Living the Christian Way

There is a deeper meaning of being a Christian than just prayers and adoration for Jesus Christ. Since time immemorial has long been evident in the lives of many people in the world who believe in prayers, sins, heaven, hell, prophets, and miracles. Jesus of Nazareth’s famous crucifixion and resurrection came to be known for the believers, thereby calling him Jesus Christ.

So what’s more with the now largest religion in the world? A faction that is so large with almost 2 billion followers, this most prominent and dominant religion in the western side of the world having different varieties of belief forms and practices has centered its faith to Jesus Christ. Thus, it is called Christianity.

Christianity is based on several key aspects as described below:

1. Living the Christian Life – It is how the way people should live according to Jesus Christ and with accordance to the teachings of the bible. The most common manifestations are the following:
   • Prayer – It is not just a simple prayer but something from the heart. Prayers in secret are advised. With prayers, a Christian is said to communicate with God in order to create a personal relationship with Him.
   • Discipline – A good Christian knows how to handle precautions; by this, it means self-discipline. A disciplined person is unlikely to create chaos and sins.
   • Repentance – As the saying goes, “To err is human, to forgive is Godly.” It is innate in a man to be prone in committing sins but it is only through repentance that God will forgive the sinners. Sometimes making a U-turn is not really that bad for a person who travels along the wrong path. Turn around and repent.
   • Service – To promote and improve one’s spiritual life, a Christian needs to provide service to others by which he can make use of his God-given talents and abilities to help them, especially the neediest.
   • Evangelism – When Jesus Christ said to spread his teachings to the world, He meant to evangelize the world with Christianity. Thus, a Christian, at one point in his life, should evangelize others to the word of God. This is the way Christianity is spread over the globe.
2. Fellowship with God – Jesus Christ has only one great commandment and that is to build a better personal relationship with God. The only way to do this is to love God and thy neighbors above all else.
3. Living away from Sins – The challenge of sins has always been the problem of humans. By being a Christian, it is a challenge to stay away from them and become a person worthy of emulation by doing good deeds and abiding the commandments of God and the teachings of the Bible.

There are also beliefs that distinguished Christian among other religions in the world. Some of them are:

• The Christian God – this is a belief that there is one great Creator.
• Jesus Christ – the belief of God the Son.
• The Virgin Mary – Jesus Christ’s Mother.
• The Trinity – that God is in three forms: The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit.
• The Holy Spirit – God the Holy Spirit.
• Human Nature – the creation of human in the bible version of Adam and Eve.
• Angels – the cherubim in heaven.
• Devils and Demons – the forces of evil.
• The After Life – the life after death: purgatory, hell, heaven.
• Heaven – the kingdom of God.
• Hell – the kingdom of Satan.

There are also practices that sort Christians from others. Common practices are:

• Baptism
• Honoring the Saint
• Praying the Rosary
• Marriage
• Sainthood

With all these beliefs and practices, a normal Christian should be able to do this by heart and by soul for it is already manifested in them by the time they are conceived in their mother’s womb until the time they will return back to the ashes and face the life after death. Living the Christian way is not simple but there is no other way to live the life in this world where everything is just a means to an end. Following Christ’s life is the only way to heaven — It is just a one-way ticket, a sure ride, so to speak.

The True Spirit of Being a Christian

Can we really tell who among us are considered to be a true Christian believer? Are they the people who carry around the Bible all the time so that if ever they have a free time, they can read and study them? Or are they the people who help and inspire others to become better Christians?

Believing and striving to live life like Christ simply defines a true Christian. Therefore, you need not read the Bible on a daily basis just to be accounted for in the Christian denomination because Christianity is not a prearranged religion, but rather it is developing a personal relationship with God. And, it certainly is a way of life!

A lot of people, who claim to be Christians nowadays, live their life conflicting with their assertions. There are just too many stories of people involved in murder, child and elderly abuse, adultery, theft and many other cases only to find out that they are Christians. To worsen things, there is a case of a criminal who adamantly insists that God told him to execute the crime as his way of escaping his actions. This however, devastates the impression of what the world has of Christianity.

Many of us got acquainted with God out of what our parents told us, from what we’ve heard at church, from what we’ve learned in school, from the programs we oftentimes see on television, from what we’ve read in books, several write-ups or in editorials of countless newspapers not to mention the different gatherings (spiritual or not) that we attend to. However, these are just mere “get-to-know God” and not establishing a personal relationship or a special connection with him. To clearly illustrate the difference between just knowing and having a relationship with God, let us take a look at this example. You know a Hollywood Actress because you see her in movies, featured in magazines and interviewed on television shows. However, if you invite her to talk with you over dinner, most likely she will decline your offer since she doesn’t have any clue of who you are. You simply know about her and not personally know her.

You can distinguish a genuine Christian by the way they live. Although treating people with kindness and trying to become a good person or an example for others and their children are acts that are expected of a true Christian, these deeds alone don’t make anyone a Christian. The same holds true that a complete church attendance doesn’t make one a good Christian either. Besides, when we stand before God on our judgment day, he wouldn’t ask us how many times we missed attending church. And not because somebody is a pastor or a church leader preaching or promoting the Christian faith, it makes him or her a true Christian. Who knows, they might just be twisting verses out of context to formulate their own version of Christianity and using it as a means of earning money and fame. This consequently indicates that a special bond never came about.

Christians aren’t perfect and nobody is. Anyone who claims to be perfect is not right because even the best Christian’s commit mistakes. There will always be times when we make wrong choices and do things unexpected of us. But what a true Christian does is realize the mistakes he or she has done and find ways to correct them wholeheartedly. If some religious groups condemn those who do not follow their doctrines and beliefs and consider them as their enemy, then this is a very unlikely attitude of a Christian. Because it is absolutely stupid to think that everyone is going to agree with you. Choosing what to believe is a choice you have to make. And if you firmly have faith with your personal relationship with God and believe that it has made a difference in your life, then certainly, it can bring you inner peace, joy and happiness that many are still seeking for.

Realizing the need to know God and our ability to change our lives by ourselves makes a person a Christian. They live to be different in such a way that people could discern that something is different about them. Just like making Jesus as an example when he washed the feet of the servants.

So, the next time you get bumped into somebody who claims to be living a life the Christian way, look after how they lived. If you see them drinking coffee and eating donuts at local donut houses reading unchristian like materials then most probably, they are just using Christianity as a “fire escape” from hell.