Become What You Believe

By Nokwenama Mzuzu James

From the time you become a Christian, the journey requires an intensive and constant learning, unlearning and relearning what you have been taught at church, by your family or society or self-taught. This will ensure you can know, hear and see what the Lord desires for you.

In Become what you believe, Nokwenama James provides some of the truths contained in God's Word, recollection of teachings and personal experiences and inspirations from the Lord Almighty. It is packaged to assist readers understand the truths anchoring the Christian faith; what the decision to receive Jesus Christ entails; build a personal relationship with the Lord and live a victorious life. Founded in her experiences, it is the information she wishes someone had told her when she became a Christian.

Become what you believe is designed to offer guidance to non-believers, the young, old, seasoned, inexperienced and confused Christians. The truths in God's Word as the foundational source, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ to carry through and the Holy Spirit, the revealer of all things, frames the discussions in this book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Nokwenama Mzuzu James
• Release date: Nov 24, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223964261

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Copyright © 2023 Nokwenama Mzuzu James

First edition 2023

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system without permission from the copyright holder.

The Author has made every effort to trace and acknowledge sources/resources/individuals. In the event that any images/information have been incorrectly attributed or credited, the Author will be pleased to rectify these omissions at the earliest opportunity.

Published by Nokwenama Mzuzu James using Reach Publishers’ services,

P O Box 1384, Wandsbeck, South Africa, 3631

Edited by Andrew Pender-Smith for Reach Publishers

Cover designed by Reach Publishers

Website: www.reachpublishers.org

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Nokwenama Mzuzu James

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Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognise what He wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

The Book of Romans 12:2, MSG

Prologue

Becoming a Christian and accepting Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour is one of the joyous moments in any individual’s life. Even the word of God confirms that there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents [that is, changes his inner self – his old way of thinking, regrets past sins, lives his life in a way that proves repentance; and seeks God’s purpose for his life].¹

From the time you decide to make the decision, you discover a God that is loving, faithful, graceful, forgiving, and merciful. John Wesley² describes his spiritual journey and personal encounter with God, as one that strangely warmed his heart. He explains, "I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death."

My own journey with the Lord began in 2007. I had recently accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Saviour. The love of God and His majestic presence captivated me. The scriptures in the Gospel, according to the Book of John 3:16, which says For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life, together with the word in the book of John 17:3, Now this is eternal life: that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent; are some of the scriptures that captivated my heart. From the two scriptures, I saw a loving and forgiving God, who wanted to have a personal relationship with His creation, me.

The idea that a God – the Creator of the heavens and earth, the mighty warrior – would love a mere human like me, was beyond my imagination. The Bible tells us that the Lord would speak to Moses face-to-face, as one speaks to a friend.³ I also wanted to know this God who loves us so much and experience this eternal life. I wanted to speak to Him just as a friend! Now that I have taken the decision to follow Christ and surrender my life to His Lordship, what next? What does this journey entail? How do I ensure I experience the fullness of life and all the Lord has set out for me in the promises of God? How do I have a personal relationship with God? How do I communicate with Him as a friend? These are some of the questions that raced through my mind as I navigated my faith walk. In scanning the Christian and religious landscape, I was filled with more confusion than answers.

The messages I was hearing about God, Christianity, and faith, were filled with negative connotations, and there were many misperceptions of what I was reading in the Bible. What caught my attention was that some of the conflicting messages about the gospel came from those standing at the pulpit, as well as from some of my interactions with the Christian community and non-believers. My interactions with people from other religions or belief systems, encouraged me to probe further the essence of my Christian belief and what it meant.

All my observations are not based on the point of ‘using a red pen’ for correction or passing judgement on any persons, teachings or opinions being shared. I was just simply confused and did not know what was going on! In hindsight, all this was for my benefit as it led me into having a very frank and honest conversation with the Lord.

Lord I am confused! You teach me You. You show me what You want me to do. You teach me the way that leads to You.

This prayer was the beginning of my faith journey, and it has led me to where I am and that includes writing this book to share with you insights on how to grow and strengthen your own relationship with the Creator. It is what the Apostle Paul describes as the ‘becoming’, in his instructions and advice to the Christian church of Corinth in the 1st Book of Corinthians 13:11. The becoming of your own relationship with the Lord, being bold and confident in your God and steadfast in your faith. This is about becoming true selves, ambassadors for Christ.

Today, many Christians are in the same position I was in a few years ago. It pains and frustrates me at the same time, to see Christians and even servants of the Lord go astray from His word and, in so doing, seeking various unsatisfactory things and ways of the world. They are carnally minded and entangled in ministry conflicts, theological or denominational arguments as well as the traditions and rituals of the church. In the end, they miss the mark, which is Christ.

The church is often silent on matters they should take a stand on... mainly because we do not know or are not confident about the truths in the word of the Lord and the empowerment the Spirit of truth gives us. It is those who keep quiet when evil is done that destroy the world. When we remain silent, the enemy gets to distort the message of truth and fill the world with negative perceptions about God and the Christian faith.

On whichever platform the walk of life has placed you, be it at home, school, offices of leadership, the marketplace and even within walls of prison, we all have a role to play in spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ in great efforts to win as many souls as possible for God.

Lastly, in the words of the Apostle Paul, as