Monday, October 7, 2013

Christ.

I must apologize for not posting the last few weeks... I have had a lot on my plate, what with moving half-way across the province and starting school again and all. But it's been a good transition and things are beginning to settle into a routine.

A couple of days before I moved, I had the pleasure of going for coffee with a dear friend who has been "kingdom minded" for just about as long as I can remember. It was not long before this whole topic of Christian unity and the Broken Body cam up... It was a wonderful time of encouragement and confirmation for me. The most interesting thing about the whole encounter was that he had been invited to speak at a conference in Oregon and he was planing to speak on this very topic. I love it when God does things like that!

So, Christ. He is Everything. And all things must point to Him for He is the Centre. Or, at least this is how it should be...  the very word "Christian" at least implies that Christ should be at least a major component of how we identify ourselves. Yet, as humans we have a tendency to forget that. Thus, when God reveals something to us (be it something about Himself, ourselves, or the world around us) we tend to capitalize on it and redefine our entire existence around it. Sometimes we even capitalize on things that are counter productive to our own growth and unity. For example, the idea of faith healing is not in and of itself a bad or evil thing; however, there have been certain groups who have taken this too far and have decided that God will heal them (or even that they can't get sick) and thus modern medicine is superfluous.

The real question is then this: "Does my life point to Christ?" and even more directly, "Does what I believe point to Christ?" This is an important question. If Christ is such a big deal to us, then not only will our lives shown it... so will our theology. In fact, I would go even as far as to say that theology that does not point directly to Christ is not worth having... Following Christ is about being re-made into the Likeness of God and theology that is not centred on Christ is not particularly helpful to this process.

We are therefore called to be living representations of Christ in the world around us: an Icon if you will...an image reflected through a glass darkly, a window for Christ to shine through. This is why it is so important to look for Christ in others. If He is there, you will find Him if He is who you are looking for. If you're looking for bones to pick at and offences to be had, then you will likely miss the Saviour for all that needs saving.