Yes, I am a Christian, but…

    Yes, I am a Christian. But I am not perfect. I do not always represent Jesus as well as I should or even as well as I desire to. I do not intentionally do or say things that will make my Saviour look bad. I do not purposefully push you away from Him. The truth is, if you knew Him as I know Him, you’d look past me, and everyone else, to be close to Him. I have experienced the goodness of God personally, and I have a burning desire in my heart and soul to help others do the same. He’s real, not just to me as a crutch or false hope to get through life, but really real. 

    Yes, I am a Christian. But you and I aren’t so different. The only thing that makes me different from a non-Christian is that I have accepted Jesus Christ as my Saviour. I look to Him and the Bible for my standard of living, which I often fall short of. As I said before, I am not perfect. In Jesus, I find forgiveness for the times I do mess up. With that forgiveness, I find unconditional love, acceptance, and help to move forward and do better next time. I want you to find the same because those things are not found in this world. Society and other imperfect humans will not give you that. They can’t because they aren’t meant to. Only Jesus can.

    Yes, I am a Christian. But I am still human. I still have thoughts, emotions, choices, and feelings. Just like you, I do not always make the best choices in how I manage or convey those things. Just like you are passionate about things, so am I. My passions stem from my own life and preferences, but they also come from what I believe to be true about God and His passions. His standard of right and wrong. I have the choice to trust and believe Him or not. I have the choice to care about what He cares about or not. I have the choice to represent Him and His standard of right and wrong. Sometimes I don’t choose wisely and I either don’t represent Him at all, or I don’t do it well. 

    Yes, I am a Christian. But I am not better than you. I am not an elite superhuman. I am still learning, growing, and trying to be better in all areas of my life. Not better than you, just better than I was yesterday. I am striving to be more like Jesus, but as I have shared with you, I don’t always hit the mark. I never want to exhibit a “holier than thou” attitude. Yes, my standards may be different than yours, and you may not understand or agree, but that is okay. It still doesn’t make me any different than you. 

    You see, most people, even other Christians, have an idea of how Christians should behave. You may think things such as they shouldn’t cuss, drink, wear certain clothes, lose their temper, have judgmental thoughts, fight with their spouse, and so on. When a Christain does something that seems off-color an observer will say or think, “Hm. I thought they were a Christain.” Just as you aren’t perfect and you want others to be patient, kind, and give grace, so do we. We even have these thoughts about each other. Our thoughts are more like, “I can’t believe they do that! Don’t they know what the Bible says?” I don’t ever want to use my Christianity as an excuse to sin, it should always be my reason for abstaining from sin, but at the same time, we can’t be held to everyone’s flawed expectations of what a Christain is or should be. This is why Jesus Himself is the benchmark and not other imperfect humans.

    While society is harping on the subject of free will, we still have that as Christians, too. We get to choose what we think is best for our families, which verses we think are important, what church to attend, and which standards to have. And still, we miss the mark. That is why we attend church every week, have Christian friends, read our Bibles, pray, and listen to different music. We need these things to teach us and help us and encourage us. The world will not encourage us to seek God, we must do that for each other. We are still very different from one another, but we are all pressing toward Jesus, and somehow, we all fit and work together. How in the world can you have one church with over 200 people in it, and it feels like a family? That’s what God does. He knits our hearts together, and helps us form strong friendships with each other, which helps us in our walk with Him.

    This is not meant to push you away from Christ. This is not meant for you to say, “If we are so much alike, why do I need Jesus?” This is meant to show you that we are still imperfect humans and we will be this way until we die or the rapture happens. Heaven is the only place of perfection. I hope you will be there. 

    We may misrepresent Jesus, but please look past that and see who He is for yourself. Just as you don’t assume all movies are boring based on one boring movie, Jesus is not always who His followers say He is. But that one boring movie doesn’t keep you from ever watching another movie, does it? Just the same I hope the actions of a few won’t keep you from the Saviour.

    Jesus is the only One that loves you unconditionally right where you are. You may have mocked Him, taken His name in vain, denied His existence, said hurtful things to another person, lied, stolen, cheated, physically hurt someone, had sex before marriage, had an abortion, or anything else you can put here as being bad/wrong/sinful/unforgivable. Even though you made the choice to do those things, Christ is still waiting, giving you the choice to accept Him as your Saviour. We have all sinned. That is why we need Jesus, we need Him to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from the wickedness in our hearts. He lived a sinless life here on this earth and willingly died on a cross. At that time, every sin ever committed past, present, and future was placed upon Him. This was so disgusting in the sight of God the Father that He turned away from Jesus. God is holy and cannot look at sin and ignore it. Jesus willingly gave up His life that day. He died on that cross, was taken down, and placed in an empty tomb. 3 days later, that tomb was empty. Jesus had risen from the dead by the power of God in Him, and He is able to give life to you as well. 

    Jesus never sinned. He didn’t need to die for anything He had done. He died so you and I could come to God, find forgiveness, a relationship with Him, and eternal life. All because He loves you. It does not matter what you have done. He can and will forgive you. If you believe in your heart what you have just read about Jesus dying for you, I would like to invite you to pray right where you are. Call out to God, tell Him that you realize you are a sinner, you believe Jesus died for you, and ask Him to forgive you of your sins and be your Saviour. It really is that simple. If you prayed that prayer and believe that Jesus died for you to save you, you are now a Christian. You now get to live a life in a relationship with God, and you will go to heaven when you die. 

    If you prayed that prayer, please reach out, I would love to rejoice with you and help in any way possible. This truly is the best decision you could ever make and I am so happy for you! Life with Jesus isn’t always easy. It will not be free from heartache, trial, or questions, but it is worth it. Life now has a purpose, joy, and peace that you’ve never known before. 

    Yes, I am a Christian. But I am still human, still growing, and still seeking to be more like Jesus every day. 

With Hope in His Service,

Heather