Back To The Basics – Guest Post From Joe Lalonde

Today, I’m honored to present guest blogger, Joe Lalonde.  Joe blogs regularly about life and leadership.  According to his blog, Joe has “always had a desire to grow and to see others grow and become more effective in their life.”  Please check out his blog and become one of his regular readers.

(As always, I’m love guest blogging and guest bloggers.  If you have a STRETCHED story to share here, drop me a comment.  Or if you think I could help you on your blog, let me know in the comments.)

Back To The Basics

Sometimes the Christian faith seems so simple. You say a prayer asking Jesus to come into your heart, tell Him that you are sorry for your sins, and that you plan on following Him.

Creative Commons at Flickr by Chepe Lena

Simple, right?

Yes, it is simple but it is also complicated. And that is something that has been stretching me.

Questions have been floating around in my head.

When did this get so complicated? Is there more to Christianity than going to church and saying prayers?  Does God even love me?

This line of thinking has made me long for the basics.

What basics you may ask? Well, let me give them to you as questions:

• Whatever happened to the Lord’s Prayer?
  Jesus took the time to describe how we should pray. Yet when is the last time you thought about it?My guess is that it has not been recently.I encourage you to dive into the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus gave us great wisdom and instruction when He prayed.He thought it was important enough to tell us how to pray. Why are we not teaching this to the congregations?
• Are the 10 Commandments still applicable?

  It is interesting studying how the 10 commandments came to be.Moses ascended Mount Sinai and stayed there for 40 days and 40 nights. During this time, God gave Moses the 10 commandments on two stone tablets.Finally, Moses descended the mountain and was ready to bring the tablets to the people. Except the people had rebelled while Moses was with God. They made idols and false gods. This angered Moses.

  In his anger, Moses destroyed the tablets. The 10 commandments from God were gone, decimated.

  But the story does not end there. God, in His everlasting mercy, told Moses to recreate the two tablets that were destroyed.

  It appears the 10 commandments were important.

  After studying the 10 commandments, it seems they all come down to loving God and loving each other.

  Where has our love for them gone? How would our society look if we were to love the commandments and follow them once again?

  Take time to re-read the 10 commandments. What do you see them saying to you?

• Do we even know Jesus?
  Everywhere you go, you can hear about Jesus and how He is love. He loves you and wants you to be happy. He wants you to enjoy your life. He wants peace. He does not want anything extra from you?Is that true?I see in John 14:15 Jesus says “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”In Matthew 10:34-36 Jesus says “Do not think I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.”

  It sounds like we have forgotten that Jesus also had demands for us and that things would be rocky. There would be division.

  I am not saying that Jesus is not about love. He is. He came to save us when we were yet against him. He cared enough about us to die a horrible, miserable death.

  What I am saying is that we forget the basics and give ourselves only the parts that make us happy.

This is where I am being stretched right now. I am being stretched to get back to the basics. To dig deep into the basics. To see our church leaders stand up and proclaim the full gospel, not just the feel good sayings of the Bible.

Are you ready and willing to be stretched back to the basics?

Question: Have you overlooked the basics of your faith? Are you being stretched to dig in and rediscover the truth of the Bible? How so? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.