Shift Your Focus… A few years ago I came across yet another survey about the spirituality of American “christians.”  (I use the small “c” deliberately.) The survey, conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, revealed that 57 percent of evangelical church attendees said they believe many religions can lead to eternal life.  The article went on to suggest that this can either be taken as a positive sign of growing religious tolerance, or disturbing evidence that Americans dismiss or don’t know fundamental teachings of their own faiths.” (www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25334489/)

I would suggest the latter.  In America, our national documents guarantee us the right to believe what we want—but they don’t guarantee that what we believe will be right.

Go ahead and say you are a Christian who believes that there are many ways to salvation and eternal life, but be intellectually honest enough to understand that your opinion is neither what the Bible teaches nor what Jesus claimed about himself.  You are not even close.

A lot of people may say they follow Jesus Christ, but they are not following the way Jesus called them to follow:  “If anyone wants to follow me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily.”  Likewise, he said, “if you love me, you will do what I say.”  Furthermore, he made the astounding claim in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”  Sounds pretty intolerant and narrow, I would say!  Clearly, from Jesus’ own teaching and from the teaching of Scripture, only those who have fully surrendered their lives to his Lordship are truly Christians.

A great majority of those who say they follow Jesus are simply misled.  Their “christianity” is perhaps a cultural one and not a spiritual Christianity.  Some believe themselves to be “christian” by virtue of being born in America, or having been raised by parents who took them to a Christian church twice a year—Christmas and Easter.  But going to church or being born to a Christian family or growing up in a “christian” culture doesn’t make you a Christian any more than stepping onto a golf course makes you Tiger Woods.

A great majority of this 57% might even be sincere.  But sincerity is not an indicator of truth.  There are a lot a sincere people in the world, but they are sincerely wrong.

Being a Christian means to recognize that Jesus himself claimed to be God.  Not just a god, or one of God’s offspring; not just a good moral teacher or an influential spiritual director.  No, Jesus is, was, and forevermore shall be God.  In fact, that’s what got him crucified—his claim to Godship.  We are to recognize, accept and surrender to him as God.

That’s what it means to be Christian.

Since he is God, therefore, he has every right to rule over our lives as Lord.  We are to obey what he says, do what he commands, serve his purposes through our lives, extend his renown throughout the world, and love him with our whole hearts.

That’s what it means to be Christian.

And he is to receive praise from our lips and from our lives.  Everything we think, say and do is to bring glory and honor to him.  Our whole existence, our everyday, walking around lives, are to be an offering of praise that brings eternal glory to Jesus Christ.

That’s what it means to be Christian.

That’s the kind of Christian I want to be!

“If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.” ~C.T. Studd

Prayer… Jesus, I recognize, accept and surrender to you as my Lord and Savior—and my God!

Tags: Devotion on Romans 9:5, This is what it means to be a Christian, True discipleship, What is a disciple

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