I was brought up in a Christian home in the country (around Comber, Co.Down) and was always brought or dragged to church/Sunday school/childrens meetings and anything else that was on. For the most part it was fine, some meetings more boring than others but plenty of other kids like me to play with and keep amused with, nothing difficult about it, you just said what you were supposed to say at the right times and didn’t do what you weren’t supposed to do. Full attendance was the height of Christianity.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with these things, and they are all very important. Being brought up in this environment had many benefits. For one thing, I was encouraged at home to pray and read my bible and became familiar with it’s stories and lessons and the principals it stands for. It was a quiet enough upbringing and I’m thankful to say it kept me from a lot of things I’m glad I didn’t become a part of.

However, one day in my early teens it occurred to me that there’s more to Christianity than attendance and knowledge. Attendance is easy and you can know everything there is to know about the physics and biology behind a bird in flight but that doesn’t make you an eagle! In my early teens we moved churches and I was suddenly confronted by Christians who were happy to be at church, who wanted to hear God’s word and who, more importantly, wanted to know God better. Suddenly all the theory clicked into place and I realized that all the bible stories, all those parables and all the things I’d been taught at home actually backed this up. The whole point of this wasn’t to impress God with our impeccable attendance record. He wasn’t keeping score of the religious phrases we slipped in to sound more Christian, it wasn’t about being better than the next person. The word Christian was a term given to a group of people who believed in, followed the teachings of, strove to be like and strove to know – Christ. It’s not about what we can do to earn something from God – we can never be deserving of anything from God on our own or by anything we do. We are naturally a disobedient and sinful creation but we can be made acceptable to God through the finished work of his Son Jesus Christ. God loves us because his Son loved us enough to die for us in order that God could forgive our sins through his sacrifice for us. So what’s this Christianity thing all about? I found out that it’s not about religious things, it’s not about church, it’s not about reading and praying, it’s about having a relationship with my Saviour. Only by getting to know Christ can I become more like Him, only by becoming more like him can I become a better Christian/husband/father/human being- there’s nobody else on this planet worth becoming more like, ministers, teachers, good people although better than me are all still sinner’s like me to different degrees but Christ is the spotless Son of God who gave His life for me and I can do no better than to become closer to him. How? By all those other things! By praying/talking to him (not a shopping list prayer) by reading the bible (it’s called God’s word) by listening to Godly ministers/teachers/good people and by having fellowship with other people who are also striving to be closer to him (that’s what church should be).

In short it’s not about doing the Christian thing to get to heaven. It’s about getting to know the only person who can forgive us our sins and promise to be with us in heaven if we follow him. In doing this we become more Christ-like and in turn these ‘Christian things’ become a joy to be part of not the chore I once took them for.

God Bless,

David