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I am attending a Christian Convention and really
quite enjoying it. The preaching is good, the people are wonderful and
nice to be with and the fellowship is encouraging. It was especially
good to watch, on the first day, people arriving from all over the country,
even other parts of the world, and greeting friends perhaps not seen
since last year's bash. The thrill of recognition, the joy of meeting,
the business of sharing, it was all quite inspiring, and it reminded
me again that Christianity is more than doctrine, vital as that is,
and more than organisation, helpful as that can be - most of the time.
It is about how we live and how we love one another, how we encourage
and how we challenge one another.
There are various stalls where ministries and bookshops can show their
wares/services and offer resources and this caught my attention on that
first day. The big bookstall was especially popular, after all the meeting
and greeting was over and generous quantities of tea and coffee administered,
and I was curious to know what people were buying so I sauntered across
to 'have a nose'.
Later I spoke to a friend I saw and asked if they had seen the bookstall.
They replied, "Yes, they are 'Nice' books - for 'Nice' people." I know
what that meant. They were 'lifestyle' books, designed to help you become
more financially prosperous, lose/gain weight, have a more positive
self-image, exercise power over your life in this way or that, or just
put a more attractive Bible cover in your hands. There were Bibles built
around promises for men and promises for women, Bibles for 'Spirit-filled'
people and Bibles for more 'thoughtful' people. Bibles designed to help
young people avoid having to go to the trouble of actually reading the
Bible and 'bibles' containing only the promises of God and none of the
messy stuff. Books, in other words, that served the purposes of what
I call 'Life style Christianity'.
The people at the Convention are, in the main, obviously Christians,
of that there can be no doubt, but I wonder how we have come so far
from the Christian living advocated by Paul in his letter to Thessalonica.
In our text we read:
Finally, brothers, we instructed you
how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we
ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more.
These Christians had obviously got something so right that all Paul
had to do was urge them to "do this more and more". As Christians ambitious
to walk the walk we should be anxious to know the secret of these people
and apply it in our own lives. What did the people of this thriving
Macedonian sea port do to elicit such praise from Paul - and is there
a book somewhere to help me live the same way?
In the first chapter we read:
We know, brothers love by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel
came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy
Spirit and with deep conviction. You know how we lived among you for
your sake. You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe
suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.
And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia.
The Lord's message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia
- your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not
need to say anything about it, for they themselves report what kind
of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols
to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven,
whom he raised from the dead - Jesus, who rescues us from the coming
wrath (VV 4-10)
There is a pattern here that is worthy of consideration:
1. The Thessalonians heard the message of truth and turned from idols
to God, putting their trust in Jesus to save them from the coming wrath.
2. They saw and imitated the lifestyle of Paul and his companions "in
spite of severe suffering" (no prosperity Bibles here) just as all Christians
should imitate their leaders (2 Tess.3:7,9), just as Paul had imitated
Christ, and all were imitators of God (Eph.5:1).
3. The result was that believers in Macedonia and Achaia, in turn, imitated
believers in Thessalonica.
I suppose what many of my Christian friends buying Lifestyle Christianity
books are seeking is some guidance on how to work this out in their
own lives, and I have no problem with books to help us do that. However,
I do find that many of today's authors and 'platform speakers' advocating
ideas that are more self-help and self-regarding than self-sacrificial,
more about my image of me than God's image in me, and we can easily
end up imitating the world rather than imitating Christ. There is need
of a balance rather than censure here, but my experience tells me that,
given the choice between popcorn and broccoli most people choose popcorn
and sadly many of the books I saw people picking up and taking to the
sales point were more pleasing than nutritious.
Can it be said of us that, in spite of the cost, we are imitators of
Christ? Or do we look more like Christians with an attractive lifestyle?
I pray it may be said of us more and more and that the world can see
a real distinction between Lifestyle Christianity and true Christian
living.
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