Are you a Christian Atheist?

Christian Atheists exist, even though the term seems to be an oxymoron. A Christian Atheist, Craig Groeschel defines in his book by the same title, is someone that believes in God but lives as if He doesn't exist. Does that sound like you? Over the next several posts, I am going to explore this concept and present information from that book along with my personal observations and conclusions.

To start things off, let's look closer at exactly what Craig means by a Christian Atheist. How many times have you felt God leading you to do something and you decided not to do it because... (fill in the blank). I have heard it said many times that whatever you put before God becomes a god to you and takes priority in your life. Money, power, and position have all been used as examples of those gods, but I believe that self should be considered as one of the main things that take us away from the Lord being our main focus. Whenever we have a notion that "if doing this my way fails, then I will try it God's way", we are putting our self ahead of God and thereby negating our belief that God is superior to us.

That is in reality how a Christian Atheist thinks. "I believe in God, but His existence is not vital to my day-to-day life. So why bother taking so much time and effort to include Him when I can do well without Him?" As Craig notes in the pre-introduction 'Letter to the Reader': "Sadly, Christian Atheism is everywhere. There has to be a better way to live." With that said, he then challenges the reader to address the hypocrisy of saying you believe in God, but live like He doesn't exist.

In his introduction, Craig starts off by acknowledging he is a Christian Atheist. He then goes on and gives a brief outline of his life and his spiritual walk. Since this is not a book review, but a series of articles about the phenomenon that I feel is permeating churches across this country today, I am only going to draw examples from this to explore how we can identify such behavior in ourselves. By his own admission, Craig says, "At the age of 25, I was a full-time pastor and a part-time follower of Christ." How does this sort of thing happen? We all have our own scenarios that bring us to realize that we are failing to maintain the same level of passion that we once had for serving Jesus.

So how do we get that spiritual fire back? What areas do we need to gain a realization of our deception? Over the next several weeks, I am going to use Craig's chapter topics to present a mix of his thoughts and mine as I explore this topic. Please join me as we journey through how we can recognize where we are, readdress our priorities, and return to our first love and avoid getting entangled in Christian Atheism.

Impossible Orders

Bron and I attended a Wednesday evening service at a church in Granbury, TX where she had gone to when she was much younger. It was good to see her meet a few people she hadn't seen in many years (not telling how many).

The preacher for the evening taught about how Jesus empowers us to do whatever He asks to do. He already knows how He is going to bring things about, but He wants us to obey what may seem to be impossible orders.

"With God all things are possible" the Bible says, but do YOU believe it? I admit, it took a lot of years for me to come to the point that I trust God enough to believe that not only is anything possible with God, but that He was willing to do anything for ME! As we progress through our day-to-day lives, following God's directions as written in His Word, God has ALREADY given us the power to accomplish what he would have us to do. That is very encouraging in the difficult times we face every day.

How to be a true Follower

I want to wrap up this series of posts on following with some more suggestions on how we can be more of a follower of Jesus. Once again, I will be drawing on notes I made from comments that Rick Atchley, of The Hills church in Fort Worth, TX, made in his "Opening Day" series of messages. The whole series is available at The Hills Church.

As Rick said in the fourth message, there is a drift today away from being like Jesus to just liking Him. Have you ever been on the 'inactive member' list at your church? What exactly is an 'inactive member'? If we did our job at work the way we do our service at church, we would be fired right quick! A fan of Jesus shows up when the weather is good, they are feeling well, and they are not busy elsewhere. A follower is there unless something serious stops them from going, just like a good employee. After all, we are doing the work of the kingdom, aren't we?

Even followers have trouble keeping full focus on Jesus, and fail to be Christ-like at all times. The difference is that followers push on in the hard times and continue to look to Jesus for direction. Followers return to servant status much more quickly. For as Rick pointed out in his message, we need to have a shift in our attitudes in four aspects: from saved by to saved for; from consumer to contributor; from bad-stopping to do-gooding; and from called out to sent in.

We need to remember that although we are saved by grace (Eph 2:8), we are also created for good works (Eph 2:10). So many today believe that accepting Jesus as Savior is the end of their search for God, where in reality it is only the first step. Just trying not to do bad things does not truly show love as doing good things, especially for those who make life difficult. Are you just sitting in the pew on Sunday, consuming the spiritual food being served by the preacher? or are you making a solid contribution to furthering the Gospel of Jesus Christ? The Church has been called out of the world so we can be sent back in to help others get out. Jesus calls us out so we can get a different perspective on the way the world truly is, then equips us to go back in to save others.

The final point Rick made was that whenever hope is given, a lift is given to everyone involved. Both the giver and receiver are encouraged and strengthened when good deeds are done. A foretaste of Heaven, which is so wonderful I can hardly wait to get there, is shown here on earth when we share the love of Jesus with others. Sharing that love can be as easy as opening a door or as complicated as dealing with a severe handicap or sickness. "Keeping our eyes on Jesus" was a motto from a pastor at a previous church I attended, but sadly too few took up that mantle.

I, myself, have been less of a follower than I know I can be, and God challenges me daily (hourly?) in my walk. I have recently finished reading "The Christian Atheist" by Craig Groeschel, and with my next post begin to share from that book, chapter by chapter. I appreciate any feedback to my thoughts (even though it is gonna hurt) so I can continue to get better in reflecting God's love in my life.

Jim