Why don’t Christians try harder?

Really try to be good?

To be what God intends us to be?

Because, when we really exert ourselves to be good we find out just how bad we are

But here is the cool thing (the very thing that we have been looking at now for 7 weeks)

If we deal severely with our own sin (if right eye or arm offend you)

God will deal gently with us!

The common name Christian,

when we apply the life Christ given to ours,

 becomes longer common but finds its defined meaning

When I say that I am a Christian, I am not saying that I am better than others or perfectly clean in all of my living,

I am humbly saying that I know how bad I have been -

but now I am forgiven

When I say that I am a Christian I am not saying that I know secrets that others can’t know -

I am saying that I was lost but now I am found

When I say that I am a Christian I am not saying that with pride in myself -

I am saying that life is so confusing that I often stumble and fall & I need a guide

When I say that I am a Christian I am not proclaiming my strength

 I am professing my weakness and that I need His strength to carry on

When I say that I am a christian I am not saying that I am merely loved by God

I am saying that my life has been filled by love - to be loving

When I say that I am a Christian I am not saying that I will merely live forever

I am saying that my life has been captured by life to live with purpose

When I say that I am a Christian I AM SAYING THAT …

GOD HAS REVEALED TO ME HIS MAJESTY AND BEAUTY

THAT GOD HAS PLACED IN ME A HUNGER AND THIRST FOR THE PASSION OF PURSUIT

​​​​​​​THAT I WILL WILLINGLY LOSE MY LIFE FOR THE PURPOSE OF REVEALING HIM, AND IN SO DOING FIND ABUNDANCE IN THE NEW LIFE GRANTED ME

I am willing to put the spotlight God rather than myself so that beauty might be revealed in this world and not more ugliness.