Know His Kingdom
When you accept Christ as your Lord (Master) and Savior (ticket to Heaven), you become a subject in His Kingdom. And as a subject, you should know the basic blessings, parameters and rules of the Kingdom. It's a pretty awesome realm, so go explore it!
Who's Who in the Kingdom
The first thing we need to do is recognize who the players are in the world, of which there are five categories. There is the Royal Family (God the Trinity). There are the special messengers and servants of the Royal Family (the angels). There are the citizens of the Kingdom (anyone who acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, whose death paid for ours sins and whose resurrection paved the path to Eternal Life; collectively called the Church). There are the Lost (everyone who has not come to that acknowledgement yet). And there is the Enemy (Satan and his fallen angels).
Interacting with the Lost
One of the biggest mistakes we the Church make today is considering the Lost as part of the Enemy. The two are separate. Satan and his fallen angels have already made their choice. But humans have until the end to make theirs. So Muslims, pagans, atheists, etc. are NOT our enemy. They are lost and they need to be invited into the Kingdom. Also, the Lost cannot be held accountable to the rules of the Kingdom until they are citizens of the Kingdom. So instead of trying to correct our unbelieving friends and forcing them to obey the Bible, we should be sharing the awesome news of Jesus and all the incredible reasons they should join His Kingdom.
Interacting with the Found
One of the other big mistakes we the Church make today is rebuking our fellow believers without agape love. We love to obey the verses that say we are to correct our brothers in sin, but we choose to ignore the part about doing so only after we've cleared out the plank in our own eye and are able to approach the situation completely soaked in agape love. Also, we should be spending the majority of our time encouraging and working with one another, so that the need for correction becomes less and less frequent.
Basic Elements of Christianity
Over the years, as we have studied the Scriptures, there have been several key truths that popped up again and again. Knowing and living these truths will have a profound impact on your attitude, behavior and circumstances.
Perfection = Completeness
Both in the Hebrew and the Greek, the word we translate as "perfect" can mean "complete, whole" rather than "without error". We Christians tend to think the end goal is never sinning. That is not what the Bible teaches. The Scriptures explain again and again that the end goal is to hang out with God and have a complete and full relationship with Him. By doing so, we will happen to sin less, but that is a side benefit, not the main point. God desires camaraderie before obedience. Don't think that you have to reduce your sinning so that you can approach God. It is approaching God that will reduce your sinning. So hang out with Him today!
Obedience vs. Results
Once we understand that camaraderie with God comes before obedience to Him, we can then also recognize that it is our obedience that God is watching, not the results. The parable of the talents teach us that the 5-talent servant got the exact same reward as the 10-talent servant. So our rewards in Heaven are not based on the quantity that we achieve for Him; they are based on our the exactness of our obedience. The guy who serves and reflects Christ in his job as a janitor will get the same reward as Billy Graham, because both of them obeyed God and did exactly what He told them to do. So don't compare your contributions to the Kingdom with others around you. Instead, simply ask yourself what God is commanding you to do, and go do it. No more, no less.
Flight, Fight or Persevere?
Nature teaches us that when we are in a tough spot, we have to options: fight or flight. The Bible teaches us we have three: flight, fight or persevere. While aggressive people like the fight option and passive people like the flight option, the Bible teaches us that the persevere option is the default answer from God. We should assume that we are to persevere through (accept) the bad happening to us, unless God specifically tells us otherwise. And know that He will give us the strength to persevere. Also, if fight or flight is God's Answer, don't assume the details of how are up to you. God told Joshua to fight, but then He explained exactly how (and it wasn't traditional). So if God tells you to fight or flee, let Him also give you the details of how He wants it done.
Living above our circumstances
Thinking Eternally-Internally-Externally will radically transform your attitude and perspective. Your emotions and thoughts will be anchored on God-things rather than earth-things. Life will still go wrong. Decisions will still be messy. But you won't be bothered anymore by it. You will have Biblical joy and peace. Led by the Spirit (see Galatians 5), you will live above your circumstances. You will be untouchable. This is a very real option that is available to us. The 'catch' is we must let the Holy Spirit take control and lead us. It's worth it though. Letting the Spirit take control and lead us is hard to do initially. But through relaxing, perceiving, feeling and practicing, it is possible. The more control we give to God (in very real ways), the more freedom and joy we will experience.
Agape Love
This is, bottom-line, the most important aspect of Christianity. We need to let God shower His Love on us. And then we can pass it on to others. 1 Corinthians 13 breaks down in detail what this agape love looks like. If we are soaked in it, we will refrain from enforcing what is due us. We will look for ways to be useful to those who wrong us. We will not remember past wrongs against us. We will focus on hope and positive possibilities rather than negative assumptions. We will seek to touch the needs of others before we touch on our own. It is the most powerful force in the universe. And we simply need to tap into more. We cannot keep giving lip service to it. We must take action in showering it on others, especially on those who've wronged us.