I have big news for all of you, I heard it just this morning on the radio. All of you who think you are Christians may need to change your Facebook religion status because apparently you are not a Christian unless you sponsor a child in another country.
I'm not going to name names (though I really feel I should) but I heard a story on Word FM's morning show about an individual approaching a certain front man from a pretty well known Christian band. The individual told the Band man that he recently became a Christian, to which the front man responded, "what country does your child live in?" Then the hosts of the morning show telling this story proceeded to say that, "Really finding a church should not be the first priority for a person who just came to Christ. But the first thing they do should be to sponsor a Child."
Now I will admit that this really grinds my gears and if you can't tell already I am super fired up about this, so I will try to control myself and use sober judgment in writing this.
Please don't get me wrong, sponsoring a child is a wonderful, outstanding, beautiful, I can't say enough how great of a thing it is....but is it really so important that it needs to be the very first things a new believer does. Is it really important enough to be put on the list of things a person "must do" to be a proper Christian. I feel like the list of "must do's" to be a Christian is getting longer and longer with each generation.
It reminds me of what Peter said in Acts 15 when the counsel met. A group of Jewish believers were going around to all the Gentiles who were coming to Christ and telling them that in order to be a proper Christian they need to become Jewish first and follow all the Jewish commandments. I don't know if you know....but that was a pretty long list. Peter says in verse 10, "Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?"
Why, why, why do we make coming to Christ so complicated? Why must we create a yoke that we ourselves cannot bear. Imagine if you will (and I'm not saying this is how it happen...but let's pretend for a moment) that a non-believer happen to come to that radio station this morning searching for answers about God. He turns to this station and hears "When you come to Christ you really should sponsor a child and give $30 a month and even more." What is that person going to think? Probably what a lot of people think, that all Christianity is, is the Church or some other organization trying to get money.
Now as I said sponsoring a child is great and if you are able and feel called to do so please knock yourself out. But is it right to say that to be a proper Christian sponsoring a child is a must? Did Jesus die so I could sponsor a starving child in Bolivia. I don't think so. Sponsoring a child is a result of what Christ died on the cross for.
Jesus gave his life as a ransom for our sins so we cold be free. So we could have a relationship with the God who loves us more than we will ever know. Jesus died to bring heaven here to earth and a result of that is that we can give joyfully to help those in need.
So what am I saying here. I don't know if I even know. If you want to give to a starving child in Ethiopia or where ever, then do it and do it joyfully. God wants us to give but only.....but only if we do it with a generous and joyful heart. If I give my wife flowers just because or just for the reason that I thought about her and wanted to do it, it will mean a lot more than if I say "Oh, they were on sale," or "Oh I felt like I had to."
If you give because, "Oh I feel like I have to," then DON'T because God doesn't want a gift given out of obligation. He wants you to give because you want to give. Furthermore DON'T make it an obligation to others or look down on fellow believers who can't or don't give for whatever reason.
Remember the women who gave all she had because she wanted to, Jesus honored that women. But those rich men who were making a spectacle of their giving, Jesus wanted nothing to do with them. I would strongly encourage you to give to the LORD but do it out of joy and not obligation or because someone on the radio says, "you must sponsor a child in order to be a proper Christian."
Well, I hope I didn't fly off the handle too much. I really feel that these comments made on the radio and by that artist give into Legalistic Christianity. Jesus DID NOT sacrifice himself so we could follow the rules. His sacrifice goes so much deeper than that.
May our LORD be with you!
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