For me, in simple terms, a Christian is a follower of Jesus Christ.
These days we have watered down the term “follower” because in social media, we can follow someone with a “click”. And then when that person posts something, we get notified via email.
If we even read our emails anymore, everything is automated. Impersonal. Detached.
The term “Christian” is also used as a “religious” description. It’s like a nationality, where do you belong, what part of the world did you come from. It’s used like a “label”. But to the truest sense of the term, the word “Christian”, when used as a label, doesn’t mean anything.
It’s just the way mankind may be able to label you. Kind of like if you are an American, or Asian, or Japanese, or Canadian, or Indian, etc. Yeah, one can be a Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Atheist, etc. There may be perks to having a certain type of nationality – traveling perks, etc. Belonging to a certain type of man-made religion may “group” you into a body of “doctrines” that a member of that religion must follow and live up to. It’s belonging somewhere.
But the label doesn’t describe the essence of what it is to be a Christian. To be worthy to be called a follower of Jesus Christ.
A whole lot of people who call themselves Christians, may have been born into such a family who practiced the “rituals” of Christianity. And then be just as lost and confused as an unbeliever.
A Christian is a follower of Jesus Christ.
One cannot follow anyone they do not like.
One cannot follow anyone they do not know.
One cannot follow anyone they do not respect.
God draws people to Him. God sends people, or resources, to share God’s gospel to them.
And those who seek Him, will find Him.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”
– John 3:16 (NASB), The New Birth – (John 3:1-21)
We see this quote everywhere. A whole lot of Christians share it.
But until , and UNTIL, God breaks one’s hardened heart, can that message actually sink in, in the life of that person.
We can’t impress God. We can’t fool God. He knows us inside out.
God knows we are imperfect. God knows that left to our own, there’ll be perpetual chaos. Such is the god-less world we live in now.
Being a “follower” has requirements.
If we follow traffic rules, or government rules or school rules, that “may” make us a good citizen or student, but we may just be following such rules so that we don’t get penalized, or so we can get the diploma, but is our “heart” in it? Or do we do it just to stay out of trouble? Or to try to subscribe and conform to what everybody else is doing?
What are God’s rules? There’s just 10. Ten! And they are God’s commandments, they’re not just mere suggestions:
1) Love God above all. You shall have no other gods. (Exodus 20:3)
2) You shall not use the name of the Lord God in vain. (Exodus 20:7)
3) You shall honor the Sabbath and make it holy. (Exodus 20:8)
4) You shall honor your parents. (Exodus 20:12)
5) You shall not kill. (Exodus 20:13)
6) You shall not commit adultery. (Exodus 20:14)
7) You shall not steal. (Exodus 20:15)
8) You shall not bear false witness. (Exodus 20:16)
9) You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. (Exodus 20:17)
10) You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods. (Exodus 20:17)
Let me look up the exact scripture:
The Ten Commandments
Then God spoke all these words, saying,
2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 3 “You shall have no other gods before Me. 4 “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.
8 “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10 but the seventh day is a sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. 11 For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and made it holy.
12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you.
13 “You shall not murder.
14 “You shall not commit adultery.
15 “You shall not steal.
16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
-Exodus 20:1-17 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
And there we go… these rules have been around since the Old Testament days.
And humanity still always would fall short of it!
And then we wonder …
… why aren’t my prayers being heard?
Separation from God
59 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not so short
That it cannot save;
Nor is His ear so dull
That it cannot hear.
2 But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God,
And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.
3 For your hands are defiled with blood
And your fingers with iniquity;
Your lips have spoken falsehood,
Your tongue mutters wickedness.
4 No one sues righteously and no one pleads honestly.
They trust in confusion and speak lies;
They conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity.
– Isaiah 59:1-4 (NASB), Evil and Oppression – (Isaiah 59:1-13) KJV
God is not our bellhop, that when we pray, He grants immediately. That’s having something like a “microwave mentality”.
That we sin against this Holy God and then expect Him to hear our prayers, just because we prayed.
No His hands are not too short!
Can you imagine that? A God with short hands? I actually laughed so hard when I heard about that verse of scripture the first time, and then I looked it up and studied it more, I was just laughing at myself and how foolish I have been all these years!
I foolishly and erroneously thought before that when I prayed for something, and He doesn’t grant it, that “maybe there was no God.” How foolish I was!
It took a man of God to share such a scripture, to plant that seed in me to actually WANT to look it up myself in my bible.
He hears our prayers when we come to Him through Jesus in repentance of our sins first.
That we acknowledge and reverence Him as God, first. Our God.
I guess some of my prayers in the past didn’t even reach as high up to the ceiling because I then had iniquity, some sin in my life, that God wanted me to take care of first. Back then I didn’t even know how to pray right! (And Jesus taught how we should pray). How do we know that we have broken God’s rules?
Do we even know God’s rules?
How?
Go through that 10 commandments above, SEE and you will KNOW for yourself, because only you will know, if you have broken any of God’s 10 commandments, His rules.
Not the government’s, not the school’s rules. The Holy God’s rules, the one who created you and cause your heart to beat, and your eyes to see these words on your screen.
Then what?
REPENT.
What is repentance? It’s our acknowledgement of wrong doing, acknowledgement of a mistake, acknowledgement of our sin, AND apologizing and asking for God’s forgiveness AND not doing the same old sin or mistake again.
Ever wonder why we all keep on doing the same old mistake over and over again? Almost like an addiction?
It’s called slavery. We humans are slaves to sin. Repetitive sins.
When you read the bible enough, you will learn about “evil strongholds”, about demon possession (yes demons are real, just look at how much evil there is around us! Crimes and such!)
That’s why we need a Savior.
A Lord and Savior.
That’s why Jesus our Saviour said this …
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”
– John 3:16 (NASB), The New Birth – (John 3:1-21)
If we believe, follow, obey Jesus, and ask for His help, to save us from our sins, He Will!
Because it IS God’s Will to save all of us!
God will draw us to Him.
He could use people, resources, a blog post, a forum, SOMETHING, to get you to want to know Him.
But because we are all sinful, even if we pray, because of our inquities, unless we repent and turn from our wicked ways, He won’t hear us.
Jesus said this..
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 (NASB). Jesus Comforts His Disciples – (John 14:1-6)
Being Born Again
A follower of Christ, a Christian, is one who has been born again.
Sorry, there’s no other version or denomination of Christianity. Jesus said so.
3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”
4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” – John 3:3-5 (NASB), The New Birth – (John 3:1-21)
One doesn’t become a Christian because they’ve been sprinkled water as a baby. They may have been “dedicated” or “offered” as a baby. But doing that ritual doesn’t make a baby a Christian.
Following Christ is a personal decision.
A personal informed decision.
An acknowledgement that one needs saving from his or her own sins. Bondage of sin. The slavery of sin.
God does not want us to be or to remain slaves of sin. Because He knows it hurts US.
Being born again is like being born again as a “spiritual baby”, and like any birth, there is a process. There’s pregnancy of 9 months gestation, and then the time of birth.
When I became born again, I guess I was already in hell that time with no where else to go. But I knew in my heart of hearts that there was a God, I was born into another religion and how I was taught about God is one that was so far from who God really is.
And it wasn’t the God of the bible I was first indoctrinated with. It was a god of rituals, a god who I can’t pray to directly, because I have to go through a woman or a saint, declared as so by a church.
You have to memorize prayers like incantations and pray them over and over again as if that would impress God that you memorized those prayers! It was a religion of, if you sin, you confess to another person and then that person tells you to pray some prayer repetitively, and then you can trust that you’re forgiven. Well supposedly. Until you repetitively sin that same old sin again.
I had way too many questions growing up and when I became born again, it was a real personal choice, a real personal cleansing, and becoming.
A born again Christian may have like an “instant” change. I have seen people who have been “delivered” instantly from whatever it is that they are in bondage of.
Mine was from my heart getting cleansed. My hardened heart getting changed. My sense of understanding deepening as I read the bible and seemingly the Word, God’s Words seem like they are popping out of the pages!
God is a personal God. He is not a customizable god, He IS Almighty God.
As a follower of Christ, expect to be mocked, ridiculed, ostracized, misjudged, called names, etc. etc.
And I really am ALL FINE with that.
That’s the mystery of God’s saving grace..
He teaches a follower what to say …
It took two years after I registered this domain name that I am putting content here again. Trying again. The previous CMS got spammed big time. And then life happened. This website project got shelved. My behind the scenes Christian activities didn’t.
I was afraid to be publishing my thoughts again. I felt unworthy. I felt like I wasn’t ready. I am not a bible scholar.
But a couple of days ago, in deep prayer for someone else’s Dad, it was like THIS website was once again brought to my mind by God.
He gave me tech skills. He has delivered me from the bondage of slavery and sin. He has used other people in my past to plant those seeds of faith in me, and it grew.
If this website can share in the good seeds worth sharing, then it is all worth it.
This website is not about me.
It is about the Jesus Christ I follow.
And that to me, is what a Christian is.
Someone who has put everything at the foot of the cross, and have decided to listen and obey Jesus when He said
“Come, Follow Me.”
Prayer
“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
9 “This, then, is how you should pray:
“‘Our Father in heaven,
Holy be Your Name,
10 Your Kingdom come,
Your Will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.’14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.“ – Matthew 6:5-14
Amen.
.