The movie's journey is part evangelistic and part searching and part discovery. From the information given by the young men, they had all grown up in the Christian church but really didn't have a God "encounter" or if they did they didn't share it in the movie. What was the spring board to this journey was a question. "Do I believe what I believe because I was told it or because I experienced and continue to experience the truth and reality of God?"
I have found in teaching young adults that I can teach them the word of God and how to apply it or put it into practice but what makes the word of God come alive is God working in their lives. He is the one who makes the truth of the word come alive.
Our testimonies/ God "encounters" are what God has done in our life which speaks volumes of the reality of God to not just others but ourselves. I can give the word of God to other people but if there is no personal experience to go with that word it is difficult for them or anyone else to understand, except, seek it and walk it out.
Why do you think God says to fellowship with one another and build one another up?
I can't tell you all the times God has used people to touch my life. They have encouraged me and I have encouraged them. Now if I were to slip away into my comfort hobbit hole of a life I would find it very difficult, after a while, to be encouraged because I would just have my thoughts to contend with. Not saying God wouldn't continue to speak to me and touch my life but life isn't just about us and ourselves and our little bubble of a world. God made other people, uniquely different from ourselves but just as special, to touch our lives and we to touch their lives.
These real life experiences bring spiritual nourishment to our soul and we never know what kind of mustard seed of a tree will vigorously grow or Godly yeast that will knead into the bread dough of humanity. When we have God's word weaved into the God given purposes, directives and experiences in our life we KNOW that God isn't a religion but real unquestionable truth.
You and I as Christians are the living testimony of God's truth. People don't just hear the words but see the difference God has and is continuing to make in our lives. With no real living testimony and no Holy Spirit guided action/direction, all people see most times is religious words or you and I belonging to some "religious" group. It's not until people come to Christ that they can see back at all the Christians in their life. Strange but true. When I became a Christian those lights in my school days became abundantly transparent. They were Nancy, Kurt, Kerry, Pat (Patricia), Kim, Bill, Joe, ..... (list goes on and on.)
In "Beware of the Christians" God is loving knocking on these young men's door with questions. God is pushing and prodding, and encouraging Christians to take a step of faith and many times it starts with a question. Questions like: What is my purpose? What is the value of my faith in God? How does it show up in my life?
The more God brings these questions for us to consider, the more we reflected and questioned how to put those truths to real practice.
The more God brought these questions for the young men in "Beware of the Christians" to consider, the more they saw how important it was to live their lives for Christ. This was not just for their own well being and fulfillment but the importance to be a living testimony to other people. But again that living testimony can not be lived out without our collaboration, trust, submission, obedience, in God.
They, like every Christian, is looking to how to apply God's living truths to their life in the midst of a world that practices and preaches and teaches and advertises things like prosperity and denies, ignores, fights and even rages against God's truths.
Every Christian, I hope, is looking for what Jesus wants them to do, not what seems okay or passable or negotiable in some kind of religious standard.
The world doesn't care about God's truths because they only see God and God's people as part of organized religion, judgmental, hypocritical, and a system of do's and don'ts. The world doesn't care about God or his truths because they believe life is all about them and a means to to get things, make themselves happy, and experience all there is to experience of the world which in total reality leads them no where and unfulfilled. Chasing after things that never satisfy.
People believe in false ideas made of man, the understandings of man and the corrupt thinking of man. They don't even consider going to the source- GOD! Instead they only look to the ways of themselves instead of God. God is the one who brings about new understanding in life, contentment, peace, grace, and confidence (not within ourselves or the things of this world) but in HIM (God). The meaning of life can not be found unless God is active in our life!
These college students, who made this film had to ask themselves what is "religion" verses how does God want me to live? What have I made into a religion... instead of really walking the path of faith that is trusting in God? They seem like really blanketed questions but when applied to all areas of life they bring about the desire to change from and mature as a Christian trusting in Christ.
I read this the other day: "I will lead blind Israel down a new path, guiding them along an unfamiliar way. I will brighten the darkness before them and smooth out the road ahead of them. Yes, I will indeed do these things; I will not forsake them." Isaiah 42:16
The path of faith is not our plans but God determining our footsteps. The path maybe planned and smoothed out ahead of us but we are blind to everything except what God is putting a light on at the moment and in order to continue along that unfamiliar way or path we have to trust God.
The good solid questions these young men faced (and if not disregarded down the road) will lead them to a fulfilling confident purposeful life in God. They will find that God is not a "god" of religion but a God who can be found, trusted and collaborated with. They will find their purpose in what God designed and created them to do and be and find peace and contentment in doing what God planned for them long ago. Instead of religion they will find a relationship with God.
The one thing that disturbed me and I took away with this film was a lot of people in Europe don't seem to care about knowing God. They seem to think their salvation to heaven is based on good and bad deeds. And what they measure as good and bad deeds on are based on the understandings within themselves. They say, "I haven't murdered anyone, I pay my taxes, I don't steal, and I volunteer at the local elementary school so I must be going to heaven." But the truth is no one can get to heaven by their "good" deeds. A person may be able to show their faith in Jesus Christ through good deeds but it is only through faith in Jesus Christ does one have the righteousness to enter heaven. It is not our righteousness but in Jesus Christ's righteousness can we enter heaven. That righteousness is faith and trust in Jesus Christ.
Jesus, the Son of God, paid the way so we could go to heaven. Jesus, the Son of God, gave us the gift of salvation in heaven, but we have to accept that gift in order to receive salvation in heaven.
This gift of salvation genuinely received should give us a change of heart, where we don't want do sin or do the things we know are wrong. We don't make a practice of practicing sin or doing wrong. Where... when we do wrong we ask God to forgive us for our sin, knowing the high price Jesus Christ paid for our sins on the cross -so we could go to heaven instead of hell.
How do I know this? Because Jesus Christ has changed me and is continuing to transform me as I trust in him. He is constantly showing me things and encouraging me in my faith in HIM. He is teaching and helping me to not be caught up in myself but caught up in him.
People don't seem to value their souls. They put value on themselves based on what they own or have or not own or not have. They put value on themselves based on their abilities or capabilities or inabilities or incapability. They put value on themselves based on what other human beings think of them. They regard their soul after death like leaves that fall to the ground in the autumn to be swept away by whatever - not realizing that if they had just turned to God, God would reveal himself to them. They don't realize the soul after death is either dragged into hell or carried into heaven based on if they haven’t or have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
They don't realize the "things" they have acquired in this life don't matter to God. No matter degrees, titles, money, possessions, achievements matter to God but living in relationship with him.
They don't realize it not about appearances but the heart that matter to God. They don't realize that if they turned and sought God, God would have a relationship with them, give them a fulfilling purpose and they would see their need for Jesus Christ in their life and to be saved in Jesus Christ.
They would ask God questions and God would reveal those answers to them just as he has to me. God is no respecter of persons, He has no favorites. I am not anymore special then anyone else. Check it out book of Acts in the bible Chapter 10 verse 34
This is no good that so many people don't know God. They have their own ideals of who God is - that is if they believe in God at all. I said to myself, "You got to be kidding? There are a lot of people in Europe that don't know God- probably just as many in America. This amazed me considering the roots of my Christian heritage that were passed down from relatives who came from Europe so many years ago.
Some may think I was brainwashed by my family members and friends to accept Jesus Christ but I know first hand that isn't even true or the case. I may have been surrounded by Christians, did Christian activities, but I wasn't living a Christian life. I was stubborn and prideful. Did this sin and that sin. I had many many misconceptions about God. God however still loved me. When I got in a pinch I would pray and He would answer but I never thought much about thanking him afterward. But it wasn't until I found myself stuck in a deep hole, that I prayed to God seeing my life as worthless. I asked God to take my life and seeing what I could not, He picked me up out of the hole. He told me how much He loved me and then gave me a new life I did not deserve.
The Ways Christians Are Viewed
It is funny if you say you are a Christian, the world holds you to a higher standard. That isn't a bad thing. People expect us to never mess up or have a bad moment but is that realistic? We aren't God but I suppose in a way it is good that we aren't perfect because in humble apologies we show another characteristic of a Christian. Not prideful to admit wrong.
I am not sure why Christians are considered judgmental. I know some are zealous but the reason some are zealous is because they have been changed/transformed. They know the truth and they want to share that truth with others. They know, it wasn't by them making themselves right with God, but by the grace of God- God made them children of God. And they want to share that life giving truth with others.
I know many Christians are hypocrites. They are because they forget who they are. The get tricked into prideful thinking and they forget no one is perfect. They start depending on themselves and not on God. They get a little knowledge in the head and they become big headed not realizing that before they speak or act -the knowledge needs to go to the heart and meditated on with God first.
Some may have started with God but they stopped having a relationship with God so now they are stumbling and their confidence, which once came from their relationship with God, has now suffered. These are all things to remember when a person becomes a Christian.
Is there a God? YES!
I know God. I can't live this life of faith without him. He knows me better then I know myself. My faith without God would be like a fad of fashion, here today and gone tomorrow. Is being a Christian easy? No! But the Christian life is to rely on God. If the Christian life were easy why would we need to rely on God so heavily? Everyday I look to him for words of encouragement. He is my strength and confidence.
We could go this way and that way with why this happens and that happens but the fact is we live in a cursed world and this world pushes God away and then we expect him to come to the rescue. If we as a nation, or a people or an individual push God away how can he protect us, how can he help us, how can he reassure us, and comfort us?
But even though this world is a cursed world we don't have to be cursed ourselves. We can have a relationship with him and no matter what happens with us we will have the reality and confidence of knowing God and having heaven as your eternal destination because we believe in Jesus Christ as our LORD and Savior.
If you want to know God and know him first hand for yourself I ask you to ask God to reveal Himself to you in a mighty way. There are only two options after this life- heaven or hell.
Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. Jesus told us, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me." Book of John chapter 14 verse 6 (John 14:6)
Jesus Christ said, "Yes, I am the gate. Those who come in through me will be saved. They will come and go freely and will find good pastures." Book of John chapter 10 verse 9 (John 10:9)
I don't know if this sounds harsh to you or not- but Jesus paid for our salvation. Salvation is something we do not have to work for, it was paid for when Jesus was nailed on the cross for our sins/ wrongs.
Jesus speaking about himself said "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it." John 3:16
Heaven or hell is all about what you do with Jesus. God the Father wasn't be selective in how one gets into heaven, he just said, "My Son, Jesus is the only way into heaven." God gave one choice (Jesus) and humanity not liking that answer has continued to try to come up other ways to fool themselves only to sadly say- fool themselves into a fiery torturous prison in hell where there is total separation from God.
All the prophets of God point to Jesus as the Messiah/ Savior. Ask yourselves, What is more HOLY then God's own blood? Nothing! God's own blood (Jesus blood) wiped out our sins so we can approach God. We can become children of God through Jesus. Jesus is the only way to saved. If this sounds harsh think about this: sometimes the truth is harsh. We get hard truths everyday but it doesn't make those truths untrue.
If you want to get to know God and Jesus Christ as your Savior, I can only show you, figuratively speaking, the door. It is has to be you to make the step. The good news is you already instinctively know there is a God.
In the book of Romans, chapter 1, verse 21 it says you already know there is a God. (Romans 1:21)
But "just knowing there is a God" is like just knowing the appearance of your neighbor but not knowing who she or he really is or what they like or dislike. It's like knowing there is some really good fresh food in your refrigerator and deciding to not eat any of it even though you are really hungry.
The word of God also says, "And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)
Since you already know God exists, "sincerely" seek him and you will be rewarded you.
Jesus says "Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. " Matthew 7:7
God is waiting for you to seek him. He has been waiting for you to come to Him. He isn't waiting for you to fix yourself, I didn’t fix myself I just gave him who I was and he transformed me- yep a Jesus Freak. God is waiting to unveil himself in ways that you thought were impossible and use you in ways you never thought were possible.
If God is asking you to come, don't be afraid- come. If you want God to reveal himself to you, he will do it. I heard a story of a family in India who had all these pictures of all these false gods and a picture of Jesus. A missionary prayed with the family and the next time he visited all the pictures of all the false gods were taken down except the picture of Jesus. Curious, the missionary asked what happened to the other pictures and the family said, Jesus was the only God who answered their prayers.
God is no respecter of persons. God will reveal himself to you if you sincerely seek Him. It will be your choice to give your life to Jesus and receive and live the life he planned for you long ago.
If you have decided to give your life to Jesus, you can simply pray what is on your heart. Asking God to forgive you and ask Jesus to come into your life and transform your life. In Jesus Name Amen.
People are searching for meaning in their life. They are searching for purpose. They are searching for fulfillment. They are searching for peace. They are searching for encouragement. They are searching for assurance. They are searching for contentment. They are searching for some form of acknowledgment. They are searching for confidence. They searching for empowerment. They are looking for a way out of the pointlessness and out of this feeling of being stuck. They are looking for nourishment for their souls. They are searching for someone who really understands who they are and what they feel. They are looking for love. They unknowingly are looking for God’s love because in his love, he provides all these things.
May God bless you with the indispensable reality of Himself and continue to bless you with the indispensable reality of Himself as you seek after Him. In Jesus Name Amen.
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