The challenges
facing contemporary Christians are no different from those that faced the
Apostles and Christians before us, especially in context of the suffering
Messianic messages of our faith.
The hallmark of
Christianity is the ability for us to allow the grace of God to work through us
by first and foremost believing in the fact that Jesus Christ is the Messiah,
the Son of the living God and through such faith, come to love God above all
things and crucially love our neighbors as ourselves for the love of God.
Jesus Christ did
not promised us a world free of sorrows, pains and hurts, envy, hatred and
killings, betrayal, war and other forms of inhumanity. On the contrary he promised
that the Holy Spirit, the Comforter shall never forsake nor abandon us in the midst
of trials and tribulations, and if we hold on, we shall inherit everlasting
life.
As a result, any
individual that profess Christianity must be ready to accept persecution,
rejections and even martyrdom for the sake of Jesus Christ. This acceptance to carry our cross is
actually what differentiate the Christian faith and religion from the others
and make mankind better in dealings with God and man.
The practical
challenges that we encountered as Christians are uncountable, mindboggling and
beyond human scope, and it is this obvious realization that informed Jesus
Christ to emphatically states that we should come to him all of us that are
heavily burden and find rest in him!
Love
How can we claim
to be Christians and hate our neighbors?
Jesus Christ
even forgave his enemies and prayed that his heavenly Father should not punish
them due to their ignorance. In our world today, there are millions of
instances where we fail to love and instead propagate hatred with the resulting
consequences of the orchestration of the cycles of violence, mistrust and
killings, discriminations in the form of race, riches and socio-economic statues
among others.
Our inability to
love as Jesus Christ has directed is fundamentally the basis of the nefarious acts
being perpetrated globally and Christians are being challenged to once more be
the light of the world!
Whenever we
pretend that the evil done to another does not bother us, we are actually
participating in the same wicked act and consequently cannot claim to be a
Christian under such circumstances.
Whenever we
pretend that racism does not bother us, since we are not at the receiving end,
we cannot claim to be a Christian under such circumstances either.
We can preach
even to the fish, perform miracles and heal the sick, provide comfort and
sustainability to others and even be the instrument to bring someone out of
poverty, but if these acts are performed not from love, but as a result of our
duty-conscious mind, God will not reward us at all!
Love is self-giving,
the offering of our convenience in order to manifest the true image and
likeness of Jesus Christ in our lives, so that we can become the instrument of
his love, hope and faith in our world.
Actions
If you love
Jesus Christ, you must treat the poor lovingly and help support them in any way
possible for the sake of God and not your emotions.
If you love
Jesus Christ, you cannot hate immigrants and refugees!
If you love
Jesus Christ, you cannot hate Muslims and other non-Christians!
If you love
Jesus Christ, you cannot be a racist!
If you love
Jesus Christ, you cannot be a hater!
If you love
Jesus Christ, you cannot be a killer, betrayal and a destroyer!
If you love
Jesus Christ, you cannot be a warmonger!
If you love
Jesus Christ, you cannot be a devil advocate!
If you love
Jesus Christ, you cannot withhold help from the less privileged!
Going to Church
every Sunday does not make an individual a Christian!
Having the
knowledge of the Bible does not make an individual a Christian!
Bearing a
Christian name does not make one a Christian!
And living in a
Christian family does not make one a Christian!
Today, the challenges
we faced are rooted in whether we are willing to love as Jesus Christ demanded
of us or we want to love as the world advocated.
The love that
the world is advocating are synonymous to that which after it has been given
leave the giver in a state of emptiness, providing only a temporal excitement,
because it is not rooted in the Lord Jesus Christ!
When you are
able to love the loveless, help the helpless, and help bring meaning to
meaningless situations such as war, famine and refugees, racism, dichotomy and
so much hatred in the world by living as Jesus Christ did; self-sacrificing, being
of generous heart and an empathizer and above all loving every human beings as
a child of God irrespective of their religion, socio-economic status, their
sins or shortcomings and other forms of socio-pathological behavior, then by
the grace of God, you are an emblem of Christianity.
What make us a
Christian is our belief in the fact that Jesus Christ is the Messiah and living
the lifestyles that he mandated us to live in this world, so that through our
actions, others may come to the realization that He and his heavenly Father are
one, he is the Son of the living God and the savior of the world.
Prayer
Dear heavenly
Father,
In the name of
Jesus Christ, your only Begotten- Son and the savior of the world, help me to
love you above everything on earth and to love my neighbors as myself.
On my own I
cannot do this and therefore I ask for the gifts of the Holy Spirit, so that I
will be made strong in your grace and bring glory to your holy name today.
Help me to see
you in all mankind irrespective of their religion, race and status and may I
become an instrument of your peace today.
Amen
Podeh2016
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