The Faith-shaped life needs to be one anchored in faith, regardless of how long we have been believers, regardless of what church we belong to, regardless of what denomination we call home, and regardless of how well we live out our belief. We need to recognize always, our need for God, that our faith is based on the fact that we are all sinners, we have all fallen short of God’s intended path for our lives.
It’s doesn’t mean we can’t be proud of the church we are part of, but it doesn’t mean we can’t take that pride in our church, into the “only we can do what needs doing” mindset. We mustn’t ever think that only we can be used of God for “X” purpose. We must always be cognizant of the fact that we need God. We need him in our lives, and that we can’t do what we do without his intervention in our lives. We have a sinfulness embedded into our lives that permeates our very being. Only by his grace are we saved from that.
Oh…. as I read this chapter I thought back to my teenage years when I had a friend from the Pentecostal church who kept inviting me to church events. It took a couple of years for her to realize that my faith was just as real as her own. Before that she didn’t think I could possibly be a Christian because I didn’t go to the Pentecostal church. Unfortunately once she realized this she stopped being friendly to me… made me feel like I had just been a “project” for her and our friendship wasn’t as real as I thought it was.
At time it was a very hard thing for me to deal with… losing what I thought was a friend because I was a person of faith. But in hindsight I look back and realize that this relationship as helped in my relationships with other believers. I’ve met people in the Roman Catholic church that have a firm understanding that Christ is who saves them from their sins, as well as Pentecostals, Presbyterians, Baptists and more. Just various renditions of having faith in Christ. I can’t say that talking is always the easiest when talking the nitty gritty of how one defines the details of how you walk out that faith, but I’ve met true believers within and without the Reformed Church.
It has also made me cognizant of the fact that if I befriend someone, it needs to be a true friendship. Not based on “I want to have them convert”, but because I truly care about them as people. It’s not saying that friendships don’t come and go, because they do, just let them be real friendships.
I do wonder though, based on the premise of this chapter, that it’s easy for people to start to think they are better than others, or that their faith is the most true one based on the nitty gritty details. How does one prevent such thinking? Even Jesus’ very own chosen disciples made this error… see Mark 9
38 “Teacher,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.”
39 “Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, 40 for whoever is not against us is for us. 41 Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward.
How do we prevent ourselves from thinking that only our denomination/church/faith group can do “X” ministry properly? To prevent the self-preening and the “I can do it better” ideas that so easily come by us?
I suppose the answer is to continually remind ourselves who we are before the Lord. To remember what our need is, to have our sins forgiven, and to remember that we are called to God’s family by God’s choosing us.
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