Just a thought-experiment here as a result of both on-line and "real life" discussions recently.
What if we asked the question: "Have you fallen in love with God?" instead of "Have you accepted Jesus as your personal Lord and Saviour?"
Sometimes I think that Christianity has been reduced by some to "salvation by doctrine". It's been reduced to holding the "right" ideas about bodily resurrection, theories of atonement, creation, whatever.
But I don't think 'right doctrine' is the essence of what Christian belief is about.
'Belief in God', in Christian terms, isn't about holding the right ideas about God (as if we could). Christian belief is about falling in love with God so that one trusts God completely - with all of one's being.
Metaphorically, it's the sort of belief that one has when one throws oneself off a precipice into the arms of one's beloved, knowing that the beloved will catch them. It's not about reciting physics formulas to prove that one's beloved is strong enough to catch one.
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- PamBG
- I am Pam Berardinelli Garrud (PamBG), a 54 year old wife, daughter and beloved child of God. Ordained as a minister (pastor) in the Methodist Church of Great Britain, in 2009 I re-immigrated back to Northeast Ohio with my London-born husband after 20 years residence in the UK. I am seeking to serve God by loving God and my neighbor in the ministry of hospital chaplaincy. Prior to becoming a minister, I worked in the pensions industry. The views expressed in this Blog are purely my own and do not represent the official views of any denomination, group or organization.
5 comments:
Beautiful! Thank you.
Pam that is an amazing question- it is asking about relationsip and response.
I often wonder is we are simply asking people to sign up to a list of doctrinal does and don'ts when we want to know if they have accepted Jesus as Saviour.
You have me thinking now.
And now I have a few free weeks to read what I want- all assignments in!
Sally - all my assignments are in now too - hurrah! I'm fairly happy with my marks too, although the big ones - the MA papers - won't be out until the beginning of July.
loved this Pam. And Congrats that the studies are almost over and with good grades too :)
well done Pam- along wait isn't it ERMC's results aren't out til August!!!
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