What difference does it make?

Philip Yancey, while writing his book Reaching for the invisible God, asked his friends this question: If a seeking person came to you and asked how your life as a Christian differs from his or hers as a moral non-Christian, what would you say? I've been thinking about what my answer would be.
I wonder if people see anything more to me than a decent guy who goes to church on Sundays. Shouldn't there be be more to a follower of Christ than that, I ask myself. And if there is, shouldn't it be apparent to everybody?

If I understand my faith correctly, I think the biggest difference being a Christian makes in my life is how I love others. Jesus said to his disciples, Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognise that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.” (John 13:34-35). 

Christian love is radically different from any other love. Our natural love is always dependant on who the recipient is. We love people either because they are related to us or because they poses the qualities we admire; beauty, intelligence, courage, friendliness, integrity, social status etc. Christian love is unconditional. The message of the gospel is pretty simple, we had no desirable qualities that God should love us and yet he did. Go and do likewise, Jesus said, while explaining the parable of the Good Samaritan. 

Loving people who have nothing to offer in return is hard. It means caring for people who might not appreciate the time, effort, money or self sacrifice you made for them. It means loving the unlovables. Followers of Christ love like that. But sadly, most people do not find the 'church people' that loving these days. In conversations with my non-Christians friends, I often hear about how judgemental, unforgiving and hypocritical the church is. Most also claim to be living more 'moral' lives than the alleged 'Christians'. It grieves my heart to admit they are right to some extent. Often, the church does not seem to follow it's central teaching; love God and love others. 

However, there are plenty to Christians, that live out that message everyday. Consider the guy I heard about last week. One of South Korea's top surgeons, he leaves his six figure salary and comfortable life and goes to a remote village in northern China, where he's been running a hospital for the poor for the last 15 years. It takes more than a sense of philanthropy to do that. He could have sent money for a hospital and doctors if he wanted to. But somehow Christian love demands sacrifice, it's a giving of your life to others that makes love so powerful. 

I recently watched a little know film titled 'Noble' based on the life of Christina Noble, a children's rights campaigner and charity worker who has changed the lives of thousands of street children in Vietnam through her work. Christina had a difficult life herself. Born in Ireland in the mid 40s, Christina was sent to live in an orphanage at age ten, gang-raped while living on the streets, her son forcibly adopted, and a victim of domestic abuse. Yet despite all these hardships, this woman went on to fulfil her vision of caring for the abused street children of Vietnam. 

What compels these people to do what they do? I believe it's the message of the gospel. Loved people, love people. And most importantly, they love the people that ordinary 'moral' people don't love. The ones that have nothing to offer. That's called grace. That's what Christianity is all about. And that is what makes all the difference.  

Our just so stories...

I love reading stories. They fascinate me, some are entertaining, some are thought provoking, some inspire and encourage, some challenge me, some just make me feel good, some disturb, some disgust and some I have regretted reading. Such is the nature of stories. They have certain powers attached to them...

The Bible is full of stories. At it's center is the greatest story ever told, it tells of how much God loves us humans; imperfect, stubborn, rebellious, sinful people, who never quite manage to even return a fraction of His love back,even at our greatest. Who let Him down over and over again, who never seem to get the point, and yet He never seems of stop showering us with grace...

And then there are sub-plots in this grand story. One of my favorite ones is how God changes a person's life. You read about ordinary people doing extraordinary things. You read about extraordinary people doing ordinary things and then you get to know some people who discover that God loved them in spite of what they did...The amazing stories of these people make the Bible believable. If the Bible depicted it's heroes like myths do, it would have been nothing more than a fairy tale. some fantasy world to aspire to. Just a mere good story.

But no; Bible heroes are ordinary, imperfect and flawed people like us. They show amazing faith and courage, but the times when they messed it all up is also recorded for us, lest we doubt them being real. You read about Abraham, father of nations, doubting the God he chose to follow, you see Moses, God's friend, take matters into his own hands, a man after God's heart, David, commits adultery and murder.. Fast forward to the New Testament and you read of the disciples full of doubt and scared to death even with Jesus at their side, then there's the Apostle Paul stoning Christians to death... the list goes on and on. It's amazing how God changes lives, and how he can use any of us, all of us,in fact. He doesn't look for the perfect ones, the clean record ones or the strongest ones, he only looks for the willing ones. Those that hunger and thirst for Him....

It always fascinates me when I come to know the story of someone I know whose life got transformed by God. You cannot help being amazed when you come to know that the pastor of your church had spent most of his youth in sex, drugs, alcohol and rock n roll; the really friendly lady at the welcome desk was sexually abused as a kid and had grown up in all sorts of pain and bitterness, that guy on the stage who confessed to having lost count of how many women he had slept with, the worship leader who used to be a drug addict; though some are more dramatic then others, every person has a story.

These people are proof of what God can do with a life. When I met them, I could never have looked at them and imagined the things they say they have done. Too many people think you have to be good to be accepted by God, that somehow Christians are a bunch of clean people, who have it all together. Here's a revelation for you all, if that were the case none of us would qualify, saints would have to be dethroned. We've all messed up at one time or the other. Our stories have dark corners. That's what God's love is all about, that's why these men and women go around calling him the Saviour, that's why they all have a story to tell.

On the occasion of....

I have a ten year old cousin brother named Jacob who owns a pocket sized Bible. The other day I saw his Bible laying on the computer table and just started to flip through the pages. On the first few pages of most Bibles is a gift certificate to fill before you give it as a gift to someone. Apparently Jacob had filled his certificate himself (it was his handwriting) and it went like this: Presented to "Jacob Gill" from "Mum" on the occasion of "the church". At first I thought that the last part was pretty funny. But then a thought suddenly struck me, forcefully. How truthful and honest little children are. My Bible doesn't have a certificate attached to it but many times, the only time I actually bother to read it is on the occasion of
"the church". The rest of the week, it just lies there. No wonder our spiritual lives are so week if not dead. God's word is the bread of life. Jesus told the devil, "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God" (Matt.4:4). We cannot even bear the idea of living without food for a week, yet we think our spiritual lives can survive on a weekly dose of our spiritual food. Jesus taught his disciples to pray, "give us this day our daily bread", not monthly not weekly, daily bread. The Isrealitites were told in the wilderness, to gather the fresh manna or heavenly bread, every day. Adrian Plass, in his humorous yet thoughtful book, Bacon sandwiches and salvation: the A-Z of Christian life, makes a very true to life comment. The book runs like a dictionary from A to Z in which adiran gives his own definitions of a selection of words. Under letter "E" you would read:

Everyday with Jesus: excellent daily Bible notes written by Selwyn Hughes. Future publications for the lazier believers among us might usefully include every other day with Jesus or once a week if I remember with Jesus or random days in no particular pattern with Jesus or even its ages since I last spent time with Jesus.

Is is easier to laugh away his comment but difficult to realize that we need to change our habbits and pay attention to our daily diet of God's Word.