Why we make a big deal about Jesus?

When we talk about moral issues, we have to define our source bias in order to lay the groundwork in Sacramento as to why some moral issues are important to segments of the California voting public.

The CFA is notably a traditional Judeo-Christian advocacy group and we come to the table with that bias open and above board. This does not mean that only Christians or Jewish people hold these moral positions. Indeed, there is debate between the liberal and conservative branches within these communities. Many California citizens also hold to our moral positions for pragmatic, cultural, economic, or other personal reasons. We serve the conservative moral voters in our advocacy work without regard to a litmus test. If you are going our way, lend us your shoulder to the wheel for the health and societal stability of all Californians.

Traditional Christianity and Judaism base societal mores on premises laid out in a very ancient text called the Torah. The Torah is sometimes called 'The Law' but it is more accurately called 'The Teachings'. It is the first five books of Moses and gives us insight to the mind of God regarding human behavior. While America is not a Theocracy like ancient Israel, these principals carried forward through the millenniums into the founding of America up through the 1890's. With the advent of Darwinism, it was only numbered days before the Bible (and especially the Torah) seemed not relevant in the public debate. Now, after a century of social engineering, moral absolutes in the legal code are virtually unknown except from those legislators who look back to earlier times.

Christianity and Judaism never really died out over the centuries. There have always been communities of faithful people keeping the flame alive. Within the Christian churches, there has been 2000 years of examining the morality of human behavior. Understandings of the Bible have been hammered out time and time again. The imprint has been so strong that regardless of Christian sect or denomination, the historical moral root has been enumerated in creeds , dogmas, church standards, and internal church legal processes dealing with moral issues.

The bottom line is that faith is a touch with the supernatural that has a profound impact on the natural. The premise is that God exists and that he rewards those who diligently seek him. If this premise has no intrinsic merit, it would have died out long before the Roman empire. If we begin with God as the source of all things, it follows that we have an authority that exceeds the level of all human government. This is why the Constitution of the United States and the Declaration of Independence specified a Creator God granting inalienable rights to humans. The concept of limiting the powers of government and monarchs (in the case of England) is firmly rooted in the Judeo-Christian concept of a singular God who requires governmental leaders to lead or rule in justice, mercy, and humility.

So what's the deal about Jesus ?

Jesus was a Jewish teacher around 30AD who firmly believed the Torah and made those ancient teachings harder to swallow than originally considered for centuries. You can read this in the book of Matthew (chapter 5). He took the 10 Commandments from God that Moses introduced to the ancient nation of Israel and applied them at the heart level and not just as a legal code. Adultery was treated as a fatal infraction with God, but Jesus said that even gazing at a woman with a sexual desire counted as adultery in God's mind.

This applies directly to the flood of pornography on the InterNet and common porn found in magazines and videos. I doubt anyone would call Jesus a prudish legalist in a backwards society. He was well familiar with the impact of Greek cultural mores on the Jewish community in both rural and urban environments. He knew that men are wired for the visual and that saving sexual relationships for marriage started with the gray matter between our ears. Ask any married woman whose husband has a wandering eye. This area of adultery was only one behavior that he overhauled.

The Christian church(es) carried forward this sense that there is a moral code that affected not only individuals but the betterment of civilization when some aspects of human behavior were marked as unacceptable. The effects of making up one's own moral rules were immediately seen in the Greek and Roman towns of the Christian era. The excesses in alcohol, drugs, sexual proclivities, violence, child abuse, break-ups of marriages, and the like are not modern. These old issues have resurfaced in larger quantities and more accessible than in previous generations. When the words of Jesus are put into practice, there is a notable positive change in people-groups that adopted them.

This simplistic paper lays the groundwork of why we refer to a Judeo-Christian bias in our position papers and web pages. To have faith in Jesus is have an ongoing relationship with God. We desire to openly share this amazing relational aspect of Christianity.

What exactly do we mean by "relationship"?

The following notations are a leap of faith and would appear to be unsubstantiated. The issue is not that this paper is a proof of these faith principals. Rather, in case you wonder what it is we believe and hopefully wish to identify with traditional Christianity, the following lines act as simple pointers. We are not elitists. We are like beggars who have found a vast storehouse of wholesome bread and are passing the word on the street Trust us, this is good bread. Until you taste and see for yourself, we will only seem to be talking academically. We urge you to link up with Jesus.

• We believe that God is the source of all things and rewards those who diligently seek him. * (This means that there is a moral authority outside of our own relative situations.) * (On balance, we believe that God is personal, acts justly, and is overly patient in his authority.)

• We find that compared to God, we simply do not measure up. This is a fatal problem called 'sin'. * (This means that our best intentions are woefully inadequate to link up with God.)

• As Christians, we believe that Jesus Christ is, in himself, the only way to God. * (We believe Jesus is the Jewish Messiah and Son of God foretold in ancient Hebrew scriptures.) * (This can of worms offends just about everybody who disagrees with Christianity.) * (I can show that God exists but this Jesus stuff is your trust that I really did find some bread.)

• According to those who knew him, Jesus was crucified for making himself out to be equal with God. * (This death, nailed to a Roman cross, was the worse thing to do to a Jew on the Passover holy days.) * (God, by sheer compassion, accepted this death as payment for our sins that separate us from him.)

• However, many reliable witnesses and evidences claim that Jesus rose from the dead after 3 days. * (If he had been left in the grave, he would have been like any of a dozen previous heroes.) * (This event galvanized the early followers of Jesus as proof that he is capable of forgiving sin.) * (God, by sheer compassion, offers eternal life to whoever willingly accepts Jesus as Forgiver.)

• The early believers acted on this newfound faith by living lives that emulated Jesus Christ. * (Jesus said those who publicly declared allegiance to him, He would declare as righteous to God.) * (We would be foolish, that having gained eternal life, to believe we can do this on our own power.) * (God, by sheer compassion, offers himself by his Holy Spirit, to enable us to live daily as believers.)

• Today, we begin this faith journey exactly the same way as the early believers through trusting God about Jesus. * (If we claim allegiance to Jesus and believe at heart-level that God raised him from death, then we have begun. The scripture says that those who trust their lives to Jesus will not be ashamed.) * (From personal experience, this is the best decision I have made.)

Does this sound like something you would like to do? With the extremely limited data that I have provided here, would you be willing to trust that Jesus is, in his own words, "...the bread that comes down from heaven, the bread of life"?

If today is the day for you and this moment is the time for you, you might talk to God aloud using words like these. Don't worry about being word perfect, he is more interested in attitudes and intentions.

Dear God: Thank you for your offer of eternal life and forgiveness of the sins that keeps me from you. I accept your offer. I am sorry for my past sins and I ask that you forgive me because of Jesus.

Jesus: I believe that you died on the cross for my sins and rose from death to forgive me. I open the door of my heart and invite you to be fully in my life. I place my complete trust and even my life into your capable hands Please make me the kind of person that you want me to be. Thanks.

Prayer is talking to God. It feels odd at first if there are people within earshot. If this prayer expressed your intentions and you spoke to God plainly from your heart, he has indeed heard you. Consider this paper as merely making the formal introduction. To go forward on your faith journey with Jesus, follow the examples of the early believers:

• Talk with God about everything and anything on your heart
• Commit yourself to learn about Jesus and what he said
• Read about Jesus (Start with these Bible sections: John, Matthew, Philippians, Romans, Hebrews)
• Read about the heart of God (Start with Bible sections: Proverbs, Psalms, Exodus)
• Tell someone else by letter or in person about your decision
• Attend a weekly gathering of believers (called a 'church') that holds the Bible in high regard
• Join a small group Bible study even though you do not have all the answers

Caution: Think about millions of people that have made such a decision. Each person brings along their own personality, warts and all. Your role, and indeed all of our roles, is to daily ask Jesus to enable us to love God with all our heart, all our mind, and with all our strength ... and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus said these are the two greatest commandments upon which the entire Bible is written. We all have a long ways to go just to scratch the surface of those commandments. God will help us.

If you have made such a profound decision today, please tell me.