Christian Faith???

There are so many questions and so many answers regarding Christian Faith. What is it? How do you get it? How can you keep it? How do you live by it? On and on. I'm sure at some point I'll comment on all of those, but I want to go back to the quote from my last post - "The Christian faith is NOT an attractive set of ideas or a nice avenue to follow."

I believe many have this view of Christianity - that if I can just do enough "right" things, then I'm "good to go" [as the pre-Ecoli restaurant commercial said]. But the author of this commentary makes the point that - doing the right thing isn't the main point. It's not that doing good things is bad - obviously they wouldn't be called "good" things. It's just that that is not the be all and end all of the Chritian faith. The "good" we do as Christians should be the by-product of something much more significant - our relationship with Christ.

If you're not a follower of Christ, I have no intention of trying to alienate you or make you feel bad - not at all - in fact the opposite is true! I simply want to point out that a vast majority of the people who live in the USA consider themselves Christians - but is that based on having a relationship with Christ or because they generally view themselves as "good"? The difference is critical - and if you would consider yourself in the latter (good person) group this insight may bring you a ton of relief.

I find myself doing it both ways - living out of my relationship with Jesus some days, and other days I fall victim to trying to "live right" in my own strength. So, when I say I know how hard it is to try and always "do the right thing" I have plenty of experience. Do you find it hard to always "do the right thing"? It's really tough! Now here's something interesting - Jesus said [rough paraphrase] "Come to me all of you who are tired and worn out and I will give you rest." Yea, Jesus said He wants to give us "REST" and who couldn't use some of that!?

He also said His burden is light. What does that mean?

Well, I think this post is long enough, so ponder those thoughts and we'll pick it up from here next time!