Game Changer: Transition

     Every so often during our lifetime there are things that happen that I call a "game-changer."  It is when either an event of magnitude happens to change the course that you were or are on.  In a horse race it is the "long shot."  In poker it is the high stakes hand that changes the players, who stays in and who folds and is out.  Baseball the grand slam, football the hail mary. and so it goes.  Things rarely stay the same for a long long time before life changes for you.
     It is at this time that flight or fight kicks in and we can be forever changed by the event.
Christ was a game changer for the whole world.  The Romans didn't see him coming nor did the Jews.  Everything and anything he was around changed forever.  Likewise if we are to come into contact with the true Jesus, then you can expect to be changed,your views totally altered and your mentality takes a 360 to view the new world that you have just encountered.
    It is with caution that I say be careful because there are those within the way that will try and shape you to their idea of Christ and his doctrines.  One must have a little skepticism in regards to believing everything and everyone during this critical time of change.  New believers must be aware of truth not bent or maligned to an individual but must examine for themselves the truths Jesus spoke and you must eat the word and Jesus said, eat my body and drink my blood!  Quite barbaric?  The Jews misunderstood too.  If Jesus is the bread from heaven and gives ever lasting life then you must find out what that means.  It cannot embrace methods of churches nor can it embrace strictly doctrines or you will be a weak Christian and rely on others.  You are the one to open your eyes, I know I let others feed me way too many food groups within Christology and for some years now I have learned to listen in a quiet place and find out again just what that game changer apprehended me for.
  Now I am not saying be alone in your Christianity, just find a Christianity not imposing a man's will mixed with singular vision. It's so much more.  We must find it within ourselves to be as open and pliable as Jesus and take into consideration that what he did and said had limitations for us.  The guidelines he drew were non restrictive in that he did not require a man or woman to be forced into believing nor did I think he intend institutions to be that way either.  So if there is a church or type of one that says "this has to be the way it is" just be careful.  Everything I have read so far about the life Jesus led and the things he did were on a level of love for us.  While he  relieved us of certain sufferings and performed miracles to prove that the kingdom of God did exist and changed our misconceptions of God  he explained sometimes in parables  just what it was he was offering to us while we live here on this little blue ball.
     None of it included a divided church de-nominalized and fractured to the point of stagnation.  Nor did it include isolationist churches" better than they" so that it became internal and pregnant with it's own form of Christianity sometimes toxic to those who had pure hearts and searched for Jesus at all cost to themselves.  I was one of them.  It aborted it's own members as time went on and was blinded to the harm inflicted on the ones who labored in it for the sake of  "spot or wrinkle" showing up.  It was legalistic after all.
     Now for the good news after all of that.  It is possible to live as Christ intended and it takes time to let the Holy Spirit do this in you.  If and when we rub shoulders with all there is on this planet of ours then we either become bigoted against what it is we think we do not want to be or we let the game change us and find that the passions and ideas that we foment within can be toned down to the point of no offense as did Jesus. So what if we do not agree politically or socially with another?  So what if we do not agree with lifestyles in the open?  Do we take a stand?  Carry a sign and protest?  We could but in its temporal form it will be with us until this world ends.  There are fights to do this in at times when repression or lives are at stake.  But in day to day living finding a fight does not necessarily win the day.
     So how do new Christians deal with the many things that come at them like a bounding snow-ball?
Jesus is patient and he will allow things in our lives to temper us and to not become extreme.  One of the many facets of Christianity has been like a diamond.  Within many churches that hold to certain ways of worship there have been those that really love God and spurn rigidity and so I feast on it wherever I find it.  Like a good desert it will  satisfy and we can be assured that there are many thousands of people that serve Christ purely and so you will find a part of Christ's  body there.
     Church hopping today is I would guess is prevalent because no one is willing to totally be out there and risk it all or they just have not tasted the desert yet!   Hunger is one of the strongest of urges we have aside from sex and it will drive us to find the truth.
     Jesus offered the woman at the well water of life to thirst no more.  She met the real deal.
"Blessed are those who believe and have not seen," Jesus said.  So we are blessed when we let  the high stakes poker hand come our way and change us forever. Though it is not easy to follow.
IXOYE.