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Christianity Explained Information Find Christian Unity in Biblical Explanations of the Doctrines That Count! |
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You
have a choice to make: You can either believe the opinions of
theologians, atheists, or agnostics, or you can determine for yourself
what the Bible says by studying it. |
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What Is Religion and Where Did It Originate? What Is the Bible, and How Relative Is It to My Life? What Are Messianic Prophecies? Who Was Jesus of Nazareth, Really? Why Are There So Many World Religions? Why Are There So Many Christian Denominations? What Is the Law and How Does It Apply to Me? What's All This About the End of the World and End-time Prophecies? Isn't the Book of Daniel a Closed Book? Revelation: How can anyone understand all that symbolism? Who or What Was Jesus' Mother, Mary? Didn't Darwin Disprove Creation? What's the Truth About Faith and Works? Christian E-mails: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Complete Directory of Articles/Studies
Title Abbreviations for Books of the Bible Genesis - Ge |
Christian: are you growing in Christ, and
does it matter? As in life humans pass from infancy into adulthood, through various phases of childhood and maturity, so Christians start out as babes and mature in their understanding. None of God's living creatures stays a baby. They all grow up, and he expects us to grow up spiritually as well as physically. But spiritual growth, as well as natural growth, doesn't happen automatically. We need the proper environment and nurturing to grow as God intended. Just as sun and water and healthy foods help us grow physically, becoming familiar with Christ will help us grow spiritually.
Yet, as babies cannot eat a steak, so some humans as babes in Christ cannot accept certain advanced doctrines, or at least that's what scripture says.
As babes, new Christians need to hear
things that are uplifting and not too depressing. Therefore, they
are easily led by Christian leaders who think they know all the answers
but don't or so-called Christian leaders who are just in it for the
tax-exempt status and income that can be generated using the right
tactics. The Bible contains many warnings not
to be deceived, but how does an infant Christian know the truth from
falsehoods? Through
Bible Study and Prayer.
Learning the truth is a journey
wherein one builds on the basics so that you can understand the more
frightening or confusing concepts. Jesus didn't just lay out all truth to
his disciples or the general public and expect them to accept it.
He taught them in parables as they were able to understand them.
Whenever he tried to teach his
disciples what was going to happen, they had trouble believing him, as
in his revelation that one of them would betray him. So when he
told them that he had to go away, he didn't tell them exactly how or
why he was "going away". He just told them that, though they had been
with him 3 years or more, there was much they had yet to learn, but
they were so immature in their understanding that he could not teach it
to them before his departure. They would have to learn it from
the Holy Spirit.
There are supposedly Christian
teachers out there who use that text to say that their teachings, which
often diverge from Scripture, are "new teachings from the Holy Spirit";
however, we can know the truth of that by how closely new teachings
agree with what has been taught by Christ before. After all, the
teachings of the Spirit will not be his own, but Christ's. Since
Christ and the Father are one, their teachings will agree, and since
the Holy Spirit will take what is Christ's and teach it to us, then
those teachings must also agree. Understanding this is the beginning of
maturity for Christians. I say beginning because in order to be
mature, one must know Scripture. In order to know whether a
teaching agrees or not, one must know what it should agree with! There are a few basics that are easy
to assimilate. For instance the above scriptures stating that God
is love. They are unequivocal. The only thing confusing about
them is that God allows bad things to happen to people, so how can he
be love? This is a human question. Our tiny human minds
find it hard to understand that humans learn a lot from teachings, but
they often need to learn by doing. There are things the human mind
won't accept until it experiences the reality. Sin is bad. On some level, we all
understand that, but on other levels, we need to experience "bad" in
order to REALLY understand what's so bad about sin. Love allows the lesson, however
painful, to be learned so that it won't be forgotten in the future. Productivity is necessary for true happiness. This is a lesson that lazy humanity would just as soon not learn, but it is true. Those who are productive make life better not only for themselves but for others. They gain self-respect that offsets Satan's accusations about their faults. They share in the happiness they bring to others. The studies in this site lead to
Christian maturity. Christians
will mature at different rates. I've been a long time in the process, but I haven't achieved it. In Matthew 19:16-22, the story is told
of the rich young ruler who couldn't bring himself to the state
of maturity required by Jesus:
The trick is to understand that,
insofar as we are living the truth we have learned, we are perfect in
God's eyes, just as a plant, whether in the seed, the sprout, or full
bloom is perfect. It is when we are not living the truth we learn
that we are not perfect. In the case of the young man in
Matthew 19, he lived up to the law, but he was unwilling to go the
final mile and become a worker for the Lord. He had the means to
support the minstry of Christ, but wanted the "things" for himself
instead. When confronted by this truth, the young man became
aware that he was not as perfect as he thought himself to be. He
suffered from greed. Every one of us has a stumbling block, an area of our lives that we refuse to relinquish to Christ or that we take back from him . . . a cherished sin. The cure for our sin is understanding what God has done for us and loving him in return. By communicating with him in prayer, we learn to listen to the word of God and persist in seeking Him. We learn the secrets he has provided for our growth, such as "Resist the devil and he will flee from you." Then he can free us of our blind spots and give us the strength to resist our temptations one by one. As we, out of gratitude for the love God has shown us, accept and begin to live by what the Bible has to teach us, we are perfect in his eyes. Abraham and David were special in God's eyes, not because they were perfect, but because they considered God the ruler of their lives and sought his forgiveness and fellowship and followed his leading, however unevenly. As toddlers get up and try again when they fall, we need to persist in seeking the friendship and kingship of God in our lives. As we daily, and sometimes hourly, ask him to lead us and provide what we need, we will find ourselves growing in Christianity in ways we never dreamed possible.
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Related Links Written in the HeartThe Truth About Mary Magdalene More Valuable Links from ProphecyWatch.biz
Scriptures: Within Text: 1 Corinthians 3:1-3 More Study: 2 Peter 3:18
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2005 Lynda Karr
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