry when they are following Jesus.
There is a great expectation that Christians can have heaven on Earth. I am not talking about the gold covered streets and the place where there is no more pain or sorrow. I am talking about having peace and joy (1 Peter 1:8-9 and Romans 15:13) and knowing that God will fight our battles.
Just like above where we are at war in ourselves we are also at odds with culture and society on a whole. We don’t see the world as society sees the world. We have a world view that includes the never changing standards of what is right or wrong.
We have a hope that today we can be healed, or can have prosperity, or can have our relationships mended and fixed. We believe that there is an answer to addiction, to healing the scars of sexual abuse, there is a way out when there is no way (Proverbs 3:5-6).
Science Proves The Bible
There is no scientific facts in the Bible is how the article went on about why we shouldn’t be Christians. There are so many studies that prove the Bible.
First of all where did we first here about the big bang theory (Genesis 1). We see right from the beginning that there was a creation from a soupy mixture. We also see that animals and plants were on the planet before man was created.
The Bible also tells us the world is round (Job 26:10 and Isaiah 40:22) . It tells us about how our anger and bitterness can kill us. It talks about the ocean currents. It talks about music being calming.
Then there will be studies and studies again that prove the same things that people had laid down as facts.
Think and Grow Rich was a study on the most successful people of the early 20th century. The book came up with 13 principles of success. I can find multiple Bible verses for just about every principle of success.
Just because there was not a college backing Napoleon Hill and it took 20 years to complete does not mean it was not a valid study. Then it was proven by believers and unbelievers alike that the principles work.
Some of those principles include a burning desire, to serve others, goals, specialized knowledge, confidence, persistence (Genesis 32:24-32), faith, master mind (Proverbs 15:22).
The Great Exchange
There are many reasons to leave religion behind but there are no reasons to leave Christianity behind. When we have the true knowledge and understanding of Christianity we have freedom.
Christianity is not a set of rules to follow. Christianity is about being empowered , about overcoming, most of all about having a relationship with Jesus Christ. Having a relationship with someone that loves you unconditionally and is willing to die for you is liberating.
Jesus died on the cross and He became a curse for us (Galatians 3:13) while we became perfect. It was the great exchange. Jesus Christ got our curses and we got His righteousness. Then Jesus Christ rose from the dead to defeat death. The death the Adam introduced when He exercised his freedom.
Make a choice now to believe that Jesus Christ is your savior and to believe in Him and His resurrection. That through Him we can live for eternity in heaven.