September 25, 2005

  •                          "Korean Ministry So Far"


    Despite the language barrier, I really like the Korean (language) Ministry side of my church.  A really open people!  Native Koreans.  MY type of people.


    During small group Bible study, the talk was kinda slow and boring, so I sparked discussion by asking questions like "Why are you Christian?"  Some of the answers I heard from some of my group members included "I am a Christian because Christ died for my sins."  Wasn't quite the answer I was seeking.  When it was my turn to answer, I said that I lean toward the Christian faith because it is the faith in which I was brought up and that while everyone may rebel against certain aspects of their heritage (in my case it would be the church and Christianity), he/she eventually returns to his/her roots, and thus I did so with the church.  I went on and said that if I had been born a Muslim, Hindu, or Buddhist, I would likely be a Muslim, Hindu, or Buddhist now.  I hate beating around the bush.  Exactly WHY are YOU a Christian??? 


    We are studying the book of Romans.  I expressed my deepest concern:  That the Apostle Paul misinterpreted Christ's message and basically hijacked the original Christian faith and falsely gave Christ a role that He Himself never said He had.  But later this evening, a friend of mine (one of the former nursing home volunteers) said on the phone he had gone through the same doubts, but he had done LOTS of reading where he found, after much objective analysis and critical thinking, that Paul did NOT distort the original message from Christ.  He will loan me some tapes to hear about this.


    If I could find out that Paul wasn't just some overenthusiastic scholarly Jew who assigned a role to Christ that even Jesus didn't think He had and if I find that every word that Paul said and that every letter he wrote was directly from God, I would give my entire self to God, and no longer out of sense of fear of bad things happening.  I would gladly give up cigars and alcohol (actually I already have, per the doctor's orders), AND I would even give up premarital s*x.  I'm that serious.


    Oh God, what if it is all true???  What if Paul really was giving a message directly from God???  What IF the only way to God was through Christ, as espoused by Paul???