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.

Modern Christianity

Christianity, the largest of the world’s religions, was born into the Greco-Roman world. At the outset, it appeared to be a sect of Judaism, but it took its distinctive character from the fact that it centered in Jesus Christ. It seemed to have a scant likelihood of winning a continuing role in history. The public career of Jesus lasted at most three years, and he met the implacable opposition of his people’s religious leaders. One of his inner circles of chosen friends betrayed him to his enemies. He died on a Roman cross, presumably frustrated and a failure. However, his disciples were convinced that he had been raised from the dead. They proclaimed him as Savior and Lord and declared that those who acknowledged him as such would enter upon the kind of triumphant, radiant, eternal life which they saw in him.

The post 1914 decades again brought new challenges to Christianity. From lands and people which had traditionally been Christian came forces, which worked at a vast revolution- political, economic, and cultural- in the entire human race. Two world wars fought with weapons devised in what had been called Christendom embroiled the entire globe. Beginning in 1945 atomic energies, first released in the United States, threatened mankind with extinction. In Europe and Asia old forms of government toppled. In wide areas, notably Russia and China, they were replaced by frankly and at times militantly atheistic Communism. Land after land was industrialized, with attendant challenges to religion. In both Western and Eastern Europe church attendance declined. Outside the Occident, the colonialism which flourished in the nineteenth century was being shaken off. The Christianity which had been associated with Western imperialism was challenged as a cultural phase of that imperialism. Here and there, were resurgence of non-Christian religions- chiefly Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. However, the general trend throughout the world was toward a religion-denying secularism.

In striking contrast to these challenges, there was mounting vitality in Christianity. This was seen in at least seven ways.

1. Christianity was continuing its geographic spread. This was chiefly through Roman Catholic and Protestant missions and to a lesser extent by the Eastern churches. In spite of the increases in population during the half-century which followed 1914, Christians, though, still minorities, increased their portion of the populations in India, Indonesia, and Africa south of the Sahara.
2. Christianity became deeply rooted among more people that it, or any other religion had ever been. The reaction against Western imperialism might have led to a recession in the Christian tide because of the association of missionaries with colonial powers; but instead it hastened the development of indigenous initiative and leadership.
3. Christianity persisted in lands controlled by Communism. In Russia, after a period when the anti-Christian measures of the Communists greatly reduced the number of church members, Christianity revived and grew, even though not to the same numerical dimension as before.
4. New movements were emerging and old ones were being strengthened. In the Roman Catholic Church the Liturgical Movement, Catholic Action, Eucharistic congresses, Christian Democratic parties, the Legion of Mary, many youth organizations and new translations of the Bible into the vernaculars gave evidence of a larger participation of the laity.
5. Efforts to take account of the intellectual currents of the age were made. In the Roman Catholic Church on the Eve of World War I, Rome had taken empathetic measures to eradicate the “modernism” which threatened to corrode the faith of many of the clergies. That action did not, however, eliminate scholarly activity.
6. Christians were coming together as never before. They were still far from being united in one ecclesiastical body, but rapid progress was being made toward presenting a common front to the world. The trend was especially marked in Protestantism, by its very nature the most divided wing of Christianity.
7. Christianity was having a wider moral influence on mankind outside the churches than ever before. For example, it contributed greatly to the ideals of Mahatma Gandhi, the most influential Indian of the century, and through him influenced many of his fellow countrymen. Clearly, Christianity was not dominant in the world of the twentieth century but, while vigorously challenged, it was widely influential in the affairs of men.

Christianity has spread in the world big time. Through the efforts of many of our ancestors, it has flourished and later developed us into a valued person making us holistically competent beings. Are you proud you’re a Christian?

Christmas as a True Christian Celebration

We all know that Christianity was founded based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, as written or presented in the New Testament of the Holy Bible. The central Christian belief is that Jesus is the son of God and that his sacrificial or selfless death and his resurrection will lead to the salvation of mankind and the redemption from their sins. Christians believe that Jesus Christ is the promised Messiah, or savior of the people, who would fulfill the prophecies as stated in the Old Testament.

Christianity has branched out into different forms, groups, and denominations, with its three primary divisions being Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, and the Orthodox Church. However, the beliefs and practices of all adherents center around their faith in Jesus Christ. Most denominations consider Jesus as the model of a virtuous man. As such, one common ground is the yearly commemoration of Jesus’ birth, which we all refer to as Christmas. In fact, in many areas of the world, Christmas is considered as the most festive and the most religiously significant time of the year.

The Christmas season is celebrated all throughout the Christian population, but it is also celebrated by a lot of non-Christians as a cultural festival. And because gift-giving, putting up Christmas decorations, feasts and parties, and many other aspects of the holiday encourage heightened economic activity among Christians and non-Christians alike, Christmas has become a major event for businesses or for retailers. In other words, Christmas has evolved to become more of a commercial event, rather than an exclusive Christian holiday commemorating the nativity of Jesus.

In the truest Christian sense, the story of the birth the Child Jesus is based on accounts written in the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke, both found in the New Testament of the Holy Bible. According to these biblical accounts, Jesus Christ was born to Mary, with the assistance of her husband Joseph, in Bethlehem. Popular tradition says that the birth took place in a deserted stable and the baby Jesus was placed in a manger because inns no longer had a room for them. Shepherds tending to their flocks in fields around Bethlehem learned of the birth of the Messiah through the angels and were the first to see the newborn Christ.

Different groups have established different ways of celebrating Christmas and the period leading to it.

The Western Church, for instance, celebrates Advent, which is the liturgical period before Christmas. This period begins four Sundays before December 25 or Christmas Day. Advent is observed by Christians as a period of fasting, prayer, and penitence. Historically, Advent’s main sanctuary color is purple, which is the color associated with penitence and fasting, as well as the color of royalty as used to welcome the Advent of the King.  The Catholic Church still uses purple, which is also the color that represents Christ’s suffering and is the main color used during Lent and Holy Week. The use of purples, therefore, points to a significant connection between the birth of Christ and his death. The Catholic Church believes that the nativity and the incarnation of Jesus cannot be separated from Jesus’ crucifixion.

The Eastern Orthodox Church, on the other hand, practices the “Nativity Fast” in preparation of Christ’s birth. Orthodox Christians enter  the Nativity or Christmas Fast 40 days before the feast of the Lord’s birth in order to purify the soul and body and therefore, to be able to enter  and partake of the spiritual reality of the coming of Christ. This fasting period, however, does not constitute the intense liturgical period characteristic of Lent, instead this is more of an “ascetical” nature. Within this 40-day preparation period, the theme of the Nativity gets introduced little by little in the church services and liturgical commemorations.

Other Christian denominations also celebrate Christmas in their own respective ways. For some, children perform plays that re-tell the events of the Nativity, or they sing carols and jingles that are relevant to the season. Other Christians display re-creations of the Nativity, known as the Nativity scene, in their homes with the use of figurines portraying the main characters. There are also live performances of the Nativity scene using actors and live animals to portray the event realistically.