Are YOU Faithful to Christ's Teachings? That's really ALL that Matters.

Pardon me please, but I am a born again Christian. I definitely have accepted Jesus in my life as my personal Lord and Saviour. My entire life is based on His teachings which comprises of His doctrines and beliefs. I still fall short of His teachings sometimes but my goal is to do always, exactly what He would have done. Does that make me religious – I don’t know. I guess you have the right to use your preferred word but reality is that I believe Jesus is the son of God who gave His life that I might be saved and was raised from the dead. I believe that He is seated at the right hand of the father. Whatever word you want to describe me with is fine by me. 

With all the noise going on around me about religion, I was forced to go back to my dictionary to check two words – faith and religion. My dictionary says amongst other things that religion is the service and worship of God or the supernatural. To that extent, I am desperately religious and unashamedly so; and I think a lot of us are. Religion is also described as scrupulous conformity or conscientiousness to a cause or system of beliefs held to with ardour and faith. If that is your preferred interpretation, then I won’t be called religious because my conformity is not to a cause but to a person and His name is Jesus. He is not only God but also the son of God. I also believe in the Holy Spirit. Indeed I believe in the trinity.

Please bear with me as I go on to talk about faith. The dictionary amongst other things, says it is belief and trust in, allegiance and loyalty to God. It is firm belief in something for which there is no proof; complete trust and strong conviction in something without doubt or question. Clearly, you can tell my faith from all I have written so you will have to bear with me if all that I do or say is influenced   by the teaching of this Jesus in whom I have strong belief and conviction. He shed His blood that we may have access to worship the father in Spirit and in truth (true religion). 

John 14: 23-24 NLT “All who love me will do what I say…anyone who doesn’t love me will not obey me.”

Jesus says His followers (disciples) are those who hear and obey His word. The first set of Christians were so called because they heard and obeyed His word so hard that it was clear they were followers of Christ. They modeled their lives on the teachings of this Jesus which influenced every area of their lives and their every decision. They thought, ate and dressed like the word of God says. They believed in this Christ unashamedly inspite of the fact that they were stigmatized as Christians seeing as that Christianity was not the favorite faith at the time. Now it is an acceptable word so we are okay with being called Christians but who cares what word is used. Why do we worry so much about words that do not matter? My faith is who I am. It defines me completely except in areas where I am still falling short. Please think - are you ashamed to stand by His teachings just so that you will not be called “a name?” The bible says that Jesus, whilst speaking to people like you and I who believed in Him, said

John 8: 31NLT, “you are truly my disciples if you remain faithfully to my teachings.”