I hear a lot of people throw around the “C” word!  What does it mean when you call yourself a Christian?

When I say that I am a Christian, I am saying that I have a personal relationship with God through His Son Jesus Christ.  It means that I know that I am nothing without Him and everything with Him.  It means that I have died to my old self and come alive as a new creation.  It means that I am saved and when I die a physical death, I will experience a miraculous resurrection and live with God – my Creator and Sustainer forever and always!  It means that I have made the choice to live in the power of the spiritual over the physical!

I am saved!  Saved for what?  Saved for God, from Hell, to Heaven!  There is something better and I experience a taste of it everyday and I am looking forward to the day when I experience the whole deal without any breaks or interruptions.

I am saved to experience the difference and make the difference.  My life has not and will not ever be the same.  It is bigger, better and growing everyday with no end in sight.

I am saved to choose risk over safety.  As a child of the Most High God, I have a promise from the only One who can really make and keep His promises.  There is nothing that will ever come my way that God will not use for my good, as I love and trust Him.

I am saved to experience change over stability.  The world says: “Take it easy!”, but God says “Go for it!”  I will go for it again and again and know that my God has already counted the cost and counted it worthy!

I am saved to work for expansion over preservation.  God did not save me to protect my very limited space.  God saved me to go out and take back what was taken from me.  This is notice:  We are coming to get what belongs to us!

I am saved to live adventure over predictability.  God has a great and amazing adventure mapped out for me. I don’t have to know the directions on the map, I just have to know the One that knows the directions and be willing to follow His lead!  I will follow!

I am a Christian.  I am saved.   Life really does matter and I am going to live it to the fullest – here on earth and in a special place called Heaven!

I don’t know of anyone that likes to suffer.  Suffering is hard work.  In fact, most of us do everything that we can to avoid suffering if at all possible.  As I read through my Bible, I notice that Jesus talks a lot about suffering.  He knew that he was going to have to suffer and he indicates that if we are going to follow his way, then we will have to suffer as well.  I know that suffering is not a popular subject, but it is a necessary subject, because reality says that if you live long enough, then you will at some point experience suffering.

If I am going to have to suffer, then I want to get my suffering right.  If I am going to have to suffer, then I want to get out of my suffering whatever I can that will benefit and grow me into something or someone better than what I am.  I believe that this is one of the reasons that God allows us to suffer, so that through our suffering we can experience growth that we could not experience any other way.

All of us have gone through something at some time in our life and thought to ourselves:  “There is no way that I am ever going to make it through this!”  But then, the crazy thing is – we do make it through and we are better for it!

I don’t know what you are going through, but I know that if God is allowing you to go through something, then as you trust and love Him, He is going to use that something for your good and other’s blessing.  Hang in there and get the good stuff that God’s got waiting for you!

A lot of people today want to tell you what to do.  A lot of people who want to tell you what to do, want to tell you what to do just because they want to tell you what to do.  (Go back and read that slowly – you will get it!)  They want to put their rules and regulations on others, while often times they ignore for themselves, what they are trying to saddle someone else with.

I am a follower of Christ!  I love Jesus and believe that out of his love for me that he died on the cross, so that all of my sins could be forgiven and I could be restored to right relationship with my Creator and live in a forever spiritual connection that changes everything.  I desire for other people to experience this relationship, because it has made all of the difference in my life.

I have some guidelines that God has provided for me in His Word.  Because I love Him, I try to live according to these guidelines.  People are going to do what they want to do, but if we could and would experience the love of Christ, then I believe that doing what we need to do gets a whole lot easier.

Jesus put it this way in John 14:15 “If you love me, you will obey what I command!” Jesus does not command, just to command.  Jesus commands to lead us into victory and blessing.  It’s not because you have to, but because you get to and what He commands is best.  What he commands is best, because he really has our best interest and our blessing at heart!

Don’t allow others and their trying to put something on you to get in the way of your having a real and meaningful relationship with the one who loves you more than words can even describe!  Get to really know Jesus – you’ll be glad you did!