...Crystal Back THEO 104 December 11, 2010 What It Means to Be a Christian I. Introduction There are three concepts that have helped reshape the perception I have of Christianity: the Christian’s way of life, the Christian’s testimony, and the Church, or the Body of Christ, as it relates to the community. Each of these concepts is very important as independent ideas, but together they strengthen and enhance the life of a Christian. My own life has been strengthened by these ideas, and that is why I believe they are all essential to the growth and maturity of every Christian’s spiritual walk. They assist in defining what it means to be a true Christian. II. Section One: The Life of a Christian The first of these important concepts deals with the lifestyle of a Christian. Every aspect of a person’s physical life is directly involved with their spiritual health whether they realize it or not. It is not only crucial for a Christian to be aware of what they are doing in the presence of others, it is important for them to be aware of the decisions they make without an accountable audience. Choosing to live a lifestyle according to the teachings of Jesus Christ is the best way to genuinely show God and others that His lifestyle is, in fact, the best way. It also shows others, believers and non-believers alike, what a Christian really is and what one represents. For a Christian to truly be capable of living a Christian lifestyle, they must first begin their journey...
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...LIBERTY UNIVERSITY BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY Conversion Testimony Paper Submitted to Professor David A. Wheeler in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of Contemporary Evangelism EVAN 525 – B02 by James D. Dynarski January 17th 2015 Conversion Testimony Instructions Part One – “I have not always been a Christian.” I have not always been a follower of Christ Jesus; my life before Christ was a dark and angry time for me. After my mother died suddenly in 1994 at the age of forty years old, I turned to the use of illicit drugs, excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages, and both mental and physical sexual perversion to numb the pain of my loss, in the process falling deeper and deeper into depression. I started to hang out with a crowd that introduced me to Wicca (witchcraft). I tried to believe it filled a void in my heart and life that I had felt I lost when my mother passed away. A Christian co-worker tried her best to witness to me and I scoffed at her simple belief of true forgiveness through Christ Jesus. I left her in tears that night as I told her if there is a God and a Hell, I am not good enough for Him and I deserve the Hell she was telling me about. Her straight and narrow path seemed dim and boring compared to my wide open road of self-indulgence. Part Two – “I realized I needed Jesus and received Him into my life when…” I realized I needed Jesus and received Him into my life after I had been...
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...Throughout Gregory Nazianzus’ “On The Love of the Poor” he constantly gives the reader reasons as to why they should care for the poor in their society. First, Nazianzus says that according to Paul and Jesus love is the greatest of all the commandments, and of love, love of the poor is its most excellent form since we must first offer the favor of our kindness first to other human beings. Kindness to human, especially the poor is also important because they are like us, the believe the same things that we do, follow the same laws and have the “same covenants and liturgical gatherings, the same sacraments, the same hopes.” Second everything that us humans have actually comes from God so who are we to withhold these things from those who truly need them. This, according to Nazianzus is simply irresponsible and selfish. Giving to the poor from your surplus is a sign of thanks to God and doing so makes you a “god to the unfortunate, by imitating the mercy of God.” Finally, Christ stated that what you do for the lowest of his people you did for him, so caring for the poor is especially important as it is also caring for the needs of the Lord. Of all of these reasons for caring for the poor, I feel like the final is the most persuasive because it gives you an actual person, and of all people the Messiah, that you have to be accountable to. Every Christian wants to please the Lord and Jesus Christ himself, and by following his word and caring for the least of his people, each of...
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...are true” Having faith in Jesus Christ means relying completely on Him—trusting in His infinite power, intelligence, and love. It includes believing His teachings. It means believing that even though you do not understand all things, He does. Remember that because He has experienced all our pains, afflictions, and infirmities, He knows how to help us rise above our daily difficulties. Jesus Christ has atoned for us and prepared for us to receive eternal life. He is always ready to help us, as he commands us to “Look unto Him in in every thought, doubt not, fear not”. To me, faith is believing that Heavenly has a plan for us. It is trusting in God and knowing that He has a hand in all things in our lives. The Savior promises us, “If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me”. Through Him, all things are possible. However, faith is more than simply a belief. Having faith in Jesus Christ can motivate us to follow His perfect example. It is what actions we take that put our faith to the test. For someone to have faith, they must be motivated to put a belief into practice, not merely being content with it in their mind. For example, we believe that Christ is the Savior, but because we have faith we act upon this. Some ways we can act upon our faith include going to church every Sunday, participating in service projects, and paying tithing. We act upon these things because of our faith in the Lord, Jesus Christ. He promises us blessings and...
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...one's emotions, desires, or inclinations. I have come to realize that self-control is something that I must master. Despite prior lessons from my parents and readings in the bible, I still committed an action that was contrary to their teachings. I was not only being ignorant and disobedient towards my parents, but greatest of all, my Lord Jesus Christ. “His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Thus, he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust, and may become participants of the divine nature. For this reason, you must make every effort to support your faith with goodness and goodness with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love. For if these things are yours and are increasing among you, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our lord Jesus Christ. For anyone who lacks these things is nearsighted and blind, and is forgetful of the cleansing of past sins.†NRSV 2Peter 1:3-10 Therefore, by not restraining my emotions, to do violence towards another person, I rejected the beliefs instilled in me by the lord. My ill-advised actions led me down an unrighteous path of darkness; leaving...
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...BREAKING CURSES In the name of Jesus Christ, I now rebuke, break, and loose myself and my family from any and all evil curses, fetishes, charms, vexes, hexes, spells, every jinx, all psychic powers, sorcery, bewitchments, enchantments, witchcraft, love potions, and psychic prayers that have been put upon me, back to ten generations on both sides of my family. I break and loose myself from any and all connected or related spirits from any person or persons or from any occult or psychic sources. I ask You, Heavenly Father, to return them to the senders now. Let him that loves cursing receive it unto himself. PSYCHIC HEREDITY AND BONDAGE In the name of Jesus, I now renounce, break, free, and loose myself and my family from all psychic heredity, demonic holds, psychic powers, and bondage of physical and mental illnesses, family, marital, and other curses upon us, back to ten generations on both sides of our families resulting from sins, transgressions, iniquities, occult and psychic involvements of myself, my parents, and any other ancestors of mine or my spouse, and all ex-spouses, or their parents, or any of their ancestors. I plead the blood of Jesus, in the Name of Jesus declaring that the enemy cannot penetrate the blood of Jesus. *Scriptures to Meditate Genesis 12:3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. Genesis 27:29 Let people serve thee, and nations bow down to...
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...and Cultures Oscillatory has exercised vast inspiration by what method we abstract the link among Christianity and philosophy. The situation has converted several societies’ circumstances to vision their culture of resistance to foremost characteristics of the common philosophies as rather of which to be humiliated, as well as rather that desires to remain rejected with the intention to convert traditionally liable. Niebuhr debates that Yoder’s forceful analysis of his book has not been offered the extensive revelation it justifies, particularly his reason that Niebuhr's situation is vitiated with a fragile Christology plus an abuse of the policy of the Triad. Niebuhr has initiated vast misperception into the argument by considering the Christ against Culture method as principle imperfect, while the subject remains his personal situation that advances from “Nicene orthodoxy” (Carter, 2003). Culture comprises of the traditions, knowledge, ability, conducts and community relationships that a culture develops. Culture is the contextual in which all individual predictably their daily existence (Atkinson, 1995). The delinquent of “Oscillatory” is generally engaged to define the connection concerning Christians and the fundamental culture in which we reside (GCU, lecture). On the other hand, this disguises a significant opinion: similar when Christians discard their immediate culture, culture itself endures the average of their presence as they generate a Christian culture this essay...
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...S Service Talk June 21st 2009 “Bear ye one another’s Burdens and fulfill the law of Christ.” as Stated in Galatians 6.2 Service as defined by dictionary.com is: an act of helpful activity; help; aid As members of the Church of Jesus Christ we have been given a commandment by our Lord and Savior to, as the sacrament prayer states “Take upon us the name of Jesus Christ” on way to do that is by serving others. D&C 20:18-19 (read) We see here that we, as man and woman, from creation have been commanded to serve the Lord. Mosiah 2:17 King Benjamin stated in when we serve others we are in the service of God. Christ, speaking to his Disciples in -Mat 16:24-26 taught… Deny your selfish interests and serve others **President Thomas S. Monson taught Brigham Young University students that their student days should include “the matter of spiritual preparation,” including service to others. “An attitude of love characterized the mission of the Master,” “He gave sight to the blind, legs to the lame, and life to the dead. Perhaps when we [face] our Maker, we will not be asked, ‘How many positions did you hold?’ but rather, ‘How many people did you help?’ In reality,” “you can never love the Lord until you serve Him by serving His people.” As we put others before ourselves we began to develop the Attributes of Christ and transform ourselves into true active Christians and followers of the Master. Church itself fulfills the commandment of service. Organizations...
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...In what ways can the Christian therapist better address the anguish of the cultural minority in Western society in a way that reflects the calling of Jesus Christ? In their book, A Peaceable Psychology, Alvin Dueck and Kevin Reimer discuss means in which to approach the art of counseling psychology that amply appeals to an ever-increasing diverse client population. The writers suggest a prominent shift ensues when counselors no longer reside strictly within the objectivist, non-religious mentality of therapeutic sessions. Instead, Dueck and Reimer propose the counselor integrate the clients’ spiritual and religious beliefs with the therapy session in order to assist in distinguishing and accessing the healing resources available to the client. Within the realm of psychology, many researchers and practitioners have considered areas of faith and religion to be irrelevant. The book describes how these psychologists were educated from early in their studies to regard religion and morality as nonfactors. The authors claim “an enculturated American psychology will displace local traditions in favor of presumed psychological universals” (Dueck and Reimer, 2009, p. 48). These “psychological universals” restrict a person’s life and identity by hindering the religious and spiritual affiliations unique to that individual. The therapist is withholding potential sources of healing in the client’s journey through counseling by depriving him or her of this integral aspect of life. Instead...
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...responsible enough to type it up and turn it in on time. If you slack off and don’t do what you were told to do, then that is you not being responsible.(Galatians 5:22-23) Another example might be you admitting responsibility. (1 John 1:19) You might have done something wrong, but you have to be responsible to admit it. You are willing to take risks, and you are not afraid of the consequences. The consequences might be bad or good, but you as a responsible person are willing to accept them. You have to make a big decision and really be honest on whether to accept it or not. One last example can be you as a mom or dad taking care of your family. This is a huge responsibility. Not only do you have to support them financially, but you also have to love them, nurture them and teach them how to be productive members of society. Parents have to educate their kids, give them what they need and look after them. Imagine if your kid asks you for an Ipad, you know you have to work hard in order for you to be able to buy him that Ipad. Now you know that working and giving them what they need is not everything. You need to spend time and educate them and that can be a tremendous responsibility. (Luke 18:16-17) When you hear the word...
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...I am very grateful for the opportunity to speak to you today. When we moved out of this area, last year, I they didn’t ask us to speak, and I was surprised. Maybe the bishop knew that we would be back. When we moved back, the bishop did mention that it was time that we should speak, but we did not hear from him. I thought that we were home free. I know that I am always a little bit nervous to speak up here, but I am always grateful for the opportunity to grow and learn, I like to challenge myself to come out of my comfort zone and this is definitely one aspect in my life that I need to learn and grow. Maybe some day I will learn not to be so nervous, but speaking to my husband with him being in the Bishopric a while back, he said that he never got used to it. They asked us to speak on Gratitude centered around Discipleship and Kindness. The first thing that comes to my mind when I think of Discipleship and Kindness is Brigg. He is always thinking of others. He is always doing one project or another to help someone in our ward, family, friends. He gets that from his father who set an example for him. I am so grateful to be married to someone who sets an example for my kids by helping others. I was listening to Mary N. Cook (first counselor in the young womens presidency). Her talk was centered around kindness. Just like in the primary song Kindness begins with me. I want to be kind to everyone, for that is right you see. So I say to my-self, Remember...
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...The question of whether a Christian chaplain can facilitate a soldier’s religious freedom without compromising his or her own faith seems to be an easy question at first, but looking deeper one cannot answer the question as easily. As Christians we understand that this is a pluralistic society. As a minister of my church I have certain freedoms, and for the most part those who attend our services are in agreement with what I have to say. However that is not the case, in our readings Whittington notes that, “the chaplain is at the beck and call of the entire community; not to affirm the validity of their religion, but to facilitate their freedom to believe it.” While it may be difficult to comprehend it happens in civilian services as well. For the past five weeks at my congregation a Messianic believer has been attending our church, driving over an hour each Sunday to partake in our services. The reason she attended was because she met our Senior Minister on an Israel tour back in October. The issue that she has is we partake in Communion each week. As a Messianic her understanding is that Communion is only to be received at Passover. Therefore she does not want any part in the communion process, including the handling of the tray. So in order to make it easier for her our servers have been made aware, and they simply move past her when the communion tray is passed. She has her beliefs, and while the Christian church has different beliefs we her to worship in her own way while...
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...the title of one of the wealthiest men in the world. By society’s standards, he is regarded as a remarkable success. However, the thing that some consider to make him an even greater success is his intense commitment to presenting his faith in Jesus Christ throughout his business. From being selfless enough to spend thousands of dollars each and every year to promote Christianity in newspapers during the Easter and Christmas hours, to making sure he played Christian music in his stores,keeping his business closed on Sundays to observe the sabbath, and as a whole running his business parallel to the bible’s standards.. The motivation behind putting ads in newspapers to spread the word of God was said to have came when David Green realized the true meaning of Easter and Christmas was slowly but surely being taken away from every phase of society. His stores, Hobby Lobby, have already created and produced ads for well over 250 papers across America each week. His first ad was six inches in size and ran in 1970. Following up, two years later, he he had upgraded from the six inch to a full page for each holiday, and ever since he has taken out full page ads. Green, has spawn a work environment that uplifts his Savior, Jesus Christ, by possessing a servant’s attitude and raising others up to be more important than himself. In 2009, while other businesses in the retail industry were cutting back and laying people off, David Green was inflating wages to pay workers more. In spite...
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...In "Christ as a good Shepard," Jesus is depicted as one with the sheep, sitting along side them. They are distributed evenly with 3 on each side of him, all in informal arrangements and positions. Jesus is depicted in gold and purple, however, demonstrating his superiority with a halo on top of his head. Also, the landscape is very detailed. He is shown under a blue sky surrounded by plants and grass, in contrast to "The miracle of the Loaves and Fishes" mosaic. This mosaic depicts Jesus under a gold sky, the standard background color for medieval mosaics. He is faced directly towards the viewer now, spreading his arms and directing his disciples to distribute the great amount of fish and bread he has just produced. The artist only used 4 disciples to make the work's meaning explicit; he also aligns the figures laterally behind Jesus, close to the foreground. These two works compare in that they symbolize Jesus young and beardless. In Good Shepard Mosaic, the forms still have three-dimensional bulk, but the shading such as in the folds of the robes is less refined than in the past, and figured are not very grounded. The elements of realism have been sacrificed for a focus on spiritual elements such as anatomically incorrect tails of the sheep. "Miracle of loaves and fishes" is created in a very simple form in a small-scale frame. The rejection of illusionism takes away realistic features to focus on the religious meanings of the work, as Jesus holds a fish in one hand...
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...American Dream, relying on God to solve one’s problems was not going to cut it. The hope that humanity could move forward as a whole sustained the country more than faith in solely God. John Steinbeck, recognizing the need for a faith founded in people rather than God, created the character of Jim Casy to represent a modernized Jesus Christ who would teach of the power of unity rather than the power of religion. His utilization of the Christ figure becomes more evident as the novel progresses. In Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck uses Jim Casy as the Christ figure to provide those of the Great Depression with a more pertinent faith reliant on the goodness of humanity rather than exclusively on God. Initially, John Steinbeck’s description of Jim Casy portrays a man who has fallen from the accepted faith-similar to that of Jesus Christ’s fall from Judaism -and has become enlightened by a radical new idea. When Casy is first introduced he is unsure about his own religious identity because he believes that “the sperit [isn’t] in [him] no more” (20). In order to understand this feeling of spiritual emptiness, Casy goes, “into the wilderness like [Jesus Christ]” (81). His lust for flesh fills him with guilt that troubles him. He considers that “maybe we been whippin’ the hell out of ourselves for nothin’” because “there ain’t sin and there ain’t no virtue” (23). He doesn’t understand the point of a faith that only condemns...
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