How can I become a Christian?

The other day I was driving in my car with the radio tuned to a Christian channel. At the end of the ministers message, he gave an invitation. It prompted me to hop on the internet and check to see what the minister was saying on the radio was prevalent in Christian circles. I googled for “How to become a Christian.” It brought me the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. What I found there was like what I heard on the radio – a zero personal sacrifice Christianity. Now, I am not talking about Jesus' sacrifice. The invitation is full of that; I am talking about the sacrifice we are to make in response to Jesus' sacrifice.

I could find nothing about surrendering our will to God's, selflessly loving our neighbor, and accepting the Lordship of Christ. It is almost like the evangelical Christianity around us is something different from the Christianity of the Bible. It appears to be a Christianity that removes all of the tough parts.

Jesus taught: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” (Matthew 16:24b-25)
When we have fajitas at home, Lindsay cooks up onions, peppers, tomatoes, beans, and steak. We have sour cream, salsa, and cheese on the side. Lindsay, Eli, and I load up a soft flour tortilla shell with everything. Isaac on the other hand just puts beans, cheese, and sour cream in his – leaving out the steak and all of the vegetables. We have fajitas while Isaac has a cheese and bean quesadilla.

I wonder if we do the same thing with Christianity. We take out whatever parts are difficult and just relegate those areas to the “radical Christians”. We have a separate water-downed Christianity for the masses. That does not seem to be what Jesus intended. If we want to eat fajitas, we have to eat fajitas. The same is for Christianity. If we want to be Christians, then we have to be Christians. If we take away from what being a disciple is, then we are not really disciples just like Isaac was not really eating a fajita. Our Christianity, like fajitas, can completely change to a point where it might resemble Christianity but it is no longer Christian.

Jesus prepared a whole table full of the elements of what makes a Christian. We cannot just pick and choose what we like off of the table and expect that to make us “Christian”. Anything less than surrendering to the will of God and living a life of loving self-sacrifice toward others is not Christianity. That is what Jesus invited his disciples to.