“Come, follow me“ Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”(Mark 1:17)
Jesus’ saying “follow me” have shaken so many souls from the bottom for last 2 millenniums. It could not be one or two people who had left their worldly lives giving up all the achievements for the monastery or a remote land according to this saying. There is no greater saying among what famous people had said to influence human history than this from Jesus. This sentence is composed of two words. It is a very short sentence with “me” and “follow”.
The focal point in Christian faith is Jesus written as “me”. Jesus is an absolute person as center of Christian faith. This Jesus is a real historical person who lived as a son of a carpenter 2000 years ago. Every incident happened to him as well as his destiny is both roots and fruits for Christianity. On the other hand, Buddhism is quite different. Historical person, Siddhārtha, is very important person for beginning of Buddhism but is not an absolute one for this faith. It is because they say that everyone is able to be a Buddha and should be. If there exists already a Buddha inside the heart of the Buddhists, a real Buddha could not be an absolute being for them. But none of Christians could be either Jesus or Christ. Jesus Christ is only one, and it is possible for salvation only through Him.
If we accept this fact as truth, we should pay attention only to Jesus Christ. Probably someone could ask why I am talking about such an evident fact. Do you think we pay attention only to Jesus these days? Do you really believe that? What a happy person he is if he really could give attention only to Jesus Christ! But as you know it is not that easy to pay attention only to Jesus.
Look at us. Generally speaking, we don’t try to know who Jesus is, but instead try to believe. We only rely on our own religious experiences. It might be possible to say that such attitudes could be just efforts to make us satisfied with our narrow minds, not sincere care for Jesus Christ. Healing by prayers, speaking tongues, or growing up churches in magnitude used to be highlighted in Christianity, but you can see such things from other religion too.
I am not talking about any possibilities or judgment of value in most religions. I am saying that Christianity basically does not regard those things as their essentials. Christianity is not a faith for recognition, which is looking for a Buddha in their hearts, and not like a Baal worship, which guaranteed an abundant life with god’s help. Christianity depends upon basically knowing who Jesus is. The most important thing is to know who Jesus is exactly. We should know historical Jesus and also what kinds of incident in Him lead to salvation. Why? The reason is that we are the people living according to the faith from his command “follow me”.
From some time ago Korean churches have been fallen into sentimentalism like “praise and worship”. This is a psychological spirituality imported from America. Leadership training or counseling is getting much attention from people. But what on earth are these things? How could such things be related with understanding Jesus, Jesus incidents, Jesus destiny, and what does it matter with being in accord with Him? To a person who has interest in these things, “the Kingdom of God” through Jesus does not have any impact. They don’t even imagine what an eschatological hope means. They don’t care why the day of Advent is the beginning of church calendar. It is good enough for them to get comforts while singing “you are the person to be born for getting love” with two raised arms. Please forgive my way of speaking which sounds like to find fault in the remarks. You are not a person being born to get love, but a person whose birth is already God’s love. It is because creation is just like love. Many Korean Christians regard their faith as a soap opera, which cling to love relationship.
This trend in Korean churches is natural consequences of church leaders’ faults. Now many Christians who have this tendency are out of control just like flood. Because they have interest only in religious self-satisfaction now, it might be impossible to ask them to follow Jesus only. Even it is impossible to tell them to look at mystery of life.
Today I think I talked too much. Since the person who had said “follow me” seemed to be hurt these day, I was a little bit agitated. But we don’t have to be discouraged as long as people following Jesus remain to make up their minds to follow only Jesus and also mystery of life as well as of salvation. Probably this could be a just normal phenomenon. It could be inevitable that the number of people who have accepted the truth “follow me” is so short among the awakened.
Lord, Only Jesus is everything for our life. Amen.
Jesus’ saying “follow me” have shaken so many souls from the bottom for last 2 millenniums. It could not be one or two people who had left their worldly lives giving up all the achievements for the monastery or a remote land according to this saying. There is no greater saying among what famous people had said to influence human history than this from Jesus. This sentence is composed of two words. It is a very short sentence with “me” and “follow”.
The focal point in Christian faith is Jesus written as “me”. Jesus is an absolute person as center of Christian faith. This Jesus is a real historical person who lived as a son of a carpenter 2000 years ago. Every incident happened to him as well as his destiny is both roots and fruits for Christianity. On the other hand, Buddhism is quite different. Historical person, Siddhārtha, is very important person for beginning of Buddhism but is not an absolute one for this faith. It is because they say that everyone is able to be a Buddha and should be. If there exists already a Buddha inside the heart of the Buddhists, a real Buddha could not be an absolute being for them. But none of Christians could be either Jesus or Christ. Jesus Christ is only one, and it is possible for salvation only through Him.
If we accept this fact as truth, we should pay attention only to Jesus Christ. Probably someone could ask why I am talking about such an evident fact. Do you think we pay attention only to Jesus these days? Do you really believe that? What a happy person he is if he really could give attention only to Jesus Christ! But as you know it is not that easy to pay attention only to Jesus.
Look at us. Generally speaking, we don’t try to know who Jesus is, but instead try to believe. We only rely on our own religious experiences. It might be possible to say that such attitudes could be just efforts to make us satisfied with our narrow minds, not sincere care for Jesus Christ. Healing by prayers, speaking tongues, or growing up churches in magnitude used to be highlighted in Christianity, but you can see such things from other religion too.
I am not talking about any possibilities or judgment of value in most religions. I am saying that Christianity basically does not regard those things as their essentials. Christianity is not a faith for recognition, which is looking for a Buddha in their hearts, and not like a Baal worship, which guaranteed an abundant life with god’s help. Christianity depends upon basically knowing who Jesus is. The most important thing is to know who Jesus is exactly. We should know historical Jesus and also what kinds of incident in Him lead to salvation. Why? The reason is that we are the people living according to the faith from his command “follow me”.
From some time ago Korean churches have been fallen into sentimentalism like “praise and worship”. This is a psychological spirituality imported from America. Leadership training or counseling is getting much attention from people. But what on earth are these things? How could such things be related with understanding Jesus, Jesus incidents, Jesus destiny, and what does it matter with being in accord with Him? To a person who has interest in these things, “the Kingdom of God” through Jesus does not have any impact. They don’t even imagine what an eschatological hope means. They don’t care why the day of Advent is the beginning of church calendar. It is good enough for them to get comforts while singing “you are the person to be born for getting love” with two raised arms. Please forgive my way of speaking which sounds like to find fault in the remarks. You are not a person being born to get love, but a person whose birth is already God’s love. It is because creation is just like love. Many Korean Christians regard their faith as a soap opera, which cling to love relationship.
This trend in Korean churches is natural consequences of church leaders’ faults. Now many Christians who have this tendency are out of control just like flood. Because they have interest only in religious self-satisfaction now, it might be impossible to ask them to follow Jesus only. Even it is impossible to tell them to look at mystery of life.
Today I think I talked too much. Since the person who had said “follow me” seemed to be hurt these day, I was a little bit agitated. But we don’t have to be discouraged as long as people following Jesus remain to make up their minds to follow only Jesus and also mystery of life as well as of salvation. Probably this could be a just normal phenomenon. It could be inevitable that the number of people who have accepted the truth “follow me” is so short among the awakened.
Lord, Only Jesus is everything for our life. Amen.
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