Are You Living It Wrong? The Truth About the Christian Life

Welcome to another post on the Still in the Storm Substack.

Have you ever really considered what it really means to live the Christian life?

Just take a minute and think about it but, not too long because you need to come back and read the rest of this article.

Ok, let’s dive in.

To start I’m going to get a little personal but, then I’ll zoom out and speak to how it applies to the whole body of Christ.

You see, I've always considered myself a Christian but, until a few years ago didn't truly understand what that meant.

Not only that but, it turns out that my previous thoughts were quite a bit off.

Perhaps like many of you, I became a Christian at a very young age when my parents baptized me.

During my childhood, I spent a fair amount of time at Church. Perhaps not every Sunday but, no more or less than the average American Christian.

I was always mesmerized by the story of Jesus but, the gospel that I heard was usually not much more than that we are saved by Christ to go to heaven when we die, a ticket to Heaven or get out of hell free card, if you will.

It also limited the work Christ did to salvation and put a lot of the work of sanctification on us.

Unfortunately, many churches and denominations today tell the believers that they aren’t working hard enough, that God is angry with them.

And perhaps most damaging is that it didn’t preach a full devotion to the Lord, an exchanged and sacrificed life.

There didn’t seem to be any issue with just leaving a little corner of our life to Jesus and keeping the rest for us.

Just keep coming to church on Sunday, and maybe Wednesday, then you can do whatever you want with the rest of your time.

Does all that sound familiar? It might and probably should.

The truth is quite a bit different but, much greater.

I’m not pretending to have a corner on the truth but rather just sharing what I currently believe it to be so, do with it what you will but I hope it encourages you.

Let’s start at the beginning.

First, as you may know, the Truth is a person and not a thing.

Who you ask? I cringe a little at thought that someone would ask but, I’m overjoyed to tell you.

The Truth is Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God.

He isn’t just the personification of truth but the reality of all things, seen and unseen.

Let’s now look at some truth in Christ that contrasts with what we looked at earlier in this article.

Jesus didn't come to bring us to heaven but rather to bring heaven into us.

It's not that we simply learn and know about Jesus but rather that we learn Him and know Him. I hope you appreciate the nuance there.

It's not that we try to become more like Christ in our lives but that we allow God to make us into Him.

He transforms us. We don’t do it ourselves.

He is our salvation, our sanctification and our righteousness.

Oh and God created us for His pleasure and purpose, not ours.

In fact, He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world and has given us everything in Christ, all heavenly blessings and unsearchable riches.

That is pretty amazing, isn't it?

And all it requires is going to Church one day a week, reading your bible and praying, right? Wrong.

God is asking for a full and complete sacrifice of our entire lives to Him for His purpose, not ours.

A full yielding to Him. Not us, but Christ. Not our will but His.

And it is not something that we do individually either. God desires a corporate expression of His Son.

The Body, Bride, Church, and Family of God are a people.

When we put ourselves at the center and focus only on our (earthly) desires we actually limit our potential.

The potential that God sees for us far exceeds anything that we could ever imagine. He truly created us for a glorious purpose.

Initially in the Garden we made a wrong turn, to say the least.

Thanks to Jesus we have been fully restored and now have the choice in front of us again of whether to enter into God's eternal purpose.

This is what I now believe the Christian life to be but, I am not the truth. He is.

May we all be given a revelation of God's calling for us in Jesus Christ.

And, may we all continue to learn Christ and grow in Him.

Talk soon,

Mike

---

I’d be very curious to get the thoughts of other sisters and brothers on this topic.

So, please let me know what you think in the discussion below.

---

---

P.S. The NEW Science Defined is getting close to launching!

Are you looking to take control of your health? To better steward your body for the Lord as His Temple?

Then you need to learn science and how to find, read and interpret scientific studies.

That’s where Science Defined comes in.

We are getting ready to launch a completely redesigned website, an updated newsletter and a free email course on finding, reading and evaluating scientific papers.

Stay tuned for updates.

---

Do you know someone who could benefit from Still in the Storm?

If you find the information in these articles valuable, we would be grateful for your help to get it to those who could most benefit.

Just click the button below to share Still in the Storm with a friend!

Get notified when new posts go live!

Lastly, to be notified as soon as a new post is live subscribe to Still in the Storm by clicking the button below.