Pastor Aaron Long: Life is a Journey
We got a problem in the modern church; we make baptisms and altar calls and the like to be the end all be all of the Christian life. It comes from a level of biblical illiteracy and denominational blindness that exists in the modern church. Baptism, altar calls and the like aren’t the end goal—they are the starting point of what it means to be a Christian.
When you come to Christ it isn’t all done, all wrapped up in a neat little bow—it’s messy. You are saved, you have Jesus, you have the Holy Spirit, but you also got a lot of the old flesh hanging onto you. You are just a newborn baby in the Christian faith. You are just getting started.
When we accept Christ, we should seek a new family—a church. When we accept Christ, we are born again; we are babies in the faith. People really don’t understand this, but think about it. What would happen to a newborn baby if it was left out in the cold, in the world by itself? It would get eaten up by everything bigger than it around. Same with a new Christian—without the visible church they can’t grow, they can’t thrive, and eventually they will die in their faith. A baby can’t feed itself, clean itself, dress itself. We need our church family to help to raise us in the faith, to teach us what we need to know, to walk with us as we learn to crawl and then walk on our own.
Once we can walk on our own, we are called to walk—not just sit in the pews. We are called to go out and share the gospel, tell people about Jesus, share the truths of the faith, invite people to church. We are called to go out and help the disadvantaged, to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, give drink to the thirsty, visit the sick and imprisoned. We are called to walk the talk—not just claim that we are Christians, but to actually get out there and be Christians.
We are called to face the circumstances and situations of life. In suffering we are to hang on to Jesus in the storms of life, facing troubles with a stoic calm, showing people the blessing of our relationship with Jesus. We are called to learn from mistakes, to ask forgiveness, and to be a healing balm for the world with the power of the Holy Spirit in us.
We are called to rejoice with those who rejoice—to celebrate not only our victories and accomplishments but also those around us. We are called to lift people up, build people up, encourage people onward and upward. We are called to show everyone around us—not just our friends, not just our family—but everyone around us love.
We are to stand for biblical principles whether it is in our personal lives or work lives, family or politics. We are called to teach the Bible to people not just with our words, beating them over the head with our Bibles, but with the way we live our own life.
We need to walk through this life hand in hand with Jesus. We need to let Him carry us when we are weak and stand for Him in times when the world is against us. Life is a journey—we need to walk it, and walk it with Jesus.
