When we are working with people to look at issues, it seems to be increasingly important for people to maintain a sense of control over decisions made and this is the basis of all good one to one work. Yet when we talk about choosing to become a Christian we use language such as giving over you life to God. This can lead to people seeing faith as something that will have the effect of changing them reguardless of what they think or their part in the process and thus for some becomes a stumbling block.
Do we need to think more about our language in contemporary society and encourage people to see that the choice is theirs and resides with them. They have the choice to change and God will take their loaves and fishes and do with it as S/He will, but that following God and the changes that result are always dependent on our choosing to bring forward the loaves and fishes each day.
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“Giving over your life to God” means something if you have experienced it, but for someone fresh to the experience it means very little and I imagine could make them worry about how it can be done and what it is.
“Getting to know God and beginning to understand what he wants for and of you” is probably a bit more comprehensible. This doesn’t really mention the ‘choice’ which as you point out is vital for them to understand that they have one.
I wonder how many people use terminology such as ‘giving their live to God’, and how many use ‘accepting Jesus into their hearts’, ‘recieving the Holy Spirit’ or ‘having a relationship with God’. It’s not all about giving…it’s giving and recieving….perhaps….
I think that there has been much unhelpful language when taking about people’s journey of faith – and frankly much of it is unbiblical. The difference between a Christian and a non-Christian is findamentally about ackowledging that God is present in all that we do (thats why language such as “accepting” and “receiveing” misleads people into thinking that God is external and can only be internal by our will) – that there is no places or time where God is not present (thats what eternal means). At the very heart of what Jesus taught is the idea of each human being having a choice – not as static one off as in the old form of conversion – but a daily continual dynamic experience option for responding to God’s love. What is so exciting about evangelism is that most people are already doing that – they just don’t realise it and much of what we call evangelism actually denies them the possibility of that recognition.
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Great points from Phil and Tom – this is an exciting thread!
Yes, we can only give love because we receive it first from God, for God is love. Without God’s love we are stuck in self survival and cannot look beyond ourselves to others. So yes, accepting and receiving is fundamentally important.
Re. Tom’s points – yes, our commitment is only known after it has stood the test, after daily recommitment, after falling away a bit and coming back. It is a day to day relationship and whilst we sometimes try to distance ourselves from God we cannot hide from him (hmmm, you can run but you can’t hide!).
Discipleship and Evangelism are could perhaps be imagined as ends of a spectrum where you don’t have one without the other and much of the time we are being discipled and evangelised at the same time! The evangelism end being the bit where you aren’t committed (and you are only just beginning to experience God’s love) and the discipleship end being where you are so Christ like that you no longer need to be reassured of the existence of God’s love! I don’t think that anyone is really at either end – we are all at different points between (perhaps).
When i was in New York i took this pic… signs
I thought it appropriate to this thread. The choice these signs are presenting to a passer by is, Christianity or death. Not much of a choice really..? The main Christian-ism they use is ‘ye musy be born again’. Biblical, but probably not understood outside Christian circles.
On another point…
Mark Porthouse said
Does this begin from birth? As we grow do we gradually gain a concept of (get to know) “God” without knowing its God? Do we choose to do this?
hmm.. well the backquote thingy didn’t work.. this fits into the previous blog where it says “mark porthouse said”
Mark gave an alternative to Christian-isms:
“Getting to know God and beginning to understand what he wants for and of you�
great image Piet. Was there much of a market of the signs? or is it just a cultrual version of the WWJD braclets?