What it Means to Be a Christian

submitted: Jul 31st 2008 | by: Cindy - Administrator | Total views: 40 | Word Count: 632 | PDF View | Print Article

By Cindy L Hamilton

Do you know what it means to live your life as a Christian? Christianity isn't a "feeling" or "something to be"; it is a way of life. It means to give your life over to God who sacrificed His only Son so that we might not perish. To be a Christian means to have faith, and believe without actually seeing. So many people grow up in homes that proclaim to be Christian, but their lifestyle and their actions proclaim just the opposite.

Many people, who have been raised in one of those "so-called" Christian homes, may think that because their family claims to be Christian, that automatically makes them a Christian. That is so far from the truth. Becoming a Christian is a personal choice that only individuals can make for themselves. A Christian is actually a person who has accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and ruler over their life. They are no longer a slave to sin, but rather a slave to righteous living and to God. I am sure it sounds very barbaric for me to use the word "slave" in this day and age, but it says the following in Romans 8:15-18 (New Living Translation):

15 Well then, since God's grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not! 16 Don't you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. 17 Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you. 18 Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.

In order to be a slave to righteousness, you will need to set your standard of living to the highest expectations of yourself. You need to hold yourself accountable so that you can make choices that are Godly and not of this world. Speaking of this world, we now live in a very dark world that is becoming more volatile by the day. Whenever you turn on the news or read the news online, you hear of earthquakes, famine, wars, violence, viruses, floods... you name it! I have a home page that brings up world news from various venues, and each and every day it still shocks me to the core what I have been reading. Every day there is some new tragedy that I read about and it makes me sad to know that many of the souls that have perished, did not know the Lord.

So again, I ask you, "What does it mean to live your life as a Christian?" My answer is this: To live your life as a Christian means to be a light in a dark place, to comfort and teach the lost, to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ without shame; and to live a life that is transparent to the world, so that you can be found blameless before your accusers. To be a Christian means to speak out in love and to lift up souls and not to condemn or tear them down. To be of Christ, you will know that your salvation is intact and that you are born again because you know that your Savior died for your sins. You will know that he is the Son of God who was raised from the dead, and that one day he will return to this earth to take you home. Again I say, "To be a Christian is not a feeling, or something to be; it is a way of life." Period.

About the Author

Cindy was born and raised in Northern California, and now resides in Northern Delaware. She is owner and administrator of WomansInfo, an online women's magazine. She spends a lot of her free time dedicated to helping other women in as many ways as possible. As a Christian, Cindy also spends time sharing her faith through some of the Christian sites that she developed. Here are a couple of those sites: http://www.christians-today.com and http://www.onfire4jesus.info


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