GOD - God is ultimately unknown and unknowable.  There is a
gulf between humankind and God that is unfathomable for us.
We - being human - cannot imagine the Almighty.
Omnipotence and omniscience are really too much for us.
Although we don't want to admit it, we cannot imagine, let
alone know, God.
Therefore, all we can know is that which we can know, and
all we can do to be Christian is that which we can do.
Anything beyond that which we know is speculation.
And doing that which we can do is the best effort we can
make at 'being' Christian.

CHANGE - If God is ultimately unknown and unknowable, and
we are separated from him by an unfathomable gulf, we must
do what we can to reach up across that gulf.  Fortunately,
we dont need to do that to be saved from our sins and from
our position on the lower side of that gulf.  In Jesus, God
has reached out for us and spanned the gulf.  Now, there
are two results of Gods remarkable gift of love, in Jesus
Christ.  First, we can accept by faith Gods grace through
Christ and we are saved.  Its that simple.  God holds out
his hand and we can take it.
The second facet of Jesus existence is that we are shown a
remarkable example of how God would choose for us to
behave, if we were to choose to love and to serve the
Creator of the universe.  Weve been given a template, an
example.  Unfortunately, none of us can understand that
example, let alone follow it.
We cannot love our enemies; we cannot give someone our
coat, when we ourselves are freezing; we cannot trust God
completely and without hesitation; we cannot live fully to
God or to Christ.  We fall short.  We sin.
Because of that shortfall, and because Christ is the
example that we want to emulate, we must change.  Change is
a natural and normal progression IN THE ENTIRE LIFE OF A
CHRISTIAN, as he or she attempts to become more Christ-like.
If spanning the gulf, and doing Gods will by following the
example he has given us is our true goal, we must
constantly change to do so, because we are never perfect,
and we are never Christ...
That Christian who no longer changes has, in effect,
declared, I am perfect.  I have become Christ.6
That messianic delusion is not a harsh overstatement of
the unwillingness to change, it is the cold harsh reality
of those who believe that they know better than God, and
that is why change isnt necessary.
We must grow to become more Christ-like.

INCLUSION/EXCLUSION - Christianity is about inclusiveness.
 If there is an appropriate creed or test of our
'Christianity', it is in the evidence of our inclusive
behavior.  All that Jesus taught and all that he implied
and all that his life led toward, is inclusion.
Taken to its logical conclusion, this has an incredibly
Eastern religious ring to it.  We are all one.  Pure and
simple, we are the creation, and God is the Creator.
If we acknowledge that simple fact, an understanding of the
kingdom of heaven and our place in it as God's creation,
and the incredible importance of 'one-ness,' become more apparent.
Any time that we exclude anyone from any bond, for any
reason, we defy the intent of God's act of creation.
We usurp his authority and supplant our own.  That is the
definition of exclusion.

THE GOOD CONFESSION - Within the Protestant tradition, and
more and more in all of organized religion, there is the
concept of being 'born again,' of accepting Jesus as savior
and accepting salvation at that time.  Our perceptions lead
us to believe that we are filled with the Holy Spirit, and
we are saved.
Most people, particularly those who are teenagers, have no
concept of what is being asked of them when they make the
'good confession.'
'Do you accept Jesus to be your personal savior...?'
It might as well be the Lord, himself, saying, "Are you
able to drink from the cup I drink from?"
Most of us have no clue when we make the good confession,
just as the Disciples had no clue when they answered,
'Yes,' to Jesus' query.
What people do come to the alter with, during that altar
call, or during that hymn of invitation, is a
passionate void.
What is a passionate void, and where does it come from?
It is that need, that lack within us, defying description
for an intense and a compelling completeness.
If you subscribe to original sin, you may consider that
Adam and Eve caused that void to be a part of human
existence when they ate the forbidden fruit.  The
disobedience of God and the moving away from God - the
exercise of free will - caused a void within us.
On a more individual note, that void may be one that we
create or recreate each time we exercise free will on our
own and do not choose God or Gods way.  We create a void,
a need that can be filled only by something or someone so
intense, so vivid that it can only be described as a
passionate void.
We can attempt to fill that void with good or bad.
Workaholics are examples of those trying to fill that void,
but the mechanism they resort to - that of achieving or
working - is a socially acceptable means of attempting to
experience the passion and fill the void.
The socially unacceptable means include drink, drugs, and
even suicide.  Whatever provides some intensity and some
passion may be utilized in an effort to fill that
passionate void.
That passionate void, or that emptiness, for most people,
is the reason for the invitation to Jesus to become part of
their lives.
That void is a void for God (in his manifestations,
whatever they may be) to fill, and the reason for the
answer to the alter call.
The answer to the alter call may be prompted by family and
tradition or friends and peer pressure, but the void is the
underlying reason.
Now - when we accept Jesus, even if we have no good idea of
Bible stories, or what it is we are asking, we are saved.
We have salvation.
What we grow into, following salvation, is sanctification.
 We may become more saintly following the making of the
good confession.  We may not.
But the complete understanding of the magnitude and the
import of the good confession is not a prerequisite to
acceptance of salvation.

FREE WILL - Certainly a mystery.  If God is omniscient and
knows everything, then surely he knows what is going to
happen to us, three minutes from now - as we face that
terrible/wonderful/life-changing situation.  And if he
knows what the future holds, if he knows how our lives will
turn out, then why bother?  If your time to die is written
in the book of life, then you can't change it - so why bother?
We bother because God doesn't direct or know the future.
Doesn't direct the future because he gives free will.  We
are given the opportunity to be as good or as bad as we choose.
And doesn't know the future because he chooses not to.  He,
after all, is God and it would be presumptuous to decide
what his power will and will not permit him to do.  That is
a petty and limited view of the creator of the universe -
he can only behave in a fashion that makes sense to me
(mortal though I may be).
God actually provides a level playing field.  His intention
for his creation is to experience free will and to make its
decisions out of free will - based on love and acceptance,
not fear and loathing.
An analogy may help to make clear how God can be omnipotent
and omniscient and still permit us to have and to live
under free will, making decisions on our own to accept or reject Jesus or God.
Breathe.
Take a deep breath.  Breath out.  Now, do it again.
Now, hold your breath for 15 seconds.  Most of us, with the
very few exceptions of those with very serious breathing
impediments can hold our breath for 15 seconds.  Now, take
a deep breath, hold it for a second, then release it.
Now...  calculate the logarithm of 150, analyze the
politics of Ancient Rome, change a diaper, cook a meal,
play football, read a mystery novel.
What happens to your breathing the moment that something
else catches your attention?
Thats your autonomic nervous system.  It is automatic.  It
happens, no matter what you are doing or what you are
attending to...  Your breathing continues and happens
breath after breath for hour after hour and day after day,
month after month and year...  and so on.
And it continues until you reach down - easier than tying a
shoe or counting to 5, even toddlers can get angry and hold
their breath - until you reach down into your physiology
and take charge.  And thats exactly what you do - you take
charge of your breathing, and control it precisely and
completely, BUT!!!  The moment you choose not to attend to
your breathing, it continues and happens exactly correctly
and automatically, without your intervention.
Thats how God can be omniscient and omnipotent and still
permit us free will and not know what decision we are going
to make of the gift of free will.
You can reach into your physiology and control your
breathing, and then just ignore it and it continues
unabated and correctly.  Yet it is still YOUR physiology,
YOUR body that is performing that action that is a critical
part of YOUR being.  Yet you are disassociated from each
specific breath, and you never, never have to think about
each subsequent breath.
Free will is part of Gods creation, and subject to Gods
will, and part of His plan.  But it is autonomic.  God is
able to divorce himself from your free will, just as you
are divorced from thought about each and every breath you draw.
God can reach into that part of his creation where our free
will resides and intervene and know the outcome and modify
the process, but when he does not, we are permitted to make
the decision to accept him and his grace - or not.
Like it or not, thats free will and its a tremendous
burden.  We cant say, so what?  What will be, will be.  We
have been called by God - while still part of his creation
- to make that God-level decision of who or what we will
belong to, who or what we will serve, who or what is worth
of our faith.

THE BIBLE - The Bible is the divinely inspired Word of God.
 Sure, but is it correct?
The question is the problem.  Is it correct to do what?  To
tell us what the main course was at the Last Supper?  No.
We can make assumptions about part of the last supper.
There was probably bread.  There was probably wine.  The
historical accuracy of that conclusion is probably
reasonable.  But beyond that, we can only be sure of the
MESSAGE of the Bible, not the content.
The MESSAGE of the Bible is divinely inspired, inerrant,
infallible, and beautiful.
The content - the specifics, the translated idioms, the
figures-of-speech that are shrouded in antiquity, the
references to societies and customs that are thousands of
years removed from our own - all of the content is
structured by the men and women used by God to relay the
MESSAGE.
Does that mean that none of the Bible is actual, de facto
history? Part of it probably is.  We can assume that Christ
existed, that he taught, traveled, preached, and was
central to the foundation of our faith.  We can assume the
existence of the historical Christ.  The historical
fragments and portions of manuscripts and texts leads us to
that belief.
But we can not be certain of his movements.  Or of the
other details that the writers of the Bible chose to
include to provide the context in which God reveals his
love to us, his plan for us, and his will - the MESSAGE of
the Bible.