The Christian Experience

looking through selected readings, although few, in my room i stumbled upon a folder full of essays. believe it or not, this was an essay my dad wrote in 1975. kind of a cool read, so here it is. hope its enjoyable.

why is there sorrow and strife when the world holds so much beauty? why are we plagued with obsession, slander, gossip, and hate, when there's no provision made for these on this isle that we live. in the still dark night when man is fast asleep his affects on the world and their outcome go practically unnoticed. the night gives insight to the peace and harmony that God intended. but then if nature shows inherent signs of God's handiwork, why doesn't man? the answer is that the Lord himself opened to man for acceptance, or rejection and most men choose the latter. these men are like cars driving down the freeway without any tires. what results is an array of sparks shooting up on all sides from the forced contact of the metal tire rim's on hard coarse pavement. that's what life is like without the buffer provided by Christ; forced, hard and coarse with sparks of anger, indecision, pain, and suffering winging up around us, imprisoning us...killing us. amongst all the ignorance and death there does lie an alternative, that being, life through the "Christian experience." the only problem lies in disbelief.

the christian experience is the condition produced in the mental, moral, and spiritual nature of man by the Holy Spirit of God, as a result of the establishment of a personal relationship with his son, Jesus Christ.

many people have the impression that the Christian conversion is a psychologically induced experience brought about by brainwashing the subject with persuasive words and emotional presentations of Christian "myths". an evangelist is though of as a psychologist manipulating weak, helpless minds into conformity with his own views. some people even suggest that the christian experience can be explainedon the basis of conditioned reflexes. they claim that anyone, after repeated exposure to christian thoughts, can get caught in a type of "spiritual hypnosis" in which he will mechanically react in certain ways under certain conditions. perhaps the christian experience can be described psychologically, but this doesn't tell the all important WHY it happens nor explains its reality. the "why" of the christian experience is Jesus Christ. Furthermore this "object" of our faith isn't some philosophical invention of man's mind, but a physical, historical reality. christians can believe that their sins have been forgiven because forgiveness was accomplished and recorded in history by the shedding of Christ's blood on the cross. christians can believe that Christ is now living within them because he was raised from the dead in history.

you can also view the christian experience through its "objective reality". look at the transformation of the lives of millions of people when they become related by faith to Jesus. although they're from every walk of life and from all nations of the world, they are changed in remarkably similar ways. if you think this is a delusion, then it must be quite a delusion. once a redeemed drunk, with vivid memory of past struggles and a new sense of strength through Christ replied to the charge that "his religion was a delusion." he said: thank God for the delusion, it has put clothes on my children, shoes on their feet and bread in their mouths.

it's made a man out of me and has put joy and peace in my home, which had been a hell. this is only a specific reality, it is by far no the most though of problem nor probably not the worst. but you see, it doesn't matter how big the issue, if you don't have Christ those metal rims are going to start wearing against the hard coarse pavement. the first couple of sparks we handle pretty well, we just sort of brush them as everyday life. no matter how good we are at this, we're just fooling ourselves, because with time these sparks start to mount and they keep accumulating until before long you can no longer deceive yourself by saying, 'they don't exist' or 'they don't matter.' if you are lucky you see this awful reality, some people never do, they spend their whole lives deceiving themselves. i'm glad there is a way out of this via the christian experience..my experience. if only people would let it be a world experience