Friday, March 17, 2023

Living a Christian Lifestyle

 


    Christians are called to live a life worthy of the calling that God gave you.  We are to learn how to live out humility, gentleness, patience, and love.  Unity with other Christians may take work, but the peace that comes with that is well worth a little effort or change.
    The Holy Spirit will prepare you for your calling.  Even Paul who knew the torah in and out took a couple of years to get to know the Gospels.  He took the time to be prepared and learn a new way before just jumping in and taking over ministry.  He was prepared in many ways before his encounter with Jesus, but he still had more to learn.  The same goes for us.  We can grow up in church, but until the moment of salvation our intense training doesn't begin.
    While the Holy Spirit prepares you for service you can begin to speak truth in love.  That means you can tell people that you are a Christian because of your encounter with Jesus.  You can tell people the only way to get to heaven is to believe that Jesus is God in a human body, that he died on the cross, and rose again in three day to walk the earth for 40 days before his ascension.  Or you can keep it simpler than that, but you can always give your testimony.
    You are no longer ignorant.  If you are a Christian then you had an encounter with God.  You have the Holy Spirit living in you who will give you revelation even if you don't know all of the Bible.  That means you can't pretend not to understand that the Christian lifestyle is different.  You can't live in darkness and claim to be part of the light.  A hard heart is insensitive to Jesus' calling and will live a life of lust for the world.  You are expected by God to live a certain way, so you need to learn what those expectations are.
    Jesus taught us the truth, so Christians we are expected to put away our evil habits, addictions, and way of life.  We will still sin, but it should not be part of out lifestyle any more.  Put away the evil desires and embrace a new attitude toward life.  You are made new from the inside out by the Holy Spirit.  He makes you righteous, so live out the righteousness and be Holy.
    Do not allow your anger to cause you to sin.  You can be angry and still stay in control.  Deal with it quickly, so it does not have time to stew and grow.  It is a hard practice to put in place to address your anger immediately and call out what caused the anger.  It also may require good listening skills to hear the other side too.  If you do not deal with your anger head on, then Satan will.  He will take advantage of that open door and steal away your useful testimony.
    When you speak, do so to lift other people up.  Try never to allow your words to tear people down.  You never know just how fragile they are.  They may appear strong, but even the strong have weaknesses.  
    Do not grieve the Holy Spirit.  Your words used to hurt people grieves the Holy Spirit.  A lifestyle of self-intent gratification grieves the Holy Spirit.  If you grieve the Holy Spirit, then you lose your intercessor for you to God.  It is in your best interest to face your deep rooted sin and ask the Holy Spirit to help you get it out of you.
    Rid yourself of all bitterness, rage, habitual anger, argumentative behavior, slander, and malice.  These will lead to your destruction and kill relationships.  Instead embrace kindness, compassion, and forgiveness.  These traits take more work, but Jesus forgave you while on the cross.  Why can't you forgive other people?  What is keeping you from becoming a mature Christian and living out your Christian life to the fullest?

Ephesians 4




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