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Christianity in a Nutshell
Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2009 Posted: 2:32:20AM HKT
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OUR CHRISTIAN CALLING is not to cram our heads with facts, but to fill our hearts with Christ. It is not to reduce truth to information but to find ultimate truth in the Person of Jesus Christ. Alas, we live in the information age where knowledge is power (not love, as in older times). It is possible to become cleverer and more foolish at the same time. T. S. Eliot puts it well in his poem:
The endless cycle of idea and action,
Endless invention, endless experiment,
Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness;
Knowledge of speech, but not of silence;
Knowledge of words, and ignorance of The Word ...
Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
Increasingly, Christians seem to reduce the Christian life to experience rather than relationship. What is the difference between the two, one might ask. Relationship is conveyed in story while experience is cutting up story into episodes (like television serials). Or as wise Christian spiritual writers have said it so often over the centuries: in following Jesus, we will encounter spiritual experiences; however if our attention shifts to these experiences, we will drift away from Jesus.
When we reduce the Christian life to the pursuit of experiences (and this is usually the more exciting varieties) rather than the pursuit of Christ, we have missed the point and have lost the heart of Christian discipleship. It is easy to turn from being a follower of Jesus to being a collector of exciting spiritual experiences. Let us consider signs and wonders (which are interpreted in various ways by Christians). There is, indeed, a legitimate place for them. It is important to note, however, that the true biblical kind of signs and wonders occurs when we are in focused and single-hearted pursuit of Jesus. As long as our attention is on Jesus, we are on safe ground. However, when our attention shifts to the phenomena (rather than the Person), we are in danger of being deceived by Satan whose bag of diabolical tricks includes signs and wonders (2 Thess. 2:9). Satan knows our weaknesses.
There is a profound difference between the Life that is found in Jesus and mere spiritual experiences, many of which may be deceptive. We are called to seek Jesus who is the Life rather than run from one experience to another. One leads to profound love; the other to crippling addiction. We are wise if we know the difference.
The heart of the Christian faith is a Person – Jesus. We are to seek Him and pursue Him more than spiritual methods and programmes, information and techniques, and entertaining and exciting experiences. Those who realise that ultimately the way, the truth and the life is a Person will live a radically new life – the very Life of Jesus.
Bishop Dr Robert M Solomon is the Bishop of The Methodist Church in Singapore. This article was originally published in the October 2009 issue of Methodist Message and is reproduced here with permission.
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Bishop Dr Robert M Solomon
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