Daily writing prompt

Who are the biggest influences in your life?

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There are so many influences in life. Much of those influences occur because of birth — who we are born to and in what culture and part of the world we are born and raised in. However, there is an influence that transcends all of that.

True Christianity is so much more than religious institutionalism! In a world filled with people who believe in a religion because they were born and raised in that religion, shouldn’t there be a better reason to believe or not believe than where you were born and how you were raised? Yes!

Hundreds of millions of Chinese citizens who were born and raised in atheism have personally encountered the living Jesus and given their lives to follow and obey Him. Multitudes of Iranians who were surrounded by Islam since birth have met the risen Jesus and been transformed into passionate Christ-followers by His presence and power. I once spent three months in India and met many Hindus who had been radically changed and empowered by Jesus.

In all three of those countries (and many more nations) it’s dangerous to change your religion. It can even get you killed. I even knew a young man in India who was stoned to death at a well in a village because he was telling people about Jesus.

I grew up in a nonreligious family, yet from my earliest memories I believed in God and interacted with Him. My parents were confounded by my faith. When I was about 11, they took me to a Presbyterian church, and I was enrolled in a new member class. After a few weeks I was sprinkled with water and made an official church member. That led me to believe that I was a Christian.

A few years later during a church service this thought came to my mind. “If you were born a Hindu what would you be today?” As I thought about it, I realized that I would have been a Hindu. Immediately the thought came to me, “Why do you think you are a Christian?” I suddenly realized that I had no legitimate reason to believe that I was a Christian.

At that point I rejected Christianity and the teachings of the Bible. However, my logical mind couldn’t dispose of the idea of some sort of Creator. It made no sense to me to believe that everything that exists is the result of nothing more than time and chance.

About two years later I met some people who talked about Jesus like they knew Him personally. I could see that they had something I didn’t. In an instant Jesus became more real to me than my physical environment.

Every day since then Jesus has been my best friend who is always working in and through me from my innermost being. The more I listen to and obey Him the closer He aligns me with the Bible and its theology and the more I’m moved beyond the rigid control and traditions of the institutional Christianity that surrounds me.

Thank You, Jesus. I can never express to You enough gratitude for all You have done and are doing in and around me.

(For more of my journey, google my book: “Beyond Church — An Invitation to Experience the Lost Word of the Bible — Ekkllesia.”)