From grade 8-9, I had perfect attendance. Everyday, for two years, I was at school learning my little heart out. By the end of my second year, I began to catch on to my streak...I told people about it, I basked in my strong immune system, and I made sure that every friend of mine who missed a day knew that they were no match for me! But the best part was when I received a T-shirt that said, "I had absolute perfect attendance this year!" What an honor! At the assembly where I recieved that T-shirt, it was as if I had reached my peak in my educational career, and well, everyone else was at least a cold or flu behind me.
It is amazing that our lives are so often determined by the achievements we earn. Even more, we are told who we are and how we will be accepted by the clothes that we wear, the friends we have, the activities we participate in, and the things that we do. Because this is the case, we live lives surrounded by this theme of acceptance and wanting to fit in and matter.
And because this is the case in every aspect of life, it can so easily creep into the way we view Chrisitanity, and who is "in" with God, and who is still on the fence...
How do we do this? We measure someone's Christian-standing by outward issues- the music they listen to, the clothes they wear, how often they read their Bible, if they bring their Bible to church, if they close their eyes during worship or lift a hand, if they pray...if they pray outloud, and their attendance record on the "growth" trips like winter camp and the summer missions trip.
But Jesus never said that we need to believe in Him and do these other things so many times a month to be "in" with God...but isn't that how we often look at our "standing" with God...or worse off, other's "standing" with God?
Use these questions to help you dive deeper into this idea of acceptance and what it looks like to be a Christian...
1. Read Galatians 3-4
2. What does the word acceptance mean to you? How do you gain it with others?
3. Why do you think different groups and cliques exist?
4. How do you use your "faith achievements" to judge others?
5. Read Gal. 3:26-28...what makes us Christians?
6. How do we seperate the idea that we are saved by God through what Jesus did for us and that there is nothing we can do to gain His love, and the idea that once we are Christians, are lives should look differently?
7. How do you size up other Christians? What do they possess or not possess that makes them a "good" Christians in your eyes or a "bad" Christians?
Come on out Thursday night for our last regular senior high KAIROS of the school year...7pm at Matt & Amanda's!
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