I read two articles recently about two very different Christian leaders. Both are high-profile men who speak to thousands of people daily yet they are so different in both their personal lives and their weaknesses. They both have learned to live with these weakness, one by covering it up and the other by confessing and leveraging it. They both are respected throughout the body of Christ and you would recognize their names. They are responsible for thousands of people in ministries as well as millions of dollars worth of assets. Now, I’m not so impressed with people who have such influence until I discover what’s going on behind the scenes and whether their ministry and personal lives are honest reflections of themselves as genuine followers of Christ.

I witness to many Christians trying to live a life of faith in a lopsided way by just learning more and more information about God without actually changing how they live. When I became a true believer I knew I had to change not just my thinking but the way I was living my life. Now, 45+ years later, I am still in the same place…..learning and engaging in the changes that Christ compels me to.

Everyone loves to hear a good story. The problem is we don’t think our stories are that good. I have talked to people all around the world and found that we all have the same problem. Unless you’re an extrovert, people struggle with sharing Christ! The truth is, even extroverts struggle with sharing their faith. Why? Because deep down we all know we are flawed. We have problems in life. We don’t have it all together and never will and this intimidates us.

When I was a young boy I dreamed and played “Army” with my friends. As young boys we played such games because we had heroes with character traits that we admired. John Wayne was one of the people that we looked up to as a “man’s man”. He portrayed courage in the face of fear and valor when the battle was raging.

As we approach the holiday celebrations of Thanksgiving and Christmas, I thought it would be healthy to remind myself and others about just how important it is to cultivate a thankful heart.  I can certainly get wrapped up in the spiritual war that is going on in our country. I constantly need to be reminded of the words of the apostle Paul when he states clearly that we don’t just wrestle with natural things, like politics and general nastiness, but we wrestle with all the evil and wickedness of a Satanic agenda. That agenda is eradicating the peace of God and promoting hatred and distrust.  That can not happen.  A spirit of thankfulness is what will miraculously bring forth growth and victory!

As we approach the holiday season of Thanksgiving and Christmas, it is very easy to get caught up in the busyness that comes with this time of year. It is easy to lose focus and fail to be really thankful for all of the blessings that God has brought into our lives. Ironically, we can become ungrateful due to all the preparations and responsibilities that the holidays can bring.  

I started this series, “What Kind of Christian Are You?”, because I think many Christians believe that God has a very loose standard regarding who he embraces as his adopted child.  I believe God has a greater standard and greater aspirations for us!

In my last article I posed the question, “Are we saints or sinners?”. My point was that the apostle Paul in particular taught that prior to coming to Christ for redemption we were sinners who habitually lived for ourselves at God’s expense.   However, after coming to Christ and being forgiven of our sins we are “Classified” by God as saints, not because we are now perfect but because we keep “Short Accounts” and refuse to live as we once did.  It is all about transformation!

This is the third article on what it means to be fruitful and how many people are more interested in just looking good.  This is partially because being fruitful is hard work and people are normally looking for the easiest way around things. If you haven’t read the first two articles on the same subject I would encourage you to do so before reading this one.