Heartburn Cafe

This is probably the most common Christian - the “chocolate sundae”, Sunday only Christian. Have you been here, or are you here right now? I’m sure nearly everyone has at one point in their life. Having a lack of commitment, having the wrong attitude, or maybe simply being apathetic can all contribute to being a “chocolate sundae” Christian. Realize that all Christians have the responsibility to use their spiritual gifts and contribute to the body throughout the week. It’s a continuous walk with Christ, not just on Sunday.

The next flavor in the series, Banana Splits, are those Christians who tend to do as the flavor implies - cause splits or quarrels in the church. More often than not, power is what they seek the most and they focus on ways they can take control of this or that. If you can identify with this, remember that God has designed the church to allow the pastor, or shepherd, to guide the body - even pastors can suffer from wanting too much control. Remember that you are an integral part of God’s church, His body. Take your concerns to the pastor or if you leave, inform the pastor of your decision. We understand that this type of Christian and situation is not easy to discuss, but be encouraged to know that God has things under control!

Often times, Christians who are “blizzards” tend to add to what the Bible says, whether that be to salvation, to morality, and so on. Legalism, or putting the law over everything else, can destroy Christianity and divide the body of Christ. Adding to the Bible not only shows that what God wrote isn’t good enough, but it is also very hypocritical.

Remember, if you follow the Word of God, you can’t go wrong. When we add to it, we set ourselves up for trouble.

Peppermint-type of Christians are those who focus only on feelings and emotions. Remember, nothing is wrong with emotions, but you have to make sure to balance them in your overall Christian life. If you’re only going to operate off feelings and unrealistic expectations, disappointment will greet you as you grow. The Christian life gets difficult and we’ll have to meet hard times and sin! You will never see only happy times as a Christian, and everyone goes through trials and tests. An encouragement for those of you who do meet disappointment and trials, then, is to remember that you haven’t lost your relationship with Christ, only the luster. He’s always there for you, no matter what!

I apologize to those of you who listen to the podcast via iTunes or some other podcatcher. For some reason, I forgot to update the RSS feed when I uploaded episode #25. You could still listen to it manually here on the website, but the episode wouldn’t have shown up in any podcatcher at all. Anyway, all should be good now and look for a new episode tomorrow!

Falling into this type of Christianity is easy because it involves seeing things in black and white. If this fits you, realize that there’s more to life than good and bad, black and white! God wants His relationship with you to be more than this right or wrong. Serving Him out of a sense of duty, or becoming a Christian out of fear, can turn off non-Christians and can push away other Christians. Ultimately, God’s grace and direction can guide you to the in-between lifestyle, one that brings joy!

Let’s take a look at the first kind of Christian - Rocky Road. These are Christians that go through hard times and have never learned how to handle their situations, making them bitter and tart. However, take a look at Proverbs 3:6. If you struggle with this, you don’t have to live and walk down that rocky road all your life! God shows us that if you recognize and follow Him and live for Him, He’ll guide your path - He’ll show you how to get off that rocky road!

We begin a brand new series, all about the different “flavors” of Christians out there. To bring it home, we try to compare types of Christians to flavors of ice cream. When you go looking to buy ice cream, you soon realize just how many flavors exist - and this is true for Christianity, too. Each week, we’ll take a new flavor and associate it with a type of Christian that might be similar to that flavor.