From the first post on What is a Christian, my understanding about being a Christian is one who acknowledges
his/her sins before God and asks for His forgiveness in repentance, through the Saving Grace of Jesus Christ, as that person becomes born again in the spirit, for it is only through Jesus that we can go to the Father.
Jesus said to him, “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” – John 14:6 , Jesus Comforts His Disciples – (John 14:1-6)
And
3 Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; 2 this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” – John 3:1-3 , The New Birth – (John 3:1-21)
What does it mean to BELIEVE in Jesus Christ?
Because that is how you become a “follower” of Christ, when you actually “believe” in Him, first.
A “follower” is what? One who believes AND obeys.
36 He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” – John 3:36 , John’s Last Testimony – (John 3:22-36)
Most people believe there is a God.
Most people even believe in the Name of Jesus, but the level of belief could just be synonymous to knowing the name of the president of one’s country.
You may know the “name” but you actually do not know the person.
“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day.” – John 6:44 , Words to the Jews – (John 6:41-58)
23 Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. 24 He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.” – John 14:23-24 , Role of the Spirit – (John 14:16-31)
“Keep” or “obey” . Obey what?
Remember the ten commandments? Those are God’s laws.
In the bible, Jesus said this …
A Tree and Its Fruit
“Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? 17 So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 So then, you will know them by their fruits.21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’– Matthew 7:21-23 , A Tree and Its Fruit – (Matthew 7:15-20)
Those who practice “lawlessness” in the sense that those who do not follow God’s laws (embodied in the ten commandments).
There is an abundance of prosperity preachers these days, the name it and claim it people, who mislead people into giving up their money so these preachers can build bigger buildings, bigger houses, travel in their own private jets, or pay themselves ridiculously high salaries from people’s donations, people’s “tithes”.
Yes God tells His people to “tithe” and give to God’s work, or give to the poor and needy. (Prosperity preachers usually quote a verse from the book of Malachi, but if you actually read the entire Book of Malachi, you will see that the rebuke was actually directed to the priests!)
False prophets delude people into giving it to them instead, with people thinking they are giving it to the “church”.
Whose church?
What type of church?
How do these churches spend it? In advertisements? Fat salaries? Cruises? Nice expensive clothes? How much of our donations actually go to the people who need our help the most?
Do these tithes help those who were supposed to be helped by it, like the poor, orphans or widows?
Or do the “tithes” go to the salaries of “church staff” building, etc. first?
Just call it for the “fundraiser that it actually is”. Just ask for “donations”. That way, people can and will actually give their money to you like a “cheerful giver” would, that God actually loves.
Guilting people into giving money is a demonic diabolical strategy by some “preachers” because it is just outright extortion directed towards these desperate and hurting people. When they quote the Book of Malachi, they dare NOT teach the whole book of Malachi, which was a direct rebuke to priests!
I even saw a video of a famous present day “preacher” who preached that those who do not tithe, are opening the doors to demons.
And what kind of demonic fear-mongering is that?
42 “But woe to you Pharisees! For you pay tithe of mint and rue and every kind of garden herb, and yet disregard justice and the love of God; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.” – – Luke 11:42
46 “But He said, “Woe to you lawyers as well! For you weigh men down with burdens hard to bear, while you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers.” – Luke 11:46
One would also notice, that in each “service”, the call to “pay tithes”, or to give them money, usually gets presented at the beginning of the service. To get it out of the way.
It’s like watching a movie, a concert, or a play, pay first.
A new believer will have these types of questions, and then when they realize they have been duped into something, and misled (the Holy Spirit will guide true believers, those who Christ actually DRAWS unto Himself, and will expose this type of darkness in some establishments called “churches”) and of course these new believers will get turned off.
Turned off by this type of business that these prosperity preachers are running masquerading it as “Christianity”.
That is NOT Christianity.
And those preachers are NOT Christians. They are NOT followers of Christ but followers of satan – the greatest deceiver of all. Their god is mammon, money.
Parable of the Good Shepherd
“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. 2 But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 A stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.” – John 10:1-5 , Parable of the Good Shepherd – (John 10:1-21)
Why did Jesus teach the parable of the “Good Shepherd”? Because there are bad shepherds.
And no wonder there are a lot of people wandering, sheep without a shepherd.
As a Christian, you will sense “something is wrong”, and Jesus will reveal the “Truth” to you, one way or the other, and then when you study your bible, you will find EXACT scripture that will help you understand this human condition all the more, how other people succumb to the temptation of evil and deceive other people for money or dishonest gains.
“Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” – John 17:17 , The Disciples in the World – (John 17:13-21)
In the religion I grew up with, in the private religious schools I attended, my inquisitive nature got me always in trouble because I asked difficult questions because I really wanted to learn.
“Why do we have to say this “prayer” over and over again? Will God hear us if we just keep at it, over and over again?”
“Why do we have to kneel to this statue? Put flowers on it and candles? Is that God?”
“Why do we have to pray this note for nine days and ‘offering our soul’ to this dead person so that he / she can act in our behalf and tell God or Jesus to grant our wish? Doesn’t that insult the divinity of God?”
“Aren’t we supposed to just pray to God? One God? And not let the prayer get coursed through someone else who died many years ago? Isn’t that God’s top commandment, to just love God, above all, and to NOT have other gods except Him? Because when we pray to a statue, don’t we make that statue a god? An idol?”
“If we pray to a dead person, isn’t that necromancy? Or witchcraft and delving into the occult which is an abomination to God?”
Hmmmm.
“No, it’s the hand us down religion. Just believe. Just believe. And follow the ritual, or else… you’ll spend more time in purgatory.”
Nope.
God is a good God.
He will make Himself known.
He will draw people to Him.
He will shine His Truth to people who seek Him and who wants to know Him, in reverence.
And at times of real trouble, it is actually THEN that people want to know and believe that there IS a God.
A One True God.
A God who saves people from the deception of the devil.
The deception of false religions and false prophets and false teachers.
Whether or not people believe Him, He IS.
He is the Alpha and the Omega.
The start and the end.
And God cannot be mocked.
I had to unlearn all of the false doctrines I was bombarded with before.
No wonder I was confused. I was in hell!
Christians do not serve a God of confusion. And He created all of us in His image and of course His Will is to save all of us.
With God, there is peace, even amidst chaos, or war, or famine or hurricanes.
And one does not have to be a bible scholar or have a PhD in theology to share the truth about Christ.
Look at Jesus’ disciples. Some of them were fishermen, former tax collectors, sinners. They didn’t attend seminary.
And I love that Jesus told that parable about the servants who owed their master a whole lot of money, and then He asked, who do you think would love the master more, the one with fewer debts or the one with more debts? And so the ones who owed more, and were forgiven, they loved the master more.
I remember one “persecution” I received after I got born again, because I started talking about Jesus and was having a very informative inspiring debate among other people. This relative said, “won’t you just shut up about your born again Jesus, look at you! You are this! and that!” a whole lot of nastiness and hurtful words. And all I could say to that was “Sorry, I can’t help it. If you have Jesus within you in your soul, you can’t help but share Him and His goodness and how He saved me and helped me and will be continuing to help me for the rest of my life. I am no longer alone. I am not out to convert anyone here, that’s God’s job. I just want them to read their bible and let God’s words speak to them like how I learned about God too.”
People will rain on your parade, as a Christian. (Good thing I like the rain! :-))
And if you are a baby Christian, new in the faith, you might stumble here and there and doubt yourself, but stay strong, be in fellowship with other believers, because, like what Paul said “iron sharpens iron”.
Pray for a “bigger faith”. It’s in God’s will that we grow in our faith in Him, so He will grant that prayer.
Jesus said to His disciples “You of little faith” .. which means, yes, we can have “bigger faith”. That would take time. People get born again in the Spirit, of course there will be that growing phase, in the Spirit.
Because we all were born with a sinful nature, and the only way we can battle that sinful nature, is if we get saved by Jesus so that we can be “spiritually equipped” to deal with all the temptations that the devil will throw at us for the rest of our lives.
That’s what it means to “walk with God” – that we seek Him daily, that we “pray without ceasing” and that He is always in our thoughts.
That’s why in the Bible, there’s also the teaching on putting ON, the Full Armor of God. (The Armor of God – (Ephesians 6:10-24))
Because once you become a born again Christian, then you have to be prepared for the spiritual battle that you will face. Because you WILL.
But you will never face it alone. No one can separate us from the love of God.
So are you a Christian? I ask myself that. I have learned to have an audience of one. I can never and will never want to please people, or everyone. I want to please God, and want to learn how to be the person that He wants me to be, that will give Him glory and honor.
Of course I fail from time to time, but I always get up because God will not allow me to stay down for long. I cannot explain the inner peace and inner joy I have, despite my many problems. That is God’s grace. That is God’s protection. That is God’s provision.
And I so pray that other people would come to know that and experience that too. That’s what God wants.
34 And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. 35 For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it.“ – Mark 8:34-35