Before I came to Taylor I had grown up in the same church my whole life and been taught the same theology and beliefs my whole life. I'd never really experienced developing my own faith and wrestling with topics on my own. I guess I kind of believed whatever my parents believed, and I thought every other Christian believed the same thing. Once at Taylor I realized how wrong I was in that thinking. Christianity and the Bible is all about believing core values that the Bible preaches, then taking everything else and developing your own faith and what you believe in.
Growing up my church and my parents taught me all about heaven and hell. They taught me that when you die if you are Christian you go to this place called heaven, where there are streets of gold and pearly gates. Where everyone is made perfect in God's eyes and we can live with him in paradise for eternity. They taught me that if you die without God's saving grace you go to a place called hell, where there is eternal suffering with satan and his demons.
Although I think that you can have different interpretations about what heaven and hell will look like, I do believe that when God talks about the two places in the Bible that he is speaking of literal places that our souls will live in for eternity. I could be naive in saying that most Christians believe in this idea of literal heaven and hell, but I do believe that to be a true Christian is to interpret the Bible as heaven and hell being very real places. The struggle with this idea comes for me in the form of my idea of heaven and hell. I ask myself questions all the time about heaven like "will I know my parents in heaven?" That is where I believe Christians struggle with the idea of heaven and hell. Although we will never gain a full understanding of eternity, our job as believers is to wrestle with these things and pray over them.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Sanctification cont.
Although I have many reasons why I believe sanctification is God's responsibility, I also believe it could go either way. When I think about topics such as sanctification, it can be so confusing that I really go back and forth on what I believe. I'm sure you get that way sometimes. After my last blog post I thought I had it all understood and I had figured out what I thought about sanctification. Then Mike asked us the question, "If sanctification is God's responsibility, then why don't we see more "sanctified" people around us"? Now I'm wondering if my stance was really correct.
No doubt God blesses us and makes us holy but to a certain degree sanctification must be our responsibility too. That becomes very clear to me when thinking about how many Christians I interact with every day who are so far from holiness that it's obvious they have not received God's sanctification. I'm learning more and more from interactions with elders in my church and also here at Taylor how much Christianity is a constant growing process. We receive the gift of God's grace and holiness when we accept Christ but it is our choice to take that gift and use it. I think it is very common in the believing community to accept Christ as your Savior and then think God will do everything for them. Our responsibility as Christians is to love God and follow hard after him every day. If we are effectively doing that I think then will we receive sanctification through Christ.
No doubt God blesses us and makes us holy but to a certain degree sanctification must be our responsibility too. That becomes very clear to me when thinking about how many Christians I interact with every day who are so far from holiness that it's obvious they have not received God's sanctification. I'm learning more and more from interactions with elders in my church and also here at Taylor how much Christianity is a constant growing process. We receive the gift of God's grace and holiness when we accept Christ but it is our choice to take that gift and use it. I think it is very common in the believing community to accept Christ as your Savior and then think God will do everything for them. Our responsibility as Christians is to love God and follow hard after him every day. If we are effectively doing that I think then will we receive sanctification through Christ.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Sanctification from Christ
The word sanctification comes from the Latin word sanctus which means "holy" and facere which means "to make". Therefore sanctification directly translates as, "to make holy".
Thinking about sanctification, at least for me, can be kind of overwhelming. As Christians we believe that God gives us the gift of salvation which we freely receive. When we accept Christ our old life is washed away. If we are practicing Christianity our actions will reflect that. Our holiness comes from belief and salvation from Christ. Although our human desires are for the world and the things of the world, we are set apart from in by Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:4 helped explain to me sanctification from Christ. It states, "through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires". I believe our sanctification comes from Christ. Christ sets us apart for a special purpose.
Thinking about sanctification, at least for me, can be kind of overwhelming. As Christians we believe that God gives us the gift of salvation which we freely receive. When we accept Christ our old life is washed away. If we are practicing Christianity our actions will reflect that. Our holiness comes from belief and salvation from Christ. Although our human desires are for the world and the things of the world, we are set apart from in by Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:4 helped explain to me sanctification from Christ. It states, "through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires". I believe our sanctification comes from Christ. Christ sets us apart for a special purpose.
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