I'm a Christian. It's a simple phrase, but it's packed with a lot of meaning. Most people who throw the phrase don't understand half of what they mean when they say it. I'm probably included, but here's my attempt at unpacking what the word Christian means. First of all, it means that you follow Christ. Think about that. Do you follow Christ? Do you take up your cross every day? Are you willing to deny yourself in order to more fully understand Christ? I don't know about the rest of Christendom, but I'm still working on that one. How about this? Here's a challenge to the Western Church. If the president passed a bill tomorrow that made being a Christian punishable by death, what would you do? Would you follow Christ to the death? People die for Christ every day, just not in America. We don't even have to deal with our own problems if we don't want to. We don't have to depend on God to feed, clothe, or shelter us. We barely have to suffer for Christ at all. I'm not complaining. I don't want to be faced with the decision to be killed or tortured for my faith. But the question is, would I go through the torture or deny Christ? I could tell you that I would die for Christ, but you all would tell me the same thing, and in the end it wouldn't matter. It's just talk. But death aside, there's a self sacrifice involved in true Christianity. Unfortunately, I don't now how much of that is going on. I'm a prime example of it myself. I have problems deny myself those hours in front of my computer. I could just as easily spend that time talking to Jesus, reading the word, or God forbid that I use that time to serve others. But this actually boils down to something deeper still. Why do Christians sacrifice themselves for Christ? The answer is really quite simple. It's because we love Him. And I'm not talking about that "I love my car" or that "I love my new toy" or even that "I love my brother/sister/mother/father" kind of love. I'm talking about that "I'm passionately in love with someone that I could never live without" kind of love. That kind of love that connects two people so intimately that they could never dream of being apart. That's the kind of love that Jesus has for us (and it's rather poorly expressed by me, but it's the best my puny little mortal mind could come up with). That's the kind of love we should be returning to Him. We shouldn't be praying because "that's what Christians do." We should be praying, or reading the Bible, or serving people, or being tortured, or being killed, because we are so in love with Jesus that we couldn't do or say anything that would speak to the opposite. We say that we love Jesus, but I fear that the word love has lost it's meaning. Church, it's time to wake up. Instead of saying we love Jesus, we should start showing that we love Him. I know that we've all heard this before, but very few seem to have taken it to heart. That's all I've got for right now, but I'm sure there'll be more in future publications.

HANG LOOSE
Moses