So What Does it Mean to be Christian

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A major decision was made at my son’s Christian private school and it had me questioning what it really means to be Christian. I won’t go into what was done , maybe in a later post but not today . Anyway as a parent , I was quite concerned. See my kids are in this Christian school to allow the freedom of their Christian rights. They pray before and during school. They also study the bible and learn bible verses per week . They visit chapel once a week and play Christian songs during most pep rallies and assemblies. But is that enough to make them Christian?

So I looked up the definition of Christian . You know you can really be blessed by the reading of your dictionary. It said to be Christian , you must have received the Christian baptism or be a believer of Jesus Christ and believe in his teachings. Professing Christianity and believing in his teachings.

So in order to be called Christian I have to believe all the things that he taught and more importantly I have to believe that he actually existed. I have no problem with any of this but I’m finding it hard to understand how can people be called Christian and don’t believe all the teachings of Christ. How are you Christian and you don’t believe in the bible? How are you Christian and you don’t love ? See as child growing up faithfully in Sunday School I did learn a few things about Christ and His teachings. One thing that stands out to me is that all of his lessons were simple . Simple enough that my 4, 5, and 6 year old can understand. Yet though they are simple teachings we have made them impossible to follow.

Compassion- Jesus taught on compassion . He said we should have love for those who were poor, despised and the outcast Matt. 4:24-25;9:9-13). Jesus taught about being sincere. He also taught on becoming child like in order to enter into Heaven . So with all of his teachings , are we sincerely Christians?

A scripture that has always stuck with me was as a man thinks so is he. So no matter how we say we are practicing the good deeds of Christ by giving to the poor , talking to the despised and the outcast and being sincere when we speak , all of that is in vain if we have bad thoughts . We are every thought, every curse word, every evil feeling merely by our thoughts . You know you can commit adultery even if you think it , its not just the physical act, it’s thinking it that makes you sin. So even though we never opened our mouth , we are just as guilty , just as sinful for thinking something that we did not say . Makes you understand why David wrote, Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

The bible gives us specific ways to live our life. It teaches how to eat . How to treat our spouses. How to get along with our neighbors. It gives us directions on how to love and live daily . The bible even gives us stories and examples of things that we may face in our life if we live a life full of hate, envy, strife , maliciousness , jealousy and people who try to divide and separate relationships. And though there are a lot of man made rules that we do out of tradition , living a Christian life is more a matter of the heart ( mind) rather than just going to church weekly and believe that Christ existed.

Being Christian is a daily practice, we are all equipped for Basically…

Tesha