Bible Studies

Part Two

In retrospect, I can see the hand of God preparing me for the work that He would have me do, in accordance with both His will, and His timing.

I had the privilege of being raised in a Christian environment. I can’t remember a time when I was not born again, being exposed to, and having a clear understanding of, the unadulterated Gospel Message, as far back as I can remember.

But like most folks, there was much to be learned when it came to discipleship and maintaining a daily, intimate, personal, walk with the Lord. It has been a life-long undertaking.

I had spent 30 years doing my part to protect the natural lives and tangible property of others throughout the course of my law enforcement career. Certainly, what I saw and experienced there, provided me with a view of human nature that would not have been obtained elsewhere.

In my personal life, I experienced some of life’s hardest lessons there is to learn, rather young.

On the positive side, growing up, I was told by several teachers that I had a “way with words,” and that I should “keep on writing,”

In my secular 30-year law-enforcement career, I received several recognitions from governmental and private agencies for the quality of my investigative, report-writing, and documenting abilities.

In the later years of my law enforcement career, I was trained and certified by the FBI as a police instructor, and was assigned the task of writing policies and procedures on a departmental level, and to document the in-service, on-going, training of personnel.

Biblical discipleship, that is the study and the application of the Word of God, has been, and continues to be, a part of my private life for decades. As Solomon found out, there is no end to pursuing knowledge (1), as the more answers one obtains, the more questions there will be to be answered.

This is certainly the case of studying the Word of God, but there is a difference. Instead of it being an exhausting (2) undertaking, it should be one of increasing motivation, being one of the highlights of one’s day. For an advancing disciple, the more Bible Doctrine that he or she learns, the more he or she will want to learn. There will always be more doctrine to learn, and to better apply, while on this side of Heaven.

My Biblical knowledge, my personal trials and tribulations, my “way with words,” and my professional experiences and communication skills would later play a major role in the development of my website presentations to be posted on the website of my Internet ministry, social media, and other websites.

In the mid 1980’s, I participated in a local newspaper’s Opinion Shaper’s program that provided me with the opportunity to publish articles on subjects of my own choosing. My articles were mostly on the religious perspective on contemporary issues. The program ended after a year, but the positive feedback I received encouraged me to continue on, submitting the same types of writings as editorials.

A few years later, the Internet provided me with the opportunity to publish these articles on websites and eventually on websites of my own.

I would have never imagined that the articles I wrote would be read throughout the country (USA) and around the world.

In 1996, I decided to pursue “ecclesiastical endorsement” of the subject matter of the material I was publishing on the Internet. From the outset, I was determined to find a seminary or a Bible-teaching ministry that could back up its teachings with Scriptural chapter and verse.

 In an answer to prayer, I was led to the pulpit of the now late Pastor-teacher Robert McLaughlin.

I studied six days a week via radio broadcasts, cassettes, and in-person attendance for 12 years under the teaching ministry of Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries.

During that same time period, I went through some of the darkest periods in my personal life, including dealing with life-threatening illness. The devil may not have been the cause of this adversity, but certainly was there doing all that he could do, using it to discourage my further progress in the plan that God had in mind for me.

In this I was encouraged to know that nothing frustrates the devil more, than for him to have thrown his best punch, only to see an advancing disciple get back up and continue on in the plan that God has in mind.

Our Eph. 6:12 battle with the forces of evil will not be over until we, as individuals, are called home, unless the Rapture should take place in our personal life span. The more an advancing disciple glorifies God, the more frequent and the more intense the satanic attacks on him or her will be (3).

These attacks can come in the form of adversity (4); in the form of distractions (5); and or in the form of earthly prosperity (6), but all with the satanic objective of impeding our forward progress in the plans of God. These plans are His plan of salvation and His plan for our post salvation spiritual life.

In 2008, I went through the ordination process and was ordained to do the work of a pastor-teacher.

Shortly after being ordained, I was clearly led by God the Holy Spirit to establish my “pulpit” on the already-existing website(s) where I had been publishing my articles all along. My “pulpit” was to be my keyboard, and my “congregation” was (and remains to be) the people who God the Holy Spirit brings to me on the Internet.

I still get some odd looks and “rolling-eye” responses from people who inquire where my church is located after reading or hearing about the articles I compose. But on the Internet is where God has brought me, and how He desires for me to function as a pastor-teacher.

During my secular career, I would like to think that the human good I produced contributed to the protection of the natural lives and tangible property of the ones I served. But the time had come, for my spiritual calling to become the focus of my life, contributing to the salvation and edification of the ones I now serve in the capacity of a pastor-teacher.

Sad to say, but one’s choice of local assembly or means of spiritual edification, is often based on family tradition, socialization, or convenience, rather on where they can receive the information and guidance needed to advance in the post salvation spiritual life.

For an advancing disciple, his or her first and last consideration is the quantity and the quality (accuracy) of the information that comes from the pulpit, and the accompanying rituals and activities, in the case of a traditional local assembly.

Failing to learn what God has in mind, or learning but then not applying what God has in mind, is what opens the door and makes room for human alternatives to takes its place, inevitably reaping the negative consequences.

ANY plans that require doing something that God forbids, or that would require not doing something that God commands, is a recipe for sure shipwreck in the spiritual realm.

The details of what God has in mind for each and every area and stage of our experience here on Earth are documented in the pages of Scripture. By one means or another, God will let them known to anyone who truly wants to learn.

Ignorance of Scripture is a choice that we make.

Refusing to apply the Scripture that we have learned is a choice that we make.

Therefore, we are what we choose to become in the spiritual realm.

The truth is, many of us are not up to the challenge that learning and or applying Scripture will inevitably require of us. It is much easier to just “check in” for an hour or so, once a week, go through the motions, and then “do our own thing” for the remaining 167 hours each week.

Salvation is the result of making a ONE-TIME decision choosing to believe, when presented with the unadulterated Gospel Message, encapsulated in John 3: 16, 18.

If and when that takes place, God (not human clergy) permanently seals (marks for identification/baptizes) the individual as a child of God (7); regenerates what had been his or her dead spirit (8); and bestows upon him or her, His unearned (9), therefore undeserved, irrevocable (10) GIFT of eternal life; settling forever, the matter of his or her salvation (11).

Biblical discipleship, on the other hand, is an o-n-g-o-i-n-g process that is in view for the rest of the (saved) individual’s time, here on Earth.

Unlike our salvation that remains intact, the level of spiritual maturity in which we are experiencing is constantly in a state of either moving up the incline, or slipping backwards, on the road to spiritual maturity.

Spiritual maturity is measured by the AMOUNT of accurate Biblical knowledge that one has received and retained, COUPLED with his or her willingness to consistently apply it to ALL that one thinks, says, and does.

Biblical discipleship calls for the daily intake and application of the Word of God to ALL that one thinks, says, and does, regardless of where he or she is, or what he or she is otherwise doing 24/7.

Discipleship is initially for the spiritual growth of the individual believer, but with the long-term objective of participating in the Great Commission (12).

The devil can do nothing to undo what God did (13) at the moment of salvation, but will do all he can to dissuade a born-again believer from engaging and remaining in Biblical discipleship.

Denying and or distorting the Word of God, as well as distracting the individual soul through earthly prosperity and adversity, plays major roles in the schemes of the devil in the midst of spiritual combat, here in the Church Age.

An advancing disciple does not need to keep up with all the details of the never-ending developments of different religions outside of the Christian Community. An advancing disciple does not need to keep up with all of the different positions that different denominations WITHIN the Christian Community take and promote.

What an advancing disciple needs to do is to develop and to apply an edified soul structure (14) anchored on an accurate interpretation and application of the Word of God.

By learning what the actual truth is, it becomes easier to recognize ALL the alternatives that this world has to offer that has the endorsement of human reasoning and the devil himself.

(1) Eccl. 1: 13 (2) Eccl. 1: 13 (3) 2Tim. 3: 12 (4) Book of Job (5) Mark 4: 19 (6) Luke 4: 6 (7) Eph. 4: 30 (8) Titus 3: 5 (9) Eph. 2: 8-9 (10) Rom. 11: 29 (11) Rom. 8: 1 (12) Matt. 28: 19-20 (13) Eph. 4: 30/Titus 3: 5 (14) Matt. 7: 24-27