Belonging To Jesus
The Greek word christianos , which means "follower of Christ" comes from the word christos which means "anointed one." But the ending to the Greek word christianos is borrowed from the Latin to denote belonging to, as in property. So to say that you are a Christian is so much more than saying that you are a follower of Jesus Christ. When you say you are a Christian you are essentially saying that you "belong to Jesus" or as Paul puts it, you are "in Christ." When we say that we follow or belong to Jesus, we are identifying ourselves as part of something that is far greater than we are--we are declaring that we are set apart from the ordinary. We have no fear of the future because we are filled with unbelievable, childlike hope. As I mentioned yesterday, we have been emancipated from our past, and from the things that used to define us. And we declare unequivocally that we are no longer owned by the things of this world--o...