Holy living to Connect and Retain Believers

The life of a Christian should be an example to the world and all that want to know Christ should see Him in His followers. If you are a Christian but live a non-Christ like life, you are doing disservice to the kingdom of God. Being a true Christian is not an easy life but God is all powerful to give us strength to live a holy life. Some pastors and preachers of the Gospel are living a double life and evidence of their unholy living is spread out to the world through various means. I know one website that is fond of spreading such news in Nigeria (kaynaija.com) and many such websites exist.

I would like to remain relevant to the religious space in this article by giving an example of a Christian pastor that turned to Islam because he found his Christian counterparts to be living a lie, Yusuf Estes. I have watched his videos on youtube.com where he states his reasons for converting to Islam. The channel for his coverage is Muhammad Abdulaziz. Amongst many reasons he gives there is one that directly talks about Christian pastors living a lie. He himself claims that he was a Christian pastor at one point but later converted to Islam. In some of his videos, he says that when he asked questions to his fellow pastors they would not give answers but simply say ‘it doesn’t matter as long as the people believe what they (as pastors) say’. This behaviour contributed to loosing Yusuf Estes to Islam.

A Christian should work out his salvation with fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12) and be an example to the world. Fear and trembling is obviously not an easy thing. Living a holy life makes those that want the truth to see it alive in your life. They see the way of Christ in reality. They get attracted and connect, and continuous righteous living keeps them connected. In other words, they are retained within Christianity.

Yusuf Estes gives many other reasons for leaving Christianity, many relate to the Bible. He believes that the Bible is not a perfect book and that its translation is not right. That is his own problem but for him to mention other believers that did not live a holy life or a Christ like life is the reason I write this article. That he found to Quran to be a perfect book does not mean Islam is the right religion. Muslims can be the best religious people that demonstrate a Christ like or even a godly life, but it does not make Islam the true religion.

One thing Yusuf Estes will be judged for when he faces God after this life is that of looking at people and not deriving answers from God through Jesus Christ (Jeremiah 17:5). He wanted answers from people and not from God. I can tell you that Yusuf might have not received Jesus Christ in the first place but he was playing religion, thinking he was a Christian but he was not. I know so because no real Christian will turn to another religion if they have really tasted the goodness of Christ. It is sad truth that the Bible mentions that even the elect may be deceived in these last days (Mark 13:22).

Now, the next two sentences should have been in fine print. Having watched Yusuf’s videos, I have learnt that Christians should live a prayerful life and be Bible studious. There is no other way to live for Christ other than that, failing which, Muslims and other religions will win you over and you will regret it after this life why you did not consult in prayer and Bible study.