I am a Christian. I am a homeschool mum. I’m a Christian homeschooler. I’m all this and much, much more.

But I am not defined by those things. I don’t like labels. I don’t like to ‘follow’ or adhere to any particular preaching or teaching. However, for those who really need labels to help define a site or person it might be said that I lean toward a Puritan, Reformed and Calvinistic mindset. Why do we need labels? Why do we feel the need to rally together under any other banner other than Christ?

But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?

What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.
1 Cor 3: 1-9

What Is A Christian

There is more to being a Christian than looking like one. It is not so much about how we dress or how big our Christian library is… it is about who Jesus is and what he has done! It is about how He interferes with our life and what impact He has upon us. How do we live? How we love and serve others who are not able to return that kindness or those who do not know His grace shows the type of God we serve. Around our country we can see many people who identify themselves as ‘Christian’ yet they live to please themselves. What would you do if you were on the way to church and there was a car broken down on the side of the road? Would you stop and risk being late to church or not making it there at all? Or would you just pray for them asking that God would send someone along who could help them?

Jesus was not a Christian. He never asked anyone to become a Christian, never built a steepled building, never drew up a theological treatise, never took an offering, never wore religious garments, never incorporated for tax purposes. He simply called people to follow him.
~Jesus with Dirty Feet

So, this begs the question, what is a Christian? Is it someone who goes to church? Puts a bumper sticker on their car? Decorates their home with pretty pictures and scripture? is it someone who dresses well for church and rarely misses a prayer meeting? Or is it someone who doesn’t swear, doesn’t smoke, doesn’t dress fashionably? So then, what does a Christian homeschooler look like? Do they wear brown dresses and braid their hair? Do they wear make-up? Do they bake their own bread? Do they use an approved Bible curriculum?

We all have our own ideas of what Christian should look like, or what is acceptable. We have put Christianity into a box and labelled it. We love to have the Holy Spirit in our church meetings so we can feel His presence but do we allow the Holy Spirit to do His work in the lives of that young, unmarried mother who still runs outside after church to have a cigarette? There are so many ways in which we try to be the Holy Spirit in other’s lives. We need to stop trying to be the Holy Spirit in other peoples lives. Rather, we can rest in the fact that the Holy Spirit will do the work of convicting others…surely we have enough to tend to by acting justly, loving mercy, walking humbling with our God?

Am I a fan or a follower of Christ? Do I preach Christianity or the good news of Jesus Christ: that He, being the Messiah, died, rose again to conquer death and that all we need do is to believe in Him, repent of our sin and receive forgiveness?