A Letter To Longtime Christians

Courtney

Many of us can remember it.

The day that we first asked Jesus into our heart and prayed the prayer.

For me, it was at age eleven. At that point, I had been attending church for about two years. I started going to church later than most of my friends, but I was still young enough to only foggily remember life B.C. I read a Christian fiction book that mentioned accepting Jesus into your heart, and knew in that instant that I wanted to do that. A year later, I was baptized and began attending youth group for the first time.

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Flash forward two years later. 

It didn’t take long to catch onto the secret lingo of ‘Christian culture’. By freshman year, I knew all of the famous Christian figures (Tim Tebow, Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyers, Chris Tomlin, Tim Hawkins, etc.). My favorite singer in middle school was Francesca Battistelli and my favorite movie was Soul Surfer. I knew all about purity rings and owned a Teen Study Bible.I took a Dave Ramsey financial class for teenagers in 8th grade and knew Christian apologetics before I even got to high school.

These are all good things. I’m grateful that I had the opportunity to know God from a young age. But, sometimes, when you’ve been in church for years, it can be so easy to forget the meaning of it all. It’s possible to know all of the right things, and in the midst of it, forget all about the meaning of our faith: The fact that Jesus died on a cross to save us from our sins. 

Somehow, in the midst of our busy lives and our growing familiarity with the cross, grace becomes just another word; a word to use if we want to sound churchy. We can rattle off about twenty songs with the word in the title, but entirely loose the significance of the word in the process. We hear people talk about grace in the context of a reckless lifestyle and wonder how it applies to us, who have been faithful church attendees since we were children.

The truth is, no matter what our story, we’re all in need of a Savior. In the Kingdom of God, there is no one who is better or worse,  just humans in need of God’s grace and forgiveness. As basic a truth as this is, it can be so easy to forget. It can be easy to get so caught up in being a Christian that we forget Christ. I’m guilty of this myself. But, grace is is a truth that humbles and lifts us up. It replaces works, yet calls us to action. Let us never forget the wonder of the cross.

Let us never forget that Jesus loved us so much that He shed blood for us, that we might all get to spend eternity with Him. 

P.S. My mom recently started a blog at savedbygrace2009.wordpress.com. Be sure to check it out! 😊

 

10 thoughts on “A Letter To Longtime Christians”

  1. Even though I was saved at seventeen, I still remember being swept into church culture as I entered college. Now it’s like learning to find balance to integrate Jesus into everyday life. 😊 I will check out your mom’s blog!

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  2. I think sometimes as Christians we often forget about the very core of our faith – even while being in church, teaching Sunday School, and leading Bible Studies we lose sight of the Cross of Christ… the day Jesus was nailed to the cross, was beaten, and poured His blood out to cover my (our) sins.
    He received Capital Punishment and He was sinless … taking my (our) place.

    Remembering how much He loves us I believe helps us to love others both
    believers and non believers.

    Subsequently, when I watch movies like the Son of God and The Passion of the Christ … it humbles me and brings me back to
    the foot of the cross. Remembering how much I need my Savior.

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  3. Good post! It is too easy to lose sight of the centrality of grace in our lives. It it about so much more than a past event or in history and in our own lives. We have been saved, we are being saved and we will be saved. It is the beginning, the middle, and the end of the new life in Christ.

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  4. It’s so true that we get so caught up in Christianity and forget Christ sometimes. I think those of us who started early in church get a little too familiar with church stuffs that we undermine the true power of grace. Thanks for this reminder Courtney, this kinda sounds like one of Paul’s epistles 🙂 God bless you!

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  6. “In the Kingdom of God, there is no one who is better or worse, just humans in need of God’s grace and forgiveness… It can be easy to get so caught up in being a Christian that we forget Christ… Let us never forget the wonder of the cross.”

    These words right here, resonated with me. Thank you for such a wonderful post! Just stumbled upon your blog because I am roaming from blog to blog, being a beginner here in wordpress. This post is the most relatable I’ve encountered so far. God has used you to speak to me today. Just, wow. Praise God for you and your blog!

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    1. Thank you Micahriezl! I really appreciate the kind words and I’m so glad that God spoke to you through my blog! I always love hearing from awesome people like you in the comments! God bless and I pray you have an awesome experience in the blogging community! 😊🙏

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