https://www.bible.com/events/49295234
But, What is a Christian? – Harrisonburg
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
There is a lot of confusion today in our culture on what a Christian really is.
Statistics tell the shocking truth of where we find ourselves. Will we step back and examine the word of God as our authority to see if indeed we pass the test? Are you a Christian by cultural definition or according to God’s word and work?
Charles Spurgeon
“Discernment is not the ability to tell the difference between right and wrong; rather, it is telling the difference between right and almost right.”
Disciple vs. Christian (Andrew Stroud)
The name “Christian,” meaning “belonging to Christ,” appears to have been invented by those outside of the church. It was most likely meant as a derogatory term by the way it was used in the NT.
If you’re not actively learning from Jesus or living for him, you can still call yourself a Christian and most people won’t bat an eye. But calling yourself a disciple changes things. It gives you something bigger than yourself to live into.
By definition a disciple is someone who is actively learning and living as a follower of someone else, or of some set of teachings. By calling yourself a disciple of Jesus you are declaring that you’re living for him. And that’s powerful!
John 10:3-5, 14-16, 27
The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.
Robert Bortins CEO Classical Conversations 1/2/24
A shocking statistic from Barna’s research shows that the majority of Americans consider themselves to be Christians (68%), but only 6% of them have a biblical worldview.
This data clearly shows that although many people identify as Christians, most have no idea what it means to actually be a Christian.
These people could be referred to as cultural Christians, which are individuals that claim to be Christian but instead are shaped and molded by the world rather than by God’s holy Word. As a result, America’s spiritual health has been cursed by cultural Christianity
Calling ourselves Christians but chasing after the world (cultural Christianity) won’t get anyone through the narrow door, because in the end chasing after the world is a wide pathway that leads to eternal destruction.
As Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21)
Matthew 7:13-14, 21
“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
2 Timothy 2:19
Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness.”
Be with Jesus
Become like Jesus
Do what Jesus did
John Mark Comer
“The greatest issue facing the world today, with all its heartbreaking needs, is whether those who…are identified as “Christians” will become disciples—students, apprentices, practitioners—of Jesus Christ, steadily learning from him how to live the life of the Kingdom of Heaven into every corner of human existence.”
John 3:3-5
Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!” Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.
John 14:6
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
C.S. Lewis – Mere Christianity
The Christian way is different:harder and easier. Christ says ‘ Give me All. I don’t want so much if your time and so much of your money and so much of your work. I want You. I have not come to torment your natural self, but to kill it. No half-measures are any good. I don’t want to cut off a branch here and a branch there, I want to have the whole tree down. I don’t want to drill a tooth, or crown it, or stop it, but to have it out. Hand over the whole natural self, all the desires which you think innocent as well as the ones you think wicked—the whole outfit. I will give you a new self instead. In fact, I will give you Myself: my own will shall become yours.’
YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN!
2 Corinthians 13:5
Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?
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https://help.youversion.com/l/en/article/y03uerubo8-mychurch