Six Things It Means to Be a Christian, Part I


Six Things It Means to Be a Christian, Part I

I found something I wrote in 2001, “Six Things It Means to Be a Christian.” It includes some supporting scriptures. I will publish it in two parts: the first, containing the first four things, this week, and the remainder next week.

1. To be a Christian means that I know that there is a restlessness in me that only God can calm, a hunger in me that only God can fill, a thirst in me that only God can satisfy, an ache and an emptiness in me that only God can take away, and a guilt (often felt, but sometimes not felt) that only God can remove.
 Matthew 11:27-28: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
Isaiah 55:1: "Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.”

2. To be a Christian means that I know that the meaning of my life is found outside myself and that at the center of my life and world, I want to see—not myself—but God. 
Romans 11:36 “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.”   Psalm 73 :24-26: “You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory. Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”   John 17:24: 24 "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.” 

3.  To be a Christian means that instead of looking for God and trying to earn God’s love, I understand that in Jesus Christ, God came looking for me.  He loved me before I could ever love Him back. He chose me before I could ever choose Him.
I John 4:19 “We love because he first loved us.”  Ephesians1:4-5: “even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. He destined us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.”

4. To be a Christian means that I know that God is uniquely revealed in Christ, His Son, that Jesus the Christ died on the cross for me and my sins, that I have asked him to live in me, and I know he forgives my sins and remembers them no more.

 2 “Corinthians 5 19-20: “that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”  John 14:9 “Jesus answered: ‘Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, Show us the Father'”

Rev. Winfield Casey Jones is retired and can be reached at wrjones2002@gmail.com.

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