Living a True Christian Life

About Living a True Christian Life

It’s time to return to the roots of Christianity and begin living and preaching about how to be a real Christian.

Publisher

Hank Wilson

Category

education · religion & spirituality · religion & spirituality

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

12 Nov 2024

Latest episode

8 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

39 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   8 Oct 2026

   Christian Is a Name. Love Is the Evidence.

   We Christians have quite a collection of labels. Conservative. Progressive. Evangelical. Traditional. Bible-believing. Spirit-filled. Sometimes those words help explain what we believe. Sometimes they help us find a community. And sometimes we use them to decide who belongs—and who doesn’t. But there is a question underneath all those labels that deserves our attention: When someone encounters our Christianity, what do they experience? Do they feel heard? Do they find compassion? Do they encounter someone willing to help carry a burden? Or do they feel as though they have walked into a courtroom, and we have already appointed ourselves the judge? Today, I want to consider two tendencies that can shape the way we practice our faith: legalism and empathy. These are tendencies any of us can develop. Sometimes both show up in the same person, on the same afternoon. Legalism begins to take hold when keeping the rules becomes the measure of someone’s worth. We become so occupied with whether people meet our expectations that we stop paying attention to their circumstances. Empathy asks us to listen. To consider what another person may be carrying. To remember that the life we can see is only part of their story. And empathy does not require us to abandon our convictions. It requires us to remember that we are dealing with a human being. In Mark chapter 3, Jesus encounters a man with a withered hand in a synagogue. Some people are watching to see whether Jesus will heal him on the Sabbath, so they can accuse him. Consider that scene. There is a man who needs help. There is someone present who can help him. And there are people watching for a violation. Jesus asks whether it is lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill. They remain silent. The passage describes Jesus looking at them with anger and grieving over their hardness of heart. Then he heals the man. That is a sobering picture: people can be intensely concerned with religious observance while becoming unresponsive to the suffering directly in front of them. We should approach that story carefully. Jesus and those debating him were Jewish. This was a dispute within their religious community, and it gives Christians no grounds for dismissing Judaism as legalistic. It does give us reason to examine our own hearts. Because Christians can do precisely the same thing. We can defend a church policy while ignoring the person it hurts. We can win an argument about morality while humiliating someone who came looking for help. We can become so concerned with appearing faithful that we forget to act faithfully toward our neighbor. In Luke chapter 18, Jesus tells the story of two men praying: a Pharisee and a tax collector. Luke introduces the parable as a message to people who trusted in their own righteousness and treated others with contempt. That introduction matters. The problem is self-righteousness joined to contempt. One man’s prayer becomes a comparison: look at what I do, and look at what that other man is. The other asks for mercy. We can hear that story and immediately identify with the humble man. But there is a trap waiting for us. The moment we say, “Thank God I’m better than those judgmental Christians,” we have begun repeating the very pattern Jesus challenged. Even compassion can become a badge of superiority if we use it to look down on someone else. So this message asks something of all of us. Those who place great importance on obedience need to ask whether their obedience is producing patience, mercy, and love. Those who place great importance on empathy need to ask whether their compassion extends to people whose beliefs frustrate them. There is no exemption for the group we happen to favor. Jesus takes sin seriously. He also takes suffering seriously. His encounters with people show us that truth and mercy can meet in the same conversation. We can speak honestly without being cruel. We can hold a conviction without pretending we know everything about another person’s life. We can recognize that an action is harmful and still help the person responsible find a way forward. Think about someone who has stopped attending church. We could begin by deciding that they have become careless about their faith. Or we could ask what happened. Perhaps they are caring for a spouse. Perhaps depression has made getting dressed feel overwhelming. Perhaps someone in that church wounded them, and they have never felt safe enough to explain it. Listening may reveal a need that our first judgment would have concealed. That is where empathy becomes practical. It changes what we do next. We make the call. We bring the meal. We offer the ride. We listen long enough for the difficult part of the story to emerge. And when correction is necessary, we offer it with humility, remembering how often we have needed grace ourselves. Jesus addresses that desire to be seen in another passage, too. In Matthew chapter 6, verses 5 through 8, he says: Matthew 6:5-8 5 “And when you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they [a (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%206%3A5-15&version=NASB#fen-NASB-23288a)]will be seen by people. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. 6 But as for you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. 7 “And when you are praying, do not use thoughtless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. 8 So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. Those words deserve consideration in an age when we can put a prayer before hundreds or thousands of people with the push of a button. Sharing a prayer can bring comfort. It can invite people to support someone who is suffering. It can give words to someone who is struggling to find their own. But Jesus asks us to examine the purpose behind what we do. Are we reaching out to God, or looking for an audience? Are we offering encouragement, or hoping people will admire our faith? We cannot know someone’s motives simply by reading their post. A public prayer is not automatically an act of hypocrisy. Jesus’ warning does, however, give each of us a reason to examine our own motives before we press “publish.” And his words about thoughtless repetition remind us that prayer does not depend on impressive language or length. Our Father knows what we need before we ask. There is something reassuring about that. We do not have to perform for God. We can come to him honestly, even when our words are few and our hearts are tired. In John chapter 13, Jesus tells his disciples that their love for one another will identify them as his followers. That gives us something concrete to consider. Whatever label we put beside our name, what evidence does our life provide? Are people safer telling us the truth about their struggles? Does our presence make it easier for someone to seek help? Have we made room for mercy, or only for people who already meet our expectations? We may never agree on every question of doctrine, worship, or church practice. But we can take responsibility for how we treat the person standing before us. Before we classify them, we can listen. Before we correct them, we can examine our own motives. Before we turn their struggle into a lesson, we can help them carry it. Christian is a name we claim. Love is evidence we offer. Let us pray. God, help us recognize the times when pride disguises itself as faithfulness. Give us courage to live by our convictions, humility to examine them, and compassion for the people we encounter. Teach us to listen before judging and to offer mercy as people who need mercy ourselves. May our words and actions make your love more visible. Amen. The post Christian Is a Name. Love Is the Evidence. (https://ctcministry.org/christian-is-a-name-love-is-the-evidence/) appeared first on C.T.C. Ministry (https://ctcministry.org).

2. 

   6 Sept 2026

   From Religious Colonies to Religious Liberty

   Was America Founded as a Christian Nation? Welcome back. I’m Hank Wilson and this is Living a True Christian Life. Today, I’d like to take a little detour. We’ve spent quite a bit of time recently talking about the early Church, about men and women who lived their faith in a world where Christianity possessed virtually no political power. Peter didn’t have the government behind him. Neither did Polycarp. Neither did Perpetua and Felicity. In fact, sometimes the government was the very thing they needed protection from. And yet Christianity grew. Now I’d like us to jump forward more than a thousand years and cross an ocean. Because by the time Europeans began establishing colonies in North America, Christianity and political power had developed a very different relationship. And that brings us to a question we hear quite often today: Was America founded as a Christian nation? It’s an interesting question. But I’m not sure it’s the best question. Perhaps we should begin somewhere else. What did the people who settled early America actually believe about religion? And what did they mean when they talked about religious freedom? Because, as we’re about to discover, they didn’t all mean the same thing. Massachusetts Let’s begin in Massachusetts. We often hear that the Puritans came to America seeking religious freedom. And they did. But there’s an important qualification. They primarily wanted the freedom to practice their religion and to build a society shaped by their understanding of Christianity. That isn’t quite the same thing as our modern idea of religious liberty. Massachusetts Bay was intended to be a godly community. Church and civil society were closely connected, and religious dissent could carry serious consequences. Roger Williams discovered that. So did Anne Hutchinson. Both challenged aspects of the religious establishment. Both eventually left Massachusetts. The Puritans wanted freedom from religious authorities with whom they disagreed. They were considerably less certain about freedom for people who disagreed with them. That distinction matters. Rhode Island Roger Williams eventually helped establish Rhode Island. And Williams proposed something much more radical. He believed civil government should not control a person’s conscience. Government could regulate behavior necessary for civil society. But faith? That belonged between the individual and God. Interestingly, Williams wasn’t trying to remove Christianity from society. Quite the opposite. He was a deeply religious man. Part of his concern was that when government acquired the power to control religion, it could corrupt the Church just as easily as the Church could influence government. That’s an idea worth remembering. Religious liberty wasn’t necessarily created because people thought religion was unimportant. Sometimes it developed because people believed religion was too important to be controlled by politicians. Maryland Then there was Maryland. Maryland was established under the Calvert family, who were Roman Catholic, at a time when Catholics faced serious restrictions in England. For a period, Maryland became an experiment in religious toleration. The Maryland Toleration Act of 1649 extended protection to Christians who professed belief in Jesus Christ. That was significant for its time. But notice something. It wasn’t modern religious freedom either. The protection had boundaries. And Maryland’s history would later include bitter struggles between Catholics and Protestants. Once again, Americans were learning that religious toleration becomes complicated when political power changes hands. Pennsylvania Then we come to Pennsylvania. William Penn was a Quaker. And Penn’s vision went considerably further. Quakers themselves had suffered persecution in England, and Penn envisioned Pennsylvania as a place where people of different Christian traditions, and eventually people from other religious backgrounds, could live together peacefully. Penn called it a “holy experiment.” And perhaps that’s exactly what it was. Could people who disagreed about religion still share a civil society? Could government maintain order without deciding whose theology was correct? Those were enormous questions. Virginia Virginia gives us still another model. There, the Church of England became the established church. Taxes helped support it. Parishes performed important civil as well as religious functions. Other religious groups sometimes faced restrictions. So by the eighteenth century, the colonies that would eventually become the United States had already experimented with several different relationships between religion and government. Puritan establishment. Anglican establishment. Catholic toleration. Quaker pluralism. Roger Williams’s liberty of conscience. There wasn’t one American model. There were several. And sometimes they collided. Then Came the Revolution By the time of the American Revolution, generations of colonists had lived through these experiments. And the people we call the Founders inherited all of them. Many of those Founders were religious. Most lived in a culture profoundly influenced by Christianity. Biblical language was everywhere. Churches were important community institutions. Christian ideas influenced morality, education, and public life. But that doesn’t mean all of the Founders believed exactly the same thing. They didn’t. Some were traditional Christians. Some held theological ideas that would make many Christians today uncomfortable. Some were influenced by the Enlightenment. And many combined religious belief with Enlightenment ideas about natural rights, reason, and government. Thomas Jefferson wasn’t John Witherspoon. Benjamin Franklin wasn’t Samuel Adams. And George Washington’s religious beliefs have been discussed and debated by historians for generations. Trying to squeeze all of them into one modern religious category doesn’t help us understand them. It simply makes the history smaller. What Did They Build? Perhaps the better question isn’t what every Founder personally believed. Perhaps the better question is: What kind of government did they create? The Constitution contains a remarkable provision. Article VI says that no religious test shall ever be required for federal public office. Think about how unusual that was in a world where governments had spent centuries deciding which religious beliefs qualified someone for public life. Then came the First Amendment. Congress could make no law respecting an establishment of religion. And Congress could not prohibit the free exercise of religion. Those two ideas belong together. Government could not establish the faith. Government could not suppress the faith. Religion was protected partly by limiting government’s authority over it. And perhaps the colonies help us understand why. The people who created the United States didn’t have to imagine what religious establishments looked like. They had lived with them. So Was America Founded as a Christian Nation? We’re back where we started. And my answer is that history gives us something much more interesting than a simple yes or no. America emerged from a culture deeply influenced by Christianity. That should not be erased. Christian beliefs, institutions, language, and moral traditions profoundly shaped colonial America and many of the people involved in the founding. But a society influenced by Christianity is not necessarily the same thing as a government constitutionally established as Christian. The United States did not create a national church. It did not require federal officeholders to profess Christianity. Instead, it gradually developed a system intended to protect religious belief by preventing the federal government from choosing which religious belief would rule. And perhaps that’s where this history becomes important for Christians today. The Christian Question Maybe Christians are asking the wrong question when we ask: “Was America founded as a Christian nation?” Perhaps the more important question is: Does Christianity need the power of government in order to be Christian? We’ve just spent considerable time studying the early Church. Those Christians had almost no political power. They couldn’t pass laws requiring people to behave like Christians. They couldn’t elect Christian emperors. They couldn’t demand that government enforce Christian doctrine. Sometimes they couldn’t even gather safely. And yet… They changed the world. They did it by serving. By teaching. By caring for the poor. By opening their homes. By enduring persecution. By forgiving. By loving their neighbors. And by living lives that made other people wonder what was different about them. Perhaps there’s something there for us. Religious liberty gives Christians an extraordinary gift. We are free to worship. Free to preach. Free to teach. Free to serve. Free to disagree. Free to persuade. Free to live our faith openly. Maybe the question isn’t whether America was founded Christian enough. Maybe the better question for Christians is whether we are living Christian enough with the freedom we’ve been given. Because Christianity has never been strongest when people were forced to believe it. Christianity has always been strongest when people could see Christ reflected in the lives of those who claimed to follow Him. And no government can legislate that. That’s something only we can choose to live. Until next time, may God bless you, keep you, and remind you that religious freedom isn’t merely the freedom to believe. It’s also the freedom to live what we believe. The post From Religious Colonies to Religious Liberty (https://ctcministry.org/from-religious-colonies-to-religious-liberty/) appeared first on C.T.C. Ministry (https://ctcministry.org).

3. 

   31 Jul 2026

   The Women Who Helped Build the Church

   Over the past several weeks, we’ve met many remarkable builders of the early Church. We’ve spent time with encouragers, pastors, teachers, apologists, scholars, and martyrs. Most of them have been men, not because women were absent from the story, but because history and those who tell the history have honestly left them out. Today, I want to pause and remember some of the women whose faith, courage, generosity, and devotion helped build the Church from its very beginning. When we think about the first century, it’s important to remember the world in which these women lived. In both Jewish and Roman society, women often possessed few legal rights and limited opportunities. Their voices were frequently overlooked, and their contributions were not always recorded with the same care as those of men. Yet when we open the pages of the New Testament, we discover something remarkable. Jesus saw them. He taught them. He welcomed them. He valued them. He entrusted them with important responsibilities. That was extraordinary for His time…… The post The Women Who Helped Build the Church (https://ctcministry.org/the-women-who-helped-build-the-church/) appeared first on C.T.C. Ministry (https://ctcministry.org).