I think so. I think it’s the most important thing that we do in our lives. It’s not just a matter of having faith, but of living it out in a way that makes us feel good about ourselves, and helps us to be happy. And that’s what I’m trying to do with this book, to help people to live out their faith in ways that make them feel better about themselves and help them to have a better relationship with God and with each other.
“living out” your faith of your own life. Is it something that you do daily, or is it more of an ongoing process? How does one go about living out the faith that they have in Jesus Christ? And what is the difference between “faith” and “belief”?
… I don’t think there’s a difference. The difference is that when you believe in something, you’re willing to put your whole heart and soul into it. When you live your life out of that belief, it becomes a part of who you are as a person. That’s why I call it a “life-long faith.” It doesn’t just happen overnight. You have to work at it every day, every moment of the day. But you can do it because you have faith and you know that God is going to use you to bring about His purposes in this life and the life to come. So, when I say, “I believe,” I mean that I believe that there is a God who loves me, who wants me to love Him, and who will use me for His purpose in bringing about the good things that He wants to happen in my life, whether it be for my good or the benefit of others. If I can’t do that, then I have no right to call myself “a Christian.” I am not a Christian just because I live my faith out every single day in whatever way I feel like it is best for me and my family. There’s nothing wrong with that. What’s wrong is when people try to take that away from you. They take away your freedom of choice, your ability to choose what you want to believe and how you feel about it and what it means to you and your family and your friends, and all of those things. Those are the kinds of people who are not “true Christians.” They’re not true Christians because they’re unwilling to give up their freedom to make their own decisions about what they believe, how they live their lives, what kind of relationships they want with other people, and so on. In other words, they are “false Christians,” and they should be ashamed of themselves for being false Christians. Because that is not what true Christianity is all about. “True Christianity” is about loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, loving your neighbor as yourself, and loving yourself as well as your neighbors. True Christian love is love for all people, regardless of race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, national origin, age, disability, mental or physical illness, religious belief or lack thereof, political affiliation, socioeconomic status or any other factor that might make you different from the rest of us. This is what the Bible says about love: “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to those who hate you” (Mt. 5:44-45). True Christians love their neighbors as themselves, even if they may not agree with them on every issue or have the same beliefs as they do. We all have different beliefs about how we should treat our neighbors, so we need to respect that and respect each others’ beliefs, too. As long as we respect the other person’s beliefs and do what we think is right for them and us, we’re all good, right? But when someone tries to tell us that our beliefs are wrong or that their way of doing things is wrong and we shouldn’t be doing it that way, well, that just makes them a false Christian and a hypocrite and an enemy of God. False Christians are enemies of Christ and of His Church, which is why the Apostle Paul said that “False Christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, to lead astray, if possible, the ungodly and pervert the right way.” (Eph. 2:1-2). False Chrismas and False Prophets will do all sorts of things to try and deceive people into thinking that the way we live our life is somehow wrong, wrong for God, or wrong in some way for our family, our friends, or our country or the world or whatever it may be. All of these things will be done in an attempt to convince people that something is “wrong” or “bad” about us and that it must be changed
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