HOW DARE YOU
Reflection from the message of
Bro. Anton Atacador
The Christian life begins with an encounter with Jesus Christ. No one can ever really be called such apart from that moment of being confronted by Jesus, of the realization and admission of one’s sinfulness and believing that Jesus is his Savior. Yet, merely believing in Jesus is not enough for one to be called a Christian. He remains only a believer until he comes to a place of brokenness and responds to who Jesus is. We cannot call ourselves Christ-followers until we have that sincere desire to obey Him and His Word, until we are compelled to love, live, and serve the way He did. We may kid ourselves into believing that we are genuine Christians, but unless there is that compelling desire to share the Gospel and make disciples, we aren’t there yet. Needing a Savior is one thing, but making that Savior the Lord of your life and making Him your sufficiency is another.
So how is it then, that a lot of us are quick to claim being Christians? To identify ourselves as such when we have favorite sins that we keep? When we cannot part with who we’ve always been and what we hold on to dearly? How is it that we proudly throw in lines such as, “I am a Christian!” in casual conversations when we also inject diatribes about the government and chiding of our leaders in the same discussion? How can we post Bible verses in our timelines all while sharing in the same page about how pissed we are about the person who cut us in line, or the crew member who failed to give our order on time? How dare we claim to be Christ-followers when we are content with just sitting comfortably in our favorite corner in church, Sunday after Sunday, without feeling any inclination to join a D-group for accountability or to even serve in a ministry? And when we do serve, we just do so to earn points and impress people? How can we dare to call ourselves Christians when we have that one person we purposely avoid and refuse to forgive and reconcile with? Don’t we cringe at ticking the “Christian” box in forms we fill out when our Bibles are gathering dust at home and we see no reason to open it? We get so offended that people around us see us as hypocrites when they cannot see any trace of Christ-likeness in us nor a transformed life to support our claim.
They says that the more we think we have arrived, the more off-tangent we truly are. The same goes for being a Christian. Our Sunday church attendance does not guarantee our Christianity. How much we give when we tithe, or the number of D-groups we handle or join, do not determine whether we are genuine Christians or not. It’s not how many times we serve or the number of GLC books we have finished that speak of our spirituality. It is not the outer holiness that matters but the change that happens inside.
Internal transformation is only possible once we have truly understood that Jesus is our true righteousness and we are hopeless and hapless apart from Him. When we have put all our trust and confidence in Him alone, and have understood that we are saved by grace, called to obey God not out of duty but out of love, only then can we be truly Christians.
Reflection from the message of
Bro. Anton Atacador
The Christian life begins with an encounter with Jesus Christ. No one can ever really be called such apart from that moment of being confronted by Jesus, of the realization and admission of one’s sinfulness and believing that Jesus is his Savior. Yet, merely believing in Jesus is not enough for one to be called a Christian. He remains only a believer until he comes to a place of brokenness and responds to who Jesus is. We cannot call ourselves Christ-followers until we have that sincere desire to obey Him and His Word, until we are compelled to love, live, and serve the way He did. We may kid ourselves into believing that we are genuine Christians, but unless there is that compelling desire to share the Gospel and make disciples, we aren’t there yet. Needing a Savior is one thing, but making that Savior the Lord of your life and making Him your sufficiency is another.
So how is it then, that a lot of us are quick to claim being Christians? To identify ourselves as such when we have favorite sins that we keep? When we cannot part with who we’ve always been and what we hold on to dearly? How is it that we proudly throw in lines such as, “I am a Christian!” in casual conversations when we also inject diatribes about the government and chiding of our leaders in the same discussion? How can we post Bible verses in our timelines all while sharing in the same page about how pissed we are about the person who cut us in line, or the crew member who failed to give our order on time? How dare we claim to be Christ-followers when we are content with just sitting comfortably in our favorite corner in church, Sunday after Sunday, without feeling any inclination to join a D-group for accountability or to even serve in a ministry? And when we do serve, we just do so to earn points and impress people? How can we dare to call ourselves Christians when we have that one person we purposely avoid and refuse to forgive and reconcile with? Don’t we cringe at ticking the “Christian” box in forms we fill out when our Bibles are gathering dust at home and we see no reason to open it? We get so offended that people around us see us as hypocrites when they cannot see any trace of Christ-likeness in us nor a transformed life to support our claim.
They says that the more we think we have arrived, the more off-tangent we truly are. The same goes for being a Christian. Our Sunday church attendance does not guarantee our Christianity. How much we give when we tithe, or the number of D-groups we handle or join, do not determine whether we are genuine Christians or not. It’s not how many times we serve or the number of GLC books we have finished that speak of our spirituality. It is not the outer holiness that matters but the change that happens inside.
Internal transformation is only possible once we have truly understood that Jesus is our true righteousness and we are hopeless and hapless apart from Him. When we have put all our trust and confidence in Him alone, and have understood that we are saved by grace, called to obey God not out of duty but out of love, only then can we be truly Christians.