Advice to a New Christian
My dear christian
friend,
Likewise, I say unto you,
there is joy in the presence of the angels of God
over one sinner that repents.
Luke 15:10 (KJV)
If you will humble yourselves under the
mighty hand of God,
in His good time he will lift you up.
{7} Let him have all your worries
and cares,
for he is always thinking about
you
and watching everything that concerns
you.
{8} Be careful--watch out for
attacks from Satan,
your great enemy.
He prowls around like a hungry, roaring
lion,
looking for some victim to tear apart.
{9} Stand firm when he attacks.
Trust the Lord;
and remember that other Christians all
around the world
are going through these sufferings too.
{10} After you have suffered a
little while,
our God, who is full of kindness through
Christ,
will give you his eternal glory.
He personally will come and pick you
up,
and set you firmly in place, and make
you stronger than ever.
{11} To him be all power over
all things, forever and ever. Amen.
1
Pet 5:6-11 (THE LIVING BIBLE)
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WELCOME TO THE BODY OF CHRIST
Praise God that you have
accepted His offer of forgiveness and salvation.
You have taken the first step in an eternal
walk with Jesus Christ.
You have been "born from above", your
past has been forgiven,
and Christ will never leave you nor forsake
you.
KNOW YOUR ENEMY
However, there is something important
you must know...
YOU HAVE A VICIOUS
AND POWERFUL ENEMY
HIS NAME IS SATAN
He is not all-powerful, like God
is.
He only is allowed to act by getting permission
from God...
and God only gives this permission in
a way that will ultimately benefit you .
You may undergo some suffering...all christians
do ....
but God always gives you His strength
to withstand it
in proportion to the severity of
the testing,
and Christ always is in your heart to
talk to and give you peace.
YOU ARE A PREFERRED
TARGET
In your life before Christ, satan did
everything he could
to bring you his brand of sinful pleasures
and escapes from God.
He blinded your eyes and stole any Bible
passages away from your mind
so that you would not come to Christ.
He
filled your eyes with lusting after sinful pleasures and riches of this world,
lied to you that there was no God or afterlife
or Hell.
and you and i were willing victims of his lies.
But now things are different.
You have been made into a new person by
the Holy Spirit.
Christ has come to live in your heart,
and wants to live His Life out through
you on earth.
Your old person, the one that had no power
to resist sin, is dead.
You have a new start, a new future, a
new source of strength,
because Jesus Christ lives in your heart.
And so Satan has changed his attitude
and his tactics with you.
You used to be his slave,
but now you are his enemy.
Whereas, before you had no power to say
"no" to sin... now you do.
Whereas, hopelessness, depression, guilt
and sin were a way of life,
now you have inner joy, peace meaning
and purpose.
Please understand that as a new Christian,
satan targets you for all kinds of discouragement
and depression,
and temptations, and then comes
around later
and accuses you of sinning and heaps guilt
upon you.
Satan doesnt play fair.
he's like a lion thinning out the herd
of antelope...
the lion seeks out the weakest one to
attack and kill.
he doesnt go after the strong leader of
the pack,
he attacks the young and defenseless and
lame.
that is where you are now...
relatively young, defenseless and unable
to walk strongly in the faith.
HOW DO YOU GAIN STRENGTH IN THE FAITH?
Satan cannot take away your salvation
it is too late for that.
The best he can do is make you discouraged,
lie to you,
fill your life with confusing and untrue
information about your faith,
and
get you to draw into your shell,
and become a non-witness for Christ...
I've seen it many times,
and it also happened to me when I was a young christian.
COOPERATE WITH GOD
Becoming
closer to the Lord
is a co-operative effort between you and God.
It happens on the inside...in your soul.
God wants to make you a special project
for spiritual growth,
but you have to do your part to take advantage
of what He provides.
OUT
WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW
Start
filling your eyes and mind with the Word of God.
Carry
your Bible with you at all times,
and make use of any spare moments in the day to read
it.
Even if it is 5 minutes while
sitting and waiting for something.
Remember and inwardly digest God's word.
Pray for wisdom from the
Holy Spirit to apply it to your life.
Memorize it by hand-copying
Bible verses into a notebook.
Then the Holy Spirit can bring it to your rememberance
at a later time,
and you can apply it to specific situations.
As you read the Word of God,
you will become aware of conflicts
between what you believed in the past,
and what God's Word is telling you now.
This is the time to decide to believe and follow God's
Word,
and throw your old ideas
from the world overboard.
Even if it means throwing
overboard some religious teachings
that you believed were true,
but now find that God's Word does not agree with them.
Use as many Bible helps as you need
to clarify what the Word
is really saying.
This includes using other translations, Greek and Hebrew
dictionaries,
topical Bibles, concordances,
study Bible cross references...
but stay away from using
just one author's commentary..
some author's have a particular
viewpoint to promote,
and it becomes subtly interwoven into their writings.
"in the
multitude of counsellors there is safety" (Prov 11:14)
In this regard, you must be ready
to go against the grain of the society
that you are in,
and be different.
because the world will not welcome you..
it will try to bring you down, and make
you forget about God.
Your
old friends will not want to be with you.
You will be ignored, insulted, falsely
accused, misunderstood, isolated...
but in the midst of all of that, you must
focus your attention on Jesus Christ,
who lives inside you now and will
never leave you or forsake you.
Getting closer to the Lord takes
setting aside some time every day to talk
to Him in prayer,
as He talks to you through the Bible.
Dont be in a hurry...
the time you invest in getting to know
Christ personally
will come back to you as increased maturity,
and stength and wisdom,
just
what you need to fend off the attacks of satan.
Although it may sound simple,
there is no substitute for time alone
with Jesus in prayer and worship.
THE PRESENCE
OF UNCONFESSED SIN
Another common problem for christians of all ages is unconfessed sin.
and if there is unconfessed
sin in your life...
name it, confess it to Him , and
resist doing it any more,
and allow Christ to cleanse your
inner self.
1 John 1:8-9 (KJV)
If we say that
we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in
us.
{9} If we confess our sins, he
is faithful and just to forgive us our sins,
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
And dont worry if you keep on sinning
the same sin....
the Lord told Peter that he should forgive
his brother 70 times 7 times...
a very large number for a Jewish fisherman....
and the Lord is prepared to forgive us
when we confess
even more times than that.
What will happen is that when you confess
and ask forgiveness,
then re-sin, then confess and ask forgiveness,
and re-sin, again and again....
eventually The Holy Spirit puts the conviction
into you that..
"this is something i need to totally stop
doing."
And the Holy Sprirt has done His
cleansing work in your heart.
THE
NEED FOR CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP
Also, start praying that God would bring
you into contact
with a christian friend that you can fellowship
and confide in.
Gen 2:18a (KJV)
And the LORD God said, It is not good
that the man should be alone...
and this applies to fellowship as well
as marriage.
this is true whether you are married or
not.
for a married person, your spouse, if
saved,
should be the primary choice for this intimate confidence.
If you are not married,
if you pray and ask the Lord to send someone
to fellowship with in this way,
He will do it..
because He knows the power of good fellowship
to encourage and strengthen you
in times of hardship and struggle.
Be aware of one of the greatest unrecognized
mysteries of the Christian life:
The
indwelling presence of Jesus Christ in your heart
in the person of the Holy
Spirit.
If you then be risen
with Christ,
seek those things
which are above,
where Christ sits
on the right hand of God.
for you are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
(Col 3:1-3)
..and
as Paul said...
I am crucified with
Christ: nevertheless I live;
yet not I, but Christ lives in me:
and the life which
I now live in the flesh
I live by the faith
of the Son of God,
who loved me, and
gave himself for me.
(Gal
2:20)
and as Jesus said...
Abide in me, and I in you.
As the branch cannot
bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine;
no more can you, except ye abide in me.
I am the vine,
you are the branches:
He that abides in
me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit:
for without
me you can do nothing.
If a man abide not in me,
he is cast out as
a branch, and is withered;
and men gather them,
and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
If ye abide in
me, and my words abide in you,
ye shall ask what
ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
(John
15:4-7)
(NOTE:
that in other places in scripture, the word "abide" also means
"-- continue, dwell, endure,
be present, remain, stand.")
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