A Christian's Life

I found this short poem while going through my Men With a Mission class. I found it both interesting and provoking. Take a look:

You are writing a Gospel, a chapter each day,
By the deeds you do, and the words that you say,
Men read what you write, distorted or true,
So what is the Gospel, according to you?

People watch what we, as Christians, do. There aren't Christian watcher clubs, where people gather to watch us. Yet they still watch us. All people, young, old, wealthy, poor, it doesn't matter. They may look down us, look up to us, come along side us, but even if they completely avoid us we have still affected their life somehow. So, then question then arises, what do other people see when they see us? Do they see some religeous fanatic who blows up abortion centers, or gets arrested for running a sandwich shop with out a liscence? Or, do they see someone who wears funky clothes, who won't talk to anybody, has no idea who Kevin Fenderline is, and have a very small circle of friends? Okay, I picked a couple of extremes. I understand that. But what is the middle ground? Frankly, I find the middle ground even worse than the extremes. Say for instance, someone who dresses stylishly, is friends with everybody in their neighborhood/school, is a fanatic Steelers fan, oh yeah, and they've got this thing about going to church on Sunday mornings. (Who, incidently, doodle in church, fall asleep, and wish the pastor would talk about something that applied to them, yet they go home and cheer passionately for their home team and jump up and down and scream when the Ref makes a bad call) Okay okay, I'll get off my soapbox there. But my point is, which of those three lifestyles are going to persuade others to join you? Honestly, none of them. You might be saying right now "wait Jayson, you said lifestyle? I thought we were talking about Christianity?" Well, we are. But when we are saved, are we simply joining one of those three groups (or anywhere in between those three groups) or are we jumping on God's bandwagon?
Hmm. Well what are we supposed to do to get on God's bandwagon? Look in the Bible for answers? "That will take too much time. I don't have enough time to read the whole Bible, I mean I just got saved." Good point in fact. But looking around and doing the things that other good, solid, real Christians do isn't the answer. Things other Christians do are typically good things. But I am going to have to suggest reading the Bible on your own to figure out. People can tell when we are simply copying others. And that is not a good testimony. Well the entire Bible contains some sixty-six books I believe and that would take a while to read. So here are a couple that I've found while taking my class.

Philippians 2:15 "That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;"

Matthew 5:16 "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

So, aside from being good, what do these two verses have in common? God. We are supposed to be blameless before God and that glorifies Him. If we simply strive to be blameless before God, THAT is what will make us a testimony before others! Doing this obviously takes a rather intimate relationship with Christ. But as Christians we are offered that relationship. That is in fact, what a Christian is, someone who can talk to God on a one to one basis.