Here is a challenging question. What kind of Christian am I? I guess when you really think about it there is only one kind of Christian. The one that is born again of God’s spirit by way of believing God’s Word. Romans 10:9 is a good Scripture that leads to a person’s conversion to becoming a Christian. “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”
Many times when this question is asked, the interviewer is requesting, “How are you manifesting your Christian lifestyle?” This really is the essence of the challenge for each and every Born Again Christian: “What kind of a Christian lifestyle am I living?”
Many years ago a man of God by the name of E. Stanley Jones responded to this question by declaring: “There are three kinds of Christians.” Below is his explanation of three kinds of Christians utilizing 3 kinds of boats.
There are three kinds of Christians: the row-boat type, the sail-boat type and the steam-boat type. The row-boat type is the type that is humanistic, self-dependent, trying to get on with its own resources. But as those resources are limited, the progress is limited.
The sail-boat type depends on the winds. They are the people who are dependent on circumstances — the other-dependent ones. If the winds are with them, if people are constantly complimenting them and encouraging them, they get on. But if the patting on the back stops, they stop. They are circumstance-conditioned. Not very dependable Christians.
Then there is the steam-boat type — those who have power on the inside — and they go on whether winds are favorable or unfavorable. It is true they go on faster when there is a helping wind, but nevertheless they go on, wind or no wind. They have an inner adequacy. They are not self-dependent, nor circumstance-dependent, but Christ-dependent. They are dependable.
This power to go on when life is dead against us is the deepest necessity of our lives. In victorious living this becomes a working fact. — E. Stanley Jones in Victorious Living (1936).
This sure encourages us to upgrade our vessel and be our best for our Heavenly Father.
Agape,
Bob