Too much confidence in a relationship that once was…

If you look at the U.S. today, there is a huge “Christian” population. Churches are full of people, so they must be full of Christians… right?

I have some shocking news for everybody… Going to church does NOT make you a Christian. Many people are confident that they are Christians because they used to be a real follower of Christ, or because they once said a prayer. Well, what is a Christian? A Christian is someone who “Follows Christ” which has little to do with going to church or just saying a single prayer. It is the act of abiding in Christ.

John 15:4 “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.”

John 15:6 “If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.”

And we can’t overlook this great verse:

1 John 2:6 “The one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.”

To be a follower of Christ means you must abide in Christ. What does the word abide mean? “to remain stable or fixed in a state; to conform to; acquiesce (to accept, comply, or submit tacitly)”. It means to conform to Jesus and live your life devoted to Him and making His ways yours. You must! And He was saying to them all, ” If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must “deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.” (Luke 9:23) This isn’t just a one time decision. You may have been a strong Christian in the past, but what about today? Are you abiding in Christ DAILY, denying yourself and your desires and trying to conform yourself to Christ, who we call our Master?

To many people are comfortable being “Sunday Christians”; well what part of your daily life reflects Christ?

It may or may not be possible for one to lose their salvation, the Bible hints at it but there is no solid evidence. What the Bible DOES say is that if you don’t bear fruit then you will be thrown into the fire and the only way to bear fruit is to abide in Christ (John 15:6). If you are not following Christ today but you did at one time, you may be trying to take comfort in the fact that you used to be saved and on fire for God, but why risk it? If you do follow and abide in Christ in your daily life then you are guaranteed to be fine, if not then you may have lost it all.

If you love Jesus, then what are you doing for Him? Do you even care what you are doing for the Kingdom of God? Or are you just concerned with the kingdom of “me”? Does your love for your Messiah convict you into trying to have a closer relationship with Him and do things for Him? Or do you only care about yourself? And if that’s the case, then are you sure you still have any type of relationship with Him at all?

If you don’t have a relationship with Christ then you have nothing.