The Gospel of NO

Personally I have no recollection of ever not following Jesus & believing in God & I have never done that whole backsliding deal.  So as a kid at school & especially as a teenager at high school I always defined myself as “the Christian kid” in reality I have since learnt others dindn’t define me that way.  I wore the right clothes, road a skateboard & swore often enough & that’s all they really cared about.  I have often wondered though why so many Christian’s drfit off track during high school & post high school but slowly I’m starting to get it.
Looking back the version of Christian worldview I carried though highschool was a pretty restrictive one & I don’t think I am unique in this regard.  I can now see the miracle of the Holy Spirit that I didn’t throw in the towel or at least live with the condemnation of a life of deliberate hypocrocy as many do.
So often as people of faith we follow what Mark Sayer’s calls in his book the “gospel of no”, I definately did.  During highschool I used to walk through the days feeling I had the roar end of the deal because I followed Jesus.  Jesus being in my life meant no smoking, no fighting, no getting drunk, no randomly kissing girls & definately no sex before marriage.  When all of your friends are doing it may be possible to walk the straight line as I was for the most part but it didn’t mean I wasn’t imagining what it would be like to just hook up with a girl, or try a cigarette.
In John 10:10b it says Jesus came to give life & life to the fullest this aint a “gosepl of no”.  I have heard it said that at the end of time we will be judged for all the good things God put on the earth for us which we didn’t enjoy, I don’t take that a literal but it’s an intersting thought.  In the public arena despite this whole “Emerging thing” Christianity is still seen as an outdated & rigid set of beliefs which carries a heavy set of do’s & don’ts.
The irony is Jesus loved to eat, drink & spent a lot of time speaking of freeom.  Jesus also practically went about freeing people from all manner of things including physical disease, inner turmoil but also religiosity, he came to free us from the “gospel of no” following Jesus is by no manner about what we can’t do.  He calls us friends not plebs, the Gospel is about the fact that through him we can learn to live how we were created to live, in total & utter freedom.
So I’m over focusing on the no’s they have faded into the shadow’s as I am consumed by the fact I know I am loved & all the things now available to me in Christ not to mention I have joy which is fairly constant.
My Father used to tell me growing up that when he gets to Heaven he will drive Ferrari & you know I think God would be alright with this.  The Jesus I see in the Bible is one who says yes a lot of yes’s a lot of which are actually too confronting for us to take him up on not to mention he partied/parties a lot harder than I do.  Following Jesus is serious, but it’s definitely not boring.

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