spirit

Just what is a Christian Anyhow?

Do you ever wonder what a REAL CHRISTIAN is? I do. When I ask different people for a definition, the response is usually the same. But, when I ask what a real Christian DOES, people have many different answers.

What is a real Christian? Good question. Is it a person who reads about Christ? Is it a person who reads the Bible? Is it a person who focuses on the Old Testament or the New Testament? Is determining your Christian nature determined on what you know, how you really are, or your actions. Based on my experiences you will get as many different answers to that question as there are "Christian's in the world.

Could it be that each individual has the responsibility of determining what they believe to be Christianity for themselves? I guess it would be so much easier if there were just the set of God's laws that we could pick up at the courthouse or the public library. The only absolutes we seem to have in the Bible are the 10 commandments, and for many these just seem to be two simple, direct and uncomplicated to believe. So what do we do, we pile a bunch of personal interpretations on top of them and spend lots of time figuring why we don't have to focus on the ten commandments, and can talk about something else.

Don't kill, don't steal, don't lie, don't commit adultery, and so on seem very straight forward. These would make good laws to define Christian actions by, although we don't seem able to obey them very well. Otherwise how would we explain, what "good" Christians did during the inquisitions? How can we justify what "good" Christians did to the native Americans? How can we justify what "good" Christians did to the Black race. The list goes on and on...

My personal belief is that God knows we goof up and make mistakes, and that God is much more forgiving than we can comprehend-thank goodness! God also seems to know we work best under pressure and with limitations. Because of this he gave us some clear limits-at some time we will have to face death, and that the longer we live the older our bodies get, and that if you lie long enough you will get caught, etc. etc.

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Personal Christian belief is based on a strong sense of morality and deciding what you believe is right and what you believe is wrong. No one can do this for you. If you feel in your heart of hearts that something is wrong, don't do it, and don't support someone else in doing it. But on the other hand, everyone has the chance to take responsibility for there own actions and must face God on their own. God is the ultimate judge of who is a Christian and who is not. Until you face God you will have to look at your own chosen beliefs and listen to your own "inner voices" and do the best you can in all given situations. When you feel you have goofed up, ask for forgiveness and work hard to stay on track.

As far as living a life without sin, that is an impossible task. Remember God must have created everything, both good and bad, and must have had a reason in mind. For every positive their is a negative, for Warm days we also have cold days, for Day we also have Night. Even though we are awake part of the day, we must also sleep part of the day. For good food we have great tastes, but if we don't control our food desires we gain weight. All life includes, challenges, rewards, risks and losses, this is all part of God's plan. No one is capable of absolute perfection, and criticizing yourself, putting yourself down and feeling bad about it over and over is not doing anything active to help God's plan. Just do the best you can, read the Bible, help others when you can, tell the truth and ask for guidance. By doing this, you will, in my opinion have as good a chance of being a good Christian as any other method.

One thing I know is true for me is, as a Christian you can't just hide from pain and challenge and not be involved or do things to help people. You have a commitment to do your best to live a good life and accept the challenges God puts in front of you. Clearly, well focused and directed Christian efforts have made impressive differences in our world for the positive for many people. Houses have been built for the poor, aged have received care, many hungry have been fed and so on. We try as a nation to reduce world suffering and feed the world, we may not agree on the methods, but it would seem to be a basically Christian intent to try our best to help feed the starving children of the world. But this struggle seems consistent with what God intended, that we would have to choose to work to overcome suffering, pain and hunger. You could say that God doesn't give you the keys to Heaven, you have to work to find them, and part of that work is to try your best to make heaven on earth.

Some people try to focus on the negative side of this whole picture by saying "Life's a bitch and then you die." I would rather say "LIFE'S A MIRACLE, AND THEN YOU LIVE FOREVER!" :)

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