Weekend Scripture Gold with Bibi: To Be A Christian

God calls His children: Saints because of their character, Disciples because they are learners, Believers because of their Faith, Brethren because of their relationship, Christians because of their birth in Christ. 
-Anonymous

To desire to be a Christian is to desire to be a child of God, to be a person in a personal relationship with God. To become a Christian is to partake in the actual event of receiving God the Holy Spirit within our own human spirit, therefore creating a new Spiritual life inside of us. It is this spiritual life that unites us and makes us a child of God our Father.

In other words Christianity is not an idea nor a philosophy. Christianity is an event, specifically the event of God giving us each personally a new spiritual birth. This new birth is also called the "Born Again" or "Born from Above" event.

(John 3:3) Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. (2 Corinthians 5:17) Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new.

Christianity is the series of actual events that are occurring throughout history

The Bible tells us what the basic series of events are that make Christianity real time events and not ideas or philosophies about life. God created mankind to live forever so that we can get to know God forever.

Mankind disobeyed God and entered into a relationship with sin and with sin came death (separation from God). Mankind is now separated from God. God as Jesus then came to mankind by taking on the form and appearance of a human. God became a human to interact with us on our human level. God's entrance into the physical world as the physical person Jesus was accomplished via the virgin birth by Mary.

Jesus then died on the cross. Sin requires death and only through death can sin be completely removed. To die is the end and fortunately for us the death of Jesus on the cross is the end of sin as it is His death that we acknowledge was for us. Sin is dead and never to be resurrected again. Three days later Jesus resurrected from death to life providing the opportunity for a new spiritual life for us in the resurrection life of Jesus.

(1 Corinthians 15:1-4) Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.

Gospel means "good news." Eternal life in the resurrection life of Jesus Christ is the "good news" of Christianity.

Since Jesus died for us there is only one thing for us to do and that is to accept what Jesus did for us. This is called faith and trust. We have faith that Jesus is alive even after He suffered and died. We have faith that the same resurrection life that Jesus now lives we too also live.

Faith is a wonderful thing! Faith is trust, we trust Jesus. Faith excludes works. It would seem natural to have to do something in order to gain the attention of God however we don't. We already have God's attention. What God desires is for us to have a personal relationship with Him. We can only have a relationship when we acknowledge the existence of the other person, in this case God.

When should we acknowledge God and become a Christian?

The Bible tells us that we are created to get to know God and that every moment in life is an opportunity to know Him. God wants very much for each and every person to acknowledge and to accept Him.

(2 Corinthians 6:1-2) We then, as workers together with Him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. For He saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succored (helped/aided) thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

In the bible when people became Christians they took action, they got baptized in water, fellowshipped with other Christians, prayed and read the bible and served and proclaimed Jesus to others. They also took the very important step of destroying in fire the elements of their past life that are unpleasing to God.

It is important to rid our lives of the old unpleasing ways and that means destroying whatever does not glorify God. Sometimes it's drugs, pornography, music, movies, books or clothing. Whatever it is, destroy it in acknowledgment that it has been destroying your soul and your relationship with God.

To become a Christian is to acknowledge that Jesus is God and to acknowledge that Jesus is Alive and with us at every moment. To acknowledge God is to talk to God, this is called prayer.  -Special thanks to David Anson Brown

Now, let's pray...

O Father, give us the humility which realizes its ignorance, admits its mistakes, recognizes its need, welcomes advice, accepts rebuke. Help us always to praise rather than to criticize, to sympathize rather than to discourage, to build rather than to destroy, and to think of people at their best rather than at their worst. This we ask for in thy name's sake. Amen

Until next time...

Have a blessed week!

Bibi