ON BEING A FOLLOWER OF CHRIST

 Each of us has very valid reasons for being Who we are  today, and therefore, being the Way we are and How we  respond to different things, people, temptations, etc. 
 No one knows but God and us what we have been  through - the trials, testings, attacks, abuse, betrayals,  silent sufferings - how we have labored, fought, and  persevered. Right??   

 So if we happen to have a "bad day", or "slip" or  "stumble", who could fault us? Right? It's not like we  haven't done some good things along the road of life.
 Right??

 But wait. This is the thinking of a person who is about to  plunge headlong into the darkness. Many have taken a  dive over this cliff never to be heard from again. This is  a person who is about justify their sin, who is going to  rationalize "turning the stone into bread" because they  haven't eaten for 40 days. (Luke 4:1-4)

 Jesus died to fill us with the Holy Spirit so that we  might walk in the way that He walked. What sets us  apart (<--holy) from others is that we don't do what    they do when we are faced with what they are faced  with. By the very definition of His name, the HOLY Spirit  sets us apart to bless and to be used by God as He sees  fit.

 This, therefore, is the mindset of the Child of God: 
 I have valid a reason to live holy and blameless  regardless of my circumstances and situations in life - 

 no matter how I am being treated or what is happening  around me - for "I have been crucified with Christ, and it  is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives within me.  And the life I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God    who loved me and gave Himself up for me."        (Galatians 2:20)