“The Christian life can be explained only in terms of Jesus Christ,
and if your life as a Christian can still be explained in terms of
you-your personality, your willpower, your gift, your talent, your
money, your courage, your scholarship, your dedication, your
sacrifice, your anything-then although you may have the
Christian life, you are not yet living it.”
~Ian Thomas
Can you be a Christian without living out a Christ filled life?
I don’t believe you can. In James 2, it is clearly spelled out. Starting in verse 14 and going through 17:
“What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them ‘Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?’
Even so faith, if it hath not works is dead, being alone.”
Are you walking/living in the spirit? Does your life look any different the those around you? Do people know when they pass you on the street that you are a follower of Jesus Christ? Or do you just blend in with everyone else and simply go with the flow?
God calls us to be different! He calls us to stand out! He calls us to shine His light and make a difference. We can’t help anyone if there really isn’t a difference from our lives to theirs. Do you have a life that shows hope and radiates God’s love and peace?
Can people see a difference in You?
Do your words and your actions line up or do you just talk the talk and forget about the walk? If you really have something people will be able to see it. Do you live the same way throughout the week as you do on Sundays?
OK. All that is pretty much the outward stuff. Appearances. But what about your heart? Do you follow God’s commands so that you wont get His punishments or so you will get His blessing? Or do you do it because God asks you to and you love Him so much you want to obey Him? Where is you heart in all this? Is you heart really in it or do you just kinda put on the act? Oh, by the way, do you know what the Greek word for actor is? Hypocrite. We all know what God thinks of them. Could that describe you at all? I’m sure in some ways it could describe me, I’m included in all this. I’m asking you these things not to judge or condemn, but to get you to look inside yourself. Do you live what you believe and do you believe what you live? I would encourage you to go ask God right now to show the areas in you life that don’t line up or that aren’t pleasing to Him. Be open and broken before Him and He will show you. There may even be things you don’t want to hear or see about yourself, so how concerned are you with being where God wants you to be?
“I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord. Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.” Psalm 40:1-4
Great Post!
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