There is a funny scene in the old Chevy Chase movie “Funny Farm” where the movers are trying to find the house. They pull up on an obscure dirt road and ask a guy sitting on the porch for directions. The dialog goes something like this. (Completely paraphrased and inaccurate to actual movie script”
‘Pardon me, Do you know how I can get to Redbud from here?’
If you are trying to get to Redbud, I wouldn’t recommend doing it from here….
‘But, say you had to get to Redbud from here?’
‘Like I said, not from here, but see this road? I’d go that way, then turn left where the old tree used to be down at the Michael’s farm, then make a right about five miles before the road dead ends…. but you could go the other way and shave a bit of time off your trip just follow this road the other way and turn left when you see the sign ‘
‘Thank you!’ (Moving truck rumbles off quickly while man on porch continues talking)
‘…but I wouldn’t go that way if I were you.’
Sometimes I feel like somehow as Christians we give the most incomprehensible directions to the simplest questions. How do I get to Heaven?
‘Well, see your life that you are living now? You are doing it all wrong. Read your Bible everyday. Here, take my 1611 KJV, I have extras. Get baptized. Quit smoking. Quit dancing. Move out of your girlfriends house till you are married. Become a member of the church. You might even want to join the choir. Quit drinking too. You also might want to trim all those pg-13 and R rated movies out of your dvd collection. Tell your employer that you can’t work Sundays anymore because you have to go to church (in fact, invite him). Volunteer to teach Sunday school to counter the rest of the bad in your life. As for your money, give 10% or more to the church faithfully from here on out. Oh, and your music collection needs to go. It’s too well… unchristian.’
I know it looks ridiculous to read it all like that. We’d never say that. We’d be more subtle. Gentle prods along the way so to speak. I think there is a simple explanation why we think this way so much of the time as supposed Christians. We don’t like the real answer.
How to get to Heaven? The real answer: believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, that He came to die in your place and set you free from the debt of sin in our lives. He died on a cross sacrificially and rose again three days later and conquered death for all of us who believe in Him. As for the rest of the stuff, get to know Jesus through his word, it’ll change your life.
Many Christians don’t really believe that a relationship with Jesus can change lives. That is why they are trying so hard to change people themselves.
That is so true! We definately over complicate things and try to force people to change. What we need to realise is that when they accept Jesus and invite him into their lives, He will help them change.
Thanks Tom. So the question becomes once they become a Christian, what then is the best way to approach the issue of accountability?
Sidenote:
Since you started commenting here the last few days, I have started reading your blog as well. I have recently began trying to write more often and build a better readership. I’m grateful you dropped by. If you have any little tips you’d like to share that could help me do better around here, feel free to let me know.
Yeah…why don’t we answer “…hang out and bask in the Father’s Love…make seeking the kingdom your first priority…forgive everbody, including yourself, pray for your enemies…ask God to bless them. Live in love. Don’t worry, the more you bask in the Father’s Love you’ll know what Love is.”? What does the length of someone’s hair have to do with anything? Or what clothes they wear?Sometimes , in fact most of the time they need the Father’s Love to put down the drugs, the porn, or the whatever, and we give them the reverse order and make His Love conditional.
We make everything hard as Christians. A lot of us want people outside the church to be like people inside the church, but most people in the church don’t even act like they expect “those people” to act. We need to make our lives about the gospel, not telling people how to live. The gospel is so simple we think we need to add to it and make it harder than it really is.