Living For Christ

If someone held a gun to your head and asked, "Do you believe in God?” what would you say? On April 20, 1999 Cassie Bernall went to the Columbine High School library to study during lunch. Shortly afterward, a member of the Trenchcoat Mafia pointed his gun at her and asked: "Do you believe in God?" "Yes, I believe in God," she said. "Why?" the gunman asked. But he did not wait for an answer. He shot Cassie Bernall dead. She is now in the presence of her Savior.
Many people proclaim that they would die for Christ. But what about this question: Would you live for Christ, and what does that mean?

There have been many men and women, boys and girls who have given their lives for the cause of Christ. There are many brothers and sisters around the world as you are reading this that are losing their lives on this earth because of their faith in Christ. Dying for Christ is not easy, but praise God it puts an end to our struggle and on the other side is a life with no more suffering, no more tears and an existence with the God of the universe where all is better than well.

Living for Christ is another matter. How many of us who so quickly agree that we’d die for Christ actually live for Him fully on a daily basis? The case can be made that living for Jesus is more of a difficult task than dying for Jesus.

As we go through our days we are faced with many opportunities to live out our commitment to our Lord, and how many times do we neglect to live for Him because of inconvenience, doubt, fear, our outright disobedience.

God has called us to forgive as we have been forgiven, to love as we have been loved. We are told to share Christ with those with whom we come in contact with and even to go to the ends of the earth to do so. God’s Word tells us to flee, even the appearance of evil and to not let any unwholesome word come out of our mouths and along with that to guard our hearts and thoughts and make sure they are pure. We are told in scripture that part of living for Christ is suffering for His sake. When we suffer, do we complain and get discouraged and doubt God in the midst of our trial? God has told us certain things that He hates. Do we hear or even tell jokes that make light of or make fun of things that break God’s heart?

You see, living for Christ is a moment by moment, day by day decision to live as Christ lived and includes dying, but to self. That is not easy, but will make the eventual experience of our physical death so much sweeter. So, until and unless the Lord calls you or me to sacrifice our lives for Him let’s strive to live for Him daily by dying to self each and every day.

Blessings,

MJ