I enjoy Christmas. I like to listen to Christmas songs. I watch my share of Christmas movies. I get out to enjoy the Christmas markets. And I’m sitting by my Christmas tree as I write this. But I think I know why it makes so many people miserable. To see why, you may not have to look any further than your Christmas playlist. Consider the Christmas message of this year’s most popular Christmas songs. What you’ll see is that what started off as a holiday to celebrate a religion became a holiday celebrated as a religion. Let me explain.
Last time we considered how the good news about Jesus can change our relationships. Today, I want to look, in particular, at how it can transform a marriage. The Bible’s teaching on marriage today is drowned out by so many other voices. A search for books on marriage at Amazon returns more than 50,000 titles. With all of these books on the subject, you’d think that marriages today must be better than ever. The reality is that the opposite is the case. The Bible holds out hope, but even as Christians turn to its teaching on marriage, they can forget the gospel as they read. They can stumble on God’s commands without leaning on any of His grace. One of the principles of gospel living that we looked at two weeks ago was starting with what God has done before moving on to what we do. Let’s see how that gets played out in the Bible’s teaching on marriage.
It’s easy to confuse Jesus with a guru, philosopher or self-help speaker. Even Christians can often read His teachings the way you would read a self-help book. They look for principles to follow or rules to obey. But when you reduce Jesus’ teachings to principles and rules, you empty them of their power. The heart of Jesus’ message was a message of good news – God’s gift to transform us. Someone once came to Jesus for help in dealing with a hard relationship. Examining Jesus’ response helps us to see how distinctive Jesus’ message is and how we can apply the good news to our own relationships.
Most Christians leave the gospel at the door of the Christian life. They see the good news about Jesus as the key to getting into the Christian life, but then struggle to see how the gospel is also the engine that drives the Christian life. As a result, they end up running on fumes and living the Christian life like a non-Christian.
I still remember doing a survey of the church building we erected in Japan. The foundation had just been laid and the supervisor walked the perimeter with me and got down on the ground to show me how perfect the angles were. He said, “Get the foundation perfect and you’ll have a stable building. But make a small mistake here, and you’ll always have problems.” Thankfully, they did get the foundation perfect. And we were very happy with the finished product. Over the years, I’ve seen again and again that getting the foundation of Christianity straight is crucial to a healthy relationship with God. The problem is that you can’t get everything straight. There is too much to know in the Bible to know it all equally. So you need to be able to discern what the foundation is and get that straight and then over time do your best to add to it. Do you have the foundation straight? Have you helped your children get the foundation straight? When people ask you about your faith, do you get the foundation straight?
When I lived in Japan, one afternoon, without warning, I got a hurried call from a church member. She was in the area with her daughter and wondered if they could stop by. I sensed that there was some urgency to the visit, but neither of them was giving me any clues as to what it might be. I didn’t know what to say, but it was one of those times where you take a chance, not knowing how the person will respond or what God might do.
What do you believe happens when you die? LifeWay Research uncovered some surprising contradictions in people’s views about the afterlife and salvation. Why are so many confused, and what does the Bible really teach?
