This will be a bit of a different blog. I’m now residing in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, and have been here for a few days; however, I promised to write a blog about my first church service on the race. This service gave me a lot to ponder and realize, not only about myself but of Christianity. The Nepali pastor based his sermon around the scripture John 8: 31-32, which states “Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, ‘If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.'” As soon as I heard this I thought about how awesome freedom is as a concept and a gift from the Lord. The only issue is that the pastor developed his thesis and message around something I struggled to relate to. He said that when one abides in the Lord’s truth it sets them free, which is true. He just applied it to his own life in the way that when he first became a Christian after converting from Hinduism, he brought with him many religious practices like fasting on a Sunday. He carried the concept of having to still please the God he was now choosing to put faith in and serve. The Lord’s truth set him free from these past religious practices eventually as he grew in his faith.
This was a great sermon for those people who are new to Christianity and coming from a different religion, but it got me thinking about how even in America where people know of Christianity, there is a vast misunderstanding. This misunderstanding is of the freedom that comes with giving one’s life to the Lord and living in faith. A lot of non-Christians back home, especially in our generation, would say that they believe in some higher power and might even define themselves as “spiritual”�.  As soon as someone even suggests the idea of Christianity to them, their mind automatically goes to the stigma that the church has basically given itself; the stigma specifically associated with freedom. That to be Christian you must be a goody-two-shoes and never do anything wrong and try to live a perfect life. People give themselves the idea that they aren’t holy enough, good enough, or don’t want to follow all the rules. All they see in Christianity (besides the stigma for criticism and judgement that’s a discussion for another day) is a bunch of rules that they won’t be able to follow. They end up telling themselves “Oh, this isn’t for me,”� thinking they can’t follow all the rules, fearing that they’re condemned to hell if they fall short. I guess I’m writing this as encouragement for people that when they talk about their faith with others to make sure they understand the freedom in it. The truth of the Lord will set us free. It’s okay to mess up; we all sin. Yes, we’re supposed to strive to be like Jesus, but none of us will ever compare and we all fall short of the glory of God. The Lord is always there willing to forgive us and never give up on us; if we repent and continue to seek him and his truth in the word and not become Pharisees only caring for the law and not the heart of the Lord.
Katie gave a brief teaching in a Nepali jungle village on the Rich Ruler in Luke 18. The heart of this passage to most is to not store up earthly treasures and it’s easier to fit a camel through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven, but something different stuck out to me in this passage. At the start the rich ruler asks Jesus what he has to do to inherit eternal life, and Jesus basically tells him to keep all the commandments. But then the guy was like I’ve done all of that; Jesus then qualifies his previous truth by telling him to leave everything behind and follow him, basically saying that the commandments are important but those aren’t what salvation is from. Salvation is from pursuing a relationship with the Lord and following him to our full potential.
I realize I’ve been rambling for a while now and I hope it makes sense to you as it does to me. Please share if you feel lead to because this is something I’m very passionate about. Christianity isn’t about following all the laws, we can thank Jesus for that. Feel free to comment questions if anything was too confusing. You’re welcome for the pictures of the monkey’s and the sloth.
