How to be a Christian: A Beginners Guide

By Mark Barnes

Many Christian books simplify complex biblical doctrines, but not many show you how to apply Christian principles to everyday living. This book simplifies Christianity and shows you how to put Christianity into daily practice. For example, what are the basic and important Christian principles you need to focus on? How do you get close to God? How do you pray to God? What should you pray about? How do you read the Bible effectively? Why is there suffering in this world? Do Christians sin? How do you keep ahead of the Devil's schemes? Why did God create us? What is the evidence for the existence of God? This book answers all these questions and provides practical examples from the author's Christian life and from his career as a police officer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mark Barnes
• Release date: Jun 23, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310879357

Mark Barnes

I am a semi-retired 34 year veteran of the Tasmania and Queensland Police. I was born in 1960. I became a Christian as a teenager but soon drifted away. But God used the pressures of life to bring me back to worship of Christ in a big way at age 47. Therefore, I understand what it takes to be a devoted, progressive Christian, as compared to being 'half-a-Christian' that I was as a teenager. And that was the motivation behind my first book: How to be a Christian: A Beginner's Guide. The book is designed to assist Christians to higher levels of devotion to Christ, and the wonderful blessings that go with that. I hope you enjoy the conversational style of writing in my book. Please check out my second book titled Let's Resurrect the Church which I published in Jan 2017. In this book I take off the gloves and 'spiritually' smash the modern church structures. But, I don't stop there. I provide instructions on how to start your own individual church so that you can focus on preaching Christ without getting distracted by constant in-fighting.

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How To Be a Christian: A Beginners Guide

By Mark Barnes

Copyright 2015 Mark Barnes

Smashwords Edition

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version, copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by Permission of Zondervan Publishing House.

Scripture quotations marked (AMP) are from The Amplified Bible copyright 1965, 1987 by Zondervan Corporation.

Scripture quotations marked (WEB) are from The World English Bible WEB copyright 2012, by Edimedia di Fabio Filippi e C. Sas via Orcagna 66, 50121 Firenze.

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite eBook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank for respecting the hard work of this author.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction: Why write a book about how to be a Christian?

Chapter One: Drifting away from God

Chapter Two: Righteousness, Peace & Joy

Chapter Three: A Christian’s main aim is to love and please God

Chapter Four: You Must Read the Bible and Study It

Chapter Five: Prayer

Chapter Six: Disciple of Increase

Chapter Seven: How Long Does it Take to Become a Mature Christian?

Chapter Eight: Love and Forgiveness

Chapter Nine: The Devil, Hell, and Negativity versus God’s Beautiful Promises

Chapter Ten: Prosperity, fasting, and Communion

Chapter Eleven: Choosing a church

Chapter Twelve: Communication

Chapter Thirteen: Why do I believe there is a God?

Chapter Fourteen: Homosexuality, Abortion, Drugs and Alcohol

Chapter Fifteen: Repentance and Prayer for New Christians

Chapter Sixteen: Everyday Quick Guide

CONCLUSION

INTRODUCTION

WHY WRITE A BOOK ON HOW TO BE A CHRISTIAN?

There are many Christian books and churches out there, but I haven’t found one that shows you how to walk the Christian walk.¹ Not even the dozens of books and hundreds of articles in my bibliography show you how to actually put it into practice. For example, how do you grow as a Christian (2 Peter 3:18 WEB)? How do you apply Christianity to everyday problems? How should you pray to God? What things should you pray about? What is the best way to read the Bible? What is the evidence that God exists? Why did God make us? What is God’s overall aim and purpose for us? How you do give your life to God? In this book I break down the elementary teachings of Jesus Christ (Hebrews 6:1) into practical advice anyone can understand.² And I will save you time by helping you focus on the main things.³ At the end of each chapter I provide a short summary in dot point form so the main ideas stick. Chapter Sixteen is an everyday quick guide that covers the main points of Christianity so you can refresh your memory whenever you want.

Please don’t mistake me for an academic who lives in a cocoon. I am a retired thirty four year police veteran of both the Tasmania Police Service (TPS) and Queensland Police Service (QPS) in Australia. As you can imagine, I have seen many weird, awful, and tragic things. Furthermore, I am not connected to any particular church or religious style: therefore I tell it straight. I know anyone can understand general truths such as Jesus walking down a road.⁴ But God reserves His much deeper knowledge and wisdom⁵ for those are willing to dig for it.⁶ It is only by staying close to Jesus Christ that you learn to apply the Bible successfully to just about every life situation.⁷ I will help you on your way. And no-one seems to help new Christians learn the elementary teachings of Jesus Christ.⁸ Yet I believe this is THE most important part of Christianity.⁹ I will do my best to help you.

It is very hard to amaze a veteran police officer like me because you hear the same old lies, stories, and lame excuses over and over. Yet Jesus has amazed me (Matthew 13:53-54 WEB). If you follow what I recommend, you will be astounded at what Jesus will reveal to you that you would not otherwise understand.¹⁰ The treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in Jesus Christ.¹¹ Therefore you have to be willing to seek, search, study, pray and walk it out every day.¹² You don’t have to be intelligent or socially important to get close to God (1 Corinthians 1:18-31). Not that God has anything against intelligent people, but He is not impressed with the way many of them try to explain life without including Him in the equation (1 Corinthians 3:18-23 AMP; Galatians 2:6). Therefore, God DELIBERATELY chooses a lot of ordinary people with basic education or even no education in order to baffle the godless intelligence of this world.¹³

For example, Jesus Christ gave the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven to Peter (Matthew 16:19). Who was Peter? A fisherman with no education (Acts 4:13-14). Peter went from denying he knew Jesus (Matthew 26:69-75) to being so powerful that people were cured by handkerchiefs he had touched.¹⁴ Therefore, whether you are in charge of a company, or serving a long jail sentence,¹⁵ you can have eternal life in Heaven as long as you give your life to God through Jesus Christ (1 John 2:24-25 AMP; Hebrews 7:25 WEB). You will notice that throughout this book I acknowledge all my sources of information. I will never plagiarize. Even if I have forgotten who said something, I still acknowledge that I heard it from someone else. I am delighted to name all my sources, because I want you to learn by checking them out, and I am eternally grateful for all the different pieces of wisdom I learnt from them.

Please keep in mind that no one tricked or persuaded me to become a Christian. I made the decision by myself. No one in my family practices Christianity. And if you think I may have been gullible, please remember that before I became a Christian in 2007 I was already a thirty year police veteran and I had chalked up fourteen years as a police prosecutor in the QPS. By the year 2012 I had read out approximately ten thousand pleas of guilty in court; checked about three thousand briefs of evidence; and cross-examined over one thousand six hundred witnesses in court. I conservatively estimate each brief of evidence I read had an average of at least two statements. But dozens of briefs had over twenty statements and a fair few over fifty.

Therefore I have read at least six thousand witness statements in the QPS alone. And I am not counting anything from three years prosecuting in the TPS. I had to carefully examine every witness statement; try to get the truth out of people in court; try to uncover lies; and form legal arguments against lawyers and highly qualified barristers in court within minutes; sometimes seconds. And I find the slight variations in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John completely consistent with the slight variations in the written statements and court testimony of honest witnesses I dealt with. As a prosecutor I also had to juggle an enormous volume of paperwork and e-mails. I averaged three hundred and eighty legal e-mails and twenty official reports per month for sixteen years in the QPS. And this is not counting junk e-mails, just legal e-mails!!

So I hope you think I have learnt a bit from the pressure cooker of twenty years in court rooms and eleven years in police cars. I believe this experience has enabled me to study the Bible in depth to judge its reliability. By the year 2015, I had spent eight years studying three different versions of the Bible; sixty academic books; several hundred hours of the Christian TV channel; and two hundred and eighty five academic articles about Christianity (all listed at the end of this book). And I have found the Bible completely reliable.¹⁶ In 2014 I received my Certificate in Theology through Morling College, Sydney. But do not automatically believe everything you read or hear about Christianity (Proverbs 14:15). Joyce Meyer says when you become a Christian you must ‘renew’ your brain, not ‘remove’ your brain!¹⁷ I love that saying.

The Bible says the early Christians checked everything they were being told about Jesus against the Old Testament clues about the Promised Messiah.¹⁸ The Bible says YOU are responsible for working out the Christian faith with fear and trembling.¹⁹ I believe this is what God wants us to do: search, think, and test everything.²⁰ You will learn so much more about Christianity by checking everything you read and hear. But I aim to make the first few months and years of your Christian journey a lot easier and more enjoyable.

I believe this is real Christianity I am about to teach you, not some pie in the sky stuff where we all imagine being on a cloud strumming a harp.²¹ I was from a broken home. I have fought stress-related depression since 1997. I am a veteran police officer. I have been married for over thirty years. I am a father of two. We were mostly a one income family of four with no assets while my kids were growing up. Therefore I know life is tough and slaps you in the face over and over again.²² And I believe all those years of policing have taught me how to sort through baloney to find reality in three seconds flat. Now follow me into one of the greatest journeys you will never regret.

CHAPTER ONE

DRIFTING AWAY FROM GOD.

I was raised in a good, hard-working family, but there was no active Christianity. When I was about fourteen a school friend gave me some Christian booklets. I didn’t even know he was a Christian. The booklets were apocalyptic stories depicting the Christian life and the signs of the end of the world. These had a big impact on me. When I was fifteen our public school gave every student a Gideon’s New Testament. I read it and started to believe in God. I had a serious go at being a Christian when I was about eighteen. I started going to church and was even baptized by full immersion in water. Unfortunately I slowly lost interest and drifted away from Christianity when I was about twenty one.²³ But I do not blame anyone for that: I blame myself.²⁴

I am not happy that I drifted away, but it does mean that I have had two separate walks with God. And after coming back to worship of God at forty seven years of age, I can now see a big difference between my worship then and now. I would call it a Grand Canyon of difference. Jentezen Franklin calls it being a 'half-Christian.'²⁵ I believe I was a 'half-Christian' at eighteen. I believed everything in the Bible, but I now realize I was not into it deep enough.²⁶ This is what makes me seriously determined to help other people find God through Christ and STICK with Him (Hebrews 2:1). So please stick with me and enjoy reading as I take you through it.

At forty seven I was under massive work pressure and had been suffering from diagnosed stress-related depression for ten years by then.²⁷ One day I was ‘channel surfing’ through the Foxtel (Pay TV in Australia) menu and noticed the Christian TV channel was playing a show named "The Potters House." I wondered what pottery had to do with Christianity, so out of fascination I flicked over to it and the preacher was Bishop T. D. Jakes. He was preaching about how pride hides: meaning you sometimes don’t realize you are acting out of pride.²⁸

It hit me that I could not let go of a lot of issues at work due to pride.²⁹ I felt that I needed to give my life back to Christ. I told my wife I would give Christianity two weeks and see how I felt after that. I have no idea why I chose two weeks, but it worked. I humbled myself before God (Proverbs 3:34 AMP), which means I looked to Him for all my guidance.³⁰ Being humble and meek includes being teachable (Proverbs 14:6 AMP) and willing to learn.³¹ I studied the Bible, watched the Christian TV channel and devoted myself to prayer.³² After two weeks I knew I had made the right decision (1 Peter 2:2 AMP). I gave my life back to Christ, praying along with Phil Pringle at the end of one of his TV shows.

I believe the main reason I succeeded in connecting with Christ this time was my attitude.³³ Kong Hee says the Beatitudes in the Bible are in progressive order (Matthew 5:3). The first Beatitude says that when you are poor in spirit you are humble enough to take the leap of faith and believe in God and His son Jesus Christ.³⁴ I was in a world of hurt, so I was emotional in my prayer life, reaching out to God in humility and desperation (James 4:8-10 AMP). I have learnt that God loves this type of humble attitude.³⁵ The Bible says God rewards people who diligently seek Him.³⁶ I had Foxtel IQ (Pay TV with the option to legally record shows) and I taped relevant Christian TV shows. I also studied and prayed daily.

And believe it or not, this wasn’t hard for me: I was enjoying it all immensely.³⁷ If you genuinely ask God for help and persistently study (Proverbs 4:7-9 AMP; Hebrews 12:1 AMP), pray, and start to change your ways to become more holy,³⁸ God will reward that devotion by giving you a hunger and thirst (desire) for every bit of information about Him.³⁹ He gives you this hunger and thirst via the Holy Spirit which He puts into your spirit as soon as you give your life to Jesus Christ.⁴⁰ The Holy Spirit rewards your effort by giving you the spiritual desire to follow God, without having to push yourself into it all the time.⁴¹

It is like getting an injection of spiritual steroids!!⁴² The Bible clearly says every Christian receives the Holy Spirit as soon as they give their life to Christ.⁴³ But two walks with God has taught me that you can either let the Holy Spirit remain fairly dormant inside you, or you can activate the Holy Spirit to work harder inside you if you diligently seek God.⁴⁴ I believe this is what the Bible means where it tells us not to grieve, suppress or subdue the Holy Spirit and not to put out the Spirit’s fire.⁴⁵

Dr. Irene Alexander urges us to stay with our thirst long enough so we find the deepest quenching in the One [Jesus] who brings living water.⁴⁶ In other words; stick with it and never give up growing spiritually.⁴⁷ When I originally gave my life to Christ at eighteen, I never had a strong desire to pray and read the Bible. It always seemed like an effort. I believe I quenched the Spirit’s fire by not getting close enough to God.⁴⁸ But when I came back to worship of Jesus Christ at forty seven, I was hurt and broken by life,⁴⁹ and desperate for God’s help (Psalm 51:17). I noticed this level of devotion, humility,⁵⁰ and desperation activated a lot more power of the Holy Spirit inside me.⁵¹

The concept of the Holy Spirit can be a bit confusing when you first become a Christian,⁵² but don’t worry about it. I was a Christian for about six years before I studied the Holy Spirit in depth as part of my Certificate in Theology. New Christians simply need to know that the Holy Spirit came to reproduce Jesus Christ in the lives of men and women … [and] what the New Testament means by being ‘filled with the Spirit’ is simply being filled with the Lord Jesus.⁵³ In other words, God uses the Holy Spirit to make us more like Jesus Christ⁵⁴ inwardly: in our spirit, character,⁵⁵ thoughts; then out through our actions and words.⁵⁶

Here is one of the first good signs you are filled (instead of ‘half-filled’) with the Holy Spirit. When Greg Laurie gave his life to Christ as a young man, the Bible felt so real to him it seemed like the ink had not even dried on the pages⁵⁷ Greg said it was as if the Bible was written yesterday. This is exactly how I felt when I desperately sought God at forty seven. If you keenly and genuinely seek God through Jesus Christ,⁵⁸ the Bible will come alive to you just as if you are reading some fresh, exciting news in a magazine or newspaper.⁵⁹ If at some stage you drift away from God slightly, you may notice the hunger and thirst wane a little bit.⁶⁰ But I haven’t had a major problem with that yet. So far so good!!

Reuben Torrey says you don’t just get filled once with the Holy Spirit when you first give your life to Christ.⁶¹ Reuben says you have to continually keep filling yourself with the Holy Spirit through devoted study, prayer, and persistence.⁶² I have found this to be true in my own Christian journey. When I came back to God I did not know exactly what to focus on. I started attending a church, but learnt very little about how to be a Christian from the church itself. It seems a lot of churches haven’t learnt how to communicate with new Christians and teach them progressively.⁶³ I did not want to drift away from God again, so I taught myself from (1) the Bible; (2) reflection / checking progress along the way;⁶⁴ (3) a healthy prayer life; and (4) taking copious notes from the Christian TV channel.

I filled several books with notes from Christian TV and eventually typed them onto computer to make sure the information really sunk in. After a couple of years it occurred to me that I should start organizing my notes for the very purpose of helping other people, especially those with no Christian background. In fact I believe God subtly prompted me through the Holy Spirit to turn my notes into a book for other Christians. I believe God has prompted me to do two separate things. This book is one of them. I believe I recognized God’s prompting in the following way. I had never thought of writing a book about Christianity. But one day it just jumped into my mind while praying, even though I wasn’t thinking about it or praying about it.

The second occasion was a few years later, when I was praying to God. At the particular point where I pray for God to anoint me with the Spirit of prophecy (1 Corinthians 14:1-4 AMP), I received a thought or prompting to start my own church.⁶⁵ Again, I had never thought about starting my own church. But I don’t believe a general prompting from God means you do it straight away. After each of these promptings I have continued to pray to God about these issues (Psalm 127:1-2). I have obtained basic theological qualifications, and I continue to build up my holiness⁶⁶ and increase my knowledge of God.⁶⁷ I am also applying common sense and time to work out when to finally act.⁶⁸ Both Joyce Meyer and Phil Pringle believe they received callings from God but acted on them too early.⁶⁹ In our jobs here on Earth we usually receive training first; then we do the job. But God does it in reverse order. God gives us the anointing / spiritual gift⁷⁰ first; then He takes us through many years of training so we have sufficient spiritual maturity to carry out the anointing.⁷¹ Only those who have been fully ‘crucified’ and fully ‘circumcised’ (Philippians 3:3 AMP) can work in the power of the anointing.⁷² So I took notice of what Phil and Joyce said and made sure I took my time.⁷³

I am not a recognized academic, but I have walked the Christianity I teach in this book. Throughout this book I use plenty of academic and biblical references to support my interpretation of Christianity, but I will not bore you with academic jargon. I break down Christianity into plain English that makes it easy for you to follow Jesus Christ. All those years as a police officer taught me to become very decisive. My advice is not a list of rules set in stone but I believe the main principles are sound because they worked for me and continue to help me every day. Try them and even change them if necessary. I just want you to get close to Christ,⁷⁴ stay with Him, and eventually become a Christian leader.⁷⁵

If you are not a Christian please keep reading, even though you might think I am about to get ‘all religious.’ As you read on you will see how much life experience I have had as a veteran police officer and what I have tried and learnt through years of effort and mistakes. The chapter titled ‘Communication’ has hints for everyone. In it I tell you the real mistakes I believe myself and others have made in communicating with people, and how I think I would do it differently ‘if I had my time again.’ I want you to benefit from all my mistakes. You might cringe a bit when I start getting into ‘religious stuff’ but I understand that feeling because I spent about forty four years not actively following Christ.

So don’t worry if you start going to a church and find the way Christians speak or sing is a bit uncomfortable. Some of your ‘fast and hard’ living can take a long time to come down from (Psalm 27:14 WEB; Psalm 37:34 WEB). Give your soul time to calm down and adapt (Proverbs 19:23 AMP). I heard someone on the Christian TV channel interview Noel Voce. Noel was eighty four at the time of the interview and had been pastor of East Fremantle Baptist Church since he was twenty four. That equals sixty years!!! He said the key to be a successful Christian is that Jesus Christ has to be the center of your whole universe.⁷⁶

I heard this very early in my Christian journey so I was not sure what it meant in reality. But as with anything you don’t fully understand about Christianity, give it time and it will eventually make sense as long as you keep practicing, praying and studying.⁷⁷ I don’t think Noel was saying you have to think only about Jesus Christ all day. Common sense says you have to sleep, eat, work and relax each day.⁷⁸ I think he meant you have to spend a fair amount of time studying Christ (Bible study, devotion to prayer, and daily practice) so that you respond like Christ when you come across problems.⁷⁹ I think it also means we should put more importance on becoming like Christ instead of being too infatuated with material things.⁸⁰

Furthermore, we must not get involved in damaging gossip, arguments,⁸¹ and useless things that distract us from worship of Jesus.⁸² We please God and grow quicker spiritually if we discard useless activities and put more time into study and worship of Christ.⁸³ Even if you are already a Christian, I warn you that unless you are keen to pray, read the Bible, and continue to learn about Christ,⁸⁴ you are probably only a ‘half-Christian.’⁸⁵ Or you may have simply lost a bit of your zeal and fervor for God.⁸⁶ It can happen.

I am not criticizing you if you think you may be a ‘half-Christian.’ I was one at eighteen but didn’t know it. That is why I want you to be aware of the difference, and know the signs to look out for. If you have lost a bit of your zeal for God, ask Him to help you find the motivation to pray, read the Bible and learn.⁸⁷ God loves it when you pray to Him like this.⁸⁸ Then push hard for at least two weeks by disciplining yourself to pray, read the Bible, and learn about God.⁸⁹ This is serious stuff which decides whether you spend eternity in Heaven or Hell. So if it takes more than two weeks just keep going for as long as it takes to get your hunger for God back.⁹⁰ Phil Pringle says the first twenty eight days are the most difficult, but you have to keep going so that it becomes a habit.⁹¹ Seek help from a devoted Christian if you still have trouble with your motivation. Never, ever, ever give up.⁹² The result is absolutely worth it.⁹³

CHAPTER TWO

RIGHTEOUSNESS, PEACE & JOY

If you do not worship God, you never know precisely what you are living for. I know simply being alive is enjoyable most of the time;⁹⁴ and the Bible says being rich is enjoyable most of the time (Luke 16:19-31; Mark 4:19). The Bible even recognizes the party lifestyle is enjoyable for a short time (Hebrews 3:13 AMP; Hebrews 11:24-25). But life smacks you in the face repeatedly. This can take a savage toll over time and causes bitterness, regret, depression, and insecurity.⁹⁵ But the Bible tells you exactly what you need to focus on to gain eternal life and how to achieve security and direction here on Earth.

Joyce Meyer says the Kingdom of God is all about (1) RIGHTEOUSNESS (2) PEACE and (3) JOY in the Holy Spirit.⁹⁶ Romans Chapter Fourteen starts off by advising the Roman Christians not to go too hard on new Christians (Romans 14:1) and not to criticize them because they do or don’t eat meat (14:2); or whether they observe different sacred days than you do (14:5). It then says the Kingdom of God is about righteousness peace and joy, not food and drink.

Joyce Meyer says these three are in order of their importance, and it is easy to overlook the most important part. It says you can only achieve righteousness, peace and joy THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT.⁹⁷ This clearly means you cannot change yourself in any big way without the assistance of the Holy Spirit.⁹⁸ You might be able to change some habits without help from God or anybody else. But you will NEVER become a mature Christian without years of help from the Holy Spirit whom God gives to you when you put your faith in Jesus Christ.⁹⁹

RIGHTEOUSNESS

I will describe righteousness in two parts.¹⁰⁰ (1) Righteousness (legally in right standing with God) through faith in Jesus Christ;¹⁰¹ and (2) Righteous behavior (personal holiness / sanctification).¹⁰² Righteousness by faith is the only way you can gain eternal life¹⁰³ so let’s deal with this aspect first.¹⁰⁴

1A.RIGHTEOUSNESS BY FAITH

The moment you give your life to Jesus Christ, you are declared righteous, or in right standing with God.¹⁰⁵ It is also referred to as justification.¹⁰⁶ I know it sounds simple, but Romans 3:21-22 says those who believe in Jesus Christ are considered righteous simply because they have faith¹⁰⁷ that Jesus (1) really exists; (2) is the Son of God; (3) died on the Cross for the forgiveness of our sins;¹⁰⁸ (4) rose from the dead; and (5) ascended to Heaven.¹⁰⁹ So, once you admit that Jesus is your Lord and savior, and truly believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved (Romans 10:9) and live in Heaven forever. This is how it works: Jesus lived a sinless life (2 Corinthians 5:21 AMP), therefore He is in right standing (legally perfect / righteous) with God. Therefore Jesus is our High Priest who represents us before God forever.¹¹⁰ We can never be perfect,¹¹¹ so Jesus presents His righteousness to the Father for our justification.¹¹² Therefore, we can rely on the perfection or righteousness of Christ for God to forgive our ongoing sins.¹¹³

This shows you how much Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross meant to God.¹¹⁴ Remember: Jesus is God’s ONLY Son. Imagine how much God loves Jesus Christ (Matthew 3:17 WEB). Then imagine how God felt when His ONLY Son was whipped, slapped then hung on a Cross to die in absolute agony when He had committed NO sin. This explains why God places so much value on your belief in who Jesus Christ is and what Jesus did for humanity. It takes a while to sink in because Jesus walked on Earth about two thousand years ago, and we are so removed from the emotion of it.¹¹⁵ But as Bruce Milne so beautifully puts it: The Cross is forever planted in the heart of God the Holy One.¹¹⁶ The only way to compare how God felt is how we have felt when we have lost someone very close to us. It is a horrible experience and we really appreciate it when other people show genuine sympathy for our loss.

This is how God feels towards YOU when you believe that His only son died voluntarily to pay for OUR sins.¹¹⁷ Thomas R. Schreiner confirms the simplicity of this righteousness ¹¹⁸ with God by saying: Paul astonishes us, for he teaches that God declares those who are sinners to be in the right before Him if they trust in Jesus Christ for their salvation. This is extraordinary because such a verdict violates the normal and just procedure for a judge…¹¹⁹ Although receiving this righteousness is fairly straight-forward, the reasons behind it are complex.¹²⁰ New Christians don’t have to understand these complexities, but one of the best short explanations of how Jesus paid for our sins as our ‘Kinsman-Redeemer’ is an article titled "Taking the Bible seriously? on Creation Ministries International Website.¹²¹ Bruce Milne also covers it beautifully in his book Know the Truth: A Handbook of Christian Belief;¹²² as does Theodore Austin-Sparks in his free eBook Spiritual Maturity."¹²³

This generous act of God allowing us to be in ‘right standing’ with Him by having true faith in Jesus Christ (Romans 5:2 AMP) is described as God’s grace: and it is free.¹²⁴ The Amplified Bible (AMP) describes God’s grace as His unmerited favor.¹²⁵ This means God always loves us even though we do not deserve it.¹²⁶ The magnificence of God’s grace is difficult to fully grasp,¹²⁷ but I want to share a fantastic example that really helped me.¹²⁸ Unfortunately I did not record the author of this when I heard it on the Christian TV channel, but it is sensational:

JUSTICE: Means you want revenge or compensation for your loss. Example: I let you borrow my twenty thousand dollar motor cycle. You crash it and write it off. The motor cycle is uninsured. I want justice so I want you to repay me the value of the motor cycle which is twenty thousand dollars.

MERCY: This means that if you crash and write-off my uninsured twenty thousand dollar motor cycle, I just say, It is okay, you don’t have to pay me back anything at all. I basically write off the debt. That is pretty generous and rarely done; especially with a big debt. Joyce Meyer says mercy is kindness beyond what is fair.¹²⁹

GRACE: You crash and write-off my twenty thousand dollar uninsured motor cycle and I buy another one worth twenty thousand dollars and give it to you. This sounds ridiculous in real life and would rarely be done. But this is basically what God has done with us.¹³⁰ Although it can be difficult to comprehend, it will fully hit you when you become a bit more mature in your Christian journey.¹³¹ I believe it is meant to take time so you can enjoy unlocking God’s hidden treasures bit by bit.¹³²

1B.RIGHTEOUS BEHAVIOUR / HOLINESS

Once you have gained eternal life in Heaven by putting your faith in Jesus Christ,¹³³ you should then commence the life-long journey of becoming more holy in your thoughts and actions.¹³⁴ This is called sanctification,¹³⁵ which is where God washes your spirit clean (Psalm 51:2-3 WEB; Psalm 51:10 WEB). We are washed by the water of God’s Words in the Bible.¹³⁶ This is the hard part of Christianity because most of us develop some bad habits and thought processes prior to giving our lives to Jesus Christ.¹³⁷ Paul Washer says there is a lack of thorough teaching about holiness in many churches.¹³⁸ I agree, therefore I am determined to help you on your way. Romans 12:1 beautifully sums up the New Covenant purchased for us by the perfect blood that Jesus shed on the Cross.¹³⁹ It says that because God has shown us such great mercy through the Cross of Christ, we should offer our bodies as living sacrifices to God.¹⁴⁰ See that word ‘mercy’ in use (Ephesians 2:4-5 WEB)? Lamentations 3:22-24 says that God’s mercy is fresh and available every day of our lives (2 Corinthians 1:3-4 WEB). The Bible urges us to seek God’s forgiveness (mercy) every day by using the ‘Lord’s Prayer.’¹⁴¹

But please remember not to feel guilty if you miss one day of praying to God, especially if you are ridiculously busy or sick. It is healthy to feel guilty about it but don’t dwell on it or let it get you down. The Devil is an expert at making you feel bad if you don’t stick to religious routines.¹⁴² God is the potter (Isaiah 64:8; Romans 8:29; 9:21) who can easily work with clay that has the right texture to mould into a beautiful object.¹⁴³ If we develop strict rules and attitudes we are like clay that is too dry or too wet for the potter to make anything out of.¹⁴⁴ But if we remain flexible in our worship of God and keep away from rigid rules and habits,¹⁴⁵ we are like the perfect texture of clay that God can shape into the image of Jesus Christ.¹⁴⁶ Joyce Meyer and Rick Warren advise us to apply BALANCE to our Christian journey.¹⁴⁷ Balance is difficult to teach and apply, therefore some Christians stick with extreme rules.¹⁴⁸ I will expand on BALANCE throughout this book.

The Bible asks us to be holy as God is holy;¹⁴⁹ to be perfect as God is perfect (Matthew 5:48; Psalm 18:30 WEB); and to be pure as God is pure (1 John 3:3 WEB). As Phil Pringle says, isn’t the Bible impossible?¹⁵⁰ But the Bible says that what is impossible for man is possible with God (Matthew 19:26; Mark 10:27). We are responsible for the common sense basics such as feeding, clothing and washing ourselves.¹⁵¹ But it is impossible for us to be as perfect as God. Therefore I believe God wants us to lean on Him¹⁵² and depend on Him to help us continually strive and aim towards His level of perfection.¹⁵³ We should also remember we have the Holy Spirit dwelling inside us, therefore we should respect our bodies and shun everything that will defile them.¹⁵⁴

Joseph Prince gives an excellent example of how God loves us leaning on Him instead of thinking we know everything about Christianity.¹⁵⁵ Joseph says that many times during their time in the wilderness, the Israelites moaned, groaned and complained to God (Numbers 11:1-15). They moaned that they did not have enough food (Exodus 16:1-13; Psalm 78:18-29 WEB) or water (Exodus 17:1-7; Psalm 78:18-29 WEB). So what did God do? God made water come out of a rock in the middle of nowhere.¹⁵⁶ The spiritual rock that water came out of was actually Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 10:4). Imagine how pure and refreshing that water was. It would taste better than the best water in this world. And when the Israelites complained about getting free manna from Heaven (John 6:31; Psalm 78:18-29 WEB), God made fresh quails fall from the sky (Numbers 11:4-34; Psalm 78:18-29 WEB). They had so much meat it made them sick (Psalm 106:14-15).

Yet when the Israelites said they could obey God’s covenant, God gave them the Ten Commandments (Exodus 19:5-8; Exodus Chapter 20). And it turned out that they could never bear the Ten Commandments.¹⁵⁷ When Israel said they could rely on their own ability to obey God, Joseph Prince says that they became self-righteous. Therefore God had to step back and write a list of rules. I am not saying the Israelite’s were being deliberately defiant in their answer to God (e.g.: Hebrews 9:7 AMP): I simply do not know. But in any case I believe they made a mistake by saying they could use their own strength to obey God.¹⁵⁸

I believe the Israelites should have said something like this: "Lord we will try to obey you, but please help us because we are inferior to you. You have seen how hopeless we are as we have let you down throughout our trip in the wilderness. We will try our best but we trust you more than our own ability.¹⁵⁹ We will study your Word and practice¹⁶⁰ to become more holy. But we will continue to pray to you to help us in areas of our holiness that we find difficult" (Psalm 55:22). I will show you throughout this book that God loves it when you lean on Him like this.¹⁶¹ Please don’t moan and complain to God, because we are supposed to learn from Israel’s mistakes.¹⁶² But even though it seems unbelievable that God would do more for the Israelites when they moaned, I cannot fault the reasoning Joseph Prince uses (Psalm 106 WEB).

This is how I apply Joseph Princes’ teaching to my Christian journey. Don’t moan, groan and complain to God about stupid little things. Keep in mind, God made the Israelites walk around the wilderness for forty years because they complained; so they were punished.¹⁶³ But learn to lean heavily on God.¹⁶⁴ If some part of your life seems too hard, tell God it is too hard for you and ask Him for help.¹⁶⁵ Look at the sinner in the Bible. Jesus commended the sinner for being respectfully honest to God when he cried out: God have mercy on me, a sinner (Luke 18:13) Just like the sinner, be honest and cry out to God when you find something too hard.¹⁶⁶

When Jehoshaphat heard that he was surrounded by enemies, the first thing he did was declare a fast among the people. He asked God to remember His promise to protect Israel. He then bowed down to the ground and worshipped God.¹⁶⁷ God appreciated Jehoshaphat’s respect and humility so much that God pulled off a great victory for Israel against a much larger force. If you are having trouble with a relationship and can’t work it out, pray like Jehoshaphat (Psalm 31:3; Psalm 34:1-22 WEB). For example: Lord Heavenly Father, I know I have been a Christian for ten years and I feel that I should know how to do something simple such as get on well with my teenage daughter. But no matter how hard I try to get closer to her, we always seem to clash. Lord I can’t figure it out. Please help me. I am hopeless at this father-daughter stuff.

Or: "Lord, I am always having trouble with my boss at work.¹⁶⁸ I try to be nice but he still yells at me. Lord, I am all out of ideas. I am emotionally exhausted. Lord please help me." God will spiritually comfort you, soften your heart,¹⁶⁹ break up your pride and help you find biblical answers to make that relationship better. Then, through study and prayer, build up the fruit of the Spirit¹⁷⁰ which will help you improve these relationships; or at least change the way you react to them. In these situations tiredness or pride will make you believe there is something wrong with the other person. Pride will also stop us praying to God about it because we think we should know how to work it out ourselves. I have felt like this several times.

But thanks to Joseph Prince I know that you should always ask God.¹⁷¹ Then, ‘let go and let God.’¹⁷² Pray to God and ask Him to help and guide you.¹⁷³ Pray openly and honestly to God (Psalm 86:6-7 WEB). This is what God loves.¹⁷⁴ Our Heavenly Father wants you to treat Him as you would a good father here on Earth.¹⁷⁵ God comforts Christians who need assistance (2 Corinthians 1:3-4 AMP), and considers Christians to be His sons and daughters.¹⁷⁶ It can take time to fully appreciate that God loves us that deeply,¹⁷⁷ but give it time and it will sink in. Then your relationship with God will go to an even higher level. If you are experiencing a problem in your marriage, pray to God about it as soon as possible.¹⁷⁸ I was disappointed in June 2015 when I read a well-known Counselling Website that claims to be Christ-centered. Yet, when giving a person marriage advice on one of their older blogs totaling around eight hundred words, Christ was not mentioned, prayer was not mentioned, and none of Christ's words were used. What is that about!!

Come on Christians, Christ-centered means putting Christ in the center of everything. Your relationship with God is number one, but your marriage is the most important human relationship. That is why the Devil will attack your marriage relentlessly. Therefore, I try to cover every angle of my marriage in prayer to God. Here is my DAILY prayer to God about my marriage. I leave my wife's name out for privacy.

Lord Heavenly Father, you declared that a man and woman should live together in a union for the rest of their lives. Lord, you take this union so seriously that you made this union into a legally binding contract called the marriage covenant. Lord, any doubt about how seriously you take the marriage covenant is easily dispelled in my mind by the short, sharp, terse words you spoke through the prophet Malachi when you said I hate divorce" (Malachi 2:13-16). And Lord, our own Lord and Savior, the author and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2), your only begotten Son, and your beloved Son, Jesus Christ Himself, when he walked here on Earth as both fully human and fully God, He reinforced the importance of the marriage covenant in no uncertain words (Matthew 5:31-32). Lord, all this leads me to humbly believe that you will come to the aid of any married person who genuinely seeks your help to keep their marriage going. Lord Heavenly Father, as the psalmist says, please search me and know me. And Lord, I humbly but confidently believe that when you search me you will find that I am serious about keeping my marriage going strong till death do us part. But Lord Heavenly Father, I understand that my wife and I are born into a sinful nature as is every other human being, and although the Bible urges us to always strive towards perfection, we cannot be absolutely perfect while we are here on this Earth.