For many years now I have watched reactions people have towards Christians and been completely dissatisfied. Christianity has given itself a bad name. It saddens me this has happened because it immediately turns people off when the idea people have about what a Christian is is nowhere near the reputation Christianity holds today. I recently read the book Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller and I would like to share a passage he wrote of an actual experience:

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In a recent radio interview I was sternly asked by the host, who did not consider himself a Christian, to defend Christianity. I told him that I couldn’t do it, and moreover, that I didn’t want to defend the term. He asked me if I was a Christian, and I told him yes. “Then why don’t you want to defend Christianity?” he asked, confused. I told him I no longer knew what the term meant. Of the hundreds of thousands of people listening to his show that day, some of them had terrible experiences with Christianity; they may have been yelled at by a teacher in a Christian school, abused by a minister, or browbeaten by a Christian parent. To them, the term Christianity meant something that no Christian I know would defend. By fortifying the term, I am only making them more and more angry. I won’t do it. Stop ten people on the street and ask them what they think of when they hear the word Christianity, and they will give you ten different answers. How can I defend a term that means ten different things to ten different people? I told the radio show host that I would rather talk about Jesus and how I came to believe that Jesus exists and that he likes me. The host looked back at me with tears in his eyes. When we were done, he asked me if we could go get lunch together. He told me how much he didn’t like Christianity but how he had always wanted to believe Jesus was the Son of God.
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Jesus came to die for us because he LOVES us. Jesus did it for love. Unfortunately there are many people out there who call themselves Christians who do not love as Jesus loved.

If you think you are a Christian take a good look at your life. Are you exemplifying the characteristics of love, joy, peace, patients, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self control that the Bible exhorts you to, or are you acting with malice. If so you need to take a step back and reevaluate how to live your life. Stop pretending to be a Christian and giving them a bad name, or embrace the love of Jesus and let it shine through your life onto others around you.