“But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’ ” ” (Matthew 4:4, NASB95)
This Blog Will Discuss:
- Christianity as a Lifestyle
- True Christianity is a Lifestyle NOT a religion
- LOVE makes the relationship go-round
- Learn God’s Word, Precepts and Standards
Christianity Is a Lifestyle
Everything in this little book will revolve around these three larger concepts. True Christianity is developing a thriving relationship with God through Jesus Christ. It is a lifestyle that is learned little by little over a lifetime of practice. It involves being loved and learning to love God and others. It’s becoming dependent and learning to become dependable. It involves Learning to trust in becoming more and more trustworthy, learning to become a more obedient follower so that when God gives us a chance to lead we will lead gently and well. Now, there is no way that I can in this little book, give you every single precept that you will need to learn over a lifetime of living in Christ. What I did try to do as God gives me grace, is to give you the fundamental heart concepts, mind concepts and behavioral concepts you will need to be a successful Christian. True Christianity is a lot more than a detailed list of do's and don'ts. We don't want to make the mistake of reducing Christianity into some kind of glorified behavior modification program. Don't get me wrong, God does desire and expect us to develop new habits and behaviors for our own good, but that's not all there is. True Christianity involves allowing God to change our heart, to change our thinking, and as we cooperate by gradually adjusting our lives and behavior to match those new heart and thinking concepts, we will become people who reflect his love and character in a dark and hurting world.This little discipleship manual is intended to help you get started in living with God and for Jesus Christ successfully. True Christian discipleship involves a change in lifestyle. It happens, little by little, inch by inch and step-by-step, but over time God expects the people that He saves to:
a) Learn how to receive and digest His love for us so that we can be nourished and strengthened. God's primary desire is to love us, transform and grow us up in His Love. He wants to have and enjoy a sweet thriving relationship of love with us first. As we are gradually nourished and transformed by his love, He allows us the blessed privilege of becoming an agent who carries and demonstrates His Love to other people who need his love.
b) Learn His Word, His precepts, and His standards. We need to learn to live by God's word, because that's the way we learn how to receive and live in God's blessings, care and protection. Since God created this world and our lives, He knows how our lives are designed and how we should live in order that we would enjoy a most blessed, fulfilling and productive life. I'll illustrate with a physical example. If you've ever bought a hair dryer you might see a warning label like this: CAUTION: Do not use hair dryer near water or in shower, electrocution may result in severe injury or death. Now, if you have any sense at all, you are not going to stand under a running shower and use a plugged in hair dryer. Why? Because the consequences are painfully disastrous to your life, health, and well being! The same principle holds true with disobeying God. The only difference is that the consequences of disobeying God are not as shockingly quick or immediate. That's because God is patient and wants to give us a chance to turn away from our sinful habits or mistakes before they destroy us. Therefore, God often protects us from the full consequences of our sin and foolishness until we die. He is hoping that we will make the choice to turn away from our sins and toward Him so that we won't have to bear the full consequences of our foolishness. We'll get into that more later. For now it's sufficient to say that one of God's key desires is that we learn His word, precepts and standards so that we can live under God's blessing care and protection.
c) God wants us to successfully practice his word and principles, not only so we can be blessed, but also so that we can have the privilege of being a productive blessing to others as God works through us.
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