Christians (or claimed Christians) make up 33-percent of all people in the world. However, many people do not act the way Christians should. To define a Christian in most basic meaning is to be a follower of one man. This man is Jesus of Nazareth who lived during the time that the ancient city of Rome ruled the earth. Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Jewish decent (to the direct line of their second king, David), He was crucified on a cross, died and buried. People that look to this religion from the outside can and probably ask, "why is it that so many people worship someone that lived in the first century?" To that the answer is simple, Faith. Faith not only that Jesus died, but that three days later He rose from the dead. Now to stop you from thinking that I am crazy, the reason that people believe in His ressurection is that He is God’s son. To clarify this is the Israelite God, Yahweh. Yahweh, according to scripture is, “I [yahweh] am the Beginning, and the End; the Alpha, and Omega; the First, and Last" (Revelation 22:13), and “I [yahweh] have created everything and everything comes from me.”
The Faith that I am referring to is the basic idea that Yahweh made everything, and it was inheretely good. According to the Torah, part of Christians, and the Jews, Holy book, God made man in his own image, and out of God’s love for all mankind, He gave us a choice. This choice is simple: obey or rebel. The more common name for this rebellion is sin. This sin is the separation from God, our Creator. God gives us the ability to separate us because he wants us to choose to be with Him willingly.
To be perfectly clear, God does not need mankind, and if mankind was to stop existing right now God would and could go on without us. Because God allows us to choose sin, which all humans do from the moment of our birth and he loves us so much that he gave us free will, God also gives us the option to choose Him.
The difference between the two religions afore-mentioned in basis is that Jews are waiting for their Messiah still, and Christians believe that the man Jesus was and is the Messiah. Jesus’ teachings touch on all aspects of life: love, family, conflicts, sin and death. Jesus even says, "I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). In this text Jesus is stating that the only way to get into heaven and God is to find Him; this implies that He is more than a normal man and is connected to God. The ideal of Christianity is to believe in Jesus as the son of God and if you do that, then you will be saved at the end of time when God judges everyone for their lives and sin. Jesus does not ask much from His followers other than love others as you love yourself, go forth and tell all nations about me and to give your life to Christ.
The biggest factor in being a Christian is having Jesus as Lord of your life. Yes it is important to know about him and to tell others about Jesus; while, if he is not the King of your life, and he doesn't mean anything to you other than to just appease others, parents or friends, than you are a hypocrite, and Christianity is nothing more than a set of rules. People claim to be Christians, yet they live life like they aren’t. If someone is truly a Christian, their life will be changed from what it was. A good way to show this is the a famous quote by James W. Frick, “Don't tell me where your priorities are. Show me where you spend your money and I'll tell you what they are”. Money and time fit amazingly in this quote as something for Christians to apply to their lives; we as a group of people should be motivated and determined to live for Jesus and not change just to fit in with the world. A Bible verse that talks about this as well is Matthew 6:21, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Both of these quotes show the importance of our lives, and I challenge any Christian who reads this article: if you only had the last 24 hours of life to determine if you are in Heaven for eternity, would you be in? I know that that is a high standard, so I ask again if you only had a week, how different do you look compared to the rest of the world? Are you a light to others that don’t know Jesus? Is Jesus really the Lord of your life? How will this thought process change your life?
