Maturity In Christ

By Anne Kaestner

This is book 3 of a 3 book series. It is the longest of the books. The first 3 chapters are “The Holiness of God,” “The Testing Of Our Faith,” and “Selfishness And Pride.” They reveal major obstacles to Christians who want a deeper faith. For we “...walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7 KJV). God wants us to become so holy (1 Peter 1:15-16) that we hate “...even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh” (Jude 1:23 NIV). Yet this flies in the face of everything this world stands for. It separates us from lukewarm church goers (Revelation 3:16) who still love the things of this world (1 John 2:15-17), yet expect to get to Heaven.

Chapters 4, 5, and 6 are “Examples Of Selfishness,” “God’s Terms, Not Ours,” and “Making Changes In Our Lives.” Living by faith requires becoming less so that Christ can become greater in us (John 3:30). Christ must be our role model! That brings us to chapters 7 and 8, “Learning Obedience” and “Sin Is In Our Blood.” To walk with Christ isn’t easy. As we get closer to Him, the rest of the world speeds past us the wrong way, like a train heading for destruction.

Chapter 9 is “Infant Death And Suicide”. It warns against suicide. For Christ’s love (Romans 8:35-38) and peace (Philippians 4:7) is greater than our pain when we put Him first. Chapter 10 is “The Dilemma.” It explains what to do when you sin and feel discouraged in your faith. Chapters 11, 12, and 13 are “Getting Off Balance,” “People Become Fanatics For A Cause,” and “God Doesn’t Need Us, We Need Him.” They show how good works and social programs can lead to pride and a haughty attitude (Proverbs 16:18) when they’re not Spirit led. They also lead to a false sense of security. Chapter 14 is “Growing In Faith.” It shows how God humbles us to teach us to rely on Him. Chapter 15 is “God Teaches Us.” It explains why we can’t fight spiritual battles with carnal weapons. And how the Holy Spirit fights for us when we serve Christ.

Chapter 16 is “Temptation.” It comforts those dealing with severe temptation and shows how we can live above sin. Chapter 17 is “Liberal Thinking.” Contrary to popular belief, people are not basically good deep down inside (Jeremiah 17:9). That’s why we need to depend upon Christ. Chapter 18 is “Judging The World.” It contradicts church doctrine, which encourages a condescending attitude toward the world (John 3:17 and 1 Peter 4:17). This theme continues in Chapter 19, “The Separation Process.” It discusses a lesson the apostles learned about replacing arrogance with love.

Chapter 20 is “The Love Of Material Blessings.” It describes the heartbreak of Solomon as an old man. He realized how much he had lost spiritually by putting pleasure ahead of his walk with God. Chapter 21 is “The Love Of Money.” It shows how, even strong Christians, can stray away from Christ when they put money first (1 Timothy 6:10). Chapter 22 is “Bad Role Models For Christ.” It shows how those who put wealth first can bring scorn upon Christ. Chapter 23 is “Idolatry.” It describes how Christians can be led astray by sports, rock concerts, and any other obsessive activity.

Chapter 24 is “Love of Self.” It discusses how self-pity and fear can become stumbling blocks that can get in the way of a Christian’s relationship with God. And lastly, there is the Epilogue. It describes how this whole project began. And it invites the reader to come to the Lord for the first time or return to Him if they have strayed away.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Anne Kaestner
• Release date: Aug 24, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311543981

Anne Kaestner

Anne Kaestner is co-founder of Bible Believers Fellowship, Inc. with her husband Eric. She is the Vice President and Executive Director. Anne also functions as Secretary of the Corporation, and is involved in all major Executive decisions. She attends all Board of Directors meetings, as well as any initial and/or important meetings with professionals hired by the Corporation, including legal, banking, and accounting services. Anne runs the office and is also in charge of personnel. Aside from all of this, she has pioneered our efforts to purchase, at a drastically reduced price, the numerous Christian role model books that we distribute free of charge in correctional facilities nationwide. Anne is in charge of spiritual and doctrinal matters, as well as most written communication. Except for an occasional inmate testimony, she does all of the writing for our publication “The Good News Letter,” most of our mass produced literature, and most of our ebooks. She is in charge of all counseling, the majority of which she handles personally. She is actively involved in researching information that will assist us with our newsletter articles and similar literature, including our “Answers To Your Questions” series. Besides this, she personally reads any and all books and screens all videos that we purchase for distribution. And she was the original liaison between the video suppliers and this ministry. She arranged for the BBFI imprint in our role model books and worked to ensure that we receive copyright clearance on all the Christian videos that we distribute to prisons and jails.

Book preview

Book Three of A Christian’s Handbook Series

By Anne Kaestner

Co-Founder of Bible Believers Fellowship, Inc.

Copyright Page

Copyright 2015 by Anne Kaestner.

Published by Bible Believers Fellowship, Inc. at Smashwords.

Cover design by Eric Kaestner with suggestions from Anne Kaestner.

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. It may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this ebook with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this ebook and did not purchase it, please go to www.smashwords.com or your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Scripture quotations marked (KJV) are from the King James Bible.

EPUB ISBN – 9781311543981

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Introduction

1 - The Holiness Of God

2 - The Testing Of Our Faith

3 - Selfishness And Pride

4 - Examples Of Selfishness

5 - God’s Terms, Not Ours

6 - Making Changes In Our Lives

7 - Learning Obedience

8 - Sin Is In Our Blood

9 - Infant Death And Suicide

10 - The Dilemma

11 - Getting Off Balance

12 - People Become Fanatics For A Cause

13 - God Doesn’t Need Us, We Need Him

14 - Growing In Faith

15 - God Teaches Us

16 - Temptation

17 - Liberal Thinking

18 - Judging the World

19 - The Separation Process

20 - The Love Of Material Blessings

21 - The Love Of Money

22 - Bad Role Models For Christ

23 - Idolatry

24 - Love Of Self

Epilogue

About Anne Kaestner

Other ebooks by Anne Kaestner

Connect with Anne Kaestner

Dedication

All books are dedicated to the Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in so many ways.

Introduction

This is book 3 of a 3 book series. It is the longest of the books. The first 3 chapters are The Holiness of God, The Testing Of Our Faith, and Selfishness And Pride. They reveal major obstacles to Christians who want a deeper faith. For we ...walk by faith, not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7 KJV). God wants us to become so holy (1 Peter 1:15-16) that we hate ...even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh (Jude 1:23 NIV). Yet this flies in the face of everything this world stands for. It separates us from lukewarm church goers (Revelation 3:16) who still love the things of this world (1 John 2:15-17), yet expect to get to Heaven.

Chapters 4, 5, and 6 are Examples Of Selfishness, God’s Terms, Not Ours, and Making Changes In Our Lives. Living by faith requires becoming less so that Christ can become greater in us (John 3:30). Christ must be our role model! That brings us to chapters 7 and 8, Learning Obedience and Sin Is In Our Blood. To walk with Christ isn’t easy. As we get closer to Him, the rest of the world speeds past us the wrong way, like a train heading for destruction.

Chapter 9 is Infant Death And Suicide. It warns against suicide. For Christ’s love (Romans 8:35-38) and peace (Philippians 4:7) is greater than our pain when we put Him first. Chapter 10 is The Dilemma. It explains what to do when you sin and feel discouraged in your faith. Chapters 11, 12, and 13 are Getting Off Balance, People Become Fanatics For A Cause, and God Doesn’t Need Us, We Need Him. They show how good works and social programs can lead to pride and a haughty attitude (Proverbs 16:18) when they’re not Spirit led. They also lead to a false sense of security. Chapter 14 is Growing In Faith. It shows how God humbles us to teach us to rely on Him. Chapter 15 is God Teaches Us. It explains why we can’t fight spiritual battles with carnal weapons. And how the Holy Spirit fights for us when we serve Christ.

Chapter 16 is Temptation. It comforts those dealing with severe temptation and shows how we can live above sin. Chapter 17 is Liberal Thinking. Contrary to popular belief, people are not basically good deep down inside (Jeremiah 17:9). That’s why we need to depend upon Christ. Chapter 18 is Judging The World. It contradicts church doctrine, which encourages a condescending attitude toward the world (John 3:17 and 1 Peter 4:17). This theme continues in Chapter 19, The Separation Process. It discusses a lesson the apostles learned about replacing arrogance with love.

Chapter 20 is The Love Of Material Blessings. It describes the heartbreak of Solomon as an old man. He realized how much he had lost spiritually by putting pleasure ahead of his walk with God. Chapter 21 is The Love Of Money. It shows how, even strong Christians, can stray away from Christ when they put money first (1 Timothy 6:10). Chapter 22 is Bad Role Models For Christ. It shows how those who put wealth first can bring scorn upon Christ. Chapter 23 is Idolatry. It describes how Christians can be led astray by sports, rock concerts, and any other obsessive activity.

Chapter 24 is Love of Self. It discusses how self-pity and fear can become stumbling blocks that can get in the way of a Christian’s relationship with God. And lastly, there is the Epilogue. It describes how this whole project began. And it invites the reader to come to the Lord for the first time or return to Him if they have strayed away.

Back to Table of Contents

Chapter One

The Holiness Of God

If you’re familiar with my ebook, Controversial Issues In The Church, you know that I am against the drinking of grape juice instead of real wine during Holy Communion. The reason why is because real wine has sterilizing ingredients in it that symbolize how Christ washes us free of sin. There’s a symbolism there. It’s not a matter of God being some big ogre in Heaven and saying, You’ve sinned and I don’t want you in Heaven. It is more involved than that. When the alcohol in wine comes in contact with a germ, it has a cleansing power to it that automatically destroys the germs. The two cannot have any kind of harmony together. It’s like when you bring a light into a room, it destroys the darkness. It’s an automatic thing. It’s symbolic of the very Presence of God that destroys evil. There’s no possible way that we could ever get into Heaven in our sinful state. Even the tiniest bit of sin would destroy us.

It’s not that God, like a human judge with a criminal, decides that someone is guilty and, therefore, must be incarcerate or executed. With God there’s no decision making process involved. God Almighty is holy, holy, holy. Therefore, it’s a natural process whereby just the mere Presence of God is enough to kill anything sinful in His midst. It’s the same way that in the Old Testament, if the High Priest had any sin in his life that had not been atoned for, and he went into ...a room called the Most Holy Place (Hebrews 9:3 NIV), where the Presence of God was, the Holy Spirit would kill him automatically. It wasn’t so much that God decided that this man’s been evil, so I’m going to kill him. It’s more of a scientific function that just the mere Presence of God was enough to burn up that which was evil.

It’s sort of like when fire comes in contact with something that’s flammable. It’s part of its nature to destroy that which is flammable. There are certain things that fire cannot destroy. God is also symbolized as Fire (Hebrews 12:29). He destroys that which is evil. But He purifies that which can survive and sustain the flame. That is those of us who persevere, who continue in the faith. Those who are strong enough in our relationship with God that we can survive the testing, the things that come upon us, the afflictions,