CHRISTIAN OR CHILD OF GOD?
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For a while, each time I looked in the mirror, those were the words going through my mind. I had allowed my conviction to turn into a source of shame. What conviction? The conviction that my life, while I called myself a Christian, was not anything near the example Jesus had set out for us during his walk on Earth.
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R O B Y N TI C H A U E R
RIWHQ JRHV PDQ PDGH LGHDOV DQG institutions are often broken, due to the mere fact that we’re all sinners and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. Romans 8:14
Jesus didn’t come to Earth so that we might merely become Christians. +H FDPH VR WKDW ZH PD\ EHFRPH $ ZDWHUHG GRZQ NLQG RI IDLWK KDV VRQV DQG GDXJKWHUV RI *RG FR KHLUV become normalised. We go to church in Christ. This means that, because on Sunday, sing these incredible we’ve accepted God as our Lord and VRQJV WKDW ȴOO XV ZLWK SDVVLRQ DQG 6DYLRXU ZHȇUH ȴOOHG ZLWK WKH 6SLULW then leave to go back into the world, ZHȇUH FKLOGUHQ RI *RG DQG ZHȇUH FR looking like the world. We try and be heirs of Christ (Romans 8:17). Our the best people we can be, we try to sonship gives us the same authority have some quiet time, and we give the and power that Jesus had (Matthew beggar on the street a smile. Some of us even tithe. That means we’re good Identity is key. Christians, right? The beauty of realising that we’re I guess so. But is that enough? FR KHLUV RI &KULVW LV WKDW RXU LGHQWLW\ Don’t settle. is secure. Our identity simply cannot be stripped from us. Our identity is Recently I learnt that the term in Christ. When God looks at us, he ȆFKULVWLDQȇ LV DFWXDOO\ D PDQ PDGH VHHV XV WKH ZD\ KH VDZ -HVXV +H word. Meaning, God and Jesus never looks upon our faces with delight, used that term to label followers of with unconditional love and with an Christ. People made it up. And as it 05
