While in seminary I took a class that dealt with the Middle East. One of the things I remember well is the professor, who was from that area, talking about the groups in the area. One was either Muslim, Jewish, or Christian. The thing about the designations was they did not necessarily describe the spiritual condition or belief, but they were a distinction based on heritage and where one lived. To be considered Christian one does not have to profess faith in Christ or have a relationship with the Savior, it is just who you are. It would seem the same could be said in the US now.
While we have had cultural Christianity for as long as the term has been used, it seemed that at one point people at least had an understanding of orthodox beliefs and agreed with those beliefs. That is no longer true. In a study by the Barna Group they found that most self-described American “Christians” do not believe in a literal Satan or Holy Spirit or believe the Bible is any different than any other religious text such as the Koran or the Book of Mormon. I will let you read the article for yourself but the most eye-opening part of it is at the end when they break the research up by distinguishing between “born again” Christians and “notional” Christians.
I have either attended or been employed by conservative Southern Baptist churches all my life and I am sometimes jolted by what some members have to say about the Bible, God, salvation, and a host of other beliefs. I had one lady tell me the she did not care what the Bible had to say on the subject we were discussing. She felt the traditions we had observed were more important so that we did not offend a certain group of people in the church.
I am beginning to wonder if we do not need a new distinction for what we call those who believe in Christ as Savior and seek to have a personal relationship with Him. It seems even the term Born-Again Christian is somewhat sullied and confusing these days. So what should we call ourselves? I have seen people use terms such as “Jesus Follower”, “Believer”, “Jesus Lover”, “Disciple”, and many others. One who calls himself a Christian should be a follower of Christ, or be Christ-like. Like so many terms, our culture has distorted those terms and, as one definitionhttp://www.answers.com/topic/christian states, Christian can mean to be “humane.”
In reality it probably does not matter what one is called as long as they are living the life God has called them to live. Maybe true believers should attempt to take back the term instead of giving it over to a perverted meaning; after all it is a Biblical word, Acts 11:26, and should retain its meaning. We need to live a life worthy of the name and be proud of what it stands for. While some may use it as derision, we need to stand proud and make our Savior happy that we claim to be one of His.
Too often in this day churches try to fit into society by justifying the social norms. When Jesus was praying for His disciples, John 17, and those that were to follow (meaning every believer to come), He recognized that the world would hate them because they were proclaiming the Word He gave. We are called to bring the world to repentance, not to love us. If we are being embraced by the world perhaps we are doing something wrong. We should love them and do all we can to reach them, but never should we accept the sin that is separating them (or us) from God. If we are going to be worthy of the name Christian we need to be different. Our God is the only true God. The Bible is the only revelation that will show the path to a relationship with that God. And the Holy Spirit is the only one who can draw us into a relationship with the Savior which means there is only one way to heaven, God’s way. That may be a hard saying for some, but for the simple minded like me it makes it much clearer than having to wade through many different belief systems.
So if you want to call yourself Christian, accept what the Bible says without trying to rationalize the hard stuff out.

The book of Numbers (in the Bible) is interesting. You would not think so by the title and when you start it does not have that quality that reaches out and grabs your attention. The first few chapters contain information about a census and how they are supposed to build and furnish the tabernacle, and then bam, God lit the camp on fire because some people are complaining about hardships. And then they complain about the manna and God gives them quail until they are were literally sick from it. Miriam and Aaron oppose Moses so God makes Miriam leprous. Then the twelve are sent into the promise land and the majority report is negative, the people are distraught so God punishes them by giving them an additional forty years in the desert. Then it is back to the laws.
I want to focus on the reaction of the people to the report of the spies. But first let’s recap the journey to this point. God had systematically punished their enemy with plagues that culminated in their release from slavery because the death of the first born of every Egyptians. After they were on their way God placed them in a position so they could see Him deliver them in a way only He could. He let them cross a sea on dry land and then wipes out the enemy by first fighting them and then drowning the entire army so there is no way the enemy can pursue them further.
The entire time they were traveling, not only was God giving Moses specific directions but also there is a pillar of fire and a cloud of smoke confirming to the people that God was with then and directing them. He fed them, gave them water, and gave them a system of laws. So now they are ready to go into the Promised Land and they get the report that indeed the land is bountiful and the fruit is magnificent. But there is one problem; the people there are big, they have big walls around their cities, and taking it could be a big problem. Caleb says that is true but we can do it.
Everything they said up to this point is ok and true. The problem is what happens next. Ten of the twelve begin to stir up the people telling them it is impossible to take the land God has promised them and led them to. How crazy is that? Look at all He has done over the past few months in their site. These are not stories they had heard; they lived them! Their reaction is amazing. They would rather return to Egypt as slaves than face the big problems in front of them.
They had forgotten that they had not had to fight a single battle without God going before them to prepare the way. They were going to have to work for the land and God never told them this would be easy, but He did promise them great things if they would follow Him and do what He told them to do. What they forgot is that their God was bigger than any possible situations they would face. It would not be easy and the work would be hard, but in the end they would succeed. They paid a big price for their disobedience and lack of faith. Most of them died without seeing the promise and the people had to wait another 40 years to receive that promise.
It is easy to condemn them for this, but how often so we do the same thing? We see God work in great ways and then He gives us a new direction and we balk at it because it looks hard, or we are uncomfortable with what we will have to do to get the better thing. We say, I know things were not good like they were and God is going to give us something better, but it’s going to be __________ (hard, different, uncomfortable, a struggle; take your pick) so let’s go back.
We see it all the time. Companies that don’t want to change, people who don’t want to take a chance, but more importantly churches that do not want to follow God. It’s clear that if you don’t step out on faith and follow the leadership God has put in place you are going to die. We would rather stay in slavery rather than struggle with change and reach a community that is dying all around us. The people of Israel were in slavery for 430 years. It was a miserable existence, but they would rather return to that than face the giants that stood in the way of what God had promised. We shake our heads, clack our tongues and condemn them for their lack of faith while we do the same thing.
Here is a principle we need to remember; God does not call us to do anything of consequence that is easy. If it were easy we would not need God to accomplish it.
The question we need to answer is what is God calling you to do and what is God calling our church to do to have an impact for the Kingdom? And then is our faith big enough to allow the God we serve to show His power and faithfulness. God will accomplish His purpose, but will we get to be a part of what He wants to do?

This is cross posted to howard.chbcblogs.org