The Body Of Christ

I and so thankful for the body of Christ. Yes, I am developing my personal walk with Jesus, but I also realize how important and great the body of Christ is. I don't think I could ask for more wonderful and faithful friends.

I remember my old friends that I had to give up in order to go after God. They were not supportive of my new revelation of the love of Jesus. I remember them telling me that Jesus was just a crutch or a fall back for weak people. I tried to explain that yes, Jesus is my crutch and I realized how weak and empty I was without Him in my life. My old friends did not understand this. To them my new revelation was just a faze that some people go through in life. (Jesus is not a faze for me. His is my everything and much more.) When I started to change the way I lived my life, my friends really got mad at me. I stopped living a worldly life, and started to try and live a life according to the bible. My goal was to be like Jesus as best as I could. I stopped smoking, drinking, cursing, having premarital sex, fighting, hating, blaming others for my problems, and even stopped being just an irresponsible person all together. My old friends didn't like this change at all. They even started  to pick on me about being a christian. I use to get harassing phone calls at night. No one would talk to me because they all assumed I was judging them or that I thought I was better than them. I did not of course.

While going through all the rejection and hostilities from my old friends, I ended up hooking up with a group called Saturday Night (Now known as Saturday Night Jesus Revolution). They welcomed me so warmly. I could relate to all of them. The ones that were older in the Lord shepherded me. The ones that were where I was in the Lord encouraged me, and we became awesome friends to this day. Also, the ones that were younger in the Lord I help guide. They excepted me, flaws in all. They helped me become a more better person. That all started about 10 years ago. I was a teenager, almost a young adult then.  I bet if any of my old friends would see me now, they would not recognize me.

My christian friends have been a great part of my life. I have friends from the ages of early 60's to late teens. We have laughed together. We have cried together. We have shared our hopes and fears. We pray for each other. We encourage each other. We can trust each other with no doubts about the other person. We are not afraid to be transparent with each other in anyway. Believe it or not. I have more fun with my friends now, even though we wouldn't do anything Jesus wouldn't do, than I ever did with my older friends who partied all the time. Believe it or not, there is a such thing as good clean fun. Not all christians are boring. My friends are some of the funniest coolest people I ever met. And I am so blessed to have them in my life.