three C's

Yesterday I had the opportunity to sit in on a session at Beau's school as a special speaker came in to talk. The special speaker was a single woman with 16 adopted children. She runs an orphanage in Haiti and out of her 16 adopted children, 4 of them are labeled the worst cases of child abuse in the U.S. She told us about her story and the story of some of the things her children went through which I won't go into detail here. She's been through so much, especially lately. Her ability to rejoice through suffering, through loss, through persecution, was a true testimony of her faith in Christ and it was humbling.

She brought up what she calls the 3 C's which stand for:

• Conditional Christianity
• Convenient Christianity
• Crucified Christianity

Conditional Christianity is the the kind of 'Christianity' that is self-seeking. It's an 'all about me' mentality. Many churches today preach that God is all about giving them nice things. They cater to this self-centered mentality and preach a self-centered 'gospel'. so now we have a bunch of people who call themselves Christians, only trying to serve God because they want Him to pour out blessings of nice cars & houses on them. This my friends, is not true Christianity. 

Convenient Christianity is the kind of Christianity that says "I'll serve God as long as it's comfortable" "As long as He doesn't make me give all my things away...." "As long as I can....." This group of people want to serve God but they're not willing to give up all they have. They're willing to serve God as long as it's comfortable.

Crucified Christianity as this lady puts it is 'the point of no return'. This is the picture of true, biblical Christianity: Laying down the rights to our life, Dying to self daily, being willing to give up any & EVERY thing if the Lord God asks us to. The crucified life is the dangerous, hard life and we must be willing to live it. 

I write these things to ask you who call yourself a christian, what category do you reckon yourself with? Are you a Conditional, Convenient, or a Crucified Christian? Examine your life today and truly try to place yourself in one of these categories. If you're anything other than a Crucified Christian, I urge you to let Christ take over your life and to take the leap from a Conditional or Convenient Christian to a Crucified Christian.

I'll be honest, Despite being willing to give up all material things I have to follow Christ, there are still some things that I'm struggling to give over to Him. I haven't yet crossed the line to being a crucified christian but would say I'm right on the edge. I NEED Him to push me right over the line, I can't do it in my own strength. And it's my heart's desire to see others who name the name of Christ do the same.