3.+Being+Influenced+to+Emulate+Christ

Being Influenced to Emulate Christ:
 * My peers, including professors and friends have helped to strengthen my relationship with Christ
 * Core 400-Stott: We are called to be Salt and Light to the dark world around us:
 * Stott explains that both salt and light characterize who a Christian is in the world. He argues that God, “…sends His people into the world to preach the gospel and make disciples, and to make it more pleasing to God” (Stott, 129). Salt and light should be the defining characteristic of every Christian. It is what distinguishes a Christian from a non-Christian. He explains that salt must penetrate meat in order for it to effectively preserve it. And in the same way, we as Christians must go into the world to hinder the bacterial decay of society. Stott refers to light as the Truth going forth and lighting up the dark world for Christ.
 * The God of Intimacy and Action: By developing a deeper love for Christ through the three types of prayers, one is greater influenced to make a difference in the world by taking action in the areas of justice
 * Darling warns against our Christianity becoming spiritually self-centered
 * If our spirituality is not producing an urgency to bring Jesus’ message of salvation and justice to others, then it is self-centered
 * If we fill up our time with activities that develop our personal relationship with Jesus and fail to spend time in serving the ones Jesus came to save, we miss the complete picture of Jesus’ gospel
 * So I have learned to view my relationship with Christ in a more selfless light by placing Him and others before myself, which has helped me to develop a keener sense of justice
 * Without keeping Christ as the central focus for doing justice in the world, one will soon become weary and will soon lack the strength to go on. But if we keep Christ first, we will not only have the strength to go on, but we will also reap the spiritual blessings that Christ has promised to them who live self-sacrificially
 * As a result of seeking to be like Christ, I deeply desire to think and act the way He thought and acted while He walked the earth. Since His life was characterized by selfless acts of kindness in order to promote justice, so I desire a life that displays the same characteristics.
 * I must remember to keep God first before seeking to do justice. Because if I don’t keep Him first, my efforts will be in vain and will soon lose the necessary strength to go on.
 * The link below, Tony Campolo speaks about the hope of justice in a hurting world:
 * [|The Stand 2010]
 * The link below is a website commemorating Stott, and is aimed at continuing the work that he started:
 * [|John Stott's Memorial]
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Below is a link showing John Stott explaining Christian discipleship:
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 13px;">[|John Stott on Discipleship]
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 13px;">Directly below is a photo of John Stott (on right), and Billy Graham (on left):



<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">John Stott, in his book The Living Church, explains how the trend of American churches today tend to stress church membership. He argues that this leads to <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">thinking of the church as a kind of country club, in which members are to directly benefit as a result of their membership to the church. This is not what the Church was created to be. Stott argues that, "…the church is the only cooperative society in the world which exists for the benefit of its non-members" (Stott, 51). So it is not church "members" who benefit, but rather as a result of becoming a member they are then entitled to become a blessing to others. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 13px;">The church, as I have grown up to know it, was only responsible to gain converts and to help you with your own relationship with Christ. I have had my eyes opened to the other side of the church's responsibility through attending SAU for four years now. I have come to realize that the church's role is not only to help each person grow in Christ on a personal level, but also to be a light in the dark world around us. Part of the role of the church is to care for the poor and seek to impliment justice as Jesus did when He was on earth. So, the church has a duel-role position, which seeks to grow each person into Christ's image, while promoting justice on a broader level.