Help on ideas for becoming a better Christian?

[Jothman]

I'm just trying to float ideas for myself(and others if they wish) of hobbies/actions and charateristics of "good christians".

Off my head I've been thinking:

-Praying often
-Being a vegetarian (helping save animals)
-Being Optimistic
-Donating to the needy
-Volunteering to help people in need
-Possibly working your religion into your job (say a pastor or a nun or for me I'm becoming a Nurse to help people)
-Repenting from sinning (obviously)
-Doing for others whenever possible
-Loving everyone (as the bible puts it, God's 2 main commandments are loving him completely and "love thy neighbor as thyself".
Any ideas?

 

[tturt]

Jothman, all of those things are very good and important. I also learned to spend time with Yahweh to enter into His gates with praise and thanksgiving. Yes pray for myself and others, repent for things, etc. Then spend time at His feet like the woman with the alabaster box from Matt 26. She was just adorning Him. Thinking about who He is, hallowing His name, reading Scripture that focus on Him such as Psa 145, playing music, singing to an audience of One. Scriptural basis: I Thess 5:17; Matt 6:6; John 4:24; Psa 69:30; 71:23; and 100:4.

 

[Daniel411]

Jothman, all of those things are very good and important. But after several years I learned that I had gotten caught up in the doing. I'm not knocking those goals at all and we do need to serve. But I just didn't have the time and energy to spend with Yahweh to enter into His gates with praise and thanksgiving. Yes pray for myself and others and repent for things. Then spend time at His feet like the woman with the alabaster box from Matt 26. She was just adorning Him. Thinking about who He is, hallowing His name, reading Scripture that focus on Him such as Psa 145, playing music, singing a song to an audience of One. Scriptural basis: I Thess 5:17; Matt 6:6; John 4:24; Psa 69:30; 71:23; and 100:4.

I agree, I have a friend, who seeks to do all he can to be a better Christian, and with conversations with him I soon discovered he was busy all the time chasing after adding to his works but he didnt have time for the actual study or worship of God.
He asked me a profound question one day, My answer was something to the effect, we dont get a check book to choose when to have faith and when not based on works. He had gotten so busy trying to fill his bank account on works he began have a missguided view of salvation and God. He actually began to believe he could sin and was justifiyng it with his works.
I am not saying you are doing that, just saying what I witnessed from a dear friend.
also

-Being a vegetarian (helping save animals)

I noticed you placed in there stop eating meat. I agree with that premis as a personal choice , but the animals and fruits, herbs, etc were givin to us for meat.

And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered. [FONT='Verdana', 'Arial', 'Helvetica', sans-serif]3[/font] Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
Gen 9:2-3 (KJV)

 

[someguy14]

Help on ideas for becoming a better Christian?

A personal relationship with Him.
Knowing that He is actualy, our best friend.
The closer we get to Him, the opportunities present themselves.
In all things we do, how God can be glorified in all things.
All the details, with discipline, though discipline in correcting each detail takes patience, God can grant us that patience that is required in getting closer to Him. Satisfied with all that God allows into our current lives.
One big step, is getting that personal relationship with God, keeping our thoughts on God constantly. Having that scripture reminded to us and comforting us and being thankful for all that God has allowed us, understanding, that if God has allowed it, God has a purpose and that His will alone concerning our lives, is perfect and He is with us every step of the way.

 

[stormdancer0]

Yes, I agree as well. The first, most important job of a Christian is to work on the relationship between you and God. Through prayer, worship, praise, and study of God's word, we grow closer to God. In fact, when we do this, and concentrate solely on becoming closer to Him, all the other things sort of fall into place with little effort. Our greatest effort should be in "Loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength." If we do that, "Loving your neighbor as yourself" will fall into place.

Also, I thank God for that verse in Genesis 9:2-3. I love my hamburgers!!

 

[Emmy]

Dear Jothman. When Jesus told us in Matthew: " The first and great Commandment is: Love God with all your hearts, with all your souls, and with all your minds, and the second is like it: Love your neighbour as yourselves," Jesus made sure, we understood exactly what God wants from us. Jesus even pointed out: " On these two Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." Straightforward and easy to remember. All we say, or do, or advocate, should start from Love: For God with all our beings, and for our neighbour, ( all others, whether friends or not friends) as we love ourselves. God sees how sincerely we follow His Commandments to love and to care, and God will approve and bless us.
We might stumble and forget at times, but we ask God to forgive us, and God will forgive us, as we will forgive others. ( Jesus promised us in His " Our Father, who art in Heaven." Jesus will give us His Love and Joy, and the Holy Spirit will give us His Love, also. Jesus told us to: " ask and ye will receive," then we thank God and share all Love and Joy with all around us.
Love is a Christian`s great and trusting weapon, Love will conquer all enmity and adversity, love is also a " doing-word," and Love changes us from being selfish and unloving, to becoming the children/sons and daughters, which God wants us to become: Loving children of our Heavenly Father, who is ALL LOVE. To become better and better Christians, the Bible tell us to " Repent," to be born again. To let selfless Love, freely given, and no conditions tagged on, show the imperfect world, Whose We Are. It is not easy, but can be done. God gave us enough time. I say this with love, Jothman. Greetings from Emmy, your sister in Christ.

 

[Daniel411]

Also, I thank God for that verse in Genesis 9:2-3. I love my hamburgers!!

all fantastic responses

 

[Living in the Light]

Attend your favorite church often
Reading the Holy Scriptures and other spiritually uplifting literature
Forgive

I think you have some very good ideas and blessings to you!

 

[jimfish]

...Loving everyone (as the bible puts it, God's 2 main commandments are loving him completely and "love thy neighbor as thyself"....

Ummmm...welllllll.....ehhhhhhh......

...."sorry" to be a wet blanket of sorts, but what you quoted concerning loving others is incorrect under the New Covenant. You're quoting an Old Cov. commandment.

Under the New Cov. we are to Love others MORE THAN we love our own selves: "A New Commandment I give you." God by this ensured that we would have to come to Him for the fullness of His supernatural Agape' Love Fruit of the Spirit in order to obey this great and 2nd Commandment. This miraculous Love is, as most know, defined in 1 Cor 13:4-7.

 

[Emmy]

Dear jimfish. May I ask this? humbly and with love? How can one love others more than oneself? Love is Love, pure and 100%, God is Love and God loves us all the same, there is only Love, or NO Love. There are different types of love, as the Greeks have: Agape/complete as God loves, Philia, as parents and children love, and Eros/love between Man and Woman. There is also what we call Masochism, but that is not love, it is an illness. Greetings from Emmy, sister in Christ.

 

[jimfish]

Dear jimfish. May I ask this? humbly and with love? How can one love others more than oneself?

One cannot. So God must do it for us, through us, supernaturally.

God is not a hypocrite: He would not command us to Love others more than we love our own selves if it were not possible. And I do not find in the Holy Scriptures it being an option.

"A new Commandment I give unto you, that you love one another as I have loved you....Greater Love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life...." 1Cor13:34a,15:13a

Love is Love....

Ummm, no, it is not, as Emmy herself responds further and in contradiction below. As stated by her later, there are several types of love. The Commandment of Jesus speaks of Agape' Love, a Fruit of the Spirit. But there are soulish types of love as well, as Emmy also states. These are conditional types of love, not the unconditional agape' type. The others too are needed, such as in God commanding us to walk in brotherly love, koinania fellowship, with like-minded believers.

...pure and 100%,...

Agape' Love, yes; other types of love, no.

"[Agape'] Love...does not seek its own...." 1Cor13:5b

God is Love....

God is of course many things, and Love of course one of them.

... and God loves us all the same....

Debatable, as other threads on this and other forums attest. This thread here would not be the proper place for such a debate.

...there is only Love, or NO Love....

Incorrect, as Emmy's sentence immediately following the above also declares, which I quote:

...There are different types of love, as the Greeks have: Agape/complete as God loves, Philia, as parents and children love, and Eros/love between Man and Woman. ....

While I was confused as to what was posted by Emmy, as others too no doubt were and are, perhaps the above helps in some way to at least begin to sort it out.

One can know, if God is allowed by them to reveal it I suppose, whether or not the love they are walking in is truly and fully that which God commands, by comparing it to the definition of Agape' Love given us in 1 Cor. 13:4-7.

 

[stormdancer0]

Dear jimfish. May I ask this? humbly and with love? How can one love others more than oneself? Love is Love, pure and 100%, God is Love and God loves us all the same, there is only Love, or NO Love. There are different types of love, as the Greeks have: Agape/complete as God loves, Philia, as parents and children love, and Eros/love between Man and Woman. There is also what we call Masochism, but that is not love, it is an illness. Greetings from Emmy, sister in Christ.

I think another way to look at it is to "esteem others" more than ourselves. To see others as worthy of being served by us. This is love in action.

This is especially true in the ministry. As a pastor, I am first and foremost a servant of my flock. I get irritated when I see a pastor expecting others to serve him or her. I've seen them expect people to fix cars, feed them, repair homes, etc. just because they are a pastor.

Rather than lord over others, or expect others to do stuff for us, we should all be willing to do as Jesus did, and take the place of the lowest servant in the home - the one who washes the feet of guests. How can I do less and call myself a pastor, or even a Christian?

 

[Forgiven828]

Jothman,

First off I believe it is a wonderful testament to your Love for our Lord that you will seek to be more like Him and question whether you are doing enough. We should all do this.

I think it is so important for us to meditate daily on how we can be better shining examples of the Love of our Lord and Saviour. As you mentioned it is good that we should give, whether of our time or of material goods, as we can.

Congratulations you on your choice to be a nurse! It is a very demanding but rewarding career path.

What I wanted to add to the conversation is this:
We should strive to not judge or condemn one another and to forgive, forgive, forgive! He died so that we could be forgiven. Let us do the same for each other.

And of course we should spread the Word! What joyous Good News we have in our hearts that we can one day be in Heaven with our Father. We should tell this perfect love story to everyone we can!

 

[ramblingokie]

Thanks Jothman for this post. I do not have much to offer but am enjoying reading the responses. I have found myself asking much the same thing so thanks again for asking this question.

 

[jesusismyguru]

Ummmm...welllllll.....ehhhhhhh......

...."sorry" to be a wet blanket of sorts, but what you quoted concerning loving others is incorrect under the New Covenant. You're quoting an Old Cov. commandment.

Under the New Cov. we are to Love others MORE THAN we love our own selves: "A New Commandment I give you." God by this ensured that we would have to come to Him for the fullness of His supernatural Agape' Love Fruit of the Spirit in order to obey this great and 2nd Commandment. This miraculous Love is, as most know, defined in 1 Cor 13:4-7.

But what about when Jesus said in Mat 5:17, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them."

The old covenant is not irrelevant, and the ten commandments still are valid. "For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" (Eph 2:10). The difference being that now we do it all in the power of his Spirit, instead of trying to do the works in our own power. So if you want to become a better Christian, and produce good fruit, remember Christ's words: "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing" John 15:5. Abide, and he will do the work of making you righteous.

"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit," 2 Cor 3:17-18.

 

[jesusismyguru]

Also, condsider God's commandment to love your neighbor as yourself. If he cites our love of ourselves as an example of how to love our neighbor, don't you find it strange that it seems to be so taboo amongst some Christian circles to encourage a healthy love of self?

I'm not saying a love which inflates your self-importance, but one which acknowleges that you are a creation of God who was important enough to him that he came down to die for you? Our worth is measured by the blood of the living God, which is priceless!

But we are also sinners, and far from his holiness. So, we need to understand and believe in our worth in his eyes, yet keep it in perspective with the knowlege of our fallen nature.

This is true humility, because you love yourself as you are, without inflating nor degrading your worth.

Consider this excerpt from a blog post I made about this topic:

"Imagine for a moment that we started treating our neighbor as we actually treat ourselves. If our neighbor told us they were hungry, we would tell them to skip a meal, because they had more important things to do.

If they told us they were full, we would keep stuffing food down their throats because it tastes good.

If they said they were exhausted, we would hand them a cup of coffee and yet another task.

If they said they were sad, we would tell them that wasn't important and we didn't have time to think about it, so take this pill and call us in the morning."

(This is from my personal site, jesusismyguru.com)

 

[gideons300]

I'm just trying to float ideas for myself(and others if they wish) of hobbies/actions and charateristics of "good christians".

Off my head I've been thinking:

-Praying often
-Being a vegetarian (helping save animals)
-Being Optimistic
-Donating to the needy
-Volunteering to help people in need
-Possibly working your religion into your job (say a pastor or a nun or for me I'm becoming a Nurse to help people)
-Repenting from sinning (obviously)
-Doing for others whenever possible
-Loving everyone (as the bible puts it, God's 2 main commandments are loving him completely and "love thy neighbor as thyself".
Any ideas?

All good things no doubt, if they are fruits of Christ inside us, rather than attempts to get him from outside us to inside us.

We must be so very careful to understand that our new man is holy and blameless and unreproveable in His sight....NOW. When we finally accept and believe that, we begin to allow God to produce fruits in us. But if we fall into Satan's trap to get back into what I call "performance mode", we will fail every time.

We cannot hang good deeds on us like Christmas ornaments...they have no life and are not part of the tree itself. It is by faith that we take up our position as new creatures in Christ who are victorious now, not because of who we are or what we do, but because of who lives in us. We are told that we are dead, that our old nature is unreformable and must be put off by faith. We are promised that if we put on the new man, and line our testimony with what God has plainly told us, that fruits.... love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, meekness, gentleness and self control will become ours because our new nature is simply doing what its nature is...to bear good fruits.

Does that make any sense?

Blessings,

Gideon

 

[Alive_Again]

I think that the preparation of the bride for the groom is the most exciting and romantic time. (I just got married a month ago.) Given the space, the bride will desire to prepare her body and her whole being to present herself in great beauty to her groom.

The cleansing of the home and ridding of defiling and "old things" is very thoughtful and indicative of someone walking in the present. Many things are relics of a former life that was sinful and "old". All things have and are to become new and their is no room for the old things of the past. Consider that many of the old "things" have an odor or fragrance and that making room in your garden and home for only that which is fragrant and beautiful is one that one to be wed soon would have in his or her thoughts.

If you thought that every time you turned on the radio or TV, that a fragrance/odor that had a color would come pouring in, you would want to purify your house with only those fragrances that are of great beauty and attraction to the bride or groom. You would want to fill it with the things that make the other know you had exercised GREAT thoughtfulness and consideration. You would want to go out of your way to ensure that his or her eyes would look upon things of great beauty in the other's sight, that what he or she heard, would minister to their heart. That everything would be in proper order and in its proper place.

The wearing and keeping of the proper garments for a mate (who is in our case a king) is very important. How you carry yourself as one betrothed, with none others captivating your attention shows GREAT consideration and beauty.

Your thoughtfulness and beauty will ravish the one betrothed to you and stir dreams of great provision and reward for such beauty and consideration.

Let those thoughts be yours (and mine)!

 

[jesusismyguru]

That was the exact message I was trying to convey; love the way you put it!

 

[MarkDVR]

Practice patience with not only others but yourself. Keep holy the Sabbath. Sunday is our day to glorify and pray and yes relax and be together as a community.