How to Be a Real Christian

Read Acts 16:31; John 3:16; Romans 10:9&10; I Corinthians 6; John 17

It really isn’t difficult to be a Christian. God doesn’t make it as hard as some people think it is. Going to church regularly will not make you a Christian. Being a really good person will not make you a Christian. All you have to do is believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Saved (rescued) people are Christians.
Two sides exist. One side is God’s side. The other side is against God. The side against God doesn’t believe in Him. They may even believe he exists but they don’t trust him or want him to be their friend. Believing in Christ means to depend on him to save you. Save you from what? From Hell. The Bible says that all the people who stay on the side that is against God will be thrown into Hell for eternity.
Becoming a Christian means that we take God’s side. We actually go over to him. Joshua, a man in the Bible, said “as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.” Maybe as children we thought we were on his side, but later, we got confused about God and started to doubt about him and now we are not so sure what side we are on. We should just go toward him in our thinking and say to him and everyone else, “I am taking God’s side. I admit that I do sins and that I should go to Hell for that. I am choosing to go to him and depend on his death on the cross to save me from Hell.” When we cross over the line from Against God to For God, we immediately bow before Christ. This is necessary. It is proper. We don’t “hang around” with Christ. We don’t stand as an equal with him. We throw ourselves at his feet and beg for mercy. Then we stay at his feet, waiting for what he wants us to do next.
When Jesus died he took the punishment for our sins in his body. The simplest way to go over to him is to pray to Jesus and tell him that we want to be forgiven and belong to Him. We can believe in our heart that God has raised him from the dead. We can believe in his name. The name “Jesus” means “rescuer.” That means we believe he is our rescuer from sin and death and Hell. There will be no flash of light. There will be no voice from the sky. Nothing will happen to prove that Jesus heard you. He has already said that if you believe in Him you are forgiven and accepted. You are saved. If you believe, He will do His part. If you believe, you have become a Christian.
If I take God’s side, I now depend on him. I love him. I trust him. I want to obey him. I expect help from him, so I pray and ask for it. I want to know more about him so I read the Bible, which is the only book that tells about him. Many other books say they tell about God but the Bible says only itself is really the truth about God.
Christians believe the Bible. They believe it is God’s pure words without any mistakes. Christians believe that many men wrote the Bible but they were writing what God put into their minds. They made no mistakes. Other books like the Quran and the Vidas and Zen Buddhism are not true.
Mohammad, Buddha, Vishnu and the gods of the pagans and the American Indians are not real. They are imaginary. They are not the same person as Jesus. Allah is not the same as God. He is imaginary. He is a “pretend” god. When we become Christians, we leave all other ideas of god behind.
When we go over to God’s side, we are totally forgiven immediately for all sins, mistakes, wrong thoughts, evil deeds, etc.. God does this because he wants to set his people free. God doesn’t want us to be afraid of punishment for those things. He says in the Bible that he has forgiven his people of all their sins. He can do this because Jesus took all the punishment for all our sins on the cross. They are all paid for. We are free.
The Bible teaches us how to live as Christians. Now that we are on God’s side, we need to act like it. We will want to do things his way. We will want to please him. If we want to know how to live, we read the Bible and it will teach us what God likes and what he doesn’t like. It will take a long time to learn everything. Most Christians do not know all that the Bible teaches. Most Christians still do sins. All Christians are forgiven for those sins and can learn as fast or slowly as they want to about how to live.
Usually, Christians like to be together. They can talk about what the Bible says and their problems and they can tell each other what great things God has done and how he has helped them. They can pray together. They can worship God together. This is why God made the church. It is the Christians being together. Christians love each other like brothers and sisters should. They help each other and depend on each other. If you are from England and go to the Czech Republic and you find Christians, they will treat you like you are part of their family.
Some people say they are Christians but they are not. They do not act like Christians. They are not living like they are on Jesus’ side. We need to be careful with them. Don’t listen to them and don’t do like they do. Some churches do not seem to be on Christ’s side either. That would be strange. But it is true. They are fakes. They have some goals that probably include getting rich and having power over others. They are not really very much like what the Bible says the church should be like.
Real Christians are only looking for truth and love and people that obey and love the Bible. Real Christians normally stay away from the fake churches. If a Christian doesn’t know where a real church is, he or she can pray and ask God to show them. It may take months, or even years, but God will do it.
Christians may have problems. If someone goes over to the Lord’s side, people on the side that is against God are against them. Jesus said “if they persecuted me they will persecute you”. In another place, the apostle Peter said “don’t be surprised if you are treated badly”. Sometimes this means that they will throw Christians to the lions. (The Romans did that.) Most times it will be less violent. The people on the other side may not want to be friends with a Christian and will break the relationship. Sometimes a Christian can have problems at work because colleagues are on the side against God. Maybe the boss is against God. Sometimes a Christian will have family members who are against God and they will treat the Christian badly.
Christians are wise but harmless. They know a lot about good and very little about evil. When we have to interact with people from the other side, we have to be careful, pray for help and be kind. Never fight back. Never take revenge. Leave that to God. Read, read, read, the Bible to get more and more knowledge of God and his mind. Be happy, because you will never end. It says “whoever believes in Jesus will not be destroyed but have everlasting life.”