What is a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ? A Christian is a person who had a personal encounter with the Christ and who had made a decision to accept Christ as the LORD of his/her life.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!1) A Christian has made a choice to accept Jesus as the Lord in the heart. By the act of will, one must say, “Yes, I will receive Christ.”
2) A change must take place in a Christian; a change in one’s attitude towards God and towards his/her neighbors. If there’s no change, no fruit in your life, then you need to doubt if you have really received Christ.
3) A christian has accepted a challenge, a challenge of Christ.
Then how to live the Christian life? Just believing and loving is not enough. You have to say “I will.” Like a marriage, it is only valid if I say “I do” by the act of my will. But this is not all. This is just a beginning, as a marriage is a work. I need to mature and to mature, I need to learn and live by the following five principles of the Christian life.
1) Pray: We need to spend definite time and space to pray. Prayer is a work, not something that we only do when we feel like it, but it is an appointment, an interview with God.
2) Read the Bible: Word of God is the food of our souls. We spend a lot of time feeding our bodies but none for our souls when it is our souls that live on after our bodies die? Read the Bible, for God has a message for you every time you open the Bible. Read the Bible with reverence, expectancy, dependence, and adequate time.
3) Have a disciplined life: Christian life takes discipline, renunciation, and sometimes hardship. Bible uses words like “fight”, “wrestle”, “run”, “work”, “suffer”, “resist”, “endure”, “agonize”, “put to death”… Discipline your mind/thoughts, your tongue, and your bodies.
4) Go to church: Christian fellowship is not optional but it is essential. We have the Great Church, which is the body of Christ, but it has local branches all over (Presbyterian, Methodist, Evangelical, Lutheran, Baptist, so on). God commanded it and you cannot live a victorious Christian life and have a peace and joy in your heart without faithfulness in your church. Stand with your church.
5) Witness for Christ: You are to witness for Christ by the way you live. Be a model for people. Let Christ live in you and radiate out through you. When people ask ‘what’s your secret?’, tell them ‘It’s Jesus Christ!’ Witness Jesus in everything you do; work for the glory of God. We are peculiar people, set apart to be Christ’s witness. Become a salt and light in your community. Let the people know where you stand for Christ.