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Written by John Thomas OBrien
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Sunday, 18 May 2008 |
- Of, pertaining to, or derived from Jesus Christ or His teachings: a Christian faith.
- Have, pertaining to, believing in, or belonging to the religion based on the teachings of Jesus Christ: Spain is a Christian country.
- Of or pertaining to Christians: many Christian deaths in the Crusades
- Exhibiting a spirit proper to a follower of Jesus Christ; Christ like: She displayed true Christian charity.
- Decent; respectable: They gave him a good Christian burial.
- Human; not brutal; humane: Such behavior isn't Christian
- A person who exemplifies in his or her life the teachings of Christ: He died like a true Christian
The word Christian means to follow Jesus Christ.
To be a Christian requires more than just intellectual assent to the fact that Jesus exists. More than just acknowledgement of His existence. More than just an intellectual acceptance of a few facts.
Accepting Christ as personal Savior requires more than just saying it or repeating a sentence. Just saying that you are a Christian doesn’t mean that you are a Christian. Just because you say you are saved doesn’t mean that you have received eternal life from God.
All of us are called by God to be Christians, but few will respond to that call in the right way or respond at all. On the Day of Judgment God will affirm or deny each of our claims to be Christian.
If you are a Christian your life will be changed. You cannot say “I am a Christian” and then turn right around and act out selfish desires with out batting an eye If you return to your life of sin and your confession of faith has no effect on your life, if there has been no change in your life, then you are only doing lip service to salvation. Mistakes will be made. Sin is more than a mistake. Sin is deliberate. Mistakes will be made, relapses will be experienced, but the true acceptance of Christ involves seeking His wisdom and guidance. It involves yielding to Him for the answer to your problems.
Let me give you an idea of what I mean. I am a Christian. But I get jealous sometimes at work. But I am not proud of it. I do not let it control me. I do not act on these feeling. But they are there nevertheless. You would be ashamed of me if you heard the things I do not say. I do not express or act upon these thoughts, but I have them. I get proud of my intellectual achievement and knowledge. I do not act on the emotion. This is what I consider being under the control of God’s Holy Spirit.
If I am Christian I will remember His teachings when times are rough. I have the thoughts and emotions but I do not act on them or discard God’s teachings them when things get inconvenient.
Being truly saved, I am kept under control. Someone once said that you cannot keep the birds from flying overhead, but you can keep them from making nests in the trees in your yard.
Jesus said that only through Him would we know the Father.
If you truly love Christ and accept Him in your life, you will also love His teachings and seek to apply them, not because you think it earns you merit points on the way to Heaven, but because you love Christ and you wish to let His teachings ring through you.
Accepting His teaching every day, one learns to see them in their broad applications. One test of myself I apply to me is “Do I believe what He plainly said when He obviously said it?” As an example when Christ is quoted that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven, do I make excuses talking about what a needle is and how big the arch of the needle is and it really did not mean what is the plain meaning meant. Do I look for a loophole or do I carry on with what the plain meaning is. Another example: Christ says over and over in the Gospels that money is a distraction, that these seeking to be rich will get their reward here. Do I seek alternate translation and commentaries to explain away the truth that Jesus was expressing?
I make mistakes; also I sin deliberately. This knowledge alone keeps me in my place. I do not say I am morally superior; but I am experiencing growth and experiencing change. I am beginning to show my worth by deed instead of word.
I have a co-worker at my place of employment that I view as a threat. As a result I do not “like him” Because I am aware of this I go out of my way and bend over backwards to treat him with respect and kindness. I do not like his action and I think he doesn’t hold up his end of the job. He should not be working there. However my condemnation of his performance is not Christian at all. Anyone can condemn and ruin his career. Real Christians will show compassion and find a way to assist him, in love in the performance of his job, even if that assistance is only token.
I have realized that we (Christians) are all in this together. I am not alone. We must help one another, in and with love. I did not get where I am at by my self with out help. I have never been completely on my own. I am where I am first through the grace of God, then with the help of a whole lot of people. We are all interconnected. We must prepare ourselves the best we can; with instruction from Jesus. We must learn to communicate with Him. We must create the conditions for everyone to be prepared for success, and then let God take over.
Accepting Christ as my personal Savior was only the start of being a Christian. If I had just walked around and basked in my salvation and the event had not other effect on my life, I would question that salvation experience. Real change in my life was reflected in my attitude toward the Bible. Now I hungrily read the Gospels and find ways to apply His teachings into my life. Though the scriptures He tells me what I must do as a person to become like Him. I want to become that person for no other reason than I love Him and want to be like Him. I want to express my love for Him for His doing what He did for me. I am not earning my way to heaven by doing “things” but by the things I do I am expressing my love for Him.
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 18 May 2008 )
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