Eden Assembly of God Church - Auckland (via Mowser)

What would you say identifies a Christian? ... Behaviour? Conversation? What they don't do?

Gosh - that sounds a bit stuffy! As written in the 8th June Newsletter, some people think Christians wrap themselves in cocoons of rules, and hide themselves from (oh horror!) - REAL life! (Real life being something that everyone vaguely defines as problems... you know, general chaos of situations... real life isn't rosy you know!)

What does God think? Firstly, He says clearly that what we do isn't going to save us - that is something He has to do, and wants very much to do. He wants to forgive us, make us clean, and put His spirit inside us so that we are not on an everlasting cycle of trying hard in our own strength to achieve the impossible.

Secondly, yes, behaviour, what and how we speak, and the things we choose to do or not do, are very important. Everyone would agree on that, because nobody likes a hypocrite. To say you believe in God and trust what Jesus did for you on the cross, and yet elbow your way through the world and to heck with what anyone thinks, is an 'opposite', a 'denial of belief', and anyone would be quite right to question where you stand.

Lastly, this cocoon thing. Cocooning has its place. What, you say?! That's hiding, surely. Well, the Bible says something like: "A careful (thinking) person foresees danger and hides himself; the simple (doesn't think things through) person goes right on ahead, and is punished (by that 'real' life)."

There's a time to cocoon when it's smart, and there's a time to be out there when courage is required. A Christian will practice knowing the difference and be identified by the actions they take. The best thing of all is that cocoons turn into butterflies at the right time. All growing stages are necessary, but not everyone who sees you will understand that. It is worth the moments of looking like a caterpillar, or looking like a capsule, or in fact whatever it takes, to see out your final destiny of turning into a butterfly.

Testimony of members of Eden AOG
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1550 Great North Road l Avondale l Auckland l New Zealand
P.O. Box 56 055 l Dominion Rd l Mt Eden, Auckland
info@edenaog.co.nz Tel: 09 820 5224 l Fax: 09 820 5226 l Email:

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