What do you believe?

During my week in Japan, my eyes were opened to the desperation of the people of Japan. Many live to work and go through the motions of life without having a greater purpose or inner peace. So many people die from suicide out of shame and give up on their lives, not knowing the God that wants to save them from that. I learned little to no Japanese know anything about Christianity, and much less about the main man himself, Jesus. I thought I’d type it all out to make sure all my readers know what I believe and help clarify some of the things I’ve said on this blog before. 

So what is the Gospel? 

Christians like to be specific with the words used in talking about the religion. It’s important to know what their words mean because many cultures have misconceptions about words like “sin,” “God,” and “heaven.” Sin is breaking God’s rules or going against his plan. Not what some people think it is, like really bad crimes, but the small things too. It’s all the same act of rebellion to him. God is the Christian God, not to be confused with any other spirits, Allah or Buddha. Some people believe they are all the same deity, but the characteristics are all different if you look into their holy texts. Heaven is the final resting place of joy and peace with God for the people who put their trust in his Gospel. Those that don’t know God or put their trust in him individually don’t get to go there. 

Basically, the Gospel can be summarized into four points:

• God loves you (personally!) and offers a wonderful plan for your life.
• People are sinful and separated from God, so we cannot know and experience God’s love and plan for our lives.
• Jesus Christ is God’s only provision for our sin problem, and through him, we can know and experience God’s love and plan for our lives.
• We must individually ask to receive Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord in order to know and experience his love and plan for our lives.

Who are Christians and what is the church?

In Japan we noticed locals saying all white people are Christian and all Japanese are Buddhist/Shinto. But as it may be the cultural thing to do in Japan, many Americans claim Christianity as a part of their culture. Christmas and Easter are founded in Christianity but few people care what those origins mean. It’s just what you do for tradition. Some only come to services on those holidays and do not know what goes on there regularly. A church is a group of people who worship God together, learn about him through his Bible, and look out for one another like a family. When you meet a real Christian, it means they love God, have asked God for the forgiveness of their sins, and love sinners enough to tell them of God’s love for them too. But that’s a hard thing to do, isn’t it?

Why are you going around telling it to everyone?

A lot of people asked why we were in Japan and sometimes our answers varied between who we were talking to. It can be a shocking thing to hear “proselytizing” when you ask a tourist why they’re in your hometown. But that IS the reason we went. In the Bible, God tells us he wants us to tell others about how important his Gospel is. He gives us the opportunity to be the ones telling the rest of the world how to realize your purpose and peace, how to get into heaven, and 

How to share the Gospel

I’ll admit. I do have a fear of sharing my faith with people. I know how important it is to share, but the fear of being received poorly usually dominates my thoughts when the conversation goes that way. But here's the key: its not about you. Nothing you say is going to get your audience to respond one way or another, because that lies entirely in God's hands. He's soverign over each and every heart that looks to him. 

To share the Gospel, I try to integrate what God's done in my life into the conversation. If God hasn't done much in your life, you should think harder, pray for him to reveal himself to you, or try to put yourself in more experiences where he is going to work so you can witness it. You can tell people what you believe in the format of those four points of the Gospel from above, or tell how you came to believe God was real and entrusted your life to him. 

Remember it's not about you, but about God's story woven through your life. Display his great kindness in salvation to the world. 

I hope this helps anyone out there with questions about Christianity and what it all means. You can always drop me a comment or shoot me an email with inquiries as well. My heart is buzzing right now with excitement in remembering how much God has moved in my life and how I witnessed his power in Japan. I long to be back there again but know God can move anywhere. I must have grown complacent in my being home in the States to really look for him and share his salvation with others to see him. I'll have to pray for that to change. 

My heart is not afraid. 

-linley roo