"Understanding the Christian Journey"
BY REV. AARON L. BLACHE

Getting started on the journey…

The Christian journey begins of necessity, with the new birth. Jesus said in John 3:3 "Except a m an be born again he cannot see the kingdom of heaven." That means two things.

Firstly, that a person has to be born again in order to enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ and experience his salvation. Secondly, that a person has to walk in this relationship in order to go to heaven when he or she dies.

But what does it mean to be “Born again"? It means to acknowledge that Jesus Christ died on the Cross for your sins and that only his death and resurrection is able to save you from your sins. It means, that you must acknowledge that you are a sinner and you need God's forgiveness and cleansing. It means that you must repent of your sins and invite Jesus into you life as your savior. I invite you right now to open up your heart and receive him into your life. In Revelation 3:20, Jesus said "Behold I stand at the door and knock. If any man hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in.” I am sure you can hear him knocking. Please open the door now and let him in. Pray this prayer; "Dear Lord, have mercy upon me a sinner. I repent of all my sins and ask you to forgive me and cleanse me. I invite you to come into my life right now. By faith, I receive you as my savior and Lord. I thank you for making me your child". Amen.

At this, point you have started the Christian journey.

Now that you have accepted Christ as your Savior, three things have happened to you.

(1) Your sins are forgiven, cleansed and buried in the sea of forgetfulness.

That means Jesus has wiped them out of His memory and sees you as if you had never sinned. That is called justification.

(2) You are Born-again.

You see, everyone is born in sin and so he is spiritually dead. Jesus has just brought your spirit back to life so that you can now have sweet fellowship with Him.

(3) You are adopted into the family of God.

As offensive as it may sound, before you accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior, the Bible said in St. John 8:44, you were a child of the devil. Now you are a child of God and entitled to all the privileges of God's people. Now you are blessed. Praise his name. Now you need to be baptized in water. Acts 2: 38 says "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ.”

Continuing the journey...

What are some important things you must begin doing right away?

You must learn to talk to God in prayer…

Put aside for a while those prayers you have learned and try talking to God as if He were your friend. Jesus said that his disciples were His friends. Now that you are a Born-again Christian, you are also a disciple and His friend. But you ask, "How should I pray?"

First, you must thank God for saving you from your sins and from the road that leads to hell. Then thank Him for all the other blessings you can think about. You must remember that all your blessings come from the Lord Jesus Christ. Even your salary for which you have worked so hard. He is the one who gave you the health and strength to go to school or work every day.

Secondly, self-examination and confession. If at any time you do anything you know you should not do, or think thoughts you should not think, or say things you should not say, you need to ask God to forgive you and help you not to continue in that way. Remember II Corinthians 5:17 says "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; Behold all things are become new." That does not mean that because you make mistakes you are no longer a 'Born-again Christian", or that God is angry with you. It means that God wants to help you to turn away from all the habits and behavior that displeases Him, and will always be there to help you on the way. You are a "Babe in Christ" and just as babes stumble when they are first trying to walk, you may stumble or even fall sometimes. But there must come a time soon when that babe does not stumble anymore and can walk and run and jump. In the same way, God expects you to grow up spiritually.

Thirdly, you should pray to God for others. That is called intercessory prayer. When you pray for others, God will be more eager to answer your prayer when you pray for your own needs and problems. This is a very important principle you need to learn, even though it may seem odd.

Fourthly, we should pray for our own needs in faith. Jesus has promised us that whatsoever we desire, if we ask him in faith and he decides that it is something good for us, he will give it to us. In the same way that you will not give something to someone that will cause them harm or is likely to hurt someone else, God will not give you anything that will in the long run cause you harm. Praying in the will of God means that you discuss a need with God and if His Spirit impresses upon your spirit that it is the will of God, then be certain that you will have it. But you need to be patient, because hot soup can burn a youngster’s mouth. That is why loving parents, will make the child wait until the soup cools. God sometimes asks us to wait until the timing is right before He answers our prayer. So don't get discouraged and give up because God did not jump at your bidding. That is the old way of thinking.

Next...

You must read your bible regularly.

There are four reasons for this:

Firstly, it will enable you to know God's will better. It will also teach you how you can do his will. The Bible is a guidebook to life in the same way an appliance manual is a guidebook to operating your TV or VCR. If you don't read the manual you will not be able to use all the functions the appliance is capable of doing. But even worse, you can cause serious damage to the appliance and shorten its life. Simply put, the Bible teaches us how to live and explains to us how we can get God's help to do the things we should do, avoid the things we should not do and overcome temptations. But it goes beyond that. It teaches us how to deal with every situation we will ever face in our lives.

Secondly, the bible tell us of all the blessings that God has planned for his children, and what we have to do to experience these blessings. This is very important. I saw on TV recently that there are millions of dollars sitting in the U.S. treasury that belong to ordinary people, left for them by their parents or uncles or grandparents when they died. But these people do not know the money is there for them, so they go on living, sometimes being poor, and in need. So it is that Jesus has left a vast inheritance for every Christian when he died. The only way for us to know what they are and how to get them is to enthusiastically and consistently explore the Bible on a daily basis. Fall in love with your Bible. Make it your favorite book. It will prove to be your most valuable item for living.

Thirdly, the Bible teaches us how to live peacefully with other human beings. That is called inter-personal relationships. It begins with learning to get along with the people in our own homes, our spouses, children, parents, brothers, sisters, and other family members. No one can be truly happy if he or she makes other members of the family unhappy by bad attitudes, crabby dispositions, selfish behavior, unreasonable demands and unwillingness to bear ones share of responsibilities in the home. Sometimes just laziness can cause dysfunction in a family. Also, being judgmental, unfair, loud and rude and so on. The Bible teaches us how to overcome all of these negative attitudes. After we have mastered living in harmony with our family, God helps us through His Word, to deal with the world at large, and not be unduly stressed by the hostility, anger and hatred that we encounter daily. It even teaches us how to make peace when others are bent on fostering strife. But good interpersonal skills also give us greater self-esteem because we are more comfortable dealing with every personality type.

Fourthly, the Bible teaches us how to develop an intimate relationship with God and grow spiritually. This is called "spiritual formation". Remember, God made us to love Him and serve Him. Jesus, responding to a lawyer’s question "Which is the greatest commandment?" replied, “Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart." Basically, that is what Christianity is all about. But in order to move up to that next level, we have to be filled with the Holy Spirit or be entirely Sanctified. Matthew 3:11-12 explains this need in a very simple way. John the Baptist said, "I indeed baptize you with water into repentance, but hec that cometh after me ... shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Whose fan is in hiis hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor … “

            You know the difference between a shower and a purge. Forgiveness and cleansing from your sins committed is like the shower, and sanctification or the baptism with the Holy Spirit is like the purge. You see, we were born with the Adamic nature, which caused us to commit sins. So after we are forgiven and cleansed from our sins, God has to get rid of the Adamic nature or as we call it "original sin". That is what the baptism with the Holy Spirit does. Romans 6:6 puts it a different way "… our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.”  Now with the Adamic nature out of our way, we are free to love God and serve him and obey him and live in holiness, pleasing to Him. That does not mean that we will not make mistakes after we are filled with the Holy Spirit. We are still human! What it does mean is that the pull towards sin has been removed, and the pull towards God and holiness has taken its place, and now we are able to live holy lives, pleasing to God. That battle between our desires and our wills no longer rages within us. We are no longer in bondage to our passions.

Next...

You need to attend church regularly.

The Bible tells us in Ephesians 4:11-13 that God gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers as gifts to the church.

Their roles are as follows:

(a)      The perfecting of the saints

(b)      Preparing Christians for the work of the ministry

(c)      Edifying the body of Christ

(d)      Bringing the congregation into the unity of the faith

(e)      Imparting to God's people the knowledge of the Son of God

(f)        Making the saints mature.

This is why church attendance is so important? But you may ask; what church should 1 attend? Well that's up to you, but let me venture to give you some advice. Visit the churches in your neighborhood if you do not already have a church home, and get the following answers. Does the pastor or leaders believe the literal teaching of the Bible as God's inspired Word and the only authoritative word from God? Does the church believe in God the Father Son and Holy Spirit? Does the church believe that we are saved by grace alone through faith? Does the church believe that man is born in sin and the only means of salvation is through repentance and faith in the atonement of Christ? Does the church believe that all who live Godly in Christ will go to be with Him in his kingdom for all eternity? Does the church believe that all who live sinful lives will go to a devil's hell and spend eternity there if they die in their sins? Does the church believe that the grace of God is powerful enough to enable a Christian to live a Holy life before God?

If they can answer all these questions, "yes", then you are in a safe church home. So unless you are bed-ridden, you need to go to church regularly and pay your Tithes, (one tenth of your income), and support the pastor and church leaders and members with your prayers and encouragement. There is no such thing as an independent Christian. Christianity is a community institution. Every Christian must be part of a body. Have you ever seen a toe or right foot walking down the road? Similarly, no Christian can walk alone or grow in his or her relationship with God without being a part of a local congregation. Jesus told his disciples to participate in the communion feast in remembrance of his death. This is a very important ritual, which should be done with a group of Christians, who love God and one another. But you should never partake of the communion feast with sin in your life. Remember I John 1:9 ensures us “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us… ”

You need to become a witness for Christ.

Remember that we are saved by grace through faith, and nothing else: No amount of good works will get us into the kingdom of heaven. However, the principle of redemption is that God uses people (not angels) to share the gospel with other people so that they too might be saved. No one is exempt from this great commission. Whether you are seven years old or 70 it does not matter. Whether you are educated or not, it does not matter. God expects you to function in your own unique way, for the growth of his kingdom. We all have our own gifts and talents and if we are willing to submit them freely for God's use, He will CREATE OPPORTUNITIES for us to share Christ with others. It may begin by simply promising to pray for someone who has had a bad day or who is not feeling well, and telling them how Christ helped you when you had a bad day. It might be "shedding a tear" with someone who has just lost a loved one and re-assuring them that God will see them through the ordeal. That is sharing your faith. But as you get into the habit of doing simple things like these, the Holy Spirit will give you boldness to ask a person if he or she knows the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. Then, if they are responsive explain to them the steps explained to you at the beginnings of this booklet.

That's how it works! I pass it on to you, because someone passed it on to me. Now it's your turn to pass it on. Don't be the one to break the chain. Someone is waiting on you. Don't fail them!

The journey will continue...

Earlier in our discussion, I mentioned the term "Spiritual Formation". What is this? Spiritual formation is that process by which we progressively experience the enabling grace of God, after we are born-again, through a relationship of trust, obedience, and intimate fellowship with God. It is growing in grace daily, weekly, monthly yearly, and being able to look back and see how we have progressed on our spiritual journey over any given period of time. Spiritual formation requires a deep hunger for more and more of God in your daily life. It requires discipline, obedience, and an attitude that I. will not accept spiritual failure as a norm. It is a stubborn determination to get up when you fall and again press on to “the goal". It is a yearning to move up to the next level spiritually - to the victory zone where Satan and his host no longer have us in bondage. It’s a wonderful place to be. Won't you join me, and many others all over the world who are enjoying the Christian journey (that leads to Heaven) every single day?

May the Lord bless you and keep you!