BUILDING  CHRISTIAN  LIFE

The word of God is the central for spiritual growth. We must daily spend devotional time in the word seeking in the mind of God. We must also study the word of God regularly, in a disciplined way, so that we may better understand what it teaches, Nowadays, it is so sad that believer Christian, even they participate in church services in different section, but they do not attend the Sunday school bible study classes. Mostly, their mind thought, attending church service alone is just enough for their spiritual growth. The Chinese church used to have saying ‘ No Bible—No Breakfast !  If we used that motto in our church, I wonder how many Christian would go hungry. That while, some mega church counted as their members to those who attend the bible study classes regularly.

The power for building the  Christian life comes from prayer “ praying in the Holy Spirit”. The word of God and prayer go together in spiritual growth. If all we do is read and study the bible, we will have a great deal of light, but not much power. However if we concentrate on prayer and ignore the bible, we may be guilty of  zeal without knowledge. We read the word to grow in faith ( Romans 10: 17 ). The word of God and prayer certainly go together ( Acts 6: 4 ). The Spirit of God joins with us as we pray ( Romans 8: 26-28 ) because He knows the mind of God and can direct us. He can give us wisdom and knowledge from the word. We worship God in spirit and the Spirit motivate us to pray, for He is the Spirit of grace and supplication. When the believer is yielded to the Spirit, then the Spirit will assist him in his prayer life and God will answer prayer.

The building process of Christian life involves the word of God, pray in the Spirit and then “ abiding in God’s love ‘ ( Jude 21 ). To love God means much more than to enjoy a special kind of feeling. As we grow in grace, we do experience deeper fellowship with the Father ( John 14: 21-24 ).” If you keep my commandments, you will abide in My love” ( John 15: 10 ). We grow in our love for God, as we listen to His word, obey it, and delight in doing what please Him. God’s love is a holy love, it is not shallow, “ Ye that love the Lord, hate evil “ ( Psalm 97: 10 ). To love God is to love what He loves and hate what He hated. Jesus Christ stretched out His hand extremely on the cross showing how much He loves you. His love in unconditional, agape love. Yielding your life unto Christ and abiding in His love for building up Christian life.

We also need hope for build our Christian life , apart from the foundation of Faith and through the motivation of love. Our hope should be looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. The believer’s eyes must be lifted heavenward. “ Looking for the blessed hope , and the glorious appearing of the great God and our savior Jesus Christ ( Titus 2: 13 ).

Looking for the coming  of the Lord is a great encouragement to Christian living. It makes us want to keep holy  ( 1 Peter 1: 16 ).and to avoid the things of the flesh and the world.( Phil 3: 17-21 ). Our hope in Christ is like an anchor ( Heb 6: 19 ) that holds us in the storm of life and like a helmet that protect us in the battles of life. ( 1 Thess 5: 8 ).The three “ Christian graces “ of faith, hope and love  ( 1 Cor 13: 13 ) enable us to grow in our spiritual walk. We are able to build on a solid foundation with materials that will not decay. “ Not every one that said unto Me, Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven ( Matt 7: 21 ). To obey the will of God means to build on a foundation that cannot fail.  A MEN.

Dr John Than