Christian Living

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To me, saying that the Bible is "essential" to knowing all things God is an understatement. As far as I can find, the Bible is the only place where we can find out everything we need to know about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and how to live a life pleasing to God, from God's own lips. No book written by man could correctly and clearly impart to us the truthful knowledge that God presents to us in His Word. Since I first read the Bible, going on thirteen years now, I have discovered just how much my God loves me and wants me in His life. It is in the pages of the Bible where I finally found out the truth of my existence, and where I learned that God had something for me to do with that existence. His will became my will for my life – to let others know about the loving grace and loving arms of His Son, Jesus Christ. His will is perfect for me, even though I don't always live up to His potential.

As a Christian, I am expected to live a perfect and holy life, according to God's command. But, having a sinful nature, I don't (or can't due to sin) always live up to that expectation. And even though my sin nature was taken away by Christ's blood, I still sin and do wrong things, sometimes intentionally and without excuse. Still, I attempt to live a life that is pleasing to God, and I show this to others around me by being as loving, friendly, and kind as I can. Sometimes I go the extra mile to help others and to show them Jesus as best I can in my attitude toward them. By respecting and caring for others, I show that Christ is in me, even if those around me don't know it.

Comment: “I have not done the best of communicating this knowledge with others, but I believe we should share his word and his love by our showing our love to others.”

Author Response: Communicating comes with knowledge -- the more you know about something, the better you can communicate it with others. This is where reading extra-biblical books help a great deal, as long as you read those from Christian authors who are teaching the correct Gospel. As always, if the author believes anything contrary to Scripture, then throw that book away. When I was a new believer, I read a book by an author named Peter Gomes (The Good Book) about the Bible. He started off well, and everything he said was not contrary with the bible's teachings. Still, there was something in the way he said certain things made me confused when it came to men's relationships with other men. I couldn't quite put get what he was saying until I got to the middle of the book only to find out that Mr. Gomes was in fact a homosexual man living in that lifestyle. I quickly threw the book away in the trash and was more careful to choose only those books from Christian authors I knew were biblically sound. The more you read, the more you know. Reading enabled me to get God into my heart quicker because I understood Him more through the words I read. The more you let Him into your heart, the better He will enable you to communicate Him to others.

Comment: "You cannot understand these truths unless you study scripture and it is reveled to you."

Author Response: As a new believer in 1999, I once wondered why God stopped sending prophets to the people of Israel, and why Jesus had to go back to Heaven other than to give us the Holy Spirit. It wasn't until I explored this question more in the Bible that I came to realize that, like today, people don't want to listen about what God has for them, even if it is something good. Some people don't want to believe in Jesus simply because He isn't here in the flesh anymore and if they can't see him then how can they believe in Him. That's a lousy excuse isn't it, when God gave us Jesus and His Word in the pages of the Bible. Man has no excuse not to believe with the Bible in existence, and most likely sitting on the bedroom bureau at home gathering dust. If only we could make the Bible as important to them as going to work every morning is. God has done what He can do to get the world's attention by revealing His Word through us. I like to ask myself: How can I do a better job of showing others that the Bible should be their daily lifeline, where the revealed God can change their hearts?

Comment: "When I was growing up, I was always under the impression that God was sitting in Heaven just waiting for us to make a mistake so He could punish us. It took years to learn that I was so wrong. We have a sovereign God who loves us more than we can imagine."

Author Response: “isn’t that the greatest revelation of your life to know that God isn't waiting for you to make a mistake so He can tan your hide? I wish it would not have taken you years to find out, but I am glad that you finally did. Knowing that God is not mad at us is the most liberating, soul-freeing thing to know about His love. Yes, God will punish those who will not accept His Son Jesus, but that doesn't mean that He wants to. Thank God that He is fully love, fully loving, and fully lovely!!!!!

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