Dare to Be: What it Means to be a "Christian" Part 4

Once we have entered into the ability to accept that we are only saved by grace and not of our own works we are able to accept Christ as our personal savior and can begin our life as a Christian. This life is not easy nor have we been promised a life without suffering. Sometimes it seems nearly impossible to keep track of all that we must do in order to be a "good" Christian. Even though on paper, it seems easy enough to follow the teachings of Christ, we seem to suffer at some point with lack of humility, dedication, motivation or understanding.

The easiest way I have found yet to make sure we as a Christian people to follow everything we are supposed to do is in a little idea I call the Roots of Faithful Living or RFL for short. This idea is something I feel God lead me to develope that would help others as well as myself, follow the teachings of Christ and walk a Christ centered life.

In this idea there are five different points in which we must hit: Prayer, Study, Communion through Fellowship and Accountability or (CFA), Commission and Gospel. These five roots burrow us deep into the life of the Christian and link us to the cross in every way.

To help us understand these a bit better we are going to break down all of these in brief understandings. First, lets look at both prayer and study. Prayer, is our chance to be able to speak directly to God. This heavenly hotline if you will is our one way ticket to express our needs, gratitude and praise to God. Study, is our ability to hear what God is saying to us through the Bible. Without one of these links the conversation becomes very one way.

CFA, is our horizontal relationship where prayer and study is our vertical. CFA is one of the most difficult aspects to this idea set simply due to the idea that we must admit to someone else who is not God that we have a problem. All of us live in this sin ridden world and there is not one of us who have not given into the sin the world has to offer. Whether is be lust, lies, idols or anything else, we all are guilty and need help. We as Christians are a part of a much larger body than ourselves: the body of Christ. So to prevent us from falling to a fallen world we must go where believers go, church. Church is a body of believers who congregate together to praise and worship God. We learn and we grow. In fact there in the church is the second part of this. Not only can we find fellowship but, also accountability. Accountability is our way of saying "I want to get rid of these chains that way me down. I have a problem and I need someone to hold me responsible for when I mess up." This powerful connection between us and another person is why the church was created.

Finally we come to Commission and Gospel. The Great Commission states to go into all the world and preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to every nation so that they might hear the good news of the Messiah who has come and has paid their way to heaven. In order to do this we must know the Gospel of Jesus. The great story of the King who came to earth, who was born of a virgin, lived a perfect life, and died for the sins of the world. The great thing is the story does not end there. He rose again conquering death and sin and smashing the head of Satan. He thumbed his nose at the grave and said I am coming again!

Using all of these roots ground us to our faith and anchor us to the cross of Jesus. We stand firm in our faith and realize what it truly means to be a Christian.