What American Christians Have Lost‏

How did you come to know Christ, if you know Him?

Think about what that meant to you.
I’ll tell you what those words meant to me.

I heard my pastor say these words at a Bible Study, “Did you know that by believing in Jesus you have a guarantee of heaven?” I had NEVER heard that, so I definitely didn’t KNOW that! It was definitely good news! I wanted a guarantee of heaven!

But I wasn’t convinced of this good news. Not just yet.

So I searched it out, asking my mother and another pastor. Reading the Bible. It was true! I wanted to tell everyone. Yet no matter how many I told, something was missing.

One night I realized what it was.

After being seduced once again by my girlfriend, afraid I was no longer a virgin, I wanted to die. Why? Because my virginity meant everything to me. It meant a new beginning for the many failed marriages in my family. So I sat in my room, in the dark, wanting to die. Then I said, without knowing why, “I believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that He died for my sins.”

I felt peace cover me like a blanket. I no longer wanted to die.

But something was still missing.

Years passed and I pondered this question, “Why are Christians so defeated and powerless?” A dear friend of mine took me through the scriptures to give me the answer:

What was missing for me was the presence and power of Christ’s Spirit.

I yielded to Him.
I began to follow Him.

And then I knew what I had lost, and what we had lost as American Christians:
We lost this definition:

What it means to be a disciple.

The lives of the first disciples of Christ began with these words:

FOLLOW ME!

Not the sinner’s prayer.
Not “let Christ into your heart.”
But leave everything and everyone to follow Jesus, wherever He goes, no matter the consequences.

• Israel followed the cloud and fire of God wherever He went.
• The disciples followed the Lord Jesus Christ wherever He went.
• And we should follow the Spirit of Christ wherever He leads us.

No matter the consequences.

Whether we are rejected. Whether we suffer. Whether we die. His cross becomes ours.
What the world feels about Jesus, they must now feel about us who follow Him without question.