WOW-23 May 2024: A TRUE CHRISTIAN

Senior Pastor Daniel O. C. | May 23, 2024

Calvary greetings to you in the blessed name of Jesus Christ our Saviour, Amen!

A TRUE CHRISTIAN

Beloved saints of God, life is more than meat and food, the soul excels the clay, O labour then for the gospel food which never shall decay. To feel sorry for the needy is not the mark of a Christian but to help the needy is the mark. The Christian life is not hearing nor knowing but doing.

JAMES 1:21-27

“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was…”

James defines a pure religion in terms of one’s ability:

To control his or her tongue
To perform ministry to those in need (i.e. orphans and widows)
To strive after and achieve moral purity

We must also understand that the intention of this portion of this epistle is not to describe the full essence of the Christian faith.

Indeed, James moved on in his epistle to address Christian virtues such as:

Avoiding partiality
We must provide for the physical needs of a fellow believer
We must devote ourselves to God and reject worldly enticements
We must handle financial resources correctly
We must cultivate consistency and fervency in prayer

QUALITIES OF A GOOD CHRISTIAN

A Christian must be friendly to others.
A friend in need is a friend indeed.
A friend is not just the one with whom an individual has established a long-standing relationship.
A Christian friend must be a gracious person, shining and burning for his or her master even as he or she brightens his or her own world.

Every Christian must join us in the corridor of care, charisma and comeliness as we obey the Lord to practice goodness, graciousness and godliness. A Christian must be all sweet not easily provoked or angered by anybody or anything.
We need not unnecessarily raise our voices to complain, no matter how hurt we may feel.
We must be easy going with others but not foolish.
Yes, people may take advantage of the fact that we are full of the milk of human kindness, still we must not overly react.

Majority of the people may maliciously taunt you just to see you react for once in an off-handed manner, yet we must not lose our cool.
As Christians we must not miss any opportunity that comes our way to help others.
Even when we are confronted with an unusual problem that seems to be out of our reach to help.
We must always stand by people to help, show kindness and love to both friends and foes.

MINISTRY CREDIBILITY
2 Corinthians 10:11-18

Apostle Paul was very much concerned about ministerial credibility.
In this portion of the Scripture, Apostle Paul lays down three important principles that a spiritually motivated Christian must carefully consider:

Avoid human comparisons (v12)
Avoid inaccurate reports in the name of testimony.
Avoid exaggerations in your reports on the accounts of events. (vs 13-16)

Seek only God’s commendation and not man’s praise. (vs 17-18)
We as practising Christians must learn to maintain humility, honesty and integrity which are essentials of Christian maturity.

To be continued.

Remain blessed and rapturable,
Yours to reach this generation with the Gospel,
Dr. Daniel O. C.