What does it really mean to be a "Christian"?
Is this a question that is decided by the circumstances of our birth? Or is it about some type of ritual, or some type of belief? Or is the answer similar to these, or something completely different?
We'll examine this topic in light of my personal story of redemption. Before I accepted Christ in 2005, I lived for over 30 years mistakenly believing that I was a Christian. Not a one day a week Christian, but a full time, fundamentalist, evangelical Christian.
How did I get it so wrong?
"One Half Second" is the story of God's intervention in my life, and how He saved me from the force of my own beliefs.
I pray you'll listen along as we consider the question of what it means to be a Christian, from the only source that has the answer: God's very words, from the lips of His Spirit, to the eyes and ears of mankind.
"He who has an ear, let him hear."
Revelation 13:9 (NIV)
It is not an exaggeration to say that most people realize that there is something very special about Jesus of Nazareth. But that being said, not everyone knows exactly what to do with Jesus.
On the playing field of religion and philosophy, where exactly does Jesus fit? Nicodemus felt this confusion, just as many people do today.
Nicodemus was a master of the Old Testament and devoted to its teaching. He had studied the revelation God had given to Israel and he considered himself an heir and a guardian to that truth.
In these roles of guardian and heir, he sought to protect what he saw to be true - and to attack what he saw to be false.
But when Nicodemus encountered Jesus, he encountered a very serious dilemma: the miracles that Jesus did proved that He was sent from God. But Jesus wasn't like the other "men of God" that Nicodemus knew. And to make matters worse, sometimes the God that Jesus proclaimed didn't sound very much like the God Nicodemus thought he knew.
Nicodemus sought to resolve his problems by questioning Jesus honestly and directly. But in the end he discovered that it was Jesus that forced him to question himself and his own beliefs.
We pray that you will listen along as Nicodemus learns the very thing that we all must learn: that no matter what it is - or who it is - that we hold to be true, we must reject it if it conflicts with what God says is true.
Most people profess a desire to know God - to experience God.
Some seek to fulfill this desire by gazing deep within themselves, striving to find any 'divine spark' that may reside within them. Others shun that approach, and instead search for God outside of themselves. They look up through a telescope, or down through a microscope, hoping to find God in the extremes of scale and complexity that are offered by the universe around us.
But no matter which approach is used, people undertake these quests for really just one reason: they are not satisfied with the way things are.
They desire to know God, because they do not know God. They desire to experience God, because there is an unfulfilled longing in the center of their being that only God can satisfy.
It is indeed a fact that God's word presses us to look deep within ourselves. Not so that we would somehow see God inside of us - but instead, so that we would see the lack of God inside of us. God has a deep, deep purpose in showing us the truth of who and what we are.
And it is indeed a fact that God's word presses us to look far down the microscope, and far up the telescope at the wonders of His creation. Not so that we will somehow be able to make contact with God at His own level, but so that we will see the reality, and the power, and the certainty of His existence. God has a deep, deep purpose in showing us the truth of who and what He is.
God wants to show us that between who and what He is, and who and what we are - exists a chasm that we ourselves cannot bridge.
God wants to show us that He has already done for us what we cannot do for ourselves: He has personally built a bridge across that chasm that can be traveled by any and all that will simply take Him at His word, and trust Him.
Please listen along as we consider this most important question: How can one know God?
Most people profess a desire to know God - to experience God.
Some seek to fulfill this desire by gazing deep within themselves, striving to find any 'divine spark' that may reside within them. Others shun that approach, and instead search for God outside of themselves. They look up through a telescope, or down through a microscope, hoping to find God in the extremes of scale and complexity that are offered by the universe around us.
But no matter which approach is used, people undertake these quests for really just one reason: they are not satisfied with the way things are.
They desire to know God, because they do not know God. They desire to experience God, because there is an unfulfilled longing in the center of their being that only God can satisfy.
It is indeed a fact that God's word presses us to look deep within ourselves. Not so that we would somehow see God inside of us - but instead, so that we would see the lack of God inside of us. God has a deep, deep purpose in showing us the truth of who and what we are.
And it is indeed a fact that God's word presses us to look far down the microscope, and far up the telescope at the wonders of His creation. Not so that we will somehow be able to make contact with God at His own level, but so that we will see the reality, and the power, and the certainty of His existence. God has a deep, deep purpose in showing us the truth of who and what He is.
God wants to show us that between who and what He is, and who and what we are - exists a chasm that we ourselves cannot bridge.
God wants to show us that He has already done for us what we cannot do for ourselves: He has personally built a bridge across that chasm that can be traveled by any and all that will simply take Him at His word, and trust Him.
Please listen along as we consider this most important question: How can one know God?
What does it really mean to be a "Christian"?
Is this a question that is decided by the circumstances of our birth? Or is it about some type of ritual, or some type of belief? Or is the answer similar to these, or something completely different?
We'll examine this topic in light of my personal story of redemption. Before I accepted Christ in 2005, I lived for over 30 years mistakenly believing that I was a Christian. Not a one day a week Christian, but a full time, fundamentalist, evangelical Christian.
How did I get it so wrong?
"One Half Second" is the story of God's intervention in my life, and how He saved me from the force of my own beliefs.
I pray you'll listen along as we consider the question of what it means to be a Christian, from the only source that has the answer: God's very words, from the lips of His Spirit, to the eyes and ears of mankind.
"He who has an ear, let him hear."
Revelation 13:9 (NIV)
What does it really mean to be a "Christian"?
Is this a question that is decided by the circumstances of our birth? Or is it about some type of ritual, or some type of belief? Or is the answer similar to these, or something completely different?
We'll examine this topic in light of my personal story of redemption. Before I accepted Christ in 2005, I lived for over 30 years mistakenly believing that I was a Christian. Not a one day a week Christian, but a full time, fundamentalist, evangelical Christian.
How did I get it so wrong?
"One Half Second" is the story of God's intervention in my life, and how He saved me from the force of my own beliefs.
I pray you'll listen along as we consider the question of what it means to be a Christian, from the only source that has the answer: God's very words, from the lips of His Spirit, to the eyes and ears of mankind.
"He who has an ear, let him hear."
Revelation 13:9 (NIV)
