I may be wrong, but...

Is Christ portrayed in the lives of His followers?  From my perspective, the world would answer, "No."  As an addict, I am far from perfect.  I fail in my efforts to live for Christ.  The main reason being the use of the personal pronouns "I" and "my" in that statement.  Galatians 2:20 clearly states I no longer live, but it is Christ who lives in me.  If this is true, then how can I do anything?  I cannot.  It is Jesus' Holy Spirit who labors for the Father's glory through me.  But, the "me in me" still wishes to control things.  I wish to do this and I wish to do that.  In this thinking, I apparently try to serve two masters.  This is impossible.  I either serve one or the other (Matthew 5:24).  Even though I think my motives are pure, because I seek to please God, I live in error.  By ignoring God's way in favor of my own, my motives are driven by self ambition.  What else could it be?  In turn, doing the right thing for the wrong reason is sin.   The end result will always be failure.  More harm will arise than good, because as Jesus states in John 15:5, "...apart from me you can do nothing."

And this is what the world views--a bunch of Christians serving self, rather than God being allowed to work through His children.  Consequently, the church, as a whole, has become weakened and her light has been diminished (Matthew 5:14-16).  Once we were atop a hill, shining brightly as a beacon, as a representation of Christ.  But, in modern times, we have covered that light with self-centeredness and self-righteousness.  The Holy Spirit is ignored in favor of personal pronouns--"me, myself, and I."

Somehow, these worldly views have seeped into the church.  Christ Jesus was, and is, about self-sacrifice.  I mean, that's pretty obvious--He sacrificed Himself for humanity's salvation.  Yet, large numbers of Christians, His proclaimed followers, expect to serve without sacrifice.  I'm as guilty of this as anyone.  Selfishness, greed, arrogance, self-ambition run rampant throughout many, individual bodies of believers.  Now, this is not this case as a whole, but one bad apple ruins the entire bunch.  A little yeast works itself throughout the entire batch of dough (1 Corinthians 5:6).  If genuine, well-meaning Christians stand idly by without speaking when prompted by the Holy Spirit, then our light will continue to weaken.  Knowing this to be true--how can we allow falsehood, false faith, selfishness, deceptive motives, and the like dominate what the world views of God's children?  Why are we too afraid to stand for Jesus when we have the Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of Strength, the Spirit of Power, the very Spirit of God as our Guide, as our Counselor, as our Friend who has our back?