Jesus
said, "...nor do men put new wine into old wineskins, otherwise the
wineskins burst, and the wine pours out, and the wineskins are ruined; but they
put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved." Novo's
spirituality writers, Nick Walsh and Mark
Hall, believe God desires young people to hold his 'new wine', bringing
about a revival of vision, creativity and purpose to a culture which is
apathetic and bored.
With this in mind, Nick and Mark discuss current issues with an eye on how they
relate to God's word and how being a fresh wineskin requires us to be open to
God's renewal of our lives, our agendas, our beliefs, our actions, our attitudes
and more.
Hellbound Hansie?
Word
Count: 400
When
South African national cricket captain Hansie Cronje began to spill the beans on
his years of corruption in international cricket, he used some interesting
language – old-fashioned words like “sin” and “moral duty”. When it became obvious that Hansie still considered himself a
Christian despite his behaviour, cricket fans around the world couldn’t
believe their ears.
How
ridiculous that a man who lied to family, friends, team-mates, employers and
supporters, and who accepted large sums of money in unquestionably unethical
circumstances, could consider himself a Christian!
Isn’t Christianity supposed to be all about doing the right thing and
accepting the consequences of your actions?
Well,
no, actually. In fact that’s
precisely what it’s not about.
Christianity is all about letting someone else accept the consequences of
your actions. That was the whole
point of Jesus’ death – to take upon himself the punishment we deserve for
our sins.
The
most common misconception of Christianity in our society is that it is all about
rules. Nothing could be further
from the truth. What differentiates
Christianity from virtually every other religion is its teaching that God is
willing to accept us for who we are, whether we obey the rules or not.
That’s good news for everyone – good, bad or indifferent.
Can
anyone obey all the rules, all the time? Has
any human being ever achieved perfection? Nobody
I know - least of all me. Paul, who
was one of Christianity’s earliest and most successful advocates considered
himself to be the very worst of sinners! While
most other religions, including Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam teach that strict
adherence to a particular moral code is the only way to achieve salvation, Jesus
Christ says, “I’m your ticket into Heaven – I know the bloke on the door,
and he’ll let you in because you’re with me.”
It’s
hardly surprising that Christianity is considered so irrelevant in our society,
if people think that Christianity is all about being perfect.
When they see that Christians plainly are not perfect, they conclude that
Christianity doesn’t work. Fortunately
for all of us, Christianity is not all
about being perfect, it’s about being forgiven.
If you see yourself as significant and special, but by no means perfect,
then you’re half way to understanding what being a Christian is all about.
So
has Hansie Cronje brought his religion, as well as his game, into disrepute?
On the contrary - an imperfect man asking for forgiveness is what it’s
all about. Whether Herschelle Gibbs
can ever forgive Hansie Cronje is yet to be seen, but that God can and will
forgive him was demonstrated years ago. I’m
sure that as a Christian, Hansie knows this, and I for one, look forward to
seeing him at number four in Heaven’s First XI.
Mark Hall
Please e-mail Mark on “agonis@fcmail.com”
to discuss any aspect of this article.
