But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
1 Peter 2:10
I have a special identity. I belong to the chosen people of God. I am His child. I belong to a royal prieshood, a holy nation, I belong to God. I am the child of light. I am a Christian. What is being expected of a christian? Some people define christians as saints that carry Bible around, some people see christians as a bunch of people who go to church every Sunday, some people think Christians are those who strictly abide by the Ten Commandments, some people presume Christians are those who do not break rules and they are nice.
Christians are a special group of people. In fact, they are called by God out of darkness into His wonderful light. They are the chosen ones. However, too often we do not live up to the expectations of others, neither do we live up to God's standard. We are under great pressure to live out the image a holy nation ought to bear. In the end of the day, some of us fail to do so and become backsliding, some of us who are more superior look down on those who are less, some of us do not find love in this kingdom.
Christians are merely sinners who have received the forgiveness of Christ. They have nothing in common except they are saved by the blood of Jesus. They do not share the same colours of skin and they do not speak the same language. They think and act differently in their own cultural settings and they have different family backgrounds. They have different gifts and they face different problems. Christians are just distinctly different from each other. In fact, it's only in Jesus Christ, they are united to become One. We do carry the image of Jesus in this world, we do bear the responsible of spreading His love, we do call ourselves Church. But who we are?
We are just people who have freely received the grace of God, and who are freely passing on His grace to our friends and family. We are not worthy of His grace, we have done nothing proud of to deserve His grace, we are just people chosen by God. He looked at me from high above the heaven, and He saw me in my weakest point. He then picked me up from the dust and He called me into His presence.
It is not the theology that counts. It is the grace of Heavenly Father that is being revealed in Jesus that counts. It is the love of the Father that is the gist of Christianity. It is the blood that Jesus shed on the Christ that set the foundation of our faith. Our God's calling for us is to offer up our bodies as living sacrificies, and allow Him to refine and mould us to fit Him perfectly. We are yet to be perfect, but we can declare ourselves as the Children of Light.
We do make mistakes from time to time. But we are not shameful of our wrongdoings. We repent and we change. We correct our mistakes and we become strengthened again to move on after a fall. We are people who have received mercy and we are to show others what mercy really is. In forgiving others, people see the merciful hands of Jesus; in embracing others, people see the welcoming hands of Jesus; in tapping the shoulder of a friend, people see the encouraging hands of Jesus; in contributing what you have, people see the helping hands of Jesus; in doing good deeds, people see the loving hands of Jesus.
We are just a group of people who play the role of Jesus' hands in this world.
We are nothing, yet we are special.
He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along.
Psalm 40:2
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