What is Christianity?
| Christianity is about God reaching out his hand in friendship to mankind. Christians believe that the whole world and everything in it was created by God. God is a personal being, a living God who is three, yet one: Father, Son and Spirit, just as we human beings have body, mind and soul! (see the Trinity).
The Bible says God created people in his image, to love him. Yet every person has rebelled against God and sinned. Yet instead of turning his back on us, God became a man, Jesus, who most scholars believe was born about the year 4 BC and lived among us. He taught a message of love throughout Palestine but public opinion turned against him and he was executed as a young man.
He died because of us - the death that we should have died. He was crucified on a cross, but he rose from the dead, and now calls us to trust him, to love him and to repent of our rebellion. If we do this, then we our relationship with God becomes restored and we will live forever with God.
Many non-Christians may think that being a Christian is about belonging to a particular church or following a certain set of rule. Most Christians however would agree that at its root, being a Christian means to be in a living relationship with Jesus.
Who is God?
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Devotion Of The Day
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May, 30 - Daily Devotions
May Scripture Portion for Bible Commentary : 1 Chronicles 7 - Job 11 including the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther
Four other men are involved in this drama--all of them friends of Job. Keep in mind that the events of this book cover several months, and that friends and neighbors discussed Job's case.
Eliphaz, from Teman, was the first speaker, and he based all his ideas on a spiritual experience he had one night (see chapter 4:12-16). Bildad was a traditionalist who knew some wise sayings and tried to build a case on them. Like Eliphaz, he was certain Job was a hypocrite. Zophar was very dogmatic, and certain that he knew more about God than anyone else. Each of these men argued with Job, and Job argued with them. At the very end of the argument Elihu speaks. He was younger than the others and had waited until his elders had finished before he expressed his ideas. While the three older men insisted that God blessed the righteous and judged the wicked, Elihu said that God sometimes chastened--not punished--the righteous in His own will. He asked Job to submit to God and trust Him, but his attitude was still that of a judge and critic. When God did appear, He made no reference to Elihu's great speech.
Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar all follow the same line of thought in their discussions with Job. They believe that all suffering is the result of the justice of God and therefore is punitive. So they preached to Job that whenever a Christian suffers, it is because of sin. A careful study of the Word of God proves their opinions to be definitely wrong. Many of God's greatest servants have suffered all through life. Even Paul had a thorn in the flesh which he carried to his grave.
We do not need to understand why troubles come to us. We simply need to understand that all troubles to the Christian come from the hand of God for his own good. We also need to learn how to rejoice in tribulation, and how to serve God faithfully, in spite of our circumstances. There is no place for a quitter in the family of God. Job is unquestionably one of God's greatest giants in the Old Testament era.
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Note to users: The wiki is currently operating in safe mode. Editing is limited to users with certain privileges in order to deal with spam. You can create a new user account, and confirm your email ID in order to obtain ability to edit pages. Learn how to be an editor or sysop at WikiChristian.
