There's a chill in the air I breathe, the cold is upon me and I take great lengths to get warm. I then sit on my spring-loaded couch, open my book and the first words I see are: "to live is Christ."
I ponder this for a while and then it hits me: to truly live is to have Christ living fully through you. Meditating some more, I look at myself, and reflect on the current state of the modern Church and those who identify themselves as followers of Christ.
The concept
I have met people who after years of being in the Church still hold onto bitterness, and others who have become so dissatisfied with where they are at in their walk and feel as if nothing is different. I ask God, why is this the case? Why are people constantly walking away from the Church, where have we gone wrong?
The answer is a heavy one, and it is something that runs deep. We have merely embraced the concept that "to live is Christ" and not walked in its power. The difference is in believing the concept or embracing the powerful truth that to truly live and be alive is having Christ live through you.
A hard hit
This hits me hard, all of a sudden things become so much clearer. We have embraced a concept over the reality. It explains why so many walk away from God dissatisfied, why we don't grow as much as we can and why so many get disheartened by hardship.
I ask you, how did we get to this point? Sadly, it seems that we have brought ourselves here. At some point we placed more value on understanding and living concepts over the indisputable fact that To Live Is Christ. I believe we tricked ourselves into taking concepts as truth, over what is actually true.
God reminds me we are also at war and the enemy we are facing has played a huge part in this. I look around and have a hard time trying to understand this realisation.
It becomes a challenge to distinguish reality when we take our focus off God and place it on seeking to understand concepts over God himself, and that's where the enemy hits us. Yet, I am constantly overwhelmed by how God is constantly taking such things and revealing what is true.
Disregard and take heart
Personally, this is a massive revelation, and up to recently it is something that I have identified in my own walk. As I look at my life and where I have come from, I recall all those I have met who have embraced the reality that To Live Is Christ and I thank God for each one them.
This last week I have had the privilege of meeting a founding member of Youth With A Mission, someone whom I now call friend, and through our one on one conversations I got a brief glimpse of what it is to live as Christ. It is so challenging when the world and a lot of the church say, "embrace and live the concept".
However, it is so incredibly freeing when we disregard the concept and embrace reality: To Live is Christ. After meeting the founding member of Youth With A Mission who embraced the reality and has had a long life of doing so it gives me heart and reminds me that it is worth every challenge that will rise as a result from living as Christ. It also revealed the importance of being surrounded by those who live the same way.
Ashley is currently working at Trois Fleches Productions based in a Christian organisation—"YOUTH WITH A MISSION" located in Quebec Canada. During his free time Ashley can be found writing in its various forms or reading an old book.
Ashley Menelaw's previous articles may be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/ashley-menelaws.html