What is a Christian?

Now that may seem like a strange title for an article coming from a pastor of an evangelical church, but it’s nonetheless a good question that needs to be revisited from time to time. Since worship attendance is in decline in America I assume this means as well a decline in real followers and disciples of Jesus too. When people get into conversations about religion and faith I have often heard folks say things like “ judge not” or "it's not my place to judge": This is such a typical disclaimer for people who just probably don't know what a Christian is anymore. 


I have heard people say thingss like " I never worship with others" and "I would rather do my own thing alone to connect with God". People who never read the bible, hardly pray or seldom do what the original followers of Christ did still call themselves "Christians". So what is a Christian?  Is it what one intellectually believes even if their lifestyle never reflects it? Is it "doing" certain things on a routine basis as the bible instructs even if one's heart and life does not desire or authentically identify with it? Is it being a member of a certain church?

Over the years I have meet so many people who have said they were Christians from all kinds of angles that I got to ask again in the day we live “ What is a Christian?” Does getting baptized make you one? Is it taking classes? Is it receiving communion? Is it being a member of a church? It is going to church services in some frequency? It is possible for many to presume they are Christians when in reality they are technically not?

This is a really strange day indeed. Can you define what a Christian is? Is your definition a biblical one? Can anyone know for certain if they are a Christian or not? Well, I bet you are thinking I will end this article with answers for you, right? Absolutely not, but I will leave hints! Being a disciple ( Christian) means really knowing the answer to these questions based on what God's Word says about them. How do I know what a true Christian is? I discovered the Truth and it set me free. May God reveal to you the truth about how to know what a true biblical Christian is. Check out John 3:3 and read on! Seek Him while he maybe found.

Halloween and History Reveal a Mess of Truth, Traditions and Lies

History reveals our past and much of our current meaning on the holidays is derived from tampered history. Unfortunately, so much of history is rewritten history that it can often get fussy trying to discern truth from lies. The bible is the greatest source of Truth for all of mankind and in my opinion is the most reliable source of history and truth on the planet. In the course of biblical history we have many customs, holidays and feasts that God gave his people to remember their history with him so they could remember and past down the great truth of a great covenant keeping God, who loves, leads and provides for his people.


The feast of tabernacles given to God's people most closely relates to only some of the original history of Halloween. That part being, remembering those who trusted God who came up out of slavery in Egypt and celebrating the final harvest of the year and all that God did who granted that great harvest. Tabernacles is about God and not man! The name Halloween is best associated from "All Hallows Even" which was from the Roman Catholic Church tradition for the night before All Saints Day. The tricks or treats was partly associated with Catholicism’s false teaching on remembering the dead in purgatory and the pagan religion Samhain. Samhein in the days of Halloween as it related to the belief that the dead came back to haunt or bother the living probably inspired kids and families to dress up. Since true biblical Christians know that it is not possible for dead people to come back whenever or each year it then it really can be a day that we use to mean better and more noble and hopeful things.

Halloween is a Mess!

At this time in history in North America Halloween means a ton of things to many people and it seems to be a mixture of twisted Christianity and paganism. To dress up and have fun once a year without being thought of as one to be supporting an evil holiday (that is super commercialized to make money) might be a difficult thing unless one really knows the truth of the Word and some of these false and non-biblical traditions. Really it's a day for the born again Spirit filled believer to talk about spiritual things and share Christ in a marvelous way if they know their stuff so to speak.


This is why I personally do not have issue with dressing up for harvest time once a year or other times and having fun. I will not celebrate what Halloween originally meant by "hallowing" dead people who have been elevated to sainthood by the Catholic church. God makes Saints when they leave a life style of sinner for following the Savior. The only "Hollowing" I can find in the bible is when Jesus said in teaching to us on how to pray to the Father. Hollowed ( Holy is your name ) "This, then, is how you should pray: 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name", ..... Matthew 6:9


I prefer Christians would take opportunity to draw attention to their costumes at this time of year to do something fun or current without reflecting on the devil or evil that is indeed so real so we might share Christ and the truth of His Word. All Saints Day was officially sanctioned by the Bishops of the Church in 993 to canonize the first Saint to be remembered and also prayed for among many things. The day after was November 2 as All Souls Day and that is another day to remember the dead and to pray for them. Even though the intent of these special days developed by the Catholic church have been twisted from the true biblical history we must remember that there are many biblical aspects of these present holidays that we can learn the truth from like what a real Saint is. Many traditions among the pagan's who call the holiday Halloween are those associated with Samhain who have more traditions that seem to be borrowed from scripture and twisted. That is another study for another time though. The Devil is a master at twisting truth to a lie and Halloween's original roots seem to be that as well. A twisting of truth is nothing less or more than wicked. For wickedness is the twisting of truth. "Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead". Deuteronomy 18:10-11


So what is a Christian to do with Halloween? Know the past, know the Bible and know Jesus as your Savior and untwist the lies from the truth and reveal Jesus on all occasions. Take advantage of this season to witness to the Truth in Jesus Christ with love and a seasoning of salt to those who are clueless and just going with the flow of marketplace consumerism.

Clawed by a Friend!

  Have you ever been the victim of your friends fear, stupidity or carelessness? Perhaps you have heard people say that those closest to you can often hurt you the most. How true that is. My mom is now 91 years old and lives alone in Maine. Since she was 80 she has had a goal in mind to celebrate her 100th birthday. Every year I often wonder what excitement will be next with my mom? This past year has been a tough year for her as she had to give up her driver’s license after a mishap. At first I thought she would not handle it well, but she really adjusted better than I expected because she has such a great attitude.

No harm intended!

I recently had to call her with sad news about the death of a family member. She did not answer the phone at 10 p.m. and I wondered if she heard it or not. As other wondering thoughts passed through my mind about why she did not answer I decided to call my brother to make sure about her whereabouts. She ended up calling me back later after 11 p.m. and told me a rather funny story. The reason why it was funny was because she laughed and had such a great attitude about how her friend clawed her and sent her to the hospital.

You see my mom has a cat named Bunny and she was home enjoying the evening with her furr ball on her lap. An unexpected sound startled the cat and she clawed her in the legs without realizing it as she fled the room. Immediately my mom called 911 and the ambulance came and took her to the hospital. She received 9 stitches in her leg. When she was finished they asked her if she had a family member nearby to pick her up to take her home. She told them she had no family near. So they said,” no problem we will send you home with a police officer”.

As she was telling me about the adventures of her unexpected and long night she was so positive as well. With giggles and laughs she told me about the noise, a jumping cat, blood, stitches, ambulance and her first ever ride in a police car. Attitude certainly makes the difference in my mom’s life and I believe it is one key to her longevity as well. Instead of whining about her tragic evening that could not be undone I heard laughs, first time experiences and the joy of her first ever police car ride home

Just because someone who loves you might have clawed you, does not mean you cannot forgive, understand and release and get your lap cat back. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Philippians 2:5 The way of Jesus is to learn to love those who claw us even when they did not intend too or for that matter even if they did. After all maybe it was an accident and the intent was not what the outcome became. Jesus said,"But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." Regardless of the intent, Children of God are called to forgive and love. With a Jesus kind of attitude we can learn to have joy when we are clawed.

Fish Gut Grace!

Jesus was never known to be a fisherman, but rather a carpenter. Not much is known about those pre-ministry years, but we know he was raised in Nazareth and not along the seashore of Galilee. However, after Jesus publically launched his ministry he called a few disciples to follow him who were fisherman. So I presume he got familiar pretty fast with the cleaning process of fish in preparation for the fish market.

Well I am not a fisherman either, but I’ve fished over the years since I was a boy and have cleaned a few fish myself. When you get them home and clean them you got to do something with the guts right? To be honest, I can’t remember much about what I used to do with fish guts but I know I must have done something with them.

Over a year ago after we moved into our present home my wife observed a neighbor throwing a half filled 5 gallon pail of fish guts, heads and tails under a tree close to our home. The tree was not directly in the front yard, but not far away either. The conversation between us went something like this. She said, “That is really gross, you need to go clean those guts up before the kids get sick from them over something”. I said “I don’t want to clean up someone else’s fish guts. I’ll just go tell him to clean up their own fish guts.” She said, “You can’t do that, they are our neighbors and what will they think if you say that?” I said, “I don’t know, but they should have thought of that before they dumped them next to our tree”. Back and forth we went over what was the right way to handle the unexpected fish guts and what should be done  and what would Jesus do?

So it finally boiled down to me actually walking over to the fish guts and just starring at fish tails, heads and guts. It was starting to smell as well, since we live in the hot FL sun. My youngest two kids were looking at them as well saying how gross and stinky they were and wondering what dad was going to do. So I went and got my own five gallon pail and shoveled them into my bucket. Then I thought, I know what I will do, I will just dump them right on their front steps and show them. Since nobody was home the temptation grew. After another debate back and forth this time with the Lord, I finally did the right thing with the pail of fish guts. I ended up dumping them in my own garbage can and we smelled them all week long until the dump truck came.

Since then we have gotten to know those neighbors and have come to love the entire family in a Jesus kind of way. Had it not been for Jesus in our lives, fish guts might have truly divided us in the neighborhood over those stinky fish remains and how they should have been handled. If it were not for Jesus I think I would have likely dumped those heads, tails and guts in the wrong place instead of my own dumpster.

I am not perfect by any means and I know I have pulled my share of gut dumping onto someone else’s turf along the way. But I am reminded today that I can thank my God for the grace of Christ who took upon himself my stinky sinful fish guts and paid the price for me over 2000 years ago. Before I even knew how much my ‘fish guts’ would smell and would offend God  he placed them positionally Under the blood of Jesus. Once I disovered Jesus and put them in His pail they never were to again smell.

Today I have a different type of ‘fish guts’ that recently got dumped into my life’s front yard by different folks. These folks are actually my brothers and sisters in Christ. As I pray and seek His grace I hope I can discover again the wonder of His Grace to know how to handle another completely different round of fish guts. I find myself again looking for more ‘Fish Gut Grace’. If he did once he can do it again.  I live longing for more ‘Fish Gut Grace’.