Walking Advertisements

This is somewhat of an ADD ramble, but then again, I have a lot of those.

One of the kids in service today asked me how they can know for sure that they are Christians. A great question, to be sure. I was pretty excited that the kids are thinking and wondering. I responded by telling the children that the Holy Spirit works in them and confirms in their hearts that they are... but then I began to think about something I read in Francis Chan's book, Forgotten God. I think this is a more important question to ask:

How do other people know we are Christian?

Do we stand out? Shouldn't we stand out? I taught the children about the 12 disciples today in service, and one thing always strikes me when I read of their stories: They were known to be Christians (Acts 4:13 - Chan p 19). One of the things that I always try to teach the children is that they should be and are walking advertisements for Jesus, that they shouldn't care about what others think and live all out for God. People knew that the disciples had hung out with Jesus just by how they acted. The term "Christian" even came from the believers in Antioch who acted so much like Jesus that people coined the term little Christians (Acts 11:26). What would people say about you? How would they label your life?