4 For indeed while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened, because we do not want to be unclothed but to be clothed, so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life. 5 Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge.
6 Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord— 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight— 8 we are of good courage and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. 2 Corinthians 5:4-10 (LSB) Read verses 9-10 on the site.
If you have read very much of what God has had me post here then you know how much I admire John Bunyan and his fantastic allegory The Pilgrim’s Progress. Bunyan understood what real Christianity was all about. He was surrounded by the empty religiosity of the state church of his time and its leaders tried to silence him through intimidation and imprisonment for refusing to stop preaching the Gospel….
The real Church has always had to contend with false prophets and false forms. One of the things that Bunyan taught in his allegory was that the true form of Christianity was lived out by those who walked daily down a very narrow path sealed by God’s absolute truth. There are many ways off the path. Many believe they can make their own path. There are many detours and intersections requiring godly wisdom by the pilgrim in order to remain on the narrow path. Only the genuine Christian is alive in Christ and they are the only ones who complete the journey, the pilgrimage, to meet their Saviour in glory at the end. All other paths lead only to death and destruction.
As I grew up, my family was in church nearly every Sunday. I was in Sunday school in our denomination until I left to go to college in the Fall of 1969. My concept of Christianity was that it was all about being in a Church building every Sunday doing religious things. The confusing thing for me, however, was that when I did read the Bible, those people I read about were all about living out their faith not simply being religious. Jesus taught about how to live and interact with others. He did not seem too concerned with religiosity being what sets people apart in God’s eyes. No, His focus was more about His disciples having a righteousness that surpassed that of the Scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 5:20). Therefore, I became disillusioned with “doing church.” I stopped going when I was old enough to make my own way. Did this bring me fulfillment? Was I more spiritually in-tune with God because I was no longer “active in church?” No, in fact, I became more and more miserable every year as I tried to be fulfilled with what the world has to offer. I look back on that time of my life, the late 1960’s through 1984 or so, as a dark, empty time in my life. If I had been born about 20-30 years later, I am sure I would have been a perfect fit for the Emergent form of Christianity. However, God had other plans.