I no longer identify myself as a Christian.
In today’s society, the term Christian describes a lot of things, and I am not one of them. The Gospel, the reason for my faith, has been changed, and is no longer the Gospel. The thing that I believe, the power of Jesus Christ is being left out of church.
There are a lot of people who attend church and call themselves followers of Christ, but it was the same in the days that Jesus walked the earth, and this is how he addressed them. Luke 14: 25-33
We love the prosperity Gospel today, but that is not something that exists. The Gospel, is the only Gospel. Read Galatians 1. Paul addresses legalism, because only a few years after Jesus, the Churches of Galatia were persuaded by false teachers to embrace a legalistic Gospel. Paul says that it is no Gospel at all.
How much more, have we let our perspective govern our faith a few thousand years later. If it is in the bible, that is truth. Truth is truth whether you believe it or not.
I have heard from people that I can’t change the world, and they are right. But the Holy Spirit inside me can use me as a vessel to do so. Jesus said that as a disciple, I will do even greater things than he. (John 14: 12-14) I believe in the power of the cross of Jesus Christ.
So in today’s standards, no I am not a Christian. I am a disciple of Christ.
I am not saying that there are not true Christian disciples in the world today, but I will say that the name has been diluted and the meaning skewed. I am willing to accept what it means to be a disciple, the words from the mouth of Jesus in Luke describe the cost, and I am willing to pay. To live is Christ to die is gain. I confess with my mouth, and believe in my heart. These are what is true.
The Gospel.
The most beautiful story ever told, about the most heroic, committed, courageous, compassionate man who ever lived, the God-man Jesus Christ.
It starts in Genesis, and moves all the way to revelation.
God created the heavens and the earth, He made everything that you can see, smell, taste, feel, everything. Then he made man and woman in his image, and the world was perfect. God gave us paradise, there was no pain, no suffering, just paradise. To have a truly loving relationship, He gave us the ability to choose him. He gave us one rule. Then the serpent came, Satan, the devil, Lucifer, whatever you may call him. He came and deceived man and polluted our vision of God. The devil may have deceived us, but it was still our choice to disobey our heavenly Father. So man ate of the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
We gave up paradise, it was not taken from us, we freely gave it up.
When we chose to disobey God, sin entered the world. Adam and Eve’s sin has been passed down to anyone born of an earthly father. While we were in the womb, we had sin inside of us.
Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and have fallen short of the glory of God.
Romans 6: 23 For the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
We have earned death because of our actions. The term sin can be related to archery, it means to miss the mark. We have missed God’s mark of perfection, and because of this, we must surely die. It is what we EARNED.
Romans 5: 8 But God demonstrates his love for us in this, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
You are saved by works. Let me repeat that, you are saved by WORKS. They are not your works though. What you do to make yourself closer to God is not worthy of anything. The works we try to do to try and make ourselves closer to him are like menstrual rags. We are saved by the WORKS of JESUS. He is the way the truth and the light, no one gets to the Father, but through him.
God sent his one and only son to die, and when Jesus died on the cross, if you believe in him, he takes every wrong things you’ve ever done, are doing, and will do, and they died with him on the cross. God sees where you are struggling, He suffers with you, and He longs to bring you healing. He is so loving, that while we were still rejecting him, while we were spitting in his face, beating him, cursing him, he willingly sacrificed his life for us, so we could once again have a perfect relationship with him.
Romans 10: 9-10 For if you confess with your mouth “Jesus Christ is Lord” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, then your will be saved. For it is with the heart that we believe and are justified, and it is with the mouth that we confess and are saved.
God wants us to be with him. He wants us to eternally dance with his spirit. He gave us a way to Himself. He wants to guide us and love us, and show us his affection. believe in your heart and confess with your mouth. To confess means to agree with God.
Romans 10: 13 For anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Embrace him, and he will embrace you.
2 Corinthians 5: 17
If you believe in the Cross of Jesus, and are a true disciple, the only question left, is what are you going to do about it?
I don’t post this out of anger or conceit, I write this out of conviction the Spirit has presented to my heart. If any of this bothers you, I encourage you to email me, and I would love to talk.
