The message of Jesus is about new beginnings. It begins belief and gets put into action with repentance, which literally means to turn around and go in the opposite direction. So what must we believe in order to start the journey?
We must believe God exists and that He rewards those who seek Him. We must believe that we are sinners, that we can never be good enough to earn God’s favor. We must believe that this sin problem was solved when Jesus lived, died and rose from the dead. We must believe that Jesus is going to return and bring a new heaven and earth.
We don’t need to believe many of the particulars that denominations get hung up over. The manner of baptism is not essential to salvation. The exact nature of communion, the particular diet we choose to eat, the types of music we sing or don’t sing in worship, the clothes we wear, the presence or absence of fermented beverages, the version of Scripture we read. These and so many others are not essential to salvation.
So I would like to spend the first part of this year focusing on some of the essentials and what they mean to our lives today. If they are important, why are they important? And then, since they are important, how should my life be different when I believe them.
You see, it is not enough to believe something, that something must change the way we live. James says “faith without works is dead.” If our trust in Jesus does not result in a change in behavior and attitude, then we must question our faith, either the fact of our faith or the object of our faith.
If you look at the results of research, people in the church in the United States don’t look that different from the population as a whole. In fact, we look almost identical! Our sins match theirs. As a group, our faith has not impacted our lives very much. That does not mean that you as an individual have not been changed by your faith in Jesus, but we as a whole have not.
The Arnold Journey 