"Call to me and I will answer you, and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know. " Jeremiah 33:3

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

"For the time has arrived for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the end of those who do not respect or believe or obey the good news, the Gospel of God?" 1 Peter 4:17 AMP

I love to write according to themes, or in links or repetition as it pertains to the Scripture or to the body of Christ and today is an example of that. Three types of Christians, three "C's".

CASUAL CHRISTIAN
Billy Graham said of this Christian that they have little or no influence for good upon others.  The dictionary defines casual; without definite or serious intention, tending to be indifferent to what is happening, unconcerned.  This person is not surrendered to Christ, they believe in Him, they go to church regularly but there is no real personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, they do not truly know Him because they are indifferent to the Scripture and that is where we learn about Jesus. "Not everyone who calls out to me, 'Lord! Lord!' will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter." Matthew 7:21 NLT.  The life that Christ calls us to is the opposite of casual it is intentional a complete surrender of your life with no turning back. O what an abundant life it is!


CARNAL CHRISTIAN
This Christian is in love with world and the things of the world.  They confess the name of Jesus and deep inside of them they do desire a relationship with Him but the riches and pleasures of life in the world, keep them from bearing any mature fruit for the kingdom of God. (Luke 8:14) Their attempts to love God and love the world makes them double minded unstable in both pursuits; "You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God."  James 4:4.  There is hope, turn from the world with all of its smoke and mirrors and surrender completely your life to Christ. Call upon Him today, and He will hear and answer you.

CHARISMATIC CHRISTIAN
Charisma; from the Greek meaning a gift of grace, favor, spiritual gift. This Christian is full of the grace and the favor of God and their focus is centered on Jesus Christ, and pleasing Him is the desire of their heart! They have completely, without reservation surrendered their lives to Christ to do with as He wills.  They are not sinless perfection, yet they do not practice sin.  They know God's Word and deliberately seek to be obedient to it.  They are full of love for God, filled and led by the Holy Spirit of God. They love the body of Christ and it shows in the way they relate to others. They know full well that all of this is made possible only through God! They know the truth of 2 Corinthians 3:4-5; "Such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God."

The lost in our world don't need Casual Christians, for they have nothing to give. The lost don't need Carnal Christians they look and sound just like them.  The lost need an encounter with a Christian that can and will share the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. A surrendered, spiritually gifted charismatic, full of and led by the Holy Spirit.  Humble, because they know it is not them but Christ in them and they are free to live a life that will make a difference.
 
Charles Spurgeon a Victorian preacher who was against Liberal Theology said; "stir the fire in your heart, and get your own soul all aflame with love to Christ, or else you will not be likely to be greatly used in the winning of the souls of others."

 Today is the day. Now is the time for you to decide which type of Christian do you desire to be?  The choice is yours.

4 comments:

  1. Thank you for this post
    Confirmation/right on!
    Blessings!
    Emily

    ReplyDelete
  2. Greetings! I have seen that the Rss of this domain is working without any mistakes, did you execute all the settings on your own or you used the original settings of this widget?

    ReplyDelete
  3. maybe it's now time for me to reflect and see what kind of christian am i. thanks for the post.

    ReplyDelete