MAJOR QUESTIONS OF LIFE
Are You Uncomfortable? by John Hunter O NE VERY BASIC question of life I would like to ask each reader is, “Are you uncomfortable?” My ques tion doesn’t, concern where you are sitting, but rather something of far greater importance. Before coming to America I had a talk with a teen-age girl at our Eng land conference center. She told me in a rather naive manner, “My mother wants me to come to your conference so that I can get to know about re ligion. She wants me to get enough religion to make me respectable, but not too much to make me uncomfort able.” What an impossible paradox this is. The occasion still remains very vivid in my mind. How many people there are in the world who want this same status. Religion can actually make you un comfortable both for yourself and to ward other people. You can be so re ligious that when you start talking you make other people feel nervous and out of place. At the same time you can respect some of the worldly taboos because of your religion and make yourself feel out of place. Is your faith real? Does it do more for you than that? II Corinthians 5:17 tells us, “Therefore, if any man be in Christ he is a new creature (or a new creation), old things are passed away, behold all things are become new.” What a tremendous verse this is. Paul loves to talk about a Christian as “being in Christ.” The thought could rightly be called Paul’s “mag
nificent obsession.” Over 170 times the phrase occurs in his writings. We read such statements as, “I in Christ,” or “Christ in me.” This is what it really means to be a Christian. The Holy Spirit living within you makes all the difference. Being respec table or being uncomfortable has noth ing to do with it. When I become a true Christian, I am first and foremost a new creature. God isn’t interested in making people better or even in making them good. Many of the churches preach good liv ing, following the golden rule. Try your very best and you will get “good- er” and “kinder” and “better.” God isn’t interested in the “get better” business. He is only concerned about making people new creatures. When I became a Christian the peo ple who were guiding me said, “Your sins are forgiven. Now it's up to you to go out and to live for Jesus. Do the very best you can.” But frankly, al though I set out to be a “do gooder,” I didn’t have much success. I analyzed myself and picked out the things I thought might be counted as good. Then the things I knew were no good I pushed to one side. This included my meanness and bad temper. Then I assembled all these good qualities and treated them as a Christian “do-it- yourself kit.” I thought I could build up a fairly respectable Christian life. How I needed to learn this lesson, and that right quickly, that God is not interested in this. Perhaps, in a simi
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