The Bible says that a Christian should be:

humbled by God,

aware of and confessing his ongoing sins,

faithful to Jesus,

unconditionally loving,

unconditionally forgiving,

sometimes confrontational about truth and morality,

living by the Spirit of God and by the Word of God and by the truth of God,

continually prayerful,

actively reading God's Word as if his or her life depended on it,

actively obeying God,

living in His Grace,

waiting for His return,

hard-working,

and open about the Gospel of Jesus.

(Hey, be patient, God is still working on me!)

Even though Christ is living inside of Christians, we never live up to sinless perfection.

A Christian, according to the Bible, is someone who "believes in Jesus."

Following God and being loving is an outgrowth of that belief.

Our spiritual relationship with Jesus is the result of faith, prayer, obedience, confession of sin and the yielded-to indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Unfortunately, just because someone believes in Jesus, does not mean that any specific attitude or behavior will be theirs.

Rather, they might be growing spiritually inside, and they will later be led by God into the external Christ-like behaviors.

Or, having freewill, they might resist God, even as a saved believer, all of their lives.

One of the things that is often perceived as being "non-Christian" or "unloving" is telling people that God says that they are "sinners".

Or telling people that permanent separation from God (fear, pain, and endless despair, and physical burning await them one minute after they die), if they die without Christ.

No Christian filled with God's love would wish that on another human being, especially when Christ has paid the price for everyone's deliverance.

It's as if people think that we are hating them by telling them that God says they are "sinners."

Or that we are hating them because we tell them that God will justly punish their sins in Hell if they do not receive Jesus as their Savior.

On the contrary, we love people and want them to go to Heaven.

So, out of love, we warn them about Hell and tell them the Gospel so that they can take Jesus as their Savior and receive everlasting life.

If Heaven and Hell are real, as we believe they are, then telling someone the Gospel so that they can be saved from torment is the most loving thing you could possibly do for someone.

There is to be *no difference* between the "sacred" and the "secular" in the life of a believer in Jesus who has the Holy Spirit living inside of him.

His life is ~all~ spiritual.

He takes his "church," (his body), ~everywhere~.

Being a Christian is a 24-hour-a-day/365 day-a-year proposition. It was never intended to be a "quiet personal matter" that includes one isolated hour of singing and a sermon on Sunday.

This does not mean that you are going to be perfect, but that you are aiming for perfection.

Unbelievers are certainly not silent about their moral and spiritual beliefs--why should we be?

Jesus commanded believers to witness with their lives and with their words.

He commanded us believers to be salt in a rotting culture.

To be light in a dark world.

God, Jesus and the Bible are never to be "set aside" so we can deal with the "real" issues of life.

Like it or not, if you are a believer, you take Jesus into your sex life, and into your money life, and into your thought life--and into every other part of your life...

Growing up in the Lutheran church, I always wondered what they meant by, "As a Christian, you would think or do this..."--this never made any sense to me.

I am ~always~ a Christian, whether I am obeying God or not.

Whether I am living in unconditional love or not.

Whether I am sinning or not.

Whether I am walking in the Spirit of God or not.

Whether I am consciously living in the power of His grace or not.

Also, I have noticed that professed believers who seem to be making no effort to live for Jesus often say that those who are obeying God are being hypocrites, insincere and fake.
(Sometimes they are.)

On the other hand, maybe surprisingly, the fact is that disobeying believers often become the enemies of obeying believers.

Does the possibility exist, though, that some of them are real, and we just ~think~ that they are fake, because we do not want to face the fact that we do not live at that level of obedience to God ourselves?

That we are actually opposing God's people, and not realizing it?

Think of just one Christ-like believer in Jesus that you know personally: humbled by God, faithful to Jesus, unconditionally loving, unconditionally forgiving, living by the Spirit of God and by the Word of God, continually prayerful, actively obeying God, living in His Grace.

Again, on the other hand, maybe people don't really mistake the spirituality of people who are truly living close to God.

Maybe it is unmistakable.

Maybe there are just so few of them.

Is there even one person in your life that you would not call a "fake Christian"?

Someone who does not live by the sinfully prideful and often sinfully angry self-effort of the sinful flesh?

Would it be a good idea to follow that person's grace-filled example in trusting and obeying God?

Eternal ELECTION of the saved by God the Father, before the universe was created.

REGENERATION of the saved, by the Holy Spirit.

JUSTIFICATION of the saved BY FAITH in Christ.

Personal INDWELLING of the saved by the Holy Spirit.

The saved are SPIRIT-BAPTIZED into the body of Christ by the Holy Spirit. >>1st Corinthians 12:13.

SEALED by the Holy Spirit.

SANCTIFICATION and Chastening during our lives.

RESURRECTION of our physical bodies.

GLORIFICATION of our physical bodies.

ENTRANCE into the Eternal Kingdom of the New Sky ("Heavens") and the New Earth and the City of Heaven which came down from Heaven.

WITH the Lord Jesus in Heaven and on the New Earth, forever: endless love, joy, peace, perfection, and pleasure forever and ever.

*** If you have ever believed in Jesus at any time in the past, then you are forgiven of all your sins, and you are saved forever, and you will certainly go to Heaven the minute you die.

As a believer in Christ, God has credited Christ's righteousness to your account.

"Justification" means that God DECLARED you and me, even though we were sinners, to be RIGHTEOUS--because of Christ.

The Bible verses about the biblical doctrine of justification prove this to be true.

God has justified, (past tense), believers in Jesus *while we were sinners*, so how could any sins, (no matter how big or how evil or how many), committed afterwards, condemn us back to an unsaved status? Biblical Answer: They cannot. Jesus died for ALL sins on the cross.

Secondly, GOD GAVE us faith as a GIFT. As a gift, He enabled us to believe in Jesus. So how could our lack of faith ever damn us? Answer: According to the Bible, it cannot. The Bible states that God's GIFTS are IRREVOCABLE. Salvation is the GIFT of God.

The Bible also says that if we are FAITH-LESS, He remains faithful. >>2nd Timothy 2:13.

According to the Bible, believers in Jesus are eternally saved and sealed by God and irrevocably safe from even the slightest possibility of going to Hell: *guaranteed* to go to Heaven.

Our sealed and guaranteed-to-go-to-Heaven status is explicitly stated in Ephesians 1:13, 14.

God says that those who believe in Jesus:
are saved,
have eternal everlasting life,
will never die,
were chosen and sealed,
are permanently indwelled by the Holy Spirit,
were justified forever,
were glorified,
are predestined to be like Christ, will be kept by God till the end.

Jesus said that He will lose NONE of those who once have believed in Him.

God's salvation is complete, and it is all of God. God promises us that He will keep us till the end.

ALL verses that might be wrongly interpreted to mean that you can "lose your salvation," are verses that are NOT dealing with justification, but rather with sanctification (God's work of making us progressively holy, which is part of salvation).

And some verses are dealing with with people who never believed in Jesus to begin with, and therefore *never were saved.*

Faith is NOT "meritorious." This means that our faith by itself does not save us.

Faith in Jesus saves us.

Jesus saves us.

The Bible says that those who believe and are baptized will be saved.

Those who believe and are NOT water-baptized WILL ALSO be saved. >>John 6:47.

Water baptism is NOT required for salvation, and it is NOT part of what saves us.

And all those who believe in Jesus are baptized into the body of Christ by the Holy Spirit. (This is NOT the ritual of water baptism.) >>1st Corinthians 12:13.

Believers in Jesus are saved forever THROUGH simple faith in JESUS.

Hallelujah!
Thank God.
Amen.
So shall it be. :)

-C