So, assuming that we have the basic of trusting God for our eternal life, what will that life look like?
There are many activities and attitudes that one can engage in in the pursuit of the life of a Christ follower. When one looks at the successful life of the Christ follower, they see three pillars. These pillars apply whether we are speaking of the individual, family, church or Christ following business.
The pillars are:
- The Word of God
- The Worship of God
- The Works in the Power of God
The are all needed to experience the fullness of the life that God has for each of us as Christ followers. Each speaks to a different aspect of what it means to be human in this world. When in balance, they allow us to flow in the grace in which we have been created and redeemed.
Let us take a look at each of these to see how they fit together.
The Word of God- This is the basis and foundation on which everything that we do should be built. It informs us about who God is and who we are. It guides us to understand the rules of engagement for functioning in this world and the world of the Spirit. Here we find the expectations that God has for us and the limitations that are on us, for our protection.
This is the pillar that engages our intellect and challenges us to examine the evidence of our existence in the light of God’s revelation versus the alternative explanations of the world. Being a Christ follower is the only avenue of spirituality that challenges us to examine it by the presentation of evidence for its truth-claims.
The Worship of God- This is the emotional response brought on by the effective intellectual stimulation from the Word of God. It is the attitude and actions that demonstrate the worth of Gd\od to each of us, as individuals.
Going to a service and singing hymns are forms of worship, but they are not the primary means of worship. The first line of worship for the Christ follower is the attitude that they maintain. Everything that we are and have came first from God. With that as our focal point, everything that we do and say should then be seen as acts of worship.
The Works in the Power of God- Works speak to what we actually do. This is the foundations that speaks to our body. The works that we do are informed by the Word and energized by the Worship.
Please notice that it is not works of power. That would tend to limit the works to those of miracles. While any work that a human does in the Name of Christ is rightly a miracle, not all works are obviously supernatural.
Let us say that the Word has informed us that we are made alive in Christ to be living sacrifices and bearers of the life of God, we smile at someone. That smile becomes both a ministry and an act of worship.
All of the foregoing was the long way around of saying that the life of the Christ follower is not about climbing mountains or doing something heroic, though sometimes that may be called for, it is about living out the small things on a daily basis in the awareness of the awesomeness of the grace of God.
