I recently received an add for Bible Study material entitled "How Do You Explain Christianity?" Immediately I thought "I don't want to, have to, or know how to explain Christianity. Christianity, in the broad term, has been very fluid through the ages, and especially in today's culture. Even this last month there was a conference that tried to define Christianity by attacking another denomination of Christianity, which I find completely shameful. To try to explain Christianity in light of all its history, both good and bad, would take more than a 10 week Bible study. It would take more like a 2 year intensive study.
The answer to that question is simple. I don't explain Christianity! I explain Christ. There is a vast difference between deciding if you want to be part of the movement labeled "Christianity" or if you want to be part of Christ Himself. If I had based my decision to marry my husband on knowing about his entire family, I wouldn't have married him. Honestly, I love his family now because I know and understand them (31 years of marriage will do that), but had I taken into account that upon meeting me his brother would punch me in the stomach, had I known that one of his aunts would constantly write me letters begging me to stop cutting my hair and wearing jeans because it would send me to hell, or that his grandparents would show up on our doorstep just 13 hours after we were married to have my husband collect horse poop to put on their cucumbers when I had lived not 5 minutes from them for 6 months, or a myriad of other strange happenings that have occurred through the years, I might have reconsidered--and oh what I would have missed! You all know how hopelessly in love with my husband I am! He is my morning, noon and night as far as people are concerned. His is kind, loving, compassionate, dedicated, faithful, dependable, funny, considerate....well you get the picture...not to mention how extraordinarily handsome he is! (Hey, if you think the man you are going to marry is ugly, please don't marry him. He isn't going to improve.) I didn't marry my husband because of who his family was but because of who HE is. I just learned to love and get along with his family as time passed. (It really wasn't all that hard. His family is great barring a few oddballs but hey, you have that in any family! In fact, in my family, I probably AM the oddball! LOL!) I always tell people "he's not perfect, but he's perfect for me!"
When people asked me why I wanted to marry my husband, I could go on and on and on about all his wonderful qualities because I knew Him so well and I loved what I knew. So when people ask me why I do or don't do things, why I think the way I think, why I don't react the way most people react to things, why I go to church, or why I am a Christian, I don't even say the word "Christianity". I simply tell them about the man Jesus Christ who I met 30 years ago and who captured my heart because He is so extraordinary. I can go on and on about Him any time, any day. He is my morning, noon and night as far as ANYTHING is concerned. He outshines it ALL! Explaining his family, with all their quirks and differences and sometimes shameful behavior...well I can't explain it, but through time I have come to love His family just the same because I love Him and I love what He loves because Christ is perfect in EVERY way and He's perfect for every person!
So...alas...another advertisement that I won't be biting at.
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