Perfect Christian or Christian?

     I used to have a poster by my desk at work, it said: "If you were accused of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to prove it?". Have you ever considered what your Christian walk looks like to others?
     This morning my "walk" is on my mind, I know I stumble, I fall and I make mistakes, maybe that makes my life look like I'm not a Christian, but actually what it shows is that I'm not a "Perfect Christian".
     What I am is a person that has recognized that I am not perfect, I am a person who has heard the truth that there is Someone that was willing to pay for my imperfections and I have chosen to accept that payment to cover me because I was not able to make the payment myself.
     When I allowed myself to be bailed out by Someone else it put me in a position of considering the other Person's opinions and desires for my life are more important than my own.
     Choices I now make reflect what I do because I am a person that has been forgiven for a debt that I could not pay. I am in debt to the One who paid the price for me.
     The choices I make may not be evidence to anyone other than myself, but I do hope that my life reflects that I am a Christian.... sometimes it is something that can't be seen by the world. We can do many works that make us look like we are something that we are not....we can have a head knowledge and not a heart knowledge....it takes more than just works and more than just knowledge.....but yes! I am washed clean and forgiven through Jesus' blood and now live as His! I am a Christian!

Called to Holiness

Is it possible that we have made an image of God in our thinking that is not accurate? Have we removed the "Holiness" from His image? Have we made Him such a loving God that He is willing to wipe away the call to holiness that He has put on us? 

     I hear so many people call on Him as if He is simply the father figure on an old TV show. Is He the strict but gentle loving father that chuckles over the antics of his wife and children~  I think not.

     He is the Holy Creator of all things! He is the great I AM, the Ancient of Days, the Alpha and Omega. He is Omnipotent, Omnipresent, Omniscient! Who are we to recreate Him in our image!?

     While He does love us immensely because we are covered by Jesus' precious blood, He knows our hearts better than we do and He has given us a path to walk, a narrow path.

     He has more good plans for us than we can imagine but that does not remove the holiness and the purity we are called to, if we believe it does we are going to be sadly surprised.

     As His Kingdom, we need to walk circumspectly, we need to constantly consider and inspect our hearts, our actions, words, thoughts. Acts 24:16 "In view of this, I also do my best to maintain always a blameless conscience both before God and before men."

     Yes, I know we walk in a new freedom, paid for by our Saviour, but we are instructed in Romans 12:2 "Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect."

     Remember, we're not to transform God into what is pleasing to us, we are to be transformed ourselves into what is pleasing to Him.