I used to think that the best stories had a beginning a middle and an end. Then my brother introduced me to Anime and more often than not you are just dumped into the middle of a story and have to figure everything out. It was frustrating at first, but now I realize that it engages you in the story more, you have to work at listening and watching within the story to figure things out. You actually have to work as a participant while watching or reading the story.
Once there was a man. He grew up in a home that loved God and he became a Christian. His faith was his own and he was very passionate about it. He was a warrior and fought for his homeland on many occasions. His faith often led him to speak truth into the lives of others and affect them in profoundly life changing ways. Eventually he met and married a wonderful woman and they had several children together. One day though this man saw another woman. He left his wife and children and committed adultery with this other woman. After some time the man died.
Was this man really a Christian? Was he really saved? Be very careful with your answer. Give it some thought. Take some time to consider why you answer the way you do because it is vastly important.
Once there was a man who knew nothing about God. He lived his life in a rough neighborhood and grew up very poor. He was given some religious education, but it didn't show in anything more than an assent to morality and was not a real aspect of his life. He had several girlfriends whom he slept with, got into fights and was just a regular rough blue collar Joe. One day he started reading the Bible and through this became a Christian. He worked hard and graduated college, married his high school girlfriend and then started a successful church as a pastor. After some time he died.
Was this man really a Christian? Was he really saved? Be very careful with your answer. Give it some thought. Take some time to consider why you answer the way you do because it is vastly important.
Many people would answer that the first guy is not a Christian and the second guy is. I would have to ask you how do you measure someone's Christianity? If everything we get is by grace, and all the things anyone ever does for God are just fulfilling basic requirements how do you measure Christianity?
We get so caught up playing God in other people's lives we forget it isn't our job. We don't know the beginning from the end, we don't know the full story. Often times these question come up and we assume that we can accurately judge everything about a person's life from limited information. We assume sin done before becoming a Christian is less bad than sin done after becoming a Christian. We assume our actions affect our salvation.
That first person could be King David from the Bible, the entire nation of Israel from the Old Testament, or a story about someone related to me by a friend.
The second person could be Kevin Seelinger a Young Life guy I knew, Mark Driscoll, Abraham from the Old Testament, or several friends of mine.
My answers about how people are living and whether or not they are saved has changed from time to time because I think that I know the beginning and end of every story. Instead we live life like an Anime. (Yes, big eyes and over done emotions are reality!) We get dumped into this world and have to work to interact with the story that is going on around us.
I often fail at treating people like they can be given grace. I just look at them and assume (wrongly) that they were always like this and cannot change. I diminish the power of Jesus Christ by not giving out grace and realizing that the story I am working out of is bigger then I am.
The other thing I find myself doing is assuming that people who end well are saved and people that end poorly are not. We find both examples in the Bible. If we assume on the salvation of people who are several thousand years removed from us and show them grace, why not in the here and now? I think it hearkens to a desire for control. If we can follow the rules then we will be okay. We are assured of our salvation by our good works and piety. Wait how are we saved again? Oh right, through grace! How do we live life? Oh right, by grace! If we miss this then we miss what God wants to show us. It's all about Him. Only, ever, always about Him. If it becomes about anything else then we have missed the point.
Now this is not a post condoning sin. The Son of God, Jesus Christ, had to die because sin was so bad and we could do nothing about it. This post is about remembering our place and living in grace, showing grace to others. Welcome to the story it's big, bold and beautiful.
Challenge: What story are you living out of?
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