Hello, people who care to read this. Yes, I realize it’s been quite some time since I’ve bothered to update. Sorry, with getting ready for final exams and searching for a new church home, I’ve been quite busy. Also, I realized while reading a comment on my last post, perhaps I have been misleading about my age while writing in this. I recently turned fifteen years old. I would like to think however, I am more spiritually minded than most fifteen year olds especially, fifteen year old girls. I think it’s sad that I have to say that.

So, as I said, I’ve been searching for a new church home and I was wondering if maybe anyone had some words of advice on how to become part of something completely new and foreign. From what I’ve seen so far, it’s not an easy task to be accepted into a group that is so close knit they forget to allow newcomers in. I have been to some really great places, and I have been to some really not great places. It got me to thinking, what should a church be as a group?

I went to one church home, where they had everyone wear nametags. The pastor would look down and then call you by your name as if he’d known you for 10 years. It all seemed so impersonal. Then I went to another that their youth group practically spent the entire time talking about past things they’d done as a group and telling inside jokes. It leaves one feeling excluded. So what should the church be? Should it be so tight that no one new can squeeze in? Should it be so loose that the pastor barely knows your name? I don’t think it’s an extreme here. Rather, a happy medium. How does one perfect this though? Better yet, how does one find a church like this? That’s what I am struggling in.

God has been telling me, and telling me. I needed to leave my church. I needed to get out and find one, and though I loved my old church, I took a leap. Now the problem is finding where to land. It’s all been very trying on me. Spiritually not being a part of a specific group. Trying to fit in and yet stand out and be who I am, which trust me, I’m not the typical person a youth minister wants to deal with. I typically tend to challenge what they say if I don’t think it agrees with the Bible.

So, how do you find a church? How do you know it’s the right one? How do you make sure your church isn’t the one making people feel left out or forgotten? Just some questions I’m trying to figure out.

Aspiring_Theologian

“Co-Crucifixion. Have I made this decision about sin - that it must be killed right out in me? It takes a long time to come to a moral decision about sin, but it is the great moment in my life when I do decide that just as Jesus Christ died for the sin of the world, so sin must die out in me, not be curbed or suppressed or counteracted, but crucified. No one can bring anyone else to this decision. We may be earnestly convinced, and religiously convinced, but what we need to do is to come to the decision which Paul forces here.” - Oswald Chambers

I read this earlier and felt compelled to write about it. Ok, first of all, lets break it down into simpler terms. What is Sin? By Webster’s definition it is “A transgression of a religious or moral law, especially when deliberate.” But in much simpler, Biblical terms, it is anything displeasing to God. What Chambers is saying is that sin must not be suppressed, “To keep from being revealed”. Because that would mean we’re merely hiding sin, and you can’t hide anything from God. It can’t be counteracted, “Opposing the effects of”, because if you’re opposing it, you’re still there fighting it. You shouldn’t have to fight it. It should be crucified, “put to death brutally by nailing to a cross”. That way sin is dead in the most brutal way. The only way to kill sin in such a way is to seek help from the ultimate adversary of sin. Jesus Christ. So I came today to asking myself a question, is sin really dead in my life or is it just suppressed? It’s something every Christian should ask everyday. You have to be aware of something to be able to fight it and the problem is, most Christians are so used to living in sin, they don’t even know they’re doing it.

Aspiring_Theologian

Here in the most southern of states, Texas, we have what is often referred to as the “Bible Belt”. It is a portion of the state where there is basically a church on every street corner and I’d say over 95% of the town is “Christian” by denomination. It is precisely because of this fact that the other 5% are not. In theory, it would be great to live in a place like this because you would have a lot of brothers and sisters in Christ. The sheer fact is, we get so comfortable with the fact that we’re Christian by name that we begin to see it as just that. A name. This kind of place would be amazing if everyone lived it in their life. What the other 5% of the people see though, is a bunch of hypocrites and in fact, I cannot blame them one bit. The fastest way to kill your ability to witness is to tell someone about God and turn around and contradict it. I’ve watched it too many times. The problem is, if we keep doing this, eventually, it won’t be 5%. It’ll be 10 or 20 and eventually Christians by name will manage to murder our own religion. Sad, no?

I know I’ve been writing about this a lot lately, but I don’t think anyone can get the point across enough. You can’t just be a Christian by name. You can’t lead two lives. Your Monday school has to be the same as your Sunday school. So I encourage you, next time someone asks if you’re a Christian. Say “No, I am a follower of Christ.” Because quite frankly the word “Christian” has been mangled and has so many preconceived feelings about it, I’m no longer comfortable using it. People think “Christians” are hypocritical, judgmental liars who worship on Sunday and hate for the rest of the week. In fact, a lot of “Christians” are that way. The fact is, Christianity is not a name. It’s a lifestyle. If we’re going to change the fact that we are what we are as a religion, we all have to do it together.

Aspiring_Theologian

“Christian Radical” has been recently looked upon as a bad thing. What people don’t realize is to be Christian is to be radical. Radical by definition is “Departing markedly from the usual or customary; extreme”. When Paul wrote Colossians, he proposed an idea that Christians should be different from non-believers, they should be radical. We should be so alive in Christ that when someone looks at us they go “That person is special, that person is a follower of Jesus Christ.” As it is, we, as a whole, blend in to secular society. We degrade ourselves to fit their standards. We set aside our morals. We attempt to be “Politically Correct” Anyone who doesn’t and actually holds to their beliefs is labeled a “Radical”. Well, here’s an idea.

All Christians should be so radically different from the rest of the world that there’s nothing the same with us and the rest of the world.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”

2 Corinthians 5:17

Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. - Matthew 16:24

I just became awakened to the fact; the majority of Christian teenagers are leading a double life. They have one life where they go to school, hang out with one set of their friends, and are generally content with life. They have another life they live every Wednesday and every Sunday. This is the life where they go to church and put aside their other life and be a “Christian” for the five hours of the week they think will earn them a ticket to get in to Heaven. When church is over, they easily drop that life and go back to the other one. They keep on living, they forget about God and think of other things that are more important to them.

Someone once told me, if you plant an apple tree it’ll grow tall and bear apples. You shouldn’t go up to the tree and see bananas. Then you know you didn’t really plant an apple tree. The same thing is with Jesus, if you plant Jesus in your heart when someone comes up, they should see a Jesus tree. If they see anything else, they will know you didn’t really plant a Jesus tree.

So, be a Jesus tree.

What does this have to do with Matthew 16:24? Everything. Jesus didn’t say you could take up your cross only part of the time. He didn’t say you should follow Him on Sunday Morning from 9 AM to 12 NOON and Wednesday from 6:30PM-8:00PM. He said, “Take up your cross and follow me”. That means always. You should always be a beacon for Jesus. At school, at work, especially at home, and when you’re walking down the street. If you’re ever not being a witness, consider the fact that you’ve just put down your cross and walked in the opposite direction of your Lord.

I know it’s hard, I do. I’m 15 too. The rewards are greater than the hardships if you do it, I promise. Even though you will lose a friend or two, you’ll gain more in heaven than can ever be measured in worldly wealth.

Aspiring_Theologian