We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.- The Nicene Creed

Further sin as sin is defined in the Bible. We don’t get to change the Word of God for the convenience of our culture, our family or our own popularity.

That said, there is a lot of space within this boat called Christianity and a lot of diversity. Each of us has our favorite version of Christianity, our own box, that describes how we are going to practice our orthodoxy and biblical obedience. I talk in tongues and worship to guitars. You play the pipe organ and insist all the women in your service cover their heads and wear dresses. You have sacraments. I have ordinances. You practice congregational leadership. I espouse an ecclesiastical model. You’re a house movement Christian. I am a firm believer in the organized church. Boxes galore folks!

You know, I don’t think God is as freaked out about all the different forms of Christianity in the world as we are. I think He visits people and churches in the ways they find comfortable not because their way is the best way or the perfect way but simply because He loves them and wants to be close to them, even if all their earthly brothers and sisters think they are a little whacky or a little stuffy.

But dear brothers and sisters let’s not pretend that because God visits our box on a regular basis, that makes our box better than all the others. God is bigger than all our boxes put together and trying to contain Him in your box and declaring He can’t move outside of it is a sure way to get the walls of your box  blown up and  thrown in the Holy Ghost trash heap.

You may think your box has it all over on mine. You are probably even able to point out all the flaws in my box and give a hundred reasons why people maybe shouldn’t visit it. Guess what. If I were so inclined I could find flaws in your box too and come up with just as many reasons why people shouldn’t visit yours. I’ll admit it, my box is flawed because it’s my box!  I am flawed! And your box is flawed because it’s your box and you are flawed.

In the end if God visits my flawed box and He also visits your flawed box maybe we ought to accept each other’s boxes like God does and figure out how to work together to get more people into the boat called Christianity. After all isn’t that what we are called to do?