Thinking of... "Trust in the Lord".

The Uniqueness of Christianity

All religions agree that mankind is in a mess. The Bible puts it this way: "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23). "We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." (Isaiah 53:6). Each religion sets out its own way of rescuing us from this desperate situation. Let us think of the problem as that of a man who has fallen down a deep well. The question is how to get him out.

First comes Mohammed who looks over the top of the well and says; "if you will only keep the five rules of Islam then you will be able to escape from the well. You must pray five times a day, eat no pork, drink no alcohol, keep the feast of Ramadan and make the pilgrimage to Mecca".

Contemporary Rabbinic Judaism is no different. They will pile on the man more rules and regulations based on the 10 commandments. "Keep the Law" and you will be accepted. But a man has only his own strength to keep these commandments, so after a few steps up he falls back again and cries out for help.

Then comes Buddha who looks over the top of the well and says: "I can see You are in a mess; the problem is due to pain and desire. If you follow the noble eightfold path you will escape from these ultimately into Nirvana." The man may find inner peace but he is still down the well.

Jesus comes to the top of the well and looks down and says: "I can see that you are in a mess; you will never get out by means of your own resources. As I said through one of my prophets: "Can the leopard change his spots or the Ethiopian his skin? No more can do good who are accustomed to do evil." Jeremiah 13: 23.

"I will have to let down a rope and come down into the well myself in order to rescue you. I will hold you firmly because you do not even have the strength to hold on to me yourself."

Only Christianity speaks about God becoming a human being to rescue us. In John 10 Jesus describes himself as the Good Shepherd (10:11, 14), the Good shepherd who lay down his life for the sheep (10:15), who draws all true worshippers together into one fold (10:16).

On what evidence do Christians base this claim that Jesus is the only way? Mainly on Jesus' own words. Jesus claimed to be the only Saviour "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John 14:6). From His own words, both Jesus' followers and his opponents recognized that He claimed to be God, the only one able to save us from sin and death (see also John 20:24-29; John 10:31-33).

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My cousin, who is 30 plus and a non-Christian, was discussing with me about all religions leading to God, just the other day when we dropped by for a visit. She thinks that God has all these caretakers (e.g. Gods of other religions) to take care of the people, just like a principal needs deans and clerks.
This is not the case. I forgot to mention to her about the importance of salvation.
She says she believes there is a God, but I didn't question her about whether she believed Jesus was the only way to God.
I admit it. That day I was feeling spiritually weak and rather down. I wasn't in the mood for interacting. So I holed up myself in this corner and started talking to her about it. And I made a pretty weak stand for what I believed in... that day's incidents keep coming up in my brain.

If you're reading this, tell me about what you think of this site's layout. I'll keep your comments in thought. I have this urge to change it all.
Please?

We talked about Hagar at YF today.
But before that we sang songs of worship. And I was just thinking so hard about why we had to worship in the first place. I thought that we could only worship only if we felt like it, only if God had done some miraculous change in our lives, that we actually witnessed it. Somehow I felt like I didn't. And for the rest of the worship time, I just didn't feel like worshiping God. Worship=worth-ship. You're telling God how much He's worth to you. I thought that if you didn't experience anything with God and are singing it in the lyrics... you were just a hypocrite and liar. And I did feel like a liar and a hypocrite. I wanted to get closer to Him and know Him better.
And then Elaine, the worship leader, said something that answered my thoughts. As if God heard me. She said something (in essence, note!) that God is the only one worthy of our worship because only He has come down to die for our sins. Only He has loved us so much, that He was willing to hang on the cross (see my Wed, Oct 22nd entry on the reality of crucifixion) for us, sinners stuck so deep in a smelly, dark, dank pit. And because of that, we should be worshiping Him. I think she said something else... but my mind regresses. But she did convince me then that I should sing to God, and so I did. We were singing,

"And I cry holy, worthy, holy is the Lamb,
And I cry holy, worthy, holy is the Lamb."

Before that we sang something about how God's awesome love has freed us from the chains, how that is liberty, and how "Jesus You set me free today". I can't find the song. It's just... so true.
I think I've got an extremely long way to go before I know God... maybe He's trying to push each lesson deep into my heart so that I'll remember clearly. He is wise. I guess I'll have to wait for His time.
Lord, how come I can't speak to You?