Brian Howard:
Christianity is not simply attending a church service. Christianity is not only personal. Beyond having a personal relationship with God and attending a church service on Sundays, the Scriptures clearly show Christians having close relationships with each other. These relationships go beyond Sundays. Are you living out what God really has for you? Ask yourself the following questions:
- Who are you daily living life with?
- Who in your life truly knows your struggles?
- Who are you encouraging continuously?
- Who are you regularly praying with?
- Who is praying for you?
- Who are you partnering with to reach unbelievers that you know?
- Who can correct you?
- Who are you investing in?
- With whom do you meet with to discuss what God is teaching you?
- Who would be by your hospital bed to pray for you and encourage you?
- Who will not allow you to walk away from your marriage or from the faith?
- Are you faithfully participating in the life of a local church?
- Who would you meet with if your marriage was in trouble?
- Who have you counseled with the Word of God recently?
God’s design for you is not to live out your Christian life personally. The clear pattern of the New Testament is that every Christian would have a network of close spiritual friendships. God wants so much more for us than we often realize. Consider going beyond the individualistic, event-driven, western Christianity that many of us are so familiar with. Instead, embrace God’s design for living the Christian life.
2 comments:
Excellent questions...
The solid majority of household commands in the New Testament only seem to make sense in the context of such a working community. Yet, these kinds of working communities seem restricted to ethnic communities or intentional-communities-under-sacred-vows, such as the Hutterites or the Sword of the Spirit association of communities. As regard ethnic communities, their communal sense flows from ethnicity rather than from the Christian faith. For ordinary church life, this questionnaire suggests a very intrusive set of assumptions: imagine someone in your church feeling like they have the right or the obligation to intrude into your marriage or your finances. Preposterous, don't you think?
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