To Die

If you were asked what does it mean to be a Christian, what would be your response? Some might say to love God, be moral, go to church, forgive. Those are all good things to say, but they are a little weak to be honest.

The Apostle Paul sums it up in the Bible this way, "I have been crucified with Christ...". He sums up that to be a Christian means one thing more than any other thing, it is to die. To place your agenda, your comfort, your friends, your priorities, your whatever behind a pursuit of him. Dying is not an easy thing. It means giving up things. I was writing a friend about this and I told them that dying means at times being willing to walk alone.

I find that the popular brand of Christianity that is live today is not what Christ died to give us. It is more performance based...as long as you perform publicly as a good Christian (hide the sin and pretend that you have everything under control) then everything is fine. However, Jesus came to give his life and challenges us to do the same. When we truly begin to pursue the God that is pursuing us, we will change, and some of our "Christian" friends will walk away from us or we may choose to distance ourselves from them. In any case...we sometimes have to walk alone.

I do not want sound like a downer, on the contrary, waking alone with Christ is not always easy but is far more satisfying than walking with a million friends pretending to be good.

How is your living...it is good if you are dying.