3 Main Signs of a True Christian

If the 2 billion plus people who are classified as Christians were true Christians we would have a totally different world. We would have lesser number of very poor people, much lesser number of crimes, and an increasing number of people who make other people happy.

Unfortunately and very sadly too, most of the 2 billion or more who say they are Christians are false Christians. They are not true as they do not show the signs of a real Christian.

Worst Kind of Counterfeit

We have fake money bills, fake documents, fake transcripts of records, fake certificates, fake signatures. But the worst and most dangerous counterfeit is not money or document but a fake Christian. The reason is because a fake Christian can create havoc not just in the banks or in employment but in all the sectors of society.

It was fake Christians who have been waging wars all through these centuries, including the two world wars, putting to death millions of human beings.

To recognize who these fake Christians are we need to know the signs of a true Christian. There are three main signs.

Signs of a True Christian

First, the true Christian is one who is no longer seeking for something in this world to save himself or make himself happy. If you have been to an Easter Party with an Easter egg, you would know what I mean.

In an Easter Party where the people search for the Easter egg you see children and adults walking around, searching for the coveted Easter egg, a colored egg hidden in furniture, in grass, in other places around the venue of the party. They keep on looking for this Easter egg until it is found. Most of the time there are many of such egg and people look for more and more of them, until the moderator of the game tells the partying people that the total number of Easter eggs have been found.

That is what most people do. They are looking for something that can make them happy. Some people think that this is found in money and more money, and so they acquire more of this. Others think that this is found in having three good meals a day, a sturdy roof over their head, and a set of comfortable clothes. So they work for these from day to day. Still others think that they can find happiness in honor. So they search for ways and means to become celebrities, whether at school, in the movie industry or in politics or in other areas.

First Sign: Having Found What She Has Been Looking For

The true Christian has found genuine happiness and knows where she has found this, in an encounter with God in Christ. This encounter happens when she has heard personally the word of God spoken to her and she has responded accordingly. Without this personal experience of God addressing oneself there is no real Christian.

In the case of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, he had this personal encounter when he heard God personally speaking to him through a preacher, “Look unto me . . .” from Isaiah 45:22.

In the case of Therese Martin, she heard the personal word of God when she read Proverbs 9:4, “Whoever is a little one, let him come to me.”

This personal experience with the word of God is not something reserved to the saints or great Christians. This is the necessary experience of every true Christian. This makes the person discover where true happiness lies, in Christ and in him alone.

Because of this experience, the true Christian stops looking for something to truly satisfy her thirst for happiness. She has found it and it shows in her life. She does not come and go here and there searching for something to make her happy. She has found happiness and it shows in her demeanor.

Second Sign: Constant Learner of the Christ

The second main sign of a true Christian is that she is learning about the Christ. And this shows in her thoughts and in her words.

A simple but very correct definition of a Christian is that she is a learner of the Christ, because the basic meaning of “disciple” in Greek is “learner”. If a Christian is a disciple of Christ, then she is a learner. She learns something of the Christ every day.

To do this she has a book or a string of beads to meditate on the life and works of the Christ. And she does this not because she has been told to do so by a teacher in religion or Bible study group. She does this because she loves Christ and she wants to know more about him. This is done on a daily basis, not once in a while.

This second sign of a true Christian disqualifies almost all those who even go to church daily or once a week to be called real Christians. This is because they are content with going to church daily or once a week and never advance in their personal knowledge of the Christ.

The third sign of a true Christian is something that Jesus himself said was the true sign of his followers. And this sign is something that cannot be faked. It is so simple and yet it cannot be produced by mere human effort. It is produced by God in us and through us. Unless this sign is clear in our lives we cannot say that we are real Christians.

The Third Sign: Love

But is it not just a wishy-washy kind of love. It is love that endures through death and even beyond death. It is not a fine feeling for the person next to you whom you happen to like.

Beyond love of God and love of neighbor, this is love of other true Christians. The true Christian senses a deep affinity with other true Christians, an affinity stronger than family ties. And she loves the other true Christians not with her human love but with the love of Christ himself.

Now, how is this love of Christ himself for the other true Christians shown so that other people can see it? It is shown by caring unto the uttermost, just as Jesus cared for that person to the uttermost.

These are the three main signs of a true Christian: 1) The true Christian no longer is looking for something to make her happy; she has found what makes her totally happy through a personal encounter with the Word of God. 2) The true Christian learns about the Christ daily. She discovers something new about the Christ everyday. And she keeps on learning about the Christ. 3) The true Christian has a genuine love for the other true Christians, a love that comes from Jesus himself, shown by caring for the other Christians to the uttermost.

It is not baptism nor any other sacrament, nor doing good deeds to our fellow men, nor going to church and performing religious or church activities that tell others we are true Christians. It is sense of total happiness radiating around us, a continuous desire to learn more of the Christ, and genuine Christ’s love for the other true Christian that tell others we are true Christians.

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Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritworld for knowing more about spirituality or spiritual realities

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.

Most Intriguing of the Spiritual Gifts

There is one spiritual gift that has intrigued me, or has aroused a great interest or curiosity on my part. And I am writing about it here in the hope that others who have experienced this gift may give an explanation of why this happens and how this happens. It seems that the why is more easily answered than the how.

Spiritual gifts are necessary for our spiritual development. They are abilities or functions given by the Spirit for the spiritual development of individuals as well as of the Church. What they are depends on how we look at these gifts.

Kinds of Spiritual Gifts

There are so called charismatic gifts such as speaking in tongues or other languages, interpretation of tongues, healing, etc.

There are also function gifts like the gift of being an apostle, an evangelist, a teacher, a giver, etc.

Still there are other spiritual gifts which are not included under the first two categories I have mentioned, such as the gift of celibacy, the gift of interpreting dreams, the gift of voluntary poverty, etc.

The gift that I am going to discuss now is not enumerated explicitly in the Bible but it is described there. It is being talked in a way by some people but it is not explicitly what I am going to describe here. Some people talk of the multiplying of seeds or of one’s net worth. But the gift I refer to is the multiplying of things, like the multiplication of bread and fish in the story of the Gospels.

The Gift of Multiplying Things

We read in the Gospels that Jesus multiplied bread and fish on two occasions. In the Old Testament we read that God rained manna on the desert for the Israelites to eat. In this sense God multiplied food also.

But most of us or rather none of us have seen food being multiplied before our very eyes. I say “none of us” until we hear reports that indeed food has multiplied before somebody’s physical eyes.

I am intrigued by this gift of multiplying things, which gift or power Jesus had in the multiplication of the bread and fish, because it has happened to me on certain occasions but this was never under the control of my will. It just happened without my willing or even desiring it.

Instances of Multiplication

In 1982 I was eating a plate of rice when I noticed after 15 minutes of eating that the rice was still of the same quantity. The cooked rice had multiplied before my eyes. I did not will it. I did not desire it. There was plenty of rice in the rice cooker, but the one on my plate multiplied. That happened only once. But who knows, it may happen again.

But it is not only food that multiplies. Money also multiplies. The amount involved is small but it is real. It multiplies usually when I need a certain amount, just enough for a bus fare, for example. I put a certain bill into my pocket for fare. I go out and ride a bus. I pay the conductor with that bill. I return the change to my pocket. Then I notice the bill of money is still there, the same amount.

This happens not only once but several times already.

The intriguing thing here is that I cannot will this multiplication. I do not even pray for it. It just happens.

The Why and How of the Gift of Multiplication

Why does it happen, this multiplying of things like food or small amounts of money? One answer is that it happens because a person needs it.

But how does it happen? Frankly I do not know. We know of certain processes of multiplication, like the multiplication of prints by carbon copying or Xerox machines, the copying of pictures and sounds by tapes and other storage devices. But we do not yet how actual things, like food or money, multiply without the intervention of machines.

Theoretically nothing is impossible, but why do some possible things become actual and others are not actualized is a subject science or religion will have to tell us later on. Until then, you can tell us about your experience on this matter.

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Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritworld for knowing more about spirituality or spiritual realities

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.

Critique of the Ways to Finance Evangelization

When you read the articles on evangelism or evangelization on paper and in the Internet you are given the impression that this work is not done effectively or not done at all. Time and again writers say that this is the most important work of the Church and yet it is the most neglected work of all.

A reason for this is that people give to this work only what they can spare extra after their personal, family and social needs are taken care of.

Today I present the ways to finance evangelization and make a critique of each one of them. In this way I hope to elaborate on my answer to the question why evangelism is the most neglected work of the churches.

1. The Way of Almsgiving

This is the usual way of supporting any church activity, including evangelism or evangelization. (Note on the usage of these two terms: Evangelism is the term preferred by non-Catholic western Christians, like the Protestant groups. Evangelization is the term preferred by Catholics. Some see different meanings in these words. I would say that the basic meaning is the same: announcing the good news of salvation to those who have not yet appropriated personally its meaning.)

The way of almsgiving is giving some amount to the collection plate or bag or basket as it is being passed around in church. Some give much, others give little, still others give none. Some people give a sizable amount if they thought the sermon was a very good one. If the sermon did not move them at all they would give only a little or none at all.

My Critique: This is the least effective way of financially supporting evangelism. It is up to the whims of the church goers how much they are going to give. Furthermore only a very small portion of the collection is spent on direct evangelism. Most of the amount is for the upkeep of the church and its ministers.

2. The Way of Special Funding

The church puts up a special second collection, or a bingo, or a dinner for a cause or a raffle or whatever gimmick. This is all to raise funds for a church activity, including evangelization or missions.

Critique: This way raises some sizable amount but it is seasonal. After the special funding is over and the amount raised is spent on the project the church is back to zero for its projects. This generates a good amount but it is temporary. Evangelism however is not a temporary work of the church. It is its perennial business. In fact it is the business most worthy of supporting.

3. The Way of Tithing

This is giving ten percent to the support of the church, its ministers and its activities. Some churches monitor their members whether 10 percent is really given to them; others leave it to the good will of the members, encouraging them to give the full ten percent. Some churches even warn their members that not giving the full ten percent is stealing from God because this portion does not belong to them but to God himself. Some church members give more than 10 percent.

Critique: This way does generate a good amount of money which comes in regularly and is less dependent on the satisfaction of the listeners to the ministers’ sermon. But still I notice that even the collected tithes are never enough for funding the activities the church wants to do. There are other collections made.

4. The Way of Donations

This includes love gifts, bequests by church members, endowment funds, etc.

Critique: This generates a good amount but it is totally dependent on the good will of the donor and on the ability of the church personnel to convince donors to give donations. They cannot be relied upon regularly.

5. The Way of Investments

Some churches do invest funds. Some even have people in the stock market trading stocks and securities.

Critique: This is akin to gambling. The churches doing this can go into debts and more debts.

There are other ways perhaps that I have not mentioned. But the general critique of all these ways is that they are not ways with the express purpose of providing constant funding for evangelism.

Jesus said, For where your heart is, there will your treasure be also. Our heart is not really in evangelism because we do not put our treasure there. We put it to supply our personal, family and social needs first, and evangelism only second or last.

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Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritworld for knowing more about spirituality or spiritual realities

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.

Removing the Obstacle to the Spread of Genuine Christianity

The 788 and more plans to evangelize the world from the beginning of Christianity, documented by Barrett and Reapsome in their book SEVEN HUNDRED PLANS TO EVANGELIZE THE WORLD, have not successfully fulfilled the great Commission of spreading genuine, as opposed to nominal, Christianity.

Reason for Failure in Evangelization

Why? The reason is because we have this mentality of giving to the task of spreading real Christianity only what is extra, what we can spare after deducting what we require for our personal, family and social needs from our earnings. That is the obstacle to the accomplishment of the task of spreading genuine Christianity around the world in our generation.

And how do we remove this obstacle? Simply, by getting rid of this mentality and putting in its stead the attitude that this task is the most important work of our life and that it deserves all our finances.

But how do we do this in practice?

Failure of Attempts at Evangelizing Work

Those who enter the religious order or congregation do give all their earnings to their respective order or congregation. They do not withhold anything for their personal, family or social needs. They left their families, so they see no obligation to support them, except in very specific circumstances of dire need. Their personal needs, like food, clothing and shelter, are taken care of by their religious group or order. And their social needs, like recreation and personal interrelationships, are also taken care of by the order or congregation.

The question now is: By their giving of all their earnings to the order or congregation have they done what they should do to fulfill the great commission? Certainly not. Many nominal Christians still live even just outside the confines of their monasteries or religious houses. Perhaps they themselves are still nominal Christians.

They give all and yet the work is still not done. What happens is that the funds are devoted to the well being and spread of the order or congregation and not to the spread of the good news.

Let us take another case. There are church and para-church organizations which purportedly exist to fulfill the great commission. There are hundreds of them. Almost all Christians have come across some of them, like Campus Crusade for Christ, The Navigators, Overseas Missionary Fellowship International, etc. These organizations are spending millions of dollars for their ministries. The crucial question is: Have they successfully fulfilled the great commission? The answer of Barrett and Reapsome in the book I cited is that they are nowhere near the target of fulfilling that great commission.

Why? A sizable amount of the donations they receive goes into meeting their personal, family and social needs instead of being spent for the spread of the good news.

Notice the websites of these organizations, they have a button for donations. Almost all of these organizations think that the donations contribute to the spread of the good news. If we investigate this carefully, the opposite is true. Those donations hinder the spread of the good news. I learned this the hard way.

There is the mentality even among Christians that organizations can do more than individuals. If one person can tell 10 other persons about the good news an organization of 100 persons can do more than that one person, maybe more than 100 times. They tend to forget that after a while the purpose of that organization will be to maintain itself in existence.

The only practical solution I see in this is for individuals who are convinced of fulfilling this great commission to work and earn something for the explicit purpose of funding their ministry, like what Paul of Tarsus did.

The objection we often hear is that the minister of evangelization or evangelism would be more fruitful if he devotes all his time to the ministry and others enable him to do this by giving him their tithes or love gifts. But as we can see this objection is not really valid. A greater percentage of what is given to this minister goes to his personal, family and social needs, instead of being spent for the spread of the good news.

Removing This Obstacle

If we are going to be really serious in spreading genuine Christianity we have to give all that we earn to this task, saving only a little amount for our sustenance.

When Christians are spiritually awakened from their centuries’ sleep in missions we shall have an ever widening spread of genuine Christianity among us. It is indeed a long overdue time for spiritual awakening.

Click Here!

Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritworld for knowing more about spirituality or spiritual realities

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.

The Obstacle To The Spread Of Genuine Christianity

In 1988 there have been 788 plans to evangelize the world from the beginning of Christianity. These plans were documented by Barrett and Reapsome in their book SEVEN HUNDRED PLANS TO EVANGELIZE THE WORLD.

Today 22 years later it is possible that there have been already more than 1,000 plans to evangelize the world, an increase of 212 more plans from the publication of that book.

And yet the conclusion of Barrett and Reapsome in their book on page 66 is still very true and very sadly so: We have not yet fulfilled the great Commission of spreading Christianity as we should.

Why? Why have we failed in spreading genuine Christianity around the world?

The Obstacle: Giving Only What Is Extra

There is one obstacle which has not been seen by almost all Christian leaders. This is the obstacle I want to discuss in this article.

This obstacle is most clearly described in an advertisement of a Church for getting funds to support its projects.

The advertisement airs a conversation between two elementary kids. One says that he will spend this much for transportation to and back from the school, another amount for snacks, then finally there is an extra 3 cents which he will give to the project of the church.

The second kid asks, What can 3 cents do for that project? It is too small an amount.

And the first kid retorts, If these 3 cents are combined with other 3 cents they can do a lot; they can save lives.

That is the advertisement. The Church that puts up this advertisement hopes to generate a sizable amount for its projects, like evangelization.

And that is the weakness of almost all the plans to evangelize the world, to spread genuine Christianity around the world. They rely on funds that are the extra or what is left behind after personal, family and social needs are met.

In 1977 100 billionaires from the United States of America bankrolled a project called Here’s Life World. Indeed those billionaires gave a lot, but still it was the extra amount they could afford to foot the bill of that project. What was the result of this project? By the end of 1980 which was its target date it had not even increased genuine Christians by a 10 percent in population. It was a failure.

Why? Because the funds used for the project were only the extra that those billionaires could spare for such a project.

The obstacle to the spread of genuine Christianity is our mentality in giving to the project of spreading real Christianity all around us. We give only to the project what is extra, what we can spare after deducting from our earnings for our personal, family and social needs.

Give It Your All

If we are going to be really serious in spreading genuine Christianity we have to give all that we earn for this project, saving only a little amount for our sustenance.

The best example is still Paul the Apostle. He worked as a tent maker. The reason why he worked as a tent maker was not to meet his personal, family and social needs. The reason was in order that he would have something to spend for his mission of spreading Christianity among the non-Jews of his day. And he succeeded in a most outstanding manner.

When Christians are spiritually awakened from their centuries’ sleep in missions we shall have an ever widening spread of genuine Christianity among us. It is indeed a long overdue time for spiritual awakening.

Click Here!

Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritworld for knowing more about spirituality or spiritual realities

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.

A Cure For That Infamous Decree

When we commit a mistake and we realize that we have committed such a mistake the sensible thing to do is to correct our mistake. And we usually do this immediately in order to offset the committing of more mistakes.

But there are mistakes which seem to resist correction not only for days but even for centuries. This resistance to correction is made by men who are supposed to have scientific knowledge of the mistake made.

The Mistake in Astronomy

Take the case of the teaching about the movement of the earth and the sun. From 150 A.D. (and even before this by Aristotle and his followers) it was taught by scientists and learned men of the Church that the earth was a stationary planet in the center of the universe and the other planets and the sun revolved around it. It is obvious to us now that this is not true. You remember this as the Ptolemaic theory of the solar system. This was corrected in 1543, more than 13 centuries later, by Copernicus but his correction was not accepted by the scientists of his day. In 1616 Galileo tried to prove that Copernicus was correct but instead of accepting this correction he was condemned by the Inquisition and remained until his death under house arrest. More centuries followed before the Church leaders accepted the correction of Galileo and acknowledged their mistake. This was done by John Paul II on October 31, 1992. He acknowledged that the church leaders had committed a mistake and correction was to be made about this.

A Greater Mistake Than That in Astronomy

But there is a mistake more serious than that committed by the church leaders on the case of Galileo. It is a mistake with more disastrous consequences not just for science and scientists but for ordinary people like you and me. And billions of people have suffered because of this mistake. And this mistake has not yet been corrected by the church leaders or by the successors of those who committed this mistake.

I am referring to that infamous decree made by the Roman emperor Theodosius on February 27, 380 making Christianity the official religion of the Roman empire. This was a most tragic mistake, the worst that any emperor made, because it involved falsifying the teachings of Jesus. And yet this mistake has not been corrected yet, after more than 1,600 years.

No church leader nor successor of the Emperor Theodosius has come out and publicly acknowledged that this decree was a tragic mistake and needs to be corrected.

Stages in Correcting This Disastrous Mistake

The first stage in the cure for this infamous decree then is to convince the church leaders, even the successor of Emperor Theodosius as Pontifex Maximus (one of the titles of the Roman Pope), to come up with a public acknowledgement of the mistake made, just like what John Paul II did in the case of Galileo.

This revocation of that decree would release all those who were made Christians by that decree from all their obligations. They would be given a chance to start all over again or deny Christianity as their religion.

The second stage in the cure is to put back the practice of the catechumenate and improve it. Some churches have already done this, the most successful that I know of is that of the Church of Christ founded by Felix Manalo in the Philippines. Before a person is received into this Church he has to undergo 28 lessons in the fundamental doctrines of the Church, then he has to attend 15 weeks of group prayer meetings before he can be screened for baptism.

The third stage in the cure is to follow up on new members to make sure that they develop in their spiritual life.

In this time of spiritual awakening when more and more persons in all churches are spiritually awakened and there is uneasiness and spiritual hunger for genuine Christianity—and the signs of a spiritual awakening are all around us—we need to wake up spiritually and see where have our church leaders committed mistakes and convince them to correct these mistakes.

Only when the mistake about that infamous decree of Theodosius has been corrected and cured will we have the beginnings again of real genuine Christianity spreading among us.

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Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritworld for knowing more about spirituality or spiritual realities

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.

7 Obstacles To Genuine Christianity

Why do we have very few genuine Christians? Why do we have countries which are populated mostly by Christians and yet their crime rate and human rights abuses are also one of the highest in the world?

This is because there are so many obstacles to the making of genuine Christians. I mention 7 in this article.

When people are on the process of spiritual awakening they can see more clearly these obstacles to genuine Christianity. When they are spiritually awakened, they try to get rid of these obstacles. This is because they have that uneasiness and spiritual hunger for genuine spirituality. As we experience these signs of a spiritual awakening we wake up spiritually and face these obstacles with courage and summon the strength to get rid of them.

The first obstacle is something that was done a long time ago but whose effect has gone down through the centuries reaching us and we do not know for how long this obstacle will still oppose genuine Christianity. This obstacle is the decree of the Roman emperor Theodosius promulgated on February 27, 380 making Christianity the official religion of the Roman empire, thus outlawing all other religions.

Because of this decree thousands upon hundreds of thousands of people became Christians without really knowing what Christianity was. In other words the Church was infiltrated, nay inundated, by nominal Christians. This situation persists today.

The second obstacle was the abandonment of the catechumenate, the process lasting for 3 years whereby adults were educated in the Christian faith before baptism. This was compounded by the baptism of infants. There would have been no problem even with infant baptism if the catechumenate was faithfully followed. But it was not so. People were baptized who did not know what they were going into and infants grew up without being educated in the Christian faith. The result has been the increase in the number of nominal Christians.

Today there is a program of catechumenate for adults and some kind of post-baptismal catechumenate but the genuine catechumenate producing genuine Christians is no longer implemented.

The third obstacle is the idea being floated around that to be a Christian all you need to do is to be a good person in your respective church. If you believe in the teaching of your church and you follow its ordinances and rituals, then you are a Christian. Crusades upon crusades have been conducted to disabuse people of this idea, but this idea persists among the members of the churches and even among non-members of Christian churches.

The fourth obstacle is the idea also being floated around that all you need to be a Christian is to be baptized. This is especially common among Catholics. They think that by having their babies baptized they have been turned into Christians. This is a misunderstanding of the ex opere operato (literally "from the work having been worked") doctrine of the Catholic Church. This doctrine states that if a sacrament is validly administered then it effects what it is supposed to effect, even if the one who administers the sacrament is a great sinner. When we apply this to baptism, it means that if the baptism is validly administered, then the effect of the sacrament is there, the grace of God is given. But it does not mean that by the mere fact of baptism the one baptized is a genuine Christian. It only means that the grace of baptism is given to the one baptized.

The fifth obstacle to genuine Christianity is related to the one mentioned above. It is the preoccupation of Christian leaders with the externals like church building, church attendance, paintings, sculptures, shrines, etc. The time devoted to these things takes them away from the time to be devoted to the essentials of Christianity: living the life of Christ, preaching what he has done, teaching his character and attitudes, etc.

The sixth obstacle is the neglect of the spiritual life. This is partly due to the fact that most people still think that the human being is composed of body and soul only. They do not think of the spirit as an essential component of the human person. They think that the soul and the spirit are the same. When you do not think that the human person has also a spirit you will not care about the spirit, since you think it is non-existing or is the same as the soul.

The seventh obstacle to genuine Christianity is the imposition of one’s interpretation of Scripture on others. Teachers of the Bible forget that the Scripture is rich in meanings and cannot be exhausted. So, different churches are built on different interpretations of the Scriptures. This is an obstacle to genuine Christianity because it gives the impression that Christians cannot agree or cannot be tolerant on certain points of the Scripture. Christianity then becomes a following of this or that interpretation of Scripture rather than of living the life Christ, which is what genuine Christianity is.

These obstacles continue to oppose genuine Christianity. Until when? We do not know. But until these obstacles are gotten rid of we will continue to have very few genuine Christians.

Click Here!

Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritworld for knowing more about spirituality or spiritual realities

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.

Effecting or Implementing Genuine Christianity

In times like these when people are searching for something that they can depend on, when the lure of materialism has so miserably disappointed them, when everywhere people are looking for something that works, Christians and even non-Christians are looking for genuine Christians. How then do we effect or implement genuine Christianity so that we shall have genuine Christians around us?

There have been many books written and programs designed to supposedly effect or implement genuine Christianity. But the impact of the ideas in these books and of the activities in these programs seems to be negligible when viewed from a wider perspective. They have not really made the impression that here at last is something that works and works well, is surely effective in the making of a genuine Christian, anywhere, in whatever condition of life, in rich or poor countries, in the northern or in the southern part of the world.

I propose 5 steps in the effecting or implementing of genuine Christianity.

Step 1. Live Christ. This is most basic and most essential and yet is missing in our programs. These programs want and teach Christ to be the center of life, but nowhere can we read in Scripture that Jesus wants to be the center of our life. He is our life, not the center of it. Paul the Apostle said, For me to live is Christ. He did not say that Christ was the center of his life.

Remember that illustration of a circle where Christ represented by the cross is at the center? And the Ego or I is down below him? This was supposed to be the image of a spiritual Christian, where Christ is the center of life and all the other details of a person’s life revolves around him. This kind of Christianity where Christ is only one of the elements of our life, although supposed to be the most important and in the center, cannot effect genuine Christianity.

The life that can effect genuine Christianity is a life not just Christ-centered but Christ-lived. Jesus lives through and through that life and is not just its center.

And how is the life of Christ effected? We go to step 2.

Step 2 is pray Christ. We do not say pray to Christ. We do not even say pray with Christ. What I mean is pray Christ, pray the Christ prayer, the prayer of Jesus as he prays to the Father. Jesus is the one who is the central person who prays. His principal work now is prayer. We are in him, we realize that we are praying him, we are praying his prayer. This is not a five times a day or even fifty times a day prayer. Just as Christ prays always we always pray. Sure we go to special times of prayer, but even outside of these times we still pray. We pray when we sleep, when we rise up, when we prepare for work, when we go to work, when we rest, etc. Our whole day is a day of prayer in Christ. The Spirit of Jesus enables us to pray the prayer of Christ always, throughout the day and night.

Step 3. Preach Christ. Do not just preach something about him. Preach him and what he did. Announce to the world and all who he is, describe him and his wonderful, lovable qualities. Preach him as one who is not just a figure of history but as the great Presence at the present time, as the person most interested about us and them.

Listen to preachers who preach Christ and him crucified. Nowadays with the Internet you can choose your preacher, you can choose your personal pastor. Just beware of impostors. There are plenty of them.

Step 4. Teach Christ. Again it is not enough to teach about him. Teach him. Discuss him with other Christians. Let others talk of him. Draw out the opinions of others about him and lead them to what the Scriptures say of him. Most of all do not teach morality, that people are supposed to follow this and that commandment. This is Phariseeism and Jesus condemned it in no uncertain terms.

Learn from teachers who teach Christ and not their own ideas. You can find them in the Internet. Again be wary of fake teachers of the Christ.

Step 5. Serve Christ. When you help somebody be aware that it is Christ you are helping, not just this person with his need. Jesus has identified himself with all of humanity, and when you serve a member of that humanity, you are serving Christ.

And let Christ serve. As you live his life he wants to serve others through you. Allow him to do just that. Then the ones you are serving will feel the love of Christ.

When these steps are done we shall have a real spiritual awakening as more and more Christians are spiritually awakened and aware of what genuine Christianity is. There are indeed signs of a spiritual awakening around us as people have this uneasiness and spiritual hunger for the real kind of Christianity.

Click Here!

Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritworld for knowing more about spirituality or spiritual realities

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.

Seven Indicators of a Genuine Christian

Spiritual development is a necessity in genuine Christianity. This is because genuine Christianity is a live organism. And any live organism needs to grow, to develop. Genuine Christianity develops spiritually.

Genuine Christianity can be distinguished from its counterfeit, nominal Christianity, by certain indicators. I give seven here.

How To Distinguish the Genuine from the Nominal Christian

If you do not have the Spirit of Jesus it is impossible to distinguish between a genuine Christian and a nominal Christian. Both may speak the same language, dress in the same way, go to the same church, perform the same religious activities, play the same sport, live in the same neighborhood or subdivision.

But one is alive—the genuine Christian, in the life of the Spirit. The other is dead—the nominal one. The first is heading to the joys of heaven, the latter to the torments in hell.

How To Use These Indicators

The following indicators therefore are not external criteria by which we can segregate the genuine Christians from the nominal ones. They are indicators which we can reflect upon and search within ourselves to discern whether we are genuine or nominal Christians.

Of course, the elements in these indicators naturally and normally surface in the lives of people who are genuine Christians. But again their manifestations can be imitated by the ingenious nominal Christian.

For example, we may think that a person who devotes one hour every day faithfully in praying while kneeling in a church has a personal, growing love for Jesus. Such may be very deceptive. It may be true that indeed he has a personal, growing love for Jesus. It may also be true, as Jesus once commented, that he is pretending to pray long prayers in the hope of devouring the houses of widows. The Pharisees were performing long prayers but Jesus told us they were not following him; they rejected him.

While it is true that there are millions of Christians who are satisfied and comfortable with their nominal Christianity, there are a few though who sense that their lives lack something which they may not be able to pinpoint out or even vaguely describe. For these few the indicators described here may help them reflect on their lives and motivate them to search how to live a genuine Christian life.

It may also happen that a nominal Christian reading these indicators may come to the realization that what he has been presuming all along his life, namely, that he is a real Christian, is an illusion. Upon knowing this he may want to move from nominal to genuine Christianity.

These indicators are to be taken as an integrated whole set of indicators, not each one separately. If an indicator is missing, most probably the person is not a genuine Christian.

The Seven Indicators

1. The person has experienced God speaking to him personally, either through a preacher, a book, or other circumstance.

2. The person has experienced listening to an explanation of the Bible or reading it such that he felt his mind was opened. His reaction is: Now I know, whereas before I did not realize this was the meaning. If he is literate he has experienced a thirst for reading God’s word. If he is non-literate he has experienced a thirst for listening to the reading of God’s word.

3. The genuine Christian has a personal, growing love for the person of Jesus the Christ, talking with him with more and more time of his day.

4. He has a certain or sure conviction of the forgiveness of his sins, whether past, present or future. He has no fear of being punished for his sins, either past, present or future sins.

5. He has a complete distrust in his works as a means of pleasing God.

6. He has a deep and growing love for other genuine Christians and he seeks out their company.

7. He has a compassionate love for the non-Christians and the nominal Christians and desires to bring them to genuine Christian life.

Click Here!

Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritworld for knowing more about spirituality or spiritual realities

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.

Why Most Christians Are Nominal Christians

Spiritual development in our churches can be gauged by the extent to which their members have become genuine Christians. But as this article will show, most Christians or members of these churches are just nominal Christians.

According to current statistics there are more or less 2 billion Christians in the world. That is one third of the world’s population. These belong to different churches, denominations or religious groups. If all of these were genuine Christians we would not be in a mess of so much poverty, crimes, violence and environmental degradation.

The problem is that most of these so-called Christians are only nominal, not genuine. They have not even begun so much as an inch in their spiritual development.

Meaning of Nominal Christians

They are nominal because they are Christians in name only. A majority of them are called Christians because they were christened or baptized. Others consider themselves Christians because they were born of Christian parents and/or were dedicated by their parents in the church. Still others think that they are Christians because besides having been baptized they go to a Christian church for worship and have prayed the prayer to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior.

They are also nominal Christians because their leaders may not have realized that they themselves are also nominal Christians. Thinking that they are real Christians, they think that their followers are also real Christians.

There have been many attempts to make these nominal Christians into genuine Christians but the effectiveness of these attempts have been very minimal.

Why? Why are the results minimal?

Reasons Why Most Christians Are Nominal

I give three reasons for this state of affairs. There may be more.

Reason 1 is that most Christians are satisfied with nominal Christianity. This kind of Christianity is enough for their classification in the census of their government, in their day to day lives, in getting their marriage license and contract, in enrolling their children in school, in applying for a job, in dying and getting burial services in the church. Since they are already satisfied with this kind of Christianity, they do not see the need of improving upon it or of making it genuine.

Reason 2 is that the Christian leaders who realize that most Christians are only nominal do not fully know how genuine Christians are formed and how different they are from nominal Christians. They just keep on hoping that by their homilies or preaching, by Sunday schools or catechism classes or seminars before the administration of the sacraments or by their theology or religious studies subjects in school (now called mostly values education), by small group Bible studies or in their various church related organizations, their followers will become genuine Christians. They think that nominal Christianity and genuine Christianity exist in a continuum, from the most nominal Christianity to the most genuine Christianity with intermediary grades or levels between these extremes of the continuum.

These leaders do not realize that the difference between nominal and genuine Christianity is not one of degree but of kind. The one is not real, it is zero. The other is real, it has a positive content, at least 1, so to speak.

Reason 3 is that most who desire to lead others to genuine Christianity do not know how this is effectively done, in a way that there are substantial and lasting results. Look at this example.

A crusade is organized in a nominally Christian locality. The leaders and followers of different cooperating churches and denominations work out the whole crusade, from the scheduling, the choice of and invitation to an evangelist, the preparation for the venue, etc., up to the publicity of the crusade and daily prayers for the success of the crusade.

The crusade is done on schedule. Hundreds profess to receive Christ as Lord and Savior and are channeled to local churches for baptism and discipleship training. The newly professed now populate the local churches and they remain there or go back to their former churches or just drop from both.

For a while the locality experiences a positive change. Fewer people get drunk at night, more attendance in churches is observed, fewer acts of criminality occur. After several months or a year or two conditions become “normal” again: increasing number of crimes and stable or declining numbers in church attendance.

Genuine Christianity has not really invaded that locality. There was only a facelift of nominal Christianity. Sure, some lives here and there are drastically changed. A former gambler now becomes a student of the Bible and he will become a preacher soon. A prostitute now stops her trade and becomes a choir member. But the impact on the society as a whole is minimal.

Jesus came to give us genuine Christianity, not nominal Christianity.

When we have a constantly increasing number of spiritually developed Christians, we will have genuine Christianity. Spiritual development is our need as Christians.

Click Here!

Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritworld for knowing more about spirituality or spiritual realities

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.

Free and Full Christian Service

The Spirit of God leads us to prayer and to his written word in order to develop us spiritually. There is one more thing that he uses to finalize, so to speak, his work of spiritual development in us. And this is free and full Christian service. He leads us to serve others freely and with all the powers and resources he has put in us for this work.

The Purpose of the Miracles

If we read the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles we notice that Jesus and his disciples served other people’s needs. They healed the sick, raised the dead, cast out demons, feed the hungry, gave drink to those who were in the marriage feast, and so forth. These are usually termed as miracles.

When we were studying the Christian religion we were taught that these miracles were done to prove that Jesus was God. And because many today already believe that Jesus is God, we were taught that God had made his point clear through the miracles he once performed and therefore there is no need anymore for miracles during our time. People already believe that he is God and there is no need for Jesus to prove to these people that he is God by miracles.

Such a view does not understand the real purpose of the so-called miracles. They forget that if Jesus’ primary purpose in performing those miracles were to prove that he was God, then he was using only those people upon whom he performed the miracles. Such cannot be the case. Jesus does not use people, he loves them.

The real purpose of the so-called miracles was to help people, to serve them.

Miracles Were Done by Jesus as Man

Secondly, this view forgets the fact that Jesus performed these miracles not by his divine power, but because as man he trusted in God. He again and again called himself “son of man” to tell us that he was truly man. And Paul tells us that he left the form of God and became as fully human as we are except in the matter of sin. He was sinless because he obeyed God in everything.

It was by faith that he performed all those miracles. That is why he told us that if we have faith we can also perform what he performed, and greater than those which he did.

Jesus’ Followers Continued the Work of Helping Others

When Jesus left the earth physically the Apostles carried on the ministry of serving others. They healed the sick, raised the dead, fed the hungry, especially the widows. When there was a complaint that the Greek speaking widows were not properly taken care of, the Apostles instituted the group of deacons to take care of the widows. From then on the deacons were more and more in charge of the temporal needs of the church members.

The Situation Today

Today there are very many members of Christian churches who are poor, hungry and destitute. No one, even among the leaders of the church, the successors of the Apostles and deacons, seems to take care of them freely and fully. If there is real spiritual development the Spirit will lead us to take care of these poor church members.

We are not fully developed spiritually unless these poor church members are given their basic needs of food, clothing, shelter, education and medicine.

The Reason for this Situation of Un-served Church Members

And the reason why we do not do this is because we do not obey the Spirit in his leading us to prayer and his written word, in his preaching and teaching.

If we pray as he tells us to pray, if our church leaders preach the Good News of our complete salvation in Jesus, if our church teachers show us more and more of the character of Jesus by their words and works, then we will have Christians who will serve other Christians as Jesus want them to be served. Because we will have Christians after the heart of Christ.

Free and Full Service

This service is free. For Jesus said, Freely you have received, freely give. But in most of our hospitals run by Christian religious people the price of the services is just too much for these poor people.

This service is full. For Jesus said, Love one another as I love you and he also wants us to serve others as we would have them serve us. But in many situations the rich are given preferential service by our church leaders. And the poor are given partial attention only.

There is so much to be done in our spiritual development. Until the poor are served freely and fully, we cannot say we are spiritually developed as a church of Jesus.

Click Here!

Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritworld for knowing more about spirituality or spiritual realities

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.

Distinction Between Preaching and Christian Teaching

The distinction between preaching and Christian teaching is crucial to spiritual development. Much of the sterility we have in our churches can be reduced—and thus we would have more fruitful churches—if we have a clear knowledge of the distinction between preaching and Christian teaching.

Why is this so? Why do we need to know the distinction?

Because these two activities have different goals and have different ways of attaining those goals. It is like feeding infants and adults. You do not feed them with the same food and in the same way. Infants are usually fed with milk which they suck from their mother’s breast or from a bottle. Adults are fed with solid food which they take by their own hands.

But in most of our churches those who are not yet even spiritual infants, because they have not yet actualized their faith given in baptism (as in most Catholic churches), or because they have not yet accepted Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior (as in Evangelical churches), are most of the time given solid food by Christian teaching. What these not-yet-spiritual infants need is preaching, not Christian teaching.

On the other hand we have many churches where the pastor keeps on preaching to a congregation of long time Christians already, spiritual Christians. And he still preaches to these Christians. What these Christians need is not preaching, but Christian teaching. They have already grown as Christians. What they need is spiritual nutrients, not the seed of God so that they can be born again. In some of these churches they have even called their main service as Preaching Service.

Distinctive Goals of Preaching and Teaching

The goal of preaching is transformation, while that of Christian teaching is conformation. The purpose of preaching is to transform the listener so that he or she becomes a child of God from being just a human being. He or she is transformed from a life of sin to a life of holiness from God’s point of view. He or she becomes a new creature. He or she leaves his or her old life and burns the bridge leading from it in such a way that even if he or she wants, he or she can no longer go back to that old life.

The goal of Christian teaching is conformation to the image of Jesus. The new creature now becomes more and more conformed or configured to the image of God as revealed in Jesus. The listener to Christian teaching is already a child of God. He or she now grows as a child of God and Christian teaching makes him or her more like his or her parent God. This is the purpose of Christian teaching.

The Distinctive Means of Preaching and Teaching

And the means to achieve these two different goals also differ although they both use words and images.

In preaching the means is by announcing the good news of Jesus Christ, what Jesus did for the listener, especially in his suffering, death, burial and resurrection. By listening to this announcement the person is convicted by the power of the Holy Spirit of his or her sin and turns to Christ as the only one who can solve his or her problem of sin.

In Christian teaching the means is by showing the person of Jesus to the listener so that he or she gazes upon him and becomes more and more conformed to the image of Jesus. Moralizing is not basic to Christian teaching and yet most of our Christian teaching is a discourse on morality, how the Christian is to behave in himself/herself and in the world.

Distinctive Effects of Preaching and Teaching

In preaching we experience the power of God, ushering us to eternal life. In Christian teaching we experience his wisdom, enabling us to think, speak and act like Jesus. And the Apostle Paul tells us that Christ is the power and wisdom of God. It is all the work of Christ. The preacher and the teacher are only ministers of Christ.

Let preaching be done for those who have not actualized their Christian life, those who have not yet really accepted Jesus as the Lord and Savior of their life. But let Christian teaching be done for those who are already actualized or professed Christians. In this way lives are transformed and transformed lives are more and more conformed to the life of God in Jesus, thus turning our world upside down as the Apostles did during their time.

Click Here!

Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritworld for knowing more about spirituality or spiritual realities

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.

Solid, Christ-Filled Teaching

Prayer, the written Word of God, and preaching: These are the necessary steps in order to begin spiritual development. After spiritual development has started, the next that is needed is teaching, teaching the Word of God.

The teaching that we need for spiritual development is one that is solid, and Christ-filled.

Solid teaching is one that is based on the Word of God. Many teachers in the church say that they teach from the Word of God, but actually they teach from the words of human beings.

Teaching Which Is Not From God’s Word

They teach from the words of human beings if their purpose in teaching is to entertain. There are many teachers in the churches who have as one of their main purposes in teaching to entertain their students. They want to be thought of by their students as good teachers. So, they make all kinds of gimmicks to make the students interested in their teaching. This may be entertaining teaching, but it is not solid.

They teach from the words of human beings if what they really want is to share their own peculiar views with their students. For example, there are teachers who are so convinced of the doctrine of predestination such that they do not miss a chance to convince others of this doctrine. The doctrine of predestination is correct and beneficial if understood properly but it cannot be the theme of all our teaching, so that before we even open our mouths we have already decided to insert it in the course of our teaching. This is not solid teaching for spiritual development.

They teach from the words of human beings if they quote extensively from secular or religious sources and quote minimally from the Scriptures. There are teachers of the faith who in order to impress their students of their learning, quote from the classics of secular or religious writings in an extensive manner. They quote from Virgil, Cicero, Seneca, Thomas Aquinas, Erasmus, Emerson and others. Then they quote only a verse or two from the Scriptures. This is not solid teaching.

Solid teaching is one that is steeped in the texts and spirit of the Scriptures.

There is a teaching that is heavily inundated with texts from the Scriptures but the spirit of the Scriptures is not there. The impression a listener gets is that the passages from the Scriptures are used to prove or bolster the opinion of the teacher, even if that is not the sense of the Scriptures as a totality. An example of this kind of teaching may be getting all the passages about the prohibition on the eating of certain types of meat and then expounding on each of these texts. Paul the Apostle said that Christian living is not about eating and drinking, is not about prohibited meats.

Meaning of Christ-filled Teaching

Not only do we need solid teaching, teaching that is based on the Scriptures, we also need Christ-filled teaching. What is meant by this is that we teach Christ, the person of Christ. We illumine his personality so that we can know him more in a personal manner and thus love him more, serve him more and enjoy him more.

There are teachings which are insight driven. The teacher wants to share new insights with his or her students. He or she wants to surprise them with new ideas from the Word of God. This is not Christ-filled teaching. What we need for our spiritual development is not insights or new ideas but the Truth, a personal reality.

There are teachings which are morality driven. The teacher wants to drill moral principles into his or her students, like the principle that honesty is the best policy. Most teachings wound up as moral exhortations. This is not the teaching that will help us in spiritual development. It is not Christ-filled. It may make up morally upright Christians, but not necessarily spiritually developed.

John Paul II was insistent on the point that what we teach is supposed to be Christ, just as the teacher also needs to be Christ himself using only the human teacher. He mentioned this in his apostolic exhortation on catechesis, and he wrote this again in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

The teaching which develops our spirit is one that gives us an ever growing personal knowledge of Jesus and an ever increasing appreciation for all his worth to us. This is because spiritual development is really the development of the life of Jesus in us. It is not our life, no matter how good, that we develop in spiritual development. It is the life of Jesus operating in us, through us, with us, and for us.

Click Here!

Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritworld for knowing more about spirituality or spiritual realities

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.

Vigorous, Urgent, Life-Changing Preaching

The ministry of prayer leads us to the written Word of God. Both prayer and the written Word of God are directed to vigorous, urgent, life-changing preaching. These three, prayer, the written Word of God or the Bible, and preaching, are the chief means in our spiritual development. We now discuss what vigorous, urgent, life-changing preaching is.

Meaning of Vigorous Preaching

First of all, the preaching that we need for our spiritual development is one that is vigorous. We mean by this that this preaching is full of energy because the preacher has put his whole mind and soul to it. It has a force. It has the anointing of the Spirit of God.

This does not mean that the preacher has to shout or has to have a big, resonating voice. It does not mean that he displays all kinds of gestures. He may speak quietly and slowly and even perhaps read from a prepared piece, but we can notice and feel that his words have power. From where does this power or energy come?

It comes from a deep conviction that he has been appointed by God to declare his works. It comes from a long time of prayer and study over the Bible. Study and prayer: these go together. If he merely studies the Word of God he may be a Bible scholar, an exegete, a Bible interpreter, but not a vigorous preacher. He prays as he studies the Word of God. He converses with God over his written Word.

This kind of preaching is in contrast to what we hear today in our pulpits. Preachers nowadays usually give an explanation of a passage of scripture or an event. They may engage in expository preaching which is a word by word explanation of a Bible passage. But it is all explanation. It is not vigorous preaching of the wonderful works of God. Sometimes the feeling suggested is that the preacher is detached from his explanation. It is as if he wants to say, "This is my explanation of this passage and this is how I think you should apply it. Now take it or leave it."

What Is Urgent Preaching?

Secondly, the preaching that we need today is one that is urgent. The action needed is something that cannot be postponed. It will not wait for tomorrow or the following week. It is an action that is going to be done now, not later, here, not yonder.

The matter is so important that it is to be addressed to now. It requires immediate action. And the listeners sense this urgency.

Preaching nowadays in general does not have this sense of urgency. Because it is an explanation of a passage or of a principle or method to do to improve one's life, the action called for is one that can wait until an opportunity presents itself where the principle or method can be applied. This is later.

In contrast, genuine preaching is urgent. Do it now, or you will miss the whole show.

How Preaching Is Life-Changing

Thirdly, the preaching that we need today is one that is life-changing. It is not just mind-changing, a change of opinion, or a change of character among the listeners. It changes the life of the listeners by just their listening. They do not have to go out of the church or auditorium in order to implement something that the preacher told them to do. By the very fact that they are listening to this sermon, their lives are changed, not just for the better, but changed from one level of life to another, from the level of human life to the level of divine life, or from one degree of divine life to another.

And how is this done? By the preacher proclaiming the wonderful works of God among the listeners.

He does not provide the listeners with a list of things to do to improve their lives. Instead he tells them what God has done to their lives. And when they listen and if the Spirit so moves them, they believe in what the preacher says, then their lives are changed. The wonderful works of God are made actual in their lives there and then. If the preacher tells them that God saved them in Christ by his cross and resurrection and they believe, there and then this salvation becomes theirs, without their coming forward to profess publicly that they receive Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior.

Today's preaching usually does not instantly change the lives of the listeners. It expects that the listeners leave the church first and do what the preacher tells them in his sermon to do. For example, after listening to a sermon on God's commandment, parents leave the church to love their children. Children leave to obey their parents at home.

Such a sermon is not preaching. It is an advice on how parents are to love their children and how children are to love their parents. It is not genuine preaching.

A Sample of a Vigorous, Urgent, Life-Changing Preaching

If you say that you cannot find this kind of preaching in your churches, go to the Internet. There is a lot of vigorous, urgent, life-changing sermons in the Internet. Here is a good example from the prince of preachers, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, although it is read by a contemporary speaker, not Spurgeon himself, because his voice was not recorded during the time when he gave his sermons. This particular sermon is entitled "The Best of Masters." Click the word "Play" after the title "The Best of Masters". Here is the URL of that sample http://tinyurl.com/thebestofmasters. Click that URL to listen to the sermon.

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Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritworld for knowing more about spirituality or spiritual realities

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.

How the Spirit Leads Us to Listen to Effective Preaching

The reason why the Spirit of God leads us to a deeper experience of prayer, to a fresher understanding and appreciation of his written Word and to exposure to effective preaching is that he wants to develop the real Christ in us. This is spiritual development at its best. It is not we developing ourselves. This is the work of the Holy Spirit. We are here only describing how he does this from what we have learned from God's Word and what we have experienced so that we can flow, as it were, with his force, just as a sailboat sails with the force of the wind if the driver of the sailboat knows how to position the sails.

The Spirit of God leads us to an attentive and obedient listening to vigorous, urgent, life-changing preaching. This is effective preaching. It is not a preaching which tells us what to do, as most preaching in churches does today. It is a preaching which by itself changes the lives of the listeners.

The Pattern of Our Usual Preaching Today

If you listen to the ordinary, usual preaching today in churches, Catholic or non-Catholic, Protestant or non-Protestant, Evangelical, Fundamentalist or name what have you, you would notice the following pattern. The preacher would start from a story, anecdote, or a passage from the bible or an introductory statement about his preaching. Then he would expound a principle or two. Finally he would give an application which he expects his hearers would put to good use in their lives.

Depending on the talent of the preacher he can make his sermon as entertaining as possible, spraying it over with insights and even jokes. The people stare at the preacher if he is really entertaining, then leave the church afterwards refreshed and blest, as they say. They are then encouraged to return the next week and give again their tithes or love offerings.

If the preacher is not that entertaining, then the listeners may be led to an early nap.

But this pattern is still there: introduction, expounding of a truth or principle, application, exhortation to do the application.

In this kind of preaching if the listeners do not change, do not improve, do not grow in their spiritual life, it is their fault. This is because they are already shown by the preacher how they are to profit from God's Word or truth but they fail to apply what the preacher told them.

The Kind of Preaching the Spirit Gives

This is not the kind of preaching that the Spirit of God gives his people. The preaching that the Spirit of God gives is an effective preaching. By the very preaching itself people are changed. They do not have to go out of the church to apply what the preacher said. Right there in their seats or as they stand if they are not seated, they are changed. This is called vigorous, urgent, life-changing preaching.

And this is the kind of preaching that we lack in our churches. This is the kind of preaching that the Spirit gives us. And this is the kind of preaching that the Spirit of God leads us to listen to. How does he do this?

The Spirit's Way in Giving Us His Preacher

The simple answer is that he, the Spirit of God, provides the preacher who will preach the way to do so. He first leads him to a deeper experience of prayer. We already discussed how he does that. Then the Spirit leads him to the written Word of God. We also discussed that already. Then the next is he emboldens this preacher to preach the fruit of his prayer and of his study of the Word.

To be able to have a deeper experience of prayer the preacher is led to be convinced by the Spirit of his inability to preach well. If he refuses this conviction by the Spirit he cannot give to us the kind of preaching that the Spirit wants us to listen to.

And this is the sad experience we have in the churches. Most of our preachers, if not all of them, are convinced of the opposite: that they can preach well. Their years of training in the seminary either as future pastors or future priests have sunk into their consciousness giving them the confidence that they can preach. If they persist in this conviction, that because of their training and experience, they are able to preach well, the Spirit of God cannot use them to give to the people his kind of preaching, the vigorous, urgent, life-changing preaching.

The reason why they cannot preach effective preaching is because they do not have a deeper experience of prayer. And they cannot have a deeper experience of prayer if they think they are able to preach well. They can only have a deeper experience of prayer if like Isaiah they cry, "Woe is me for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips."

Then to be really led to the written Word of God, a person needs to be ignorant or confused in his understanding of this Word. Unfortunately most or almost all of our preachers, whether priests, bishops or pastors, think that they are not ignorant and they are not confused in their understanding of the Word of God. They think they really know it well. Their years of training in the seminary, pouring over the Bible, studying its texts and the different interpretations of Biblical scholars and their own reflections have led them to believe that they are able to understand God's written Word.

When these preachers are convinced that they can understand God's written Word, either because they studied it or because God enlightened them on it, the Spirit cannot use them to do effective preaching. They will only at best be able to preach principles and application with appropriate illustrations and insights that tickle the ears and minds of their hearers but such preaching cannot transform the lives of those hearers.

So, if we ask again how the Spirit lead us to listen to vigorous, urgent, life-changing preaching, the answer is that he does this by providing us with a preacher who is thoroughly convinced of his inability and unworthiness to preach God's Word and also thoroughly convinced of his ignorance and confusion about this written Word. And from time to time he does provide us with these preachers, like Peter the disciple of Jesus, Paul the Pharisee, Peter Chrysologus of Ravenna, Martin Luther, George Whitefield, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Charles Finney, etc. The names are too many to list.

Effective preaching is one that changes the lives of the listeners by their mere listening. Because the Spirit himself comes with power to change them.

Click Here!

Here are my other blogs which may be of help to you:

http://bit.ly/spiritworld for knowing more about spirituality or spiritual realities

http://bit.ly/alterhealthcare for your health

http://bit.ly/novotrends for learning about the new trends around us

http://bit.ly/bepaidonline for earning some income from the Internet

Here are your links to download the e-books for FREE. To download a copy of A NEW CHRIST by Wallace D. Wattles click this website http://bit.ly/anewchrist. To download a free copy of A NEW EARTH by Eckhart Tolle click this website http://bit.ly/ebookanewearth. I hope that you enjoy reading these free e-books and profit much from them, as I have also profited greatly from them.