It feels great to be home and back to work...Sarah and I missed the kids so much that we decided to drop in on them last night unexpectedly. I am so thankful for everything that God has given me and as I start out on this new path...I am woozy at all of the possibilities that are zooming around my head. I promise some pictures soon...but as I was doing my devo this morning I had a question pop in my head...what are the essentials for being a Christian? What I mean is, what are the things that a person must believe, must do, must not do to be a Christian? In the end, will it matter what our take on war was? What about our take on speaking in tongues? How we worship? Which translation we use? Whether we baptize by submersion or sprinkling? These are all things that cause strife and eventual splits in churches. I know that we shouldn't throw everything into one basket...and say "well, you believe what you believe and I'll believe what I believe". I am just saying that so many times we try to find the differences in how we believe compared to the next guy rather than finding a common ground and things that will bring us together as members of the body and family of Christ.
So what are the essentials...what makes someone a Christian...not a Wesleyan or Nazarene or Methodist or Baptist...but a Christian...
Please respond...I would really like to know what you all believe whether it is one or twenty things...
Good Day.
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Hello Swin,
I also try to look for common ground, rather than areas of differences in relationships. What makes a Christian? Let's go back to the basics - embracing faith in Jesus, or accepting Christ. When I think back to my early see-saw, new-christian days, (I was saved at age 28) I was wrong about many things. I think we can be christian and simply be wrong. Am I now right about everything? Hardly, but God has shown me some wonderful things. And though I don't believe in relativism the way the world describes it, I do think what is absolutley right or wrong for me may not be exactly the same for you. It's too easy to get caught up in legalistic battles.
(para-phrase by Peggy)If anyone says He loves God yet hates his brother, the love of God is not in him.
Are fruits of the spirit evident in a life? If not, why not? Has the person really surrendered to Christ?
This may raise more questions than answers...
Peggiford
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