Christ or Christianity

I want to get straight to the point in this blog today. I keep stirring over a question in my heart for the last while. I tend to return to this question, and make it a personal challenge to myself to stay close to Christ. This question is the following: “Is our priority in life more dedicated to “Christianity” or to Christ?” To begin you may be thinking... well my Christianity is a reflection of my Christ. Is this not synonymous? Christianity and Christ are one and the same. I am going to venture to say... they are not. At least not what our culture has made Christianity to be. This blog is not to bash or discredit Christianity or organized church. In no way is this the intention of my heart. In the words I write here, I simply want to share my observations, my thoughts that I have made in my living out of faith in Jesus Christ. I am more than blessed to be part of a healthy strong church in Winnipeg, MB. Cross Church is an amazing place to serve and live among fellow believers. A church who understands the true depth of dedication to Christ and allowing that to be the foundation of Christianity. However, I have observed in our world and culture that there are times where Christianity and Christ are far different from each other.

I don’t know about you, but I find in my Christian life, I sometimes spend more effort, time, stress and thought on being “Christian” than any other thing. I want to live a good moral life, dedicated to the teaching of Christ. These are all good, godly and correct intentions. However, the part that worries me is I spend more time being Christian, than I do in knowing Christ. It is not that the morals, values, a life of service and dedication to the church and to ministering the gospel is wrong. Far from it!! Before I get shunned from the church, dis-communicated, or called a heretic, let me explain my thoughts. This is what Christ has called us to. This is what we are commanded to do in His word. It says in Matthew 28: 19-20. “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

We have a call to minister the gospel of Jesus Christ to this hurt and dying world. We have a call to live a life according to our Lords teaching. Here is my point in all this. Do we sometimes get more concerned to know how to be a good “Christian” than we do on knowing Christ. I believe that we should be dedicating our lives and making our priority to knowing Christ more and more. It’s as though at times we think that we are serving Jesus Christ who died thousands of years ago and is still dead. We almost like to leave him in the tomb or disconnected from our present life. We read about the Christ of the Bible, but make a disconnect that He is with us to the very end of the age. We read the bible, his accounts of ministry and miracles while on this earth, His life of mercy and love. We make this our dedication... to live as He lived, love as He loved. This in itself is not wrong. Once again, far from it. We are called to be imitators of Christ. To take up our cross and to follow Him daily. To lay it all down and to follow Him. The thing that concerns me however, is this. We sometimes don’t include Christ in our Christianity. He is alive. He is active and moving and speaking to our lives by the Holy Spirit. Yet, we so many times forget the living God, we forget about his Holy Spirit that speaks to us, lives within us and empowers us to live our lives according to his commands. We dedicate ourselves to the actions of Christianity, but too often forget to include the Christ who is the author and finisher of our faith. We cannot live our lives without Him. Without Holy Spirit empowering us and drawing us to know the character, the words the living outpouring of His love in this world. We are called to live as Christ followers... but we must first know Christ. Our priority, our focus, our dedication should be first to Christ... and in result to our intimate relationship with Him, our Christianity is developed. We are spurred on, equipped and empowered to live fully in His ways. To know Christ. In this, the outpouring of the love that He shows us will be the love that we show the world. A life of following the true and living Christ. A life prompted by love.