I was thinking a bit about my comments yesterday regarding the segregated nature of our faith, where God is not central to everything in our lives. There's a belief in God, but not a participation with God that is natural. This is in part because of our sinful nature, but perhaps it's also because we've historically defined or thought about faith in terms of what we do instead of who we are.
Who we are as people is made up of a number of different things...personality, gifts, etc. These things follow us around. There is no putting your personality off at one place and then taking it up at another. While we supress our gifts at times, they are still a part of who we are. This ought to be the goal of our faith in Jesus. No matter where we are at time or place we are present with Jesus, and He with us.
So instead of describing our faith by Bible reading, prayer, or other activities, maybe it's more helpful to use descriptives: faithful, holy, just, peace-loving...go down the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5 or the descriptions of love in 1 Corinthians 13. If we truly love Jesus, these are helpful descriptives as to what that would look like...what Christ-followers should look like. So you can tell them by who they are. The characteristics are fluid...they become part of every aspect of our lives. These characteristics cannot be done apart from Christ. Naturally we pull away from such characteristics, but being one with Christ brings us back to these things again and again.
So when we talk about how we're defining our faith it should be more about how God is shaping us and working through us. So in response to the question: What does a Christian do? it should be more than go to church, read the Bible, pray. My answer would be more along the lines of..."I allow myself to be shaped by Jesus. I realize I'm not a perfect individual...sometimes I'm not even good...but I know that Jesus wants me to be like Him, and I'm open to letting Him do that. In fact, it's something I seek out."
