Nuggets 57: Is Faith an Aspirin?

  • B. Shelburne
  • Feb 17, 2007
  • Series: Nuggets

My friend Tammo and I were hiking up Ntonya Mountain.  Tammo, a Dutchman, was a civil servant for the Malawi government.  He was a gentleman, socially pleasant, but not a believer.  He considered himself an agnostic.

Tammo taught me to pace myself so I would not have to stop often for breath.  As we walked, our conversation came to the Christian faith.  Tammo said he believed people invented Christianity as crutch to deal with fear and pain.  Karl Marx had said much the same thing when he called religion "the opium of the people."

"Certainly some people use it that way," I answered, "but Jesus' call to deny yourself, take up a cross and follow him hardly sounds like a security blanket.  People who get beyond the surface of the gospel know Christ expects them to sacrifice their own advantage for the sake of others and even to die for truth and right if necessary."

Of course we do get much from being Christians.  There is great comfort in our faith.  We come to Jesus helpless and needy.  The early Christian life is mostly about receiving.  We will always be needy, but as discipleship grows, we learn that Christianity is very much about giving.  "Freely you have received, freely give."  God is love, and love has to express itself.  God so loved the world that he gave up his Son.  The world is dying of selfishness.  The more we grow like our Heavenly Father, the more we will love and give.  The heart of Christ's teaching is that we gain life by giving it up.

Matthew 16:24,25;  10:34-39;  Luke 14:26,27,33;  Revelation 2:10;  2 Timothy 3:12;  Acts 14:21,22;  2 Corinthians 1:3,4;  Matthew 9:36;  10:8b;  1 John 4:7-19;  John 3:16;  13:34,35

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Copyright 2006 by G.B. Shelburne, III.  May be freely reproduced or forwarded for non-commercial purposes provided content is unchanged and this copyright notice is included.  These shepherding messages are sent to members and friends of New Beginnings Church (www.nbchurch.com), to students and alumni of South Houston Bible Institute (www.shbi.org), and to other interested persons.

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