Is Christianity an Add-On?

How has your week been ?  Has the time change thrown you for a loop like it has our family ?  Getting tired and going to bed earlier … getting up earlier ?  Plus, almost two full days this week without sunshine !  I hope you are able to enjoy some of the sunshine today, and that you find the Son shining in your heart.

I’m looking forward to this coming Sunday and what might be considered the centerpiece of Daniel’s prophecies – Daniel 9:24-27.  Hope you will be there.  Someone has called this passage “the backbone of prophecy” and “the greatest of all-time prophecies.”  You won’t want to miss it !  Plus, I’m going to aim at answering my favorite preaching question :  “So what ?”  Once we’ve read all of Daniel’s prophecies, … so what ?  What is the relevance, or meaning, for you and me today ?  “Heaven rules” continues to be our theme.

Below are some disconnected thoughts from my week.  Thanks for letting me share with you.  I hope these thoughts will resonate with you and encourage you as you finish out this week.

See you Sunday !

Tom

As I’ve read through more of A Praying Life, by Paul E. Miller, I’ve been struck by the concept of “add-on Christianity.”  For some people, faith in Jesus Christ looks like something good just to “add on” to our already good – but incomplete – lives.  Who wouldn’t want the hope of eternal life ?  Who wouldn’t want a shepherd to guide through life ?  Who wouldn’t want words of comfort and peace (and maybe even material prosperity ??) that people draw from the Bible ?

But true discipleship is not an “add-on” ; it’s an exchange.  It’s exchanging all I am and all I have for all that Jesus is.  God’s work is, first of all, an inner work.  His goal – if we are willing – is to remake us to be people more like Jesus.  As we’ve said before, what would a world look like that was populated with people like Jesus ?  What would Emmanuel look like if made up of people like Jesus ?  What would your family look like if it consisted of people like Jesus … or even if you only were more like Jesus in your family ?  What would our neighborhoods look like ?  What an amazing possibility !  God is crafting us in that way and preparing us for an actual life (in a new Heaven and a new Earth) where people will be like Jesus.

Getting there is not an add-on.  People who came to Jesus in the Bible were helpless people.  Paul Miller demonstrates in his book that that’s one of the reasons why you and I have such trouble praying – we’re not really helpless.  At least we don’t consider ourselves to be so.  It’s a challenge for people in a church like Emmanuel because many of us are good planners ; we have a personal history of significant accomplishments ; we’re creative ; we have an abundance of financial resources at our disposal.  So, … we don’t really feel the need to pray much or with much earnestness.  Even a pastor can fall into this kind of thinking :

Miller says that in the gospels we see people coming to Jesus because of their helplessness.  “The Samaritan woman has no water (John 4).  Later in that same chapter, the official’s son has no health.  The crippled man by the pool of Bethesda has no help to get into the water (John 5).  The crowd has no bread (John 6).  The blind man has no sight (John 9).  And finally, Lazarus has no life (John 11).”

I’m not sure personally how to get to that point of total helplessness except to keep giving away more of what I am and have.  A couple of practical examples :

I find my motivation for praying ; I experience a Christ who is everything – more than an add-on – and who gives back to me greater things than those I released to Him.

The question of add-on Christianity cropped up in our first “Discovering Spiritual Maturity 201” class last Sunday morning when we considered these two verses of Scripture :

In our class (Sunday mornings at 9:00 during the month of November), we’re talking about the habits of a disciple of Christ.  It’s not especially hard stuff … but good stuff !  It’s a refresher course that we all need at Emmanuel if we hope to stay focused as a church and accomplish God’s work together.  Please join us this Sunday !  There will be activities for children ages 3-11.

Thanks again to all of you who came to the church last Friday during the day and early evening for prayer.  We prayed with very few interruptions for eight hours.  Many requests – small and large – were prayed for.  Some have already been answered ; at least one was answered right on the spot while we were praying !  A few words come to my mind in thinking back on that experience :

Hope to do it again soon … maybe at the first of the new year.  Thanks again !

Mary has a gift for expressing her thoughts in writing and frequently leaves me her sermon notes or other writings after a Sunday service.  I asked her if I could share something she has written, so I’ve re-printed it below.  I hope you are encouraged by it.

By the way, Mary wants to share information with you about Veteran’s Day activities next week in Hermann.  There is information on the bulletin board next to the kitchen, or talk to Mary this Sunday.  Thanks !