“Christianos”…it’s the Greek word that we transliterate as “Christian.”  It means “to be of Christ…to be a “little Christ”…to be like Christ.”  It was used in the early years of the New Testament church, by those who rejected Jesus, as a term of mockery toward the followers of Jesus, the Christ.  However, the believers in Jesus took it on as a badge of honor as they lived to reflect their Lord.  The historian, Eusebius, told how a Christian martyr, named Sanctus, repeatedly spoke only four words as they beat him and demanded that He recant his faith in Christ.  He simply said, “I am a Christian.”

How about you?  Whose name do you claim?  Do others see Jesus in you?

Acts 11:26

…the disciples were first called “Christians” in Antioch.

1 Peter 4:14-16

14 If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. 15 Make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or a troublesome meddler; 16 but if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name.

“I am [Christ’s] by purchase and I am His by conquest; I am His by donation and I am His by election; I am His by covenant and I am His by marriage; I am wholly His; I am peculiarly His; I am universally His; I am eternally His. Once I was a slave but now I am a son; once I was dead but now I am alive; once I was darkness but now I am light in the Lord; once I was a child of wrath, an heir of hell, but now I am an heir of heaven; once I was Satan’s bond-servant but now I am God’s freeman; once I was under the spirit of bondage but now I am under the Spirit of adoption that seals up to me the remission of my sins, the justification of my person and the salvation of my soul.” ~ Thomas Brooks

The Lord bless you and keep you…

Pastor Dave