Under What Banner?

Listening to the pastor today, I started thinking about the message that God gives to us, and the way it's delivered. The ways and the variety are striking, but most of them are delivered by someone who has experienced the wonder of God's grace, and shares it with another. How that person shares it, I have come to see, makes a huge difference in whether the observing world gives credence to it. I have gone to a few different denominational churches in my 12 years of being an active Christian, and as I continue to experience the calling of our Lord, I see that He does call in different manners and fashion, without changing His message. He, like a father that loves the uniqueness of his children, appeals to each of us as we would specifically respond.

While listening to the sermon, I got to thinking, how many kings have gotten involved in a war, or at least had their relations with another country damaged because of the ambassador they sent misrepresented the message? Is today any different? Have our Presidents tried to convey a particular stance with a foreign nation, but had it muddied by the delivery of the wrong person at the wrong time? I don't think that God's message is all that different. Thinking about the typical stereotype of an early Christian in regards to our country, the Puritans come to mind. They were a people totally devoted to pleasing God, but they had the idea that by legislating behavior, that the heart would change. Today they are looked at with scorn and condemnation by many, but I think they were guilty of good ethics, but bad implementation. Just like the Pharisees before them, they were guilty of having

neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. Matthew 23:23

Again the thought I couldn't shake during the service was, how many kings have been misrepresented by their ambassadors? The Pharisees were doing nothing but trying to serve God in the way they thought best, as were the Puritans. The problem, is that the message they were conveying wasn't what their Lord had taught them. Today, are we getting in the way of the message, and we adhering to a philosophy, a pastor or a movement? Or are we being true to our King? Is it more important that you be identified with a particular denomination? Or is being linked with the Savior enough? And how much of our attempt to speak about our Christian experience is a genuine attempt to model the way to Christ, and how much of it is nothing more then being able to notch our belts as another we have "brought to Christ"? Jesus doesn't need me to introduce Him to anyone, He knows them already.

The man that is known as

The Lord of Lords, and the King of Kings 1 Timothy 6:15

has sent us, his disciples, to model the grace that has come into our lives, not just talk about it. He wants us to love others as we love Him, and to do that we can't have a preconceived plan that must be done in our way. Each person is different, and they are attracted to different things that the Lord offers. Some people are drawn by the sacrifice that Christ did for us, feeling particularly moved by the idea that someone would go to that length for them. Others are students that can't get enough of the scriptures, and the nuances that the Lord reveals over time in the studying and pouring over of His word, delighting in the new found treasures that are discovered when reading a particular passage for the Nth time, only to find this truth evident this time reading the scripture, where it wasn't seen last time.

Then there are those who experience God's love through the people that make up the congregation. My wife, a cynic to Christianity for the first 13 years we were married has now given her life to the Lord, not because I made an eloquent argument, or that someone happened to speak a passage at just the right time, but because a community of believers who let their faith be lived through their actions and lives showed her they loved her for who she was, not who she was going to become. They loved her unconditionally, without scorn, condemnation or parameters. I praise the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob for who He is, for His message, and for those particular ambassadors who let the message flow through them, without hindering it.

So my question today is much like the discussion Paul had with Peter, in Galatians 2

Galatians 2:11-20 (English Standard Version)

Paul Opposes Peter

¹¹But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned. ¹²For before certain men came from James, he was eating with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party. ¹³And the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. ¹⁴But when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, "If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you force the Gentiles to live like Jews?"

Justified by Faith

¹⁵We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; ¹⁶yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.

Am I representing the message of the Lord correctly? Am I mixing in some of my "stuff" and thus making the message not of the King? The way I am to be sure that I am not in error, is to study the scriptures diligently, to surround myself with others who know the calling and the message, and to heed their correction and wisdom when it is offered. Considering what God has done for me already, that's the banner I choose to march under.