Title: 
Calling Yourself a Christian

Word Count:
662

Summary:
Having found Jesus is a beautiful thing.Your life seems to have meaning. You've seem to have found something that brings you great joy and happiness. Your loneliness and emptiness have disappeared. Praise the Lord.


Keywords:
trust God, I trust, God only, Jesus lives, family, family values, love your neighbor, father, mother, children, forgiveness, confession, antichrist, rapture, end days


Article Body:
Having found Jesus is a beautiful thing.Your life seems to have meaning. You've seem to have found something that brings you great joy and happiness. Your loneliness and emptiness have disappeared. Praise the Lord. 

Anyone that has accepted Jesus in their heart is considered to be a follower of Jesus Christ. So, when anyone asks you, "Are you a Christian?", certainly you're going to reply, "yes, I am". Now there is a big responsibility in calling yourself a Christian. One needs to know that in calling yourself a Christian, you are representing the ministry that Jesus started. Not any of the chuches that exist, but the ministry of Jesus Christ. The danger of this is, is that by not living up to the standards of what Jesus laid out for us to follow we could very well give God a black eye. Let me explain. People are going to be people, and if they see the opportunity to make themselves feel good about themselves, they will. What it is, is that people like to point fingers. And when it comes to religion, they will convince themselves of things like Christians are a bunch of hypocrites and why would I want to become one of them or look at the Catholic priests that are molesting little boys. What about the Muslims? Certainly they're not all terrorists, yet have one come around and people begin to judge them without even getting to know them. Understand what I'm trying to get at. 

People love dirty laundry. It seems that the worse it is, the better for them. I'm definetly not denying that I haven't been there myself pointing fingers. It seems like we need to do this, so that we can feel a little better about ourselves and not have to really see who we really are. We can be quick to judge others, but when it comes to ourselves, forget it. You have to remember that people are always watching you. Not so much as to be in waiting for you to slip up, but your conduct. If they see a mild mannered, polite, easy going person that is kind and cosiderate then that's what they're going to see. But if they see a rude, nasty, foul mouthed, angry person then that is what they are going to see. 

It's not so much as to be concerned about you calling yourself a Christian, but it would be better that they call you a Christian. That is what brings Glory to God. The best thing that you want people to see in you is the good. No one wants to be considered evil, but who and what you are in Gods eyes is what is really going to matter. Here's an example: I do alot of driving everyday at work. I see people with the fish sign on their car.To me they're advertising the fact that they are a Christian. What gets me is the way they drive. Speeding, cutting people off and so on. Now I'm sure that there's people that don't know the Lord yet, saying things like, "look at that maniac and he's supposed to be a Christian?" Whoops, there goes another black eye for God. 

I just basically want you to see what harm can be done. We really need to be cautious about how we represent ourselves. If you want to be humble and someone asks you if you are a Christian. Just tell them that your faith is in Jesus Christ, He is our Savior and that you try to follow Him as best as you can, but you are not without fault. Then when you do mess up, no one gets hurt. A Christian is a follower of Christ, a disciple. If you want to see what Jesus requires of one to be a disciple of His, look up these scriptures. Luke 6:46-49 - Luke 14:26,27 & 33 - John 8:31-34 - John 13:34,35 - John 15:8.  May God BlessYou All.