Authentic Christianity

I am currently at this summer long program with my church called LT. We have a ton of different sessions and fun important stuff. I have only been here a little over a week and God is already teaching me a ton. We had a program yesterday called Son-life. It was about what the teaching referred to as the "everyday commandment" referring to evangelism.

OK first everyone calm down! Evangelism is a crazy loaded word with all kinds of preconceptions that people have in their head. This is not the door bell ringing "have you found Jesus yet?" kind of evangelism most people automatically think of. Evangelism can be that of course but that is not what I am talking about. This is about being an evangelist in life. Living a life that should show that you are a Christian and being that all the time. If God is the center of your life, which should be the case if you are a Christian, then this means it won't be hard for God to come up in conversation. If someone ask you how your week has been, God will probably be in the answer somewhere.

A part of this is living what the program refers to as authentic Christianity. Of course to some people this means seeming perfect or always being joyful but that is in fact the opposite. Being an authentic Christian means being honest. Being honest that we are not perfect nor are we happy all the time. Accepting Jesus does not mean your life is magically filled with rainbows and puppies. You also don't magically stop sinning when you become a Christian. Admitting these things is part of being an authentic Christian.

I have also learned that in being an authentic Christian I need to stop thinking I can do what I want. Do I want to smoke weed. Yep, I do. And I have recently. Is this ok? Absolutely not. Just because I think something shouldn't be a sin and wish it wasn't doesn't make it stop being a sin. I have to deal with the fact the God knows better than me and if I am calling myself a Christian I need to walk the talk. I need to flee from sin, not run to it hoping that since I don't want it to be a sin God won't mind if I do it. Thats not really how this game works.

If I am going to call myself a Christian than I need to live for God and not myself. I need to live as he calls me to, not in the way that is easiest for me. I am going to try to start living my life more authentically. Not making excuses for myself and my sin, and not doing what may feel good at the time for me. This is my hope and goal for the summer. I will probably be posting a lot more now. So feel free to follow me on this crazy journey.