Category: Christian Beliefs

So I got an email today from a 9 year old girl named Ayu who has come up with a clever little method to learn Bible verses that she wants to share with Christian schools all over the world.

Now before you start thinking that you have the worst memory ever and this would never work for you, you might be interested to know that Ayu was given a 5% chance of survival at birth and was expected to have mental problems. So stop the excuse making right now!

Her method is simply brilliant and I wanted to share her sample video below.

Enjoy.

There are many good, kind hearted, generous people in the world who simply have a hard time believing that Jesus is God and that the only way to get into Heaven is to put your faith in Him so that you can be presented blameless before the Father.

If you’re in this boat, or any variation of it, rest assured that you’re not alone. It’s actually a good thing to seek clarity here because the lower your level of understanding the deeper your faith would need to be.

This is especially true for atheists who simply must have an enormous amount of faith in order to believe that there is design without a designer, moral law without a moral law giver and creation without a creator.

Some of the most well renowned Christians either started out in other religions or even in total unbelief.

C.S. Lewis, famed author of the Narnia books started out as an atheist and then ended up becoming one of the most widely read Christian authors of all time. Ravi Zacharias, Christian apologist who has fearlessly debated some of the most devout non-Christians around the world are just a couple of names you may have already heard of.

So what made them change their mind?

Many Christians make the mistake of thinking that THEY convert people to our faith. Not so. It’s the Holy Spirit that does that. We merely attempt to lead you to Him. So don’t see these blog posts as an attempt by yet another Christian to convince you to follow Christ. I just want to make sure you have all the info before you choose your path.

To be perfectly honest I’m actually very hopeful and excited for you right now because if you’ve read this far into the article then it’s possible that the conversation has started in your head. That’s a good thing 🙂

Christian faith is actually quite a logical proposition and if the Holy Spirit is speaking to you right now but things don’t seem to be quite fitting together for you, the divide between belief and unbelief can often be bridged by knowledge. There are a few things you need to do:

• Figure out what you DO believe right now. You’ll be amazed how revealing this little exercise can be. Then simply ask yourself why you believe these things?
• Figure out what you DON’T believe. Why don’t you believe these things?
• Start doing some research. Do a search for Ravi Zacharias either on his website or on YouTube. He’s is excellent at answering some of the toughest questions on the subject of Christianity. Also check out Revive Our Hearts by Nancy Leigh DeMoss. An excellent study of God’s Word.

The subject line starts with a simple, one sentence question that could easily take a lifetime to answer.

Now don’t panic, I’m not going to write the longest article ever written. Instead I’m going to share 2 shortcuts that will answer this question beautifully for you and hopefully help you muster up the courage to actually read the entire Bible someday.

Before I dive into the shortcuts let me just throw out there that the entire Bible is really about one thing:

God’s unfailing love for us. Demonstrated by sending His Son Jesus to take on the sins of all humanity thereby purchasing a way for all believers to avoid facing God’s wrath and have eternal life instead.

The Old Testament is the part of the story leading up to the greatest sacrifice ever and the New Testament is the story afterwards.

This is of course a very simplified description and there is plenty more to learn. The problem of course is that since the Bible is such a long book many (if not most) never end up reading it in it’s entirety and, as such, never really fully understand what it’s about.

The truly sad thing is that, as a result, most people end up making incorrect assumptions like:

• “The Bible isn’t relevant today”
• “It’s just a book of old stories”
• “It’s just a book of rules”
• … and so on

… even although they haven’t actually read it. So let’s solve this one shall we?

A great way to start your journey to understanding the Bible (and by extension God’s plan for your life) is to read books written by trustworthy authors who have actually read and studied it. Here are my two recommendations:

God’s Big Picture by Vaughn Roberts

I was introduced to this book by my pastor in a small group that he hosted and I was so grateful.

It beautifully summarised the main concepts in the Bible in a concise, unbiased and complete way. This made otherwise disjointed ideas (at least in my mind) finally come together into one cohesive narrative.

An excellent example was the significance of the temple being destroyed and the curtain being torn when Jesus died on the cross. I had no idea what that meant until I read this book, and it turns out that it was great news. If you don’t already understand this concept I won’t ruin the surprise. Trust me on this when I say it’s well worth understanding.

I can’t recommend this short read highly enough.

 

66 Books One Story

So this book solves 2 big problems:

1. If you’ve been looking for a simple way to share the Bible with your children and teach them the stories in a way that doesn’t make it seem too complex for them to comprehend then this is the book you’ve been looking for.

2. If you’re an adult who either wants to finally understand the Bible without having to spend the next 3 months reading it OR if you want an easy way to get a quick overview of particular books of the Bible without having to read the whole thing from the source then you’ll also appreciate the amount of work Paul put into compiling this book.

Ok, now that I think about it, there is a third reason to get this book and it’s essentially as a gift to someone who may be interested in reading the Bible but they’re just completely overwhelmed by the very thought of just opening up Genesis 1 and seeing how far they can get (a highly recommended exercise by the way).

Now please keep in mind that as great as these books are, they shouldn’t be considered replacements for the Bible. Who could possibly compete with a book authored by the Creator of all things?! But they are definitely books you should have on your bookshelf (physical or digital).

So please consider these books as a way to transition yourself into reading God’s Word and who knows? Maybe one day someone will write a blog post about the great book you just wrote on sharing the good news of the Gospel 🙂

Enjoy.

If you’re not careful to verify what you hear and read from less than scrupulous televangelists, you may be prone to fall into the trap of believing that your commitment to follow Jesus will now mean that life is gonna be smooth sailing from here on out… not so my friend.

In fact it’s more likely that once you make that commitment to follow Christ, this is where the trouble will begin.

Friends may turn away from you because you’ve now become “that annoying Christian”, job opportunities may elude you because you “lack focus” and so on.

What you need to understand is that a Christian, by their very definition, is a new creature.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV)

You won’t sound the same, you may not want the same things and you may even start to look different. This can be disconcerting to friends, family and colleagues so expect at least a little resistance.

And this doesn’t even take into account the frustration the serpent must feel now that you’ve declared your freedom from his grip. He’s bound to pull out all the stops to make your transformation as difficult as he possibly can.

In a Bible study I attended one evening a fellow believer commented that her desires had now changed. The thing is though, this transformation is not likely to be something that occurs overnight. You need to be patient with yourself and expect the new you to literally take your entire life to emerge.

This is why it’s so important that Christians, both new and old, surround themselves with like minded souls so there is a level of accountability as you tread this fallen world with new eyes. This is not a journey you want to take on your own as there will be challenges at every turn.

Becoming a Christian doesn’t end with a baptism. That’s where it begins. Christ does the work of saving you and He will do the work of continually sanctifying you as you live out your life. Just like in the song “one day at a time sweet Jesus”.

The late David Wilkerson adds an interesting perspective in an article I found where he sheds some light on the significance of Jesus washing the feet of the disciples at the Last Supper.

Jesus demonstrated our need at the Last Supper when He took a towel and basin and began washing His disciples’ feet. Peter puzzled over this symbolic act, saying, “Lord, if You’re going to wash my feet, why not clean my head too?” (see John 13:9). Jesus answered, in essence, “Peter, you’re going to be saved by My blood. But you still live in a dirty world, and as you walk through it you’ll get dust on your feet. You’re going to need Me to wash your feet just as much as your heart.”

You can read the full article here.

So getting back to the original question posed “I’m a Christian. Now what?” it turns out the answer isn’t particularly complicated after all.

Expect troubles and take them to the Lord in prayer and trust His answer (whether you like it or not) and one day He will personally greet you with a smile and say…

“Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

The term “Christianity” gets thrown around quite a bit and it’s easy to assume that everyone understands what it means but this is actually not the case in more times that most people would assume.

Here’s a nice short video that does an excellent job of breaking it down to it’s core principles.

 

If you’ve ever had a hard time understanding or even explaining what Christianity is, this is a great tool to use so please feel free to share it using one of the share button below.

Of course you can go a lot deeper into this subject and if this you’d like to know more about Christianity and what it means to be a Christian there’s no better way than regularly attending a Bible teaching church so…

Consider this a personal invitation to attend one of our regular worship services (address below) this and every Sunday starting at 10:30am. It would be our absolute pleasure to answer any questions you may have and help you understand the God of all creation just a little more.

See you Sunday!