WISDOM GEMS
Reflections and Insights for your Practice
BELONGING TO JESUS RADICALLY
CHRISTWARD
BUDDHIST FOLLOWER OF CHRIST
September 9, 2023
Can there be followers of Christ in other religions, apart from Christianity? If so, who are these “insider” believers and disciples of Christ? They remain inside their own faith communities of origin while having been redeemed inwardly by grace through faith, indwelt by the Spirit of Christ. This possibility might unnerve dogmatic fundamentalists who have called the shots for a long time. The dominant outfit and operation of church is not uncontestable. For power is not grace. And fundamentalism is not truth.
September 9, 2023
Being in Christ ineffably is a moment-by-moment thing. Not born of fleshly will but by His Spirit, yet with our inner gaze turned heavenward in loving abandon. Releasing and melting of contracted self into the spacious freedom of Christ, every thought, feeling, perception, intention, and conscious moment is suffused with Presence beyond ego and utterly surrendered. Surrender is not lazy effortlessness but active assent to the energy and wisdom of Christ in sheer loving embrace. Effort melts into surrender.
September 9, 2023
Since my personal encounter of faith with the Lord, I’ve immersed myself in church life, ministry, formation, sacrificial giving, and service in myriad ways. In the end, I’ve come to realise the futility of it all. Rejected ultimately for my deep Buddhist formation and background, with implicit or explicit demand to conform to the modus operandi of corporate Americanized Churchianity, it is clear that I’m a Buddhist who belongs to Jesus. Not a “Christian.” Never was and never will be. And happier for it.