I am a Christian. Christian means Christ follower.
My Story
I grew up in a Christian home. My dad was a pastor and I was at church every Sunday and Wednesday learning the Bible and about Jesus. I gained a lot of head knowledge. When I was 5, I understood that I needed help; I needed someone to remove the sins from my life. That gift was offered to me (as it is to everyone) by Christ's death on the cross and I asked Him to take my sins and make me clean.
The year I turned 10 we moved to a Christian camp in northern Michigan where my dad ran a kitchen. During the next couple years, as summer camp would go on, I would go to the chapel meetings where Christian speakers, teachers, and pastors would give messages to the campers. It was through those messages that I realized that what I had was not all there was to being a Christian.
Jesus calls us to accept His gift of forgiveness and become a child of God. But just as a parent expects obedience and respect from their children, God expects much of His children. Once we are a child of God, we are to act like one. Through His life, Jesus gave us the perfect example of how God would like us to live. To be a Christian not only means that I have accepted the gift, but also that I have become a Christ follower with my actions. When I fail at meeting God's expectations for His children, I sin; I miss the mark.
That's right, I still sin. To sin is to be human. Christ's sacrifice of Himself covers all of the sins of our past and of our future. When we sin as a child of God, we are called to repentance, to confess our sins, ask forgiveness and do what is right in the eyes of God. We are also called to strive to not sin. As a child of God, my purpose in life is to learn from the Bible and the Holy Spirit all that God expects of His children and to strive to be that in the best way I can.
So as a Christian, I am declaring that I have sinned. Christ has died and taken my sin. I have accepted that gift from Him. I now strive to be Christ-like in every way that I can with the help of the Holy Spirit (God's Counselor He sent to guide His children).
A few things to know to understand that.
I believe in the authority of the Bible, God's Word. If you would like to know more about that please ask. (The following all comes from the Bible. If you'd like to know more about where, please ask as well.)
In the beginning Mankind was created by God. We were created perfect as was the universe, earth, and everything on earth. Mankind chose to disobey God, causing sin to enter into the world. (Sin means to miss the mark of God's holiness.) When Mankind sinned, they could no longer have fellowship with God, and through them, future generations could not either.
God had a plan to regain fellowship with his beloved creation. God the Father sent God the Son to be a baby and grow up as a man. Jesus Christ, whose birth we celebrate on Christmas, is fully God and fully man.
As Jesus grew up, He maintained a sinless nature, committing no disobedience against God. When He was around 30 He started His ministry, calling people to Himself for salvation. He spoke of following Him to erase the mark of sin and regain fellowship with God. Most He spoke to did not understand.
As he ministered to people, performing miracles and healings, the religious leaders of the day grew to hate Him. They devised a plan to have Him killed.
The religious rulers joined with one who had followed Jesus to betray Him and bring Him before rulers who had the power to put Him to death. During the many trials and beatings Jesus went through, He maintained his sinless status, loving those who sought to hurt him and praying for those who were to kill him.
Because Jesus lived as the only human without sin, and because He was/is God, He had the power to voluntarily take upon Himself the sins of the human race (past, present, and future) and take upon Himself the full fury and wrath God the Father had against those sins.
Jesus was unjustly murdered, experiencing the worst physical death of that time and the full wrath of God as He died. While He was dying, God the Father had to turn away from Jesus as He was covered in the sins of Mankind. That was the first and only time in all of eternity past to future that God the Son and God the Father have ever been separated from each other's presence.
Jesus's body was buried.
Three days later a miracle happened. Jesus conquered death. As a sign to Mankind as to the power he holds and the victory He had at covering for the sins, He raised His body from the dead and was alive again. But not just in a broken human body, but also as the supernatural being He was/is. (Remember He is fully God AND fully man.)
He appeared to His followers and proclaimed to them that everything He taught them before His death had come true and would come true. They were to follow His teachings and trust and believe in Him and His sacrifice would cover for sin. They were also to spread the Gospel (Gospel means good news) of all that had happened and what it meant to everyone they met.
He then was taken up to heaven to sit on the right hand of God the Father, awaiting the day of His return to conclude all that they Bible has foretold.
After He left, He sent the Counselor (God the Holy Spirit) to minister to His followers, helping them to follow in His ways.
In the future, Christ will return and His followers will be taken up to heaven to be with Him there for all eternity.
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