Christian Living

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What does it really mean to be a Christian, a disciple of Jesus Christ? When you read the New Testament you will see that when people received Jesus as their savior, there was a price that had to be paid! This is a lifestyle that will be painful at times. It will require that you die to the life you’ve hoped for. And this sacrifice is what God requires of you.
And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? Mark 8:34-36 (ESV)

Being a Christian is hard especially in the culture where we now live. Our choices are few and it’s a lifestyle that will lead to persecution for those who desire to live their lives to honor the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a choice you make to separate yourself from the worldly mentality that becomes a sign to an unsaved humanity of your love for Jesus Christ. Those who call themselves Christians in America want to receive from God, but few ever give themselves wholly to Him. The seeker friendly crowd wants to enjoy all of God’s blessings, but they won’t dare suffer for Him! This spirit of anti-Christ has permeated our churches.
We come to church and rejoice and we gladly receive the perceived blessings of an easy Gospel, but we’re not willing lay down our lives as a living sacrifice. When it’s time for you to stand up for the faith you proclaim, when the situation is uncomfortable and maybe even you being threatened, you cower. You don’t want to bleed, so you succumb to the personalities around you. Ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! Your denial of Jesus is not only in word but more evident in the lifestyle you live, for this is how most people perceive the message of the Gospel. And for a person who claims to be a Christian to live like the sinner we are mandated by God to reach, is to reject the message of the cross.
So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven. Matthew 10:32-33

What is the real benefit in achieving what you think is material success when in reality; all it does is stroke your ego? And the end result is a life wasted in the pursuit of vanity and the loss of your eternal destiny. Compared to the eternal life that the Bible says we will live, if we win the race of this natural life, what here has any real value? This being the reason why it is so dangerous for the church to compromise the true Gospel of Jesus Christ for the lie of what you can do to enjoy your best life now. In this day and time of political and cultural correctness, God is calling the body of Christ to stand up against the flow of humanity even if it means that we suffer for the faith we proclaim. Will you answer the call?
To be effective in the Great Commission and have your witness prove to people that the Bible is a living revelation of God, you will have to give your life. What you want is not important; Jesus is the one who saves! What God will do in you is for the purpose of people seeing the person of Jesus Christ being glorified and exalted through the life you live. No matter the cost!
Being a disciple of Jesus Christ means that everything we do reflects the hope of what we proclaim. No one can come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ unless God has first drawn that person and by revelation, revealed the truth of who Jesus really is. And once your life has been truly transformed is when you can confidently tell other people about the eternal life that awaits those who live righteously.

The hope we have is the knowledge of what God did by the sacrifice of the person of Jesus Christ 2000 years ago. Jesus is God in the flesh that came among us to become familiar with our weaknesses and the atrocities we face, but yet He lived in a way that proved we can overcome. The only person to ever live a sinless life was then crucified and paid the ultimate price so that you and I would not have to. Beaten and stripped naked, bleeding and humiliated, Jesus died to suffer the punishment of separation from the presence of God in a place of torment called hell. When God was satisfied that the punishment was fulfilled, He raised the person of Jesus Christ from the dead to be a living witness and the first to be reborn from spiritual death. And by this, proving that Jesus is the only true and living God! For there is no other name or false religion known to mankind that can save, transform and make us righteous before God other than Jesus Christ.
Child of God, there are grave consequences for you to not take the time to understand what this is all about. For you to live you life in a way that you enjoy the temporary pleasures of this world and then one day as your body lays down in death with no atonement for your sins there is a reality that you do not want to face!

This message should be the very foundation of every Christian’s life, but sadly it’s far from that. There has been too much compromise of the validity of God’s Word by pastors and ministers of every Christian denomination and independent movement to try and attract numbers and not offend.
If you are ever to be an effective disciple of Jesus Christ, the life transforming power of the Gospel must be evident in your life! You have to know that this is real and the only way it becomes reality is by giving yourself wholly to a study of the Bible and a lifestyle of prayer and your worship of God. When you sincerely make the time to learn about Jesus Christ, God will meet you in any circumstance to prove His reality and show you the way out of a life controlled by the dictates of a sinful nature. And as you witness this change in how you think, the words you speak and what you do, is when the Bible comes to life as its words transform your soul. Jesus becomes so real to you that at the thought of what He endured, you weep, knowing He did this in your place. This then becomes the compassion that people will see in you, in you testimony and in the work of ministry that God has called you to do. It becomes the motivation to reach out to other people no matter who they are or where they come from, because you know what God did for you. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the life transforming power of God to those who will dare to believe.
The “Good News” is that things can really change and you child of God, are a living epistle that takes everyone’s excuse away! The Holy Spirit of God who indwells our recreated spirit and a renewed mind is to help us believe by a life forever changed, that its not something we can do in our own ability. Everybody needs a Divine Savior. For the day is coming when we will all stand before the judgment seat of God to give an account for what we have done…
For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written, "As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God." So then each of us will give an account of himself to God. Romans 14:10b-12 (ESV)
Let it be this thought that wakes you in the morning, what motivates your obedience to follow where God might lead and your dreams of what will be. Will you allow Jesus Christ the opportunity to transform your life?

This is my testimony. I want my life to be an example for those who don’t know how to do it for themselves and be a voice that challenges what you believe. Overcoming what I believed to be a life that had no purpose, it is now my responsibility to tell other people how a relationship with Jesus Christ transformed my life. And the example for you, should you choose…

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