Starting to Believe

How does one become a "Christian"  - one who is committed to following Christ? Is there some point between not being a Christian and being one, a space of time where the crossover is made?  For some perhaps this happens rapidly, for others more slowly.  But how does it happen?  (Isn't that what we'd really like to know?)

I found something Piper said regarding how one comes to trust in the truth of the Bible to be helpful.    He distinguishes between God "'telling us' that the Bible is true" and "enabling us to see what is really there."  He writes,

The practical effect of this path is that I do not ask you to pray for a special whisper from God to decide if Jesus is real.  Rather I ask you to look at the Jesus of the Bible.  Look at him.  Don't close your eyes and hope for a word of confirmation.  Keep your eyes open and fill them with the full portrait of Jesus provided in the Bible.  If you come to trust Jesus Christ as Lord and God, it will be because you see in him a divine glory ad excellence that simply is what it is - true. (Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ, p.121)

This does not diminish the work of the Holy Spirit, who helps us see this truth.  It does speak against the idea that we should pray for some sign or magical change in ourselves that will make us all of a sudden believe in something that a logical person would find unbelievable.  You don't trust and follow someone unless you know them; you don't know them unless you take the opportunities to do so.

art credit:http://www.omsc.org/art-at-omsc/huibing/jesus-opens-eyes-slide.html

This applies to those of us who already profess to follow Christ.  Are we truly looking at Christ, and expecting to see ever more?  The Holy Spirit does the work of helping us see, but do we allow Him to do so?  This is a challenge to me to really hunger to know Christ more.

Does this resonate with you?  Is what Piper says helpful?

CHRISTian

So often I lose sight of what I should really be focusing on.  It's not really a 'what', but a 'who' - Christ.  Thankfully my devotional book this week helped me by having me read a series of passages about him.  Can I even begin to express some of the excitement and awe felt in these passages as the writers talk about our glorious Lord?  Because I think it is so crucial that you and I grasp it, I will try.

is Christian faith a religion?

religion (Definition from Merriam-webster)
(1) : the service and worship of God or the supernatural (2) : commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance
2 : a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices
3 archaic : scrupulous conformity : conscientiousness
4 : a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith

I was just reading Willard's book, Knowing Christ today, and was struck by the following (read the bold- the rest is given for context if you're interested):

Jesus comes through in spite of everything. The most profound critic of society and the "masks", Christian or otherwise, is Jesus himself. In this respect he stands in the line of the sharp-tongued Hebrew prophets and brings it to completion. Berger finds that "the crucial point of the relationship between Christian faith and the antireligious critique is to be found in a theological proposition. The proposition states that the revelation of God in Jesus Christ (which is the object of Christian faith) is something very different from religion." Religion has many critics, but Jesus has few. He is a self-authenticating reality beyond the myriad of social cocoons. He belongs to humanity. He called himself "Son of Man."
... Christ transcends all social visions and all entanglements with religion. In him God breaks through. "Christian faith is not religion," Berger affirms. That is the scalding truth of the matter. Suddenly from under the smothering panoply of human visions there emerges an outbreak of realism - a little breath of something that promises to interrupt and stand in judgment upon all our enculturated "visions" and their possible "alterations" of one into another. It is the Jesus of "all nations", of "all ethnic groups," of all kinds of people, of "whosoever will" -- of the last who are first and the first who are last in human orders. He is the light that gives light to everyone who is in the world. (p146)

Christianity is not simply a human endeavor- not something we have done - it is the response to what God has done. (and continues to do!) It's not that I don't think the church is important. Rather I think that in some way this (the reason for the church in the first place) is really good news for the church. This is a living God we worship, in ongoing creative activity, challenging and transforming us and our tangled up society. As usual I find myself back at the incarnation, my wonder and fear and love deepening each time I understand more of this Jesus I have chosen to follow.

What do you think?
Caravaggio, The Conversion on the Way to Damascus (1601) (see Acts 9:1-18)