I can remember growing up in Eastern Kentucky very vividly. I can remember my parents talking about so-and-so getting “saved”. At that time, I didn’t even know what getting “saved” meant. I’d hear my parents say that so-and-so got saved. Then so-and-so also stopped smoking, stopped drinking, stopped going to bars, and stopped “running around” with members of the opposite sex. In my juvenile brain, it sounded like so-and-so just became very uncool.
So, my idea of Christianity became “Can’t-trianity”. You can’t smoke, you can’t drink, you can’t listen to rock-n-roll music, you can’t go to a bar, and you can’t have sex. I wanted no part of “Can’t-trianity”. I realized much later in life that there’s much more freedom in Christianity than there is “can’t”. Some of my misinformation was simply ignorance on my part. I hadn’t read the Bible; so how was I to know what you can and can’t do? The rest of my misinformation came from Christians. And like I’ve said in other blog posts, often Christians aren’t the best examples of Christ.
I believe that many people today feel the way that I once felt about Christianity. They feel it’s just a bunch of “can’ts” that suck the fun out of life. Nothing could be further from the truth. I would like to discuss some of the “can’ts” and some of the freedoms.
1) You can’t smoke if you’re a Christian- I can find nowhere in the Bible where it addresses smoking. People shouldn’t smoke because it causes cancer. Case closed.
2) You can’t drink if you’re a Christian- Jesus drank wine. Communion often uses wine. Paul said to stop drinking, since it leads to wild living. So, if drinking causes you to sin, stop drinking. In other words, if drinking causes you to become disrespectful, neglectful, abusive, or any other unsavory adjectives, you shouldn’t drink. Otherwise, a grown adult, drinking in moderation should be okay. To me, drinking is kind of like French fries and Coke. Occasionally for dinner, I can eat French fries and wash them down with Coke. However, I wouldn’t want to do that every day.
3) You can’t have sex if you’re a Christian- God gave us sex. Shocker, huh? Therefore, he is A-okay with us having sex. He did give us some guidelines for our own good. Break open a bible, if you don’t believe me. Explore the guidelines for yourself.
Now, I completely concede that God gave us some laws. In fact, 7 of the 10 commandments deal with stuff we “can’t” do. However, how many laws does our government give us? Well, google couldn’t answer the question. There are an estimated 3,000 federal criminal laws. That number doesn’t take into account any other types of laws, such as civil laws. That also doesn’t take into account state and local laws. And we complain because God gave us only a few laws. If God only gave us a few laws and the government gives us exponentially more laws, then God obviously cares more about our freedom.
But God didn’t stop there. He knew that we couldn’t follow the few laws that He gave us. Instead of punishing us for breaking the laws, He sent His son to take the punishment for us. So, not only did He give us only a few laws to follow, He then gave us a pardon on the punishment. Does that sound like someone who is more concerned with laws, rules, and “can’t” OR does it sound like someone more concerned with our freedom?
I’m ending all my posts with an invitation to accept Jesus. If you would like at accept Jesus simply pray the following prayer or one like it: “Dear Lord, I’m a sinner. I acknowledge that You sent Your son, Jesus, to die for my sins. I humbly accept Your son, Jesus, and I now further acknowledge that I am forgiven of my past sins, my present sins, and my future sins.” If you prayed that simple prayer, you are saved. Now, you need to follow Jesus. Start reading your Bible. I would suggest starting with Matthew, reading all of the New Testament, then reading the Old Testament. Also, find a good church. Christianity was never meant to be done alone. You need to be in community with other believers.