Faith or Bust: India

We're a group of guys tired of being told to be normal. We can't be normal, we're Christians. And we're called to live our faith out loud. WE're going to live our lives Faith or Bust.

This summer we're heading to India to serve the poor and dying!


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Sunday, November 30, 2008

Eureka!

143am
27.11.8




I finally understand!

I had a discussion last night with a friend, and after a bit of mulling it around, and by the profound grace of God, I finally understand the uniqueness of Christianity amongst all other religions.

(The following is from a letter to my friend, explaining this new knowledge.)

IN all other religions, FIRST you work and sacrifice, THEN you become like Gods.




But the amazing thing about Christianity is that it is the REVERSE!

FIRST, you become a child of God ("become like Gods"), THEN you work and sacrifice out of LOVE.

For us, we realise we can never be perfect, and thus we can NEVER earn "being God like". And God in His Fatherly Love, sent Jesus, His only Son, to become man and then to offer a perfect sacrifice for us (since we can never do so). And now, because of this sacrifice, we are the Father's ADOPTED sons and daughters. And we can here and now, "be like God", because He has given us His own spirit to dwell within us.

THIS IS A FREE GIFT for all of us. And none of us can earn it, because of our imperfection and sin.




God is so Merciful that even while we rejected Him and fought against Him, He has give us the RIGHT to be His sons and daughters and to THEREFORE be "God-like"

For a Christian, once we are baptised, we are made perfect by God. And it is THEN that we become His Children. And even when we sin afterwards or make ourselves imperfect, so long as we GENUINELY acknowledge our wrong and beg for His Mercy, God will grant us UNLIMITED MERCY. And by the merits of HIS sacrifice we are once again made perfect.




In thanksgiving for this, we LOVE God more and more. And that love causes us to work on ourselves so we can love Him more and hurt Him less (Sin is a rejection of God, and just like when we reject our parents, we hurt them, sin hurts God).

This is the difference of Christianity. Being like God is a free gift. And nothing we can do can ever EARN it. And because of this we love God and try to show Him our love by becoming better people.



(me trying to become a better dancer, via practice).

THAT'S IT!
~Edward
159am

posted by sirhair @ 2:21 AM

2 Comments:

At 7:49 PM, Blogger Tia said...

huh. I'm not sure I buy that difference from other religions. If you're an Orthodox Jew, for isntance, you'd say that God "chose" the Israelites before they "worked hard and sacrificed." In fact, they were described as a "stiff-necked people" in the bible, and were only given laws to obey once God said they were his "most treasured" etc. etc. I think the idea of love first, then working, is not necessarily unique to Christianity.

 
At 10:23 PM, Blogger sirhair said...

I'm sorry, I forgot about the Torah. Which is a case that I would agree with you about. Since its only from the Jews that we have this gift of God.

I was mostly addressing Hinduism/Buddhism, and other "enlightenment" style faiths that are prevalent in India, when I said "other religions". It was a very unspecific and bad statement to make. Frankly, come to think of it, this may not even apply to Islam (the largest faith in the world). But I also know so little of Islam's tenets.

 

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