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When you hear the word "Christian" what do you automatically think of? Many people especially the unsaved in this world have a very twisted view of what a Christian is. Christians are all sorts of shapes and sizes. We are of any age, race, nationality or gender. We are from all social, educational and financial classes. Christians have all kinds of personalities, interests, talents, gifts, weaknesses and strengths. The world likes to think that if we are a Christian we can't enjoy music, dance, we can't be successful business people, we can't be beautiful and dress in the most fashionable trendy clothes, or show enjoyment about anything in this world. The world likes to think of us as plain Jane wallflowers who are quiet, meek, weak, passive and somewhat ignorant. If they don't think of us that way then they feel we are trouble makers who are foolish and a little crazy. Christians do not have a good reputation in the world. When the truth is the diversities of personalities, gifts and talents in a Christians life is just like anyone else's. Some Christians have outspoken aggressive personalities and some have quiet passive personalities. We are people just like anyone else. We have likes and dislikes just like anyone else. There are many people who have prayed the sinners prayer and accepted Jesus as Savior with their mouth but in their heart they refuse to surrender to the lifestyle that Jesus requires from us. There are many people who pretend to be Christian by going to church or giving to charitable organizations. But inside their heart they do these things to showoff or try to make people think they are something they are not. The church is full of people like this. Alot of people say they are Christians when they really are not. Watch people's behavior. Listen to their words. Observe people when they think no one else is watching and listening to them. People's true self will show sooner or later. Don't rush into a trusting relationship with anyone. Don't let the fact that someone goes to church or wears a cross around their neck fool you. One of the hardest things about being a Christian is knowing who to trust and not trust. It is trying to look past people's exterior and see people's true heart. The bible says in 2 Corinthians 11:14, "..For Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light." Satan's priority everyday minute of the day is to hurt God's children. He steals, kills and destroys. Satan works through people just like you and I. Satan likes to work through those who on the outside look like beautiful, trusting angels, but on the inside they are a mighty force for Satan's work. Be careful who you trust your life with. Matthew 7:15, "..they come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravishing wolves." My grandma used to say don't judge a book by it's cover. Some things and some people are not the way they appear to be. People will show their true self sooner or later. If you give them enough rope they will hang themselves. Matthew 10:16, "Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves; be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves." Luke 10:3, "..I send you forth as Lambs among wolves." We as Christians have to be in this world everyday, so be cautious who you trust. Sometimes we forget that we got saved but the world did not. We are still surrounded by mean people who want to hurt us. God knows if you have made a sincere change in your heart or not. You can lie to yourself and to others but not to God. He knows who you really are. Mathew 7:20-23, "Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he that doth the will of My Father which is in Heaven. Many will say unto me in that day, Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name have done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from me ye that work iniquity." When we accept Jesus as Savior, we receive several things from God as a free gift. These free gifts from God are mainly spiritual things. We can not earn or buy our righteousness. That is a free gift from God. We can not earn or buy grace, mercy, love, or our Heavenly home. These are all free gifts from God. Some of the other things in life here on Earth, like material possessions, money, wealth and power, are things we earn from God as we grow and mature. This frustrates alot of new Christians because they think if they accept Jesus as Savior then God will come down here and erase all their problems and He doesn't. Some new Christians start to think of God as Santa Clause and they present Him with a wish list and when it doesn't happen quickly the way they want it to they get frustrated and bitter with God. God is not Santa Clause or a magic genie. He gives us riches wealth power as we grow and mature spiritually. God teaches Christians how to live godly lives, and solve our problems in a godly manner and acquire nice things in life. This takes time. Once you become a christian the work is just getting started. You have to change the way you talk, act and think. You can not acquire things in life and be the person God wants you to be without renewing your mind and controlling your thoughts. Just like it takes a child 18 years to mature physically as an adult, 12 years of schooling and at least 2-4 years of college training to be able to leave home and care for themselves; it takes time for a new Christian to grow spiritually into the responsible adult God wants you to be. The younger and earlier in life that you accept Jesus as Savior the younger you are to receive the advantages of being a child of God. Going to church does not make you a Christian. Getting water baptised does not make you a Christian. God does not like one religion better than another. When we accept the blood Jesus shed as our sacrifice for our sins, God comes to live inside of us. That is what makes us a Christian. God does not care what religion we choose to worship Him through, as long as Jesus is the foundation of the religion. Some people prefer the music, singing, dancing and talking in tongues of the pentecostals. Some like the quiet conservative atmosphere of the baptist. Some like the freedom of the catholics and non-denominational churches. Some like the strictness of the holiness and church of God. Whatever style appeals to you is alright with God. When you become a Christian your desire is to be around other children of God and be in God's presence as much as possible. Going to church puts us in that situation and enviroment. Acts 4:31, "... when they prayed the place was shaken where they were asssembled; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and they spake the word of God with boldness." Exodus 20:8, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." Deut 16:8, "..on the seventh day shall there be a solemn assembly to the Lord; thou shalt do no work therein." Hebrews 10:25, "...not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching." Matthew 18:20, "...for where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." When we come together as children of God, worshipping and praising Him then He is right there in the middle of us. We don't hurt God when we don't go to church, we only hurt ourselves. We are not doing God a favor when we go to church. We go to church and assemble ourselves together with other believers for our own sakes and our own good. We learn His laws and are reminded of His love and goodness. We need church to encourage us and give us the strength we need to make it through the week especially if we are having to work around worldly or sinful people all week. The world has a way of draining the joy and life out of us. We need to refuel on the power and spirit of God. Being a Christian takes much discipline. You must commit to a lifestyle change. The change is in your heart and mind, so that even when no one else is watching and you are all by yourself you still think, act and talk the way God expects HIS CHILDREN to behave. There is an old saying, "the measure of a man is not determined by his actions when everyone is watching and listening, it is determined by what he does in private when he thinks no one is watching and listening." The bible says in Romans 12:2(Amp),"Do not be conformed to this world, this age, fashioned after and adapted to it's external superfical customs, but be transformed, exchanged, by the entire renewal of your mind, by it's new ideals and it's new attitude, so that you may prove for yourself, what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect in His sight for you." When you become a Christian you get to work changing your thoughts words and actions to line up with what God expects from us as His children. You have to start reading the bible, which is your life handbook, so you know how God wants you to think, act and talk. Some people like the thought of being a Christian or they want to portray to others that they are a Christian but really inside they are not. They don't know for themselves what the bible says because they do not read it. And when no one is watching they still act like, talk like and think like all the other sinners out there. Some people want to be a Christian but they have these really cool, fun to be around partying friends that they want to keep and act just like them when they are with them. God does not want part time Christians. It is all or nothing with Him. You can't go to church on Sunday and live like Hell the rest of the week. People who do that are not really saved. You are going to stand before Him one day and He will say "I never knew you." God is looking for a family to have a real, sincere, personal, intimate, heart to heart relationship with. He wants a family who wants to be holy as He is holy. He wants us to talk to Him everyday, we do that in prayer. He wants us to thank Him and give Him credit for the great things in our lives and discuss our troubles and pain with Him as well. God is very concerned with every little thing in our lives and all the deep dark issues we have hidden deep in our hearts. Your life is not too messed up for God to fix. Do you have a bad marriage, bad kids or a horrible job? God can fix it. Have you murdered someone, raped someone, destroyed someone's life? God can fix it. Mathew 12:31, "All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men." You don't have to try to make yourself good before you come to Jesus. In fact you can't make yourself good before you come to Jesus. You come to Jesus JUST THE WAY YOU ARE, and then He will tell you what He wants you to do to fix things with Him and with the people we have hurt. God will not turn anyone away if we are truly sorry for our sins and truly willing to live a lifestyle that God requires from His children. God becomes our Father when we accept Jesus as Savior. Christians are children of God. God adopts us into His family. We now have the benefits of His name, His nature, His fortune and wealth, and His reputation. God wants a relationship with us like we have with our earthly Dad, but better. Alot of times our view of God is directly related to our relationship with our earthly Dad. If we had a hard strict earthly dad then we tend to view God that way. I was very blessed to have a Dad that loved me unconditionally and was always there to help me and encourage me. He was the most loving kind person I have ever met. My earthly Dad was not a poor man. He was able to give me everything I needed and 99% of anything I wanted. As great and loving as I know my earthly Dad was, God is 100 times better and more loving. I think of that when I sin or make foolish mistakes. My earthly Dad never rejected me, disowned me or kicked me out of the family if I made a mistake. And I made plenty of mistakes. He just kept on loving me and helped me see where I went wrong so I would not make the same mistakes again. God loves me and forgives me and helps me to recognize my faults so I can learn and be conscience to not do the same mistake again too. God has a story in the bible called "the prodigal son". It is found in Luke 15:11-32 if you would like to read the whole story. But the short version is there was a man with 2 sons. One wanted his inheritance from his dad. When he got it he squandered it and lived recklessly until it was all gone. When he came back to his fathers house to ask for help, he thought his dad would probably be upset with him and punish him and maybe even reject him, but his dad had a big party for him and celebrated his return. That was his son and even though he made some mistakes he still loved him and received him back with open arms. That is an analogy of how God feels about us, his children. Once we become His children, He will do whatever it takes to help us be the best we can be. He knows we will make mistakes along the way. He knows the world might entice us and get us off track on occaision, but He will not turn His back on us or kick us out of the family, He just keeps on loving us and helping us find our way. God loves His children. We should love our children and teach our children right from wrong the way God loves. We are going to slip up sometimes maybe even on a daily basis until we mature spiritually and learn to discipline our soul and our mouth and our body. God doen't stop loving you while you are learning no more than you would stop loving your children and kick them out of your life. If you have been done this way by a parent or maybe you have been a parent like that, you need to know and realize that was bad parenting and forgive and do better. God is not a bad parent. He is kind, forgiving, patient, concerned and interested in every little thing in your life. To God you are super special and He treats each one of His chidren as if we are His favorite. Just go ahead and tell yourself that you are God's favorite because that is what God thinks about you. You can't do anything to be separated from the love of God. Romans 8:38 & 39, "For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, not powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the Love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Once you have been sincerely adopted into the family of God then you are His forever. No demon in Hell or on Earth can snatch you out of God's hands and cause God to erase you from the Lambs book of Life. When you accept Jesus as Savior, the Holy Spirit of God Himself is birthed within you and joined to your soul. Your spirit and soul can not be separated. We are all born into this world as sinners with our souls joined with Satan. Your soul is your mind (thoughts), willpower and emotions. When we accept Jesus as Savior, the spirit of Satan is removed from our soul and replaced with the spirit of God. Your spirit is born again. You are like a new born baby spiritually. Now you have to train your soul (mind, will and emotions) to be Godlike. You have to learn a new way to think, talk and a new way to act. With God Himself now on the inside of you, you now have the ability to become Christlike (Christian). With God inside now instead of Satan you take on the NATURE of God. Your natural nature before God was to be ungodly, unlovely, evil and selfish. With the nature of God inside, you now have the ability to love, be generous and forgiving. If you have had alot of pain and disappointment in your life it can cause you to be hard hearted, defensive and untrusting. It is human nature to guard your heart so people do not have opportunity to hurt you and break your heart again. Even Christians who have been in abusive relationships can be like this. God wants to peel away the hurt and sadness in your heart. He wants you to surrender yourself to Him completely and know that you can trust Him. He won't hurt you and abandon you. He wants to get you to a point where you are tenderhearted and sweet and free. Ezekial 36:26, "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh." God loves you and you can trust Him. Don't continue to allow the same people in your life that has hurt you and continue to hurt you. Get away from them. But you can't judge everyone by the same bad experience and shut everyone out of your life. I have heard some women say they hate all men now because they were cheated on or been in an abusive relationship. Get away from those men but don't close your heart down to all men, because all men are not like that. God will heal you and put the right person in your life that will love you and you can let your guard down with. Our body is like a robot and our soul is like the computer brain of a robot. When we become Christian, our work is just beginning. We have to now reprogram and discipline our souls (mind, will and emotions) to align with the bible. Romans 12:2, "Be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good, acceptable and perfect will of God." Before we can act and talk different we must think different. Our bodies will do whatever our soul tells us to. We honor and obey God in our mind and heart first, then our speech, actions, attitude and natural life follows. Romans 7:25, "..with the mind I myself serve the law of God." You are what you think you are. You must renew your mind from thinking ungodly and negatively. You have to retrain your thought life. Discipline your thought life to think positive lovely things. Proverbs 23:7,"..as a man thinks in his heart so is he." The bible tells us what to think about as well. Philippeans 4:8, "whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise think on these things." We have the ability to control what we think about. Again CHOICE, CHOICE, CHOICE. You choose to think good things about yourself and about others. We are now in this world but not of this world. We can not think, talk, react to things and people the way the world does. We have to respond to life situations the way God says for us to. The bible says we will know people by their fruit, by what you can see. You don't have to go around telling people you are a Christian. The world will recognize who you are by the words you speak, the way you act, how your household is, how your children are and the way you treat others. Get control of your life, your household and your children and start living the way the bible says you need to live. The bible is a Christians handbook for daily living. It is our instruction manual for life. God has covered every life situation in the bible and has told each of us how we should handle ourselves in that situation. There is absolutely nothing you can experience in life today that is not covered in the bible. The people in the bible had feelings and emotions just like we do. They faced challenges, temptations and sins just like we do. They just lived in a different time and dressed a different way. They faced the same challenges and had to make the same choices back then that we do today. There were sexual sins of fornication, adultry and cheating spouses. There was homosexuality. There were women having children with different fathers. There was abuse and violence. Hate and jealousy. Murder and rape. They had to choose which religion to believe and which god to worship. People wanted money and land and nice homes. There are no new sins and Satan does not have any new tricks. God covers all the issues of life in the bible and tells us how to handle ourselves and the choices we should make. God explains the bad choices and the consequences of our bad choices. God's way of thinking , His judgement and His rewards are the same today as they were 6000 years ago and if this world were to stand another 6000 years they would still be the same then. GOD NEVER CHANGES. The bible is for everyone, young, old, man or woman. You can read the bible as if it was written just for you. The bible is not outdated or prejudice against anyone. God's blessings are the same for everyone and His disciplines are the same for disobedience. You need to read the book to find out how to live a better life and correct the problems in your life. Usually when God speaks to us it is a quote from the bible. Many times when He tells a story in the bible, He tells how people handled their situation correctly and the blessing that followed or how they handled the situation incorrectly and the discipline that followed their bad decisions. He tells those stories so we can relate them to our own lives and daily situations. As a Christian, you need to not just pray and talk to God regularly but you need to get your life manual (your bible) and study it on a regular basis. If you are having troubles in your life you can find the answer in the bible no matter what the troubles are. If you think you are just perfect and do not need instruction for your life then you need to read the book for sure because no one is perfect, everyone has weaknesses and there is always something you need to work on. 1 John 1:8&10, " If we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we say that we have not sinned we make him a liar and His word is not in us." If you are not truthful with yourself and know your weaknesses or maybe you are doing something you did not know was wrong, Satan will use your ignorance of the word of God against you. Satan knows the word of God. Satan knows the character and ability of God, he just chooses to go against Him and rebel. God has certain spiritual laws and promises in place that work for everyone without discrimination, just like the law of gravity works the same for everyone. Some people think if they become Christians God will keep all bad things and evil away from us. Not true. The bible says in John 16:33, "in this world you will have tribulation." Psalm 34:19, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous; but the Lord delivereth him out of them all." Bad things will happen. But as a christian God always has a perfect answer, solution and escape from the problem. God does protect us from danger if we are unable to protect ourselves. But God teaches us to avoid dangerous situations and circumstances on our own. Just like when your child is young you hold their hand and walk them across the street until they learn to pay attention and look out for themselves. If a 20 year old man randomly walks across a busy interstate without looking and gets hit and killed you say that is sad but he should have known better. But given that same situation if it were a 3 year old, you feel it was tragic and where was the childs parents. God doesn't expect instant perfection from us in every area of life as soon as we become a Christian. He will take you by the hand and help you till you get it. It progresses much quicker if you are willing to change and obey. If you are rebellious and stubborn it takes much longer and you will be disciplined by God for your constant rebellion and bad behavior.(Hebrews 12:6&10; Proverbs 3:12; Deuteronomy 8:5) The nice thing about God is you never fail a test and He never stops trying to teach you His way, and He never thinks you're hopeless and kicks you out of the family. Remember God is smarter than you and He is always right. Give in and just accept that and do things HIS WAY. Proverbs 23:7, "as a man thinks in his heart so is he." Our mind is Satan's playground. After you are saved and become a Christian you have to renew your thinking about yourself and not let Satan tell you that you are still that miserable sinner you once were. When you have chosen to stop the ungodly behavior and be cleansed, Satan will try to lie to you and keep telling you that you are still a drunk, drug addict, murderer, whore, thief, no good, will never be anything. You have to refuse those thoughts and say out loud and to yourself I am a new person now. I am a child of God. I am good and I will be what God wants me to be. It is hard at first, but the more you refuse the bad behavior and do the right thing the easier it will get. Satan can not make you do anything. You always have the right to choose. God created all of us with a free will. What Satan does is send negative ungodly thoughts to you. If you choose to allow yourself to just think and think about something or someone in a bad way sooner or later you will react to those negative thoughts. Words and actions follow your thoughts. You can not stop Satan from sending a bad thought to you but you can choose to dismiss the thought and react to people and life in a positive way instead. For example: someone says something bad about you. As a Christian that happens alot. The world is always lying and trying to discredit Christians. You could totally ignore them or tell them they hurt you and you are upset by it or you could curse them out and insult them back. Of course God would rather we do the first choice, but most people even christians have the tendency to do the second choice or a combination of choice two and three. I have to say this is definitely one of my weaknesses as well. I can usually ignore negative comments made about me but don't insult my kids or family. It is really a struggle for me to keep my mouth shut in those cases, but I'm working on it and God helps me everyday. Everybody has strengths and weaknesses. God knows our strengths and weaknesses and so does Satan. You would be wise to examine yourself truthfully and know your strengths and weaknesses as well. If you are a recovering drunk or drug addict stay away from people who still drink and do drugs. Stay away from familiar places where you absolutely know people are going to be drinking and doing drugs. Get yourself clean, sober and strong so you can resist the temptation when Satan sends it your way. The root, center, foundation of a Christians life is LOVE. God is love. God doesn't just have love HE IS LOVE. True love is not something you see or feel or do. True love of God is a spirit that lives within us. That true pure spirit of love within you will cause you to act, speak and think a certain way. True pure love of God gives you the ability to be kind and generous toward others. TRUE PURE LOVE IS THE HOLY SPIRIT OF GOD WITHIN YOU. If you do not have the Holy Spirit of God within you then you do not have true love. The bible says you will know a christian by their love walk and whether they are obeying the instruction of the bible or not. Christians choose to love people whether we feel like it or not. You can also choose not to love people, but Christians love on purpose. Just because you love someone does not mean you can associate with them or allow them in your life. If they are destructive and a negative influence you have to love them but disassociate yourself with them especially if they are bringing pain and drama to your life. God says that Christians and non-Christian are unequally yoked with one another. It would be very difficult for a devoted loyal Christian to be good friends with a non Christian because your lifestyle, desires and interest are usually opposite from one another. When we become Christians we recieve the Fruit of the Spirit of God. The Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. (Galatians 5:22) You can't give something you don't have. Before you had God in your life you were unable to experience true pure love and compassion for others. The love the world has is a shallow blemished unpure experience that is usually connected to your feelings, something physical and depends on what they can or can not do for you.This is not at all the same kind of love that God gives. As a Christian God expects certain behavior from His children. Being nice does not make you a child of God but God expects His children to be nice. God expects us to do acts of kindness and generousity everyday if possible. DO NOT MISUNDERSTAND KINDNESS FOR WEAKNESS. It is extremely difficult to be kind and nice to people when you are tired, emotionally drained, frustrated, sick and feeling unappreciated. It is extremely difficult to be kind and generous to hateful people who talk about you and try to use you and get all they can from you. I have had this experience from people myself. But God's children are stronger than this world and stronger than any evil Satan can send our way. I'll give an example. If someone, who I know talks about me behind my back, asks me for $100 for food. I have the money. It is not going to hurt me to give it, but I believe they are just using me. I would probably take them shopping for food to make sure they did not go hungry, but I would also tell them please don't ask me for anything else because I will not be helping them again. You don't have to continue to open yourself up to people who try to use you, but I believe God expects us to walk in peace and kindness if it is within our power. Most of the time this is not the situation. Most of the time you have opportunity to help people who are perfect strangers. People you have never met before and whom you will probably never ever see again. That kind giving spirit that most people even the world gets around Christmas time is the spirit that God expects His children to have ALL YEAR, EVERYDAY. God has a simple "golden rule" that He expects all His children to live by. Mathew 7:12, "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them." TREAT PEOPLE THE WAY YOU WANT TO BE TREATED!! Even the unsaved world knows this golden rule, they just don't do it. Many Christians do not do it either. If you know someone is in need and you have the ability to help but you don't you are not acting the way God wants you to. God is keeping tabs everytime you walk passed a person in need, ignore hurting people, mock and laugh at other people's misfortune and pain. God has spiritual laws that work on every person that does that. Next time you need help for you or your loved ones, you won't get it. Next time you ignore someones pain and are happy over their troubles, someone is going to do that to you and your loved ones. You get in life what you give. If you want kindness, respect, and help, then you need to give it FIRST. God is watching and listening so nothing is going to just slide by. God is not prejudice toward anyone and that is what He expects from His children as well. God is not a certain color race or religion. God is revealed to us as light which is a rainbow of every color. God doen't care if you are Asian, Mexican, American, Israeli, African or Iranian. Colossians 3:11(Amp), "In this new creation all distinctions vanish; there is no room for and there can be neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircunsized, nor difference between nations whether alien, barbarian, or Scythians, which are the most savage of all people, nor slave nor free man; but Christ is all and in all, everything and everywhere to all men without distinction of person." In God's eyes we are all His children and part of His family if we have accepted Jesus as our Savior. God doen't care what religion or church we choose to go to or what method we choose to worship Him as long as the center of that church and religion believes and teaches that Jesus is the Savior of the world and the ONLY connection to God. In Heaven God will not be dividing us up in Baptist, Jewish, Catholic or Pentecostal groups. In Heaven He will not be dividing His children up according to color or gender. We are all His children when we accept Jesus and we are all equal in God's eyes. God expects His children to treat each other, our brothers and sisters in Christ, with the same respect and equality. As far as the world and unsaved are concerned, God is there for them as well, ready and willing to accept all who choose to come into our family by Jesus Christ. God chooses to love all of us without prejudice, judgement or condemnation as soon as we accept His Son Jesus as Savior. Before we accept Jesus as Savior, we are sinners and separated from God. God has no obligation to us whatsoever to help us or even hear us when we pray. Until we accept Jesus as Savior we belong to Satan and are under his control. Without Jesus we are limited to whatever Satan will allow in our lives. The people we choose to allow in our lives can greatly influence our walk with God and our relationship with God. Christians should not hang out with deviants and degenerates, unless you are there to witness to them about salvation and Jesus Christ. If most of your friends are in and out of jail, on probation or should be in jail you may need to make some new friends. As a Christian we have to sort through our friends, acquaintances and even family members and just associate with the ones who are now living a Christlike lifestyle the way we are, because you become like the people you hang out with or you remain like the people you hang out with. My grandma used to say "birds of a feather flock together." All that means is that people like to hang out with people who are like them and that they have something in common with. They like others who have the same nature, and like to do what they like to do. If you want to stop smoking and drinking, it is best not to be around people who are smoking and drinking. Drunks hang with drunks. Drug addicts hang with drug addicts. Unbelievers hang with unbelievers. Sexual perverts and deviants like to associate with the same. Christians should hang with Christians. So making new friends is essential to your daily walk as a Christian. I'm not saying be mean to people, I'm saying having a non-Christian as a close friend who will be influencing you badly on a regular basis is not a good idea. Having a friend who confesses to be a Christian but they drink, curse, have sex outside of marriage, or do drugs, is not the right person to be with either. Some professing Christians are mean and confrontational all the time. That is also not good company for a Christian who is watching their love walk. Separation from the world and worldly people is very necessary in a Christians life. 1 Corinthians 5:11 (Amp), "But now I write to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of Christian brother if he is known to be guilty of immorality, or greed or is an idolater whose soul is devoted to any object that usurps the place of God, or is a person with a foul tongue, railing abusive riveling slandering or is a drunkard or swindler or robber; no you must not so much as eat with such a person." Psalm 1:1, "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful." You'll find that when you truly become a Christian, a new creature in Christ, your desires will change. Sinners do not feel guilty when they sin. They usually feel comfortable in the middle of sin and sinful people because that is their nature as well. If you are a whore you probably will not feel guilty around other whores but a preacher will probably make you very nervous and uncomfortable. Your Godly conscience will be your guide when you become a Christian. What used to feel comfortable to you as a sinner will start to feel uncomfortable to you now. We have to stop going places and entertaining ourselves with things that are against the bible. Sitting in a bar with a bunch of loud mouth, cursing drunks may have been fun and completely comfortable to you as a sinner but as a Christian you will find that lifestyle to be disgusting and repulsive. Maybe you used to love to buy sexy revealing clothes and go out and show off in front of people where now you feel embarrassed for people to see you dressed that way. As a sinner you may not have thought anything about stealing and lying to people where now you feel guilty and wrong. As a sinner you may have enjoyed pornography and watching dirty movies and having sex with anyone who comes along, but as a Christian you know that is something shameful. Some sinners are not extremely bad, they may even be educated, socially acceptable or within their legal rights. Much of the sinful world's lifestyle is socially and legally acceptable. It is socially and legally acceptable to live together and not be married, but not acceptable to God. It is socially acceptable to have babies outside of marriage, but not to God. It is socially acceptable to be homosexual, but not to God. It is socially and legally acceptable to abort unwanted babies, but not to God. It is legal to divorce and marry 10 times if you want to, but not to God. Some sins are more subtle and acceptable even by Christians. Unforgiveness and hatred. Selfishness and greediness. Gossip and slander. Being judgemental and hypocritical. God hates a self righteous, prideful, vainglorious, know it all attitude. These sins are just as bad and will keep you out of Heaven just as quick as being a murderer or a rapist. In God's eyes a sin is a sin. There are no small or big sins. When you are born into this world, God gives different gifts and talents to everyone.(1 Corinthians 12:1-12) When you become a Christian you have to choose to use those gifts and talents to the glory of God. If God gave you a gift of music, then you have to choose to entertain people without vulgarity, hate and violence. Musical instruments and melody are not sinful. Dancing is not a sin. It is the words that are written in the songs and the nasty way people choose to dance to them that makes it sinful. If God has given you a gift of business then God expects you to open a business that is not only profitable for you and a service for others, but is acceptable in God's eyes as well. Not everyone has been given the same gifts, talents and desires. God has placed Christians in every field and area of life like politics, entertainment, business, education, professional sports players, scientist, police officers, doctors and lawyers. God has chosen some people to work directly for Him as preachers, teachers of the bible, prayer warriors or missionaries. Some he has chosen to be stay at home Moms or Dads. Some He has placed out in the world as janitors, construction workers, lawn care workers or maintenance men. Some gifts and callings from God require you to deal mainly with the lost or the world, like passing out bibles to people in prison. Just because you have been called of God to witness to the lost does not mean that God wants you to hang out with them and be their close friend. Remember when christians are sent to hang with nonchristians it is for the sole purpose of sharing Jesus with them and helping them to find salvation. It is for you to be anexample for them to follow and show them the personality of Jesus. A real devoted christian will probably not get along well with a nonchristian unless you compromise your morals, values and lifestyle to be more like them. It takes a strong Christian to hang out with nonchristians all the time and not be moved or influenced by them. As a Christian we can come before God in prayer and talk to Him about anything. We can absolutely know that He is listening to our prayers and we can rest assured that if what we are praying is in agreement with His word and promises then we will get it. Before we were Christians God had no connection to your life. He is not obligated in any way to help you if you are not one of His children. God takes care of HIS FAMILY. If you do not belong to God then you belong to Satan and Satan is in control of you. God has made promises to give us peace, joy, protection, healing, and a multitude of earthly and material blessings that are listed in Deuteronomy 28, but He will not give those blessings to us if we are not His and mature enough to handle it. God is a good parent, a good Father. He uses every life situation to teach us something and make us better people. He could remove all troubles in our life and make each one of us millionaires today but we would never reach our full potential and be the quality person that He wants us to be if He did. Adversity makes us stronger and shows us and everyone around us what we are made of. Your true self and personality is revealed when you go through trials and adversity. God will never ever let you go through more than you can handle. As a Christian, you are not going through your troubles and pain all alone. God is right there with you making sure that you strengthen and grow spiritually and not be defeated. He allows some emotional pain in our life to help us mature. Just like if you are on an exercise program to loose weight. The workout is hard but very rewarding in the end if you don't give up. Having a physical trainer is better because they are watching over you to motivate you, make sure you excercise the right way and don't over do it. God is our spiritual and emotional life trainer. He never leaves us and sometime the emotional pain we have to go through we would rather just avoid but God is watching over you. Everything will be alright and you will be a better stronger quality person in the end. God will never let you go through anything you can not handle. While you were a sinner, God did not listen to you or know you. John 9:31, "Now we know that God heareth not sinners." If the blood of Jesus has not ersased the sin in our lives, we can not stand before God or talk to God because sin can not be in the presence of God. But after we accept Jesus as Savior and are cleansed by the blood, we have God living on the inside of us. He will begin to talk to you in your spirit. You can hear Him and He can hear you. John 10 :27, "My sheep hear My voice and I know them and they follow me." This voice of God is not verbal. It is an inner voice a knowing. I'm sure all of you have had an experience when you suddenly had a thought to do something or not do something and you have said, "something told me I needed to call you" and then you find out they were sick and needed your help; or "I just knew I shouldn't get on that plane" and then the plane crashed. God speaks to us all the time but we either ignore it or just don't recognize it because we have too much drama going on. The voice of God is a still small voice on the inside. Sometimes He will speak to you in a way that will rock your complete soul, but that is not His normal method of operation. God wants us to calm down, relax, get control of our emotions and listen to Him. When we can control our soul (mind, will and emotions) we can hear the voice of God more clearly. Hearing the voice of God needs practice. The more you talk to Him the more He will talk to you and the more you hear His voice the easier it will be for you to recognize Him. When my kids were small and they were outside playing with all the neighborhood kids I could recognize their voice and their calls no matter who else was yelling and screaming. Why? Because I know their voice and have a connection and a relationship with them. They also know my voice. The voice of God is similar to this. You can't really explain the voice you just know it's Him when you hear Him. As a Christian the bible says we are entitled to an inheritance from God through Jesus Christ. An inheritance is something we get from someone for free that they bought and paid for. It is a free gift. It is a blessing. A helping hand and advantage to help us in life. When we inherit something from someone we should build on that inheritance. We take what they achieved and we build on that to make it better and expand. Then we pass it on and expect those we pass it to, to build, protect and expand. Most everyone knows that you get your inheritance when someone dies. God created and owns this whole universe and everything in it. Deuteronomy 10:14, "...the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the Lord's thy God; the Earth also and all that therein is." All the gold, jewels, land, pearls, diamonds. God owns the sun, the moon the stars. God owns the oceans and the mountains. It is all God's. God said when Jesus was crucified, rose from the dead and came to Heaven to sit at the right hand of God, that God gave all He had to Jesus. Jesus inherited all that God created, even mankind. When we accept Jesus as Savior and are adopted into the family of God we become one of God's children and are now entitled to an inheritance from God as well. God said IF we accepts Jesus as our Savior, and do what God tells us to do, we can expect to recieve many things from God, as a free gift while we are still here on this Earth and an eternal inheritance when we get to Heaven. We are entitled to good health, prosperity and wealth, peace, joy, happiness, safety and all the pleasures that not only this world offers but also all that Heaven offers. As you study and read your bible you can read it as if the bible was written just to you. Every promise and inheritance is yours. Believe it, claim it and live it. Jesus died for you to have it. God is ready and willing for you to have absolutely everything you need and want in life to make you happy. You need to be ready to leave this Earth at anytime. Even if the rapture doesn't take you away from here, natural death might. You never know, today might be your last day here on Earth. The life and death process does not cease. People are still being born and dying every day, and will continue to be born and die till the world ends. The bible says as Christians, to be "absent from the body, is to be present with the Lord" 2 Corinthians 5:8. When it is time for a Christian to leave this world, our bodies are left here but the real us, our soul is immediately transfered to Heaven to stand before God. There is absolutely no reason for a Christian to be afraid of death whether naturally or by the rapture. It is going to be a wonderful experience. Christians are called to be holy. You can be a Christian but not be walking holy the way God instructs His children to be. Go to the"holiness" page on this website and read what kind of behavior and attitude God expects from His children. The closer we get to the rapture of God's children, the worse off the world gets. True love for one another and sincere Christian character is hard to find, even within the church. God loves all of us and wants all of us to accept Jesus as Savior. But He will not force Himself on any of us. He lets us choose our destiny. He lets us act anyway we want to. He lets us make bad choices if we want to and He will let us go straight to Hell if we choose to. God's plan for this world when He created it was for all of us to be Godly people have Godly families and Godly children. Godly families make Godly communities. Godly communities make Godly states and countries and so forth. We all have our callings, talents and roles to play in this world. Enjoy your life and each other. The only way to really do that is with God through Jesus Christ. |
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