A Letter to a New Believer

July 28, 2018 by Allen Nelson IV 

Dear New Beliver,

Let me offer as strong an exhortation as I can that you must tell your friend to be involved in a local church. I don’t mean simply “attend church.” I mean to be an active, functioning, involved member of a local church.

I understand that telling you to “go to church” may sound cliché, but none of the rest of my advice will be worthwhile if you don’t heed this first exhortation. Christians need leaders they can be instructed by, submit to, and imitate (Heb. 13:7, 17). These pastors are charged with watching over you, protecting you, and teaching sound doctrine, among other things.

You also need to encourage fellow believers and to be encouraged by them (Hebrews 10:24-25). You need fellow believers to rebuke you when you sin (Hebrews 3:13, Galatians 6:1), and you need to be involved in holding others accountable to live the Christian life faithfully (James 5:19-20). And when you do sin, your local church relationships is where you ought to confess your sin (James 5:16). There really is no Christianity, in the New Testament sense of the word, without love for brothers and sisters in the local church (1 John 3:14).

Practically, however, what might that look like? I would look for a solid church. If you want to share where you live (or your friend) I can try my best to help find biblical churches. Once you find a church that is solid, attend regularly. Attend all the meetings that you can. Plug yourself into a small group or Sunday school class. Sit hungrily under the preaching and teaching of the Word. Ask questions when you can. Covenant together with these people in formal membership and submit to the church’s teaching and direction.

When it comes to Bible reading there is no cookie cutter approach. The key is to read and keep reading. Read every day. I will offer a few suggestions; but they are only suggestions. One approach is to take a small book of the Bible, say Ephesians. Read Ephesians 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 on Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday. On Thursday, read the entire book. On Friday read Ephesians 1-3and on Saturday Read Ephesians 4-6. Use Sunday to read another chapter or area of the Bible. If you did this plan you would be reading Ephesians through 3x every week. Try that until you’ve read through the book about 20-25 times. You will be amazed at the clarity you will begin to receive.

As you read, take notes. Make note of repeated words, concepts, and ideas. Pray through portions of the text. Try to memorize key passages and even longer passages as you are able. Meditate on the text, meaning, think deeply about portions that you read through (a verse or 2 or 3). Apply what you are reading to your life. Discuss what you are reading with others. Ask your elders or trusted friends questions about what you read.

Another approach to Bible reading is to start in Genesis and just read every day. Wherever you stop one day, start back there the next. Read until you’ve read the whole Bible through. With only about 15 minutes a day, you can get through the Bible in a year.

Another approach is to start with the New Testament and read it through a few times and then move to the Old Testament. Again, there is no cookie cutter approach. Trust Scripture. Keep reading it, keep seeking, and keep praying for the Lord to give you understanding (Psalm 119:18).

As far as core doctrines go I think it is essential to understand who God is. A study on His attributes would be a beneficial endeavor for many Christians. The Attributes of God by A.W. Pink, The Holiness of God by R.C. Sproul, The Glory of Christ by John Owen, and The Pleasures of God by John Piper have all been influential books in my life. As far as what the gospel is books like What is the Gospel? by Greg Gilbert, The World Tilting Gospel by Dan Phillips, Gospel Deeps by Jared Wilson, and The Gospel According to Jesus by John Macarthur are good books.  For Christian living see Holiness by J.C. Ryle, The Hole in Our Holiness by Kevin DeYoung, Spiritual Disciplines by Don Whitney, and Habits of Grace by David Mathis.

But I really cannot stress enough the importance of being regularly involved in the life of a solid local church. I’m not just saying “attend church.” I’m saying go, serve, love, submit, hold accountable, and receive correction in a local church.

I hope this letter has been instructive. I blog regularly at ThingsAbove.Us with some trusted brothers. I would love for you to check it out and subscribe. Hopefully, you’ll find the content beneficial to your walk, as well.

All glory be to Christ our King,

Allen

IV, Allen Nelson. "A Letter to a New Believer » Things Above Us." Things Above Us. July 30, 2018. Accessed August 01, 2018. http://thingsabove.us/a-letter-to-a-new-believer/.

The essentials

But when it comes to the fundamental doctrines of historical Christianity ...

• the preexistence of Jesus Christ, 
• the virgin birth, 
• the sinless life of Christ 
• the atonement on the cross, 
• bodily resurrection of our Lord, 
• salvation by grace alone through 
• faith alone in Christ alone, 

... on these issues we do draw a deep line in the sand and we must warn people about wolves in sheep’s clothing.  Is not an option, it is a duty.

Peters, Justin. “The Devilish Puppet Master of the Word-Faith Movement (Justin Peters).” Grace to You, 17 Oct. 2013, www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/TM13-10/the-devilish-puppet-master-of-the-wordfaith-movement-justin-peters.

Dear Saints,

The task before us today is the worship of God. That is, that we would receive from God his gifts.  That is what worship is. According to the gospel, we worship by looking to Jesus with faith, by hearing and believing his promises and his words.  We cry out to him in time of trouble and we trust that he hears our prayers and that he answers them.  "Call on me on the day of trouble and I will hear you and I will deliver you"

Bryan Wolfmueller

http://www.hope-aurora.org/podcast/media/2012-07-22_trinity072012.mp3

The Bible in Two Weeks

Strawberry-Rhubarb Theology: The Sweep of the Bible in Two Weeks: If a freshman in college or stay-at-home mom or aspiring deacon or friend from work or anyone else asked me how they might get a rough gra...

The Sweep of the Bible in Two Weeks

If a freshman in college or stay-at-home mom or aspiring deacon or friend from work or anyone else asked me how they might get a rough grasp of the macro-storyline of the Bible in a few weeks, I'd send them not to any secondary resource but to the Bible itself for a reading plan that might look something like this.

Week 1

Sunday - Genesis 1-3

Monday - Genesis 12-17

Tuesday - Exodus 1-3, 12

Wednesday - Exodus 14, 19-20

Thursday - Joshua 23-24; Judges 1-2

Friday - 1 Samuel 8, 16; 2 Samuel 7, 11; Psalm 105

Saturday - Isaiah 7, 9, 11, 35, 52-53, 65

Week 2

Sunday - Jeremiah 30-33; Ezekiel 36-37, Zechariah 9; Malachi 3-4

Monday - Matt. 1:1; Mark 1:1-15; John 1:1-18; 5:39-46; Luke 24

Tuesday - Mark 14:1-16:8

Wednesday - Acts 1-2; 13:13-49

Thursday - Rom. 1:1-6; 16-17; 3:9-31; 5:12-21; 8:18-23; 1 Cor. 15:1-23

Friday - Heb. 1:1-4; 10:19-12:2

Saturday - Revelation 1; 20-22

Posted by Dane Ortlund at Monday, August 29, 2011  

4 Test of a Christian

So you have a choice. All sinners have a choice. You can cover up or you can confess. And here John shows us that people who belong to God confess. People who don't, cover up. In our passage then, confession of sin becomes a test of salvation. And as I have been saying to you, there are a number of tests in this epistle. There is the test of doctrine, right doctrine about Christ which we mentioned was in the first four verses and will appear again. There is the test of obedience, which we'll come to very soon. There is the test of love, which we'll also address. And then there is this test of a proper view of sin. John says you can always tell a Christian by their view of Christ, their view of sin, their view of obedience, and their view of love. And if they do not have what the Bible says is a sanctified attitude toward those things, then they're not Christians no matter what they claim.


Citation:
MacArthur, John . "The Certainty of Sin, Part 2." Grace to You . GTY.org, n.d. Web. 7 Sept. 2011. <http://www.gty.org/resources/Sermons/62-6_The-Certainty-of-Sin-Part-2>.




1 John 1:5-2:1 May 26, 2002 62-6

Christianity today is so gullible

You know, I think about this...Christianity today is so gullible...so gullible. The evangelical world is so gullible. We see...we look at the world and this is what we see...we see abortion, that's always the big issue, we see homosexuality, we see immorality, we see the breakup of the family, we see pornography, we see euthanasia, we see a lot of those kinds of ethical, cultural, moral issues. We see that the Women's Liberation Movement fracturing the fabric of the home and devastating children. We see the external materialism of the culture around us robbing people of the real values of life. And so we all get exercised and upset about what is patently obvious to all of us. I mean, nobody is...nothing is subtle about the attack on unborn babies, is there? I don't think it's very subtle when the Supreme Court passes a law to make it legal...not very subtle. Pornography is not very subtle. You can pick up any magazine and it's all over the place. You can turn on television, it's everywhere. You can drive down the street, you see it all over the place...not subtle.

Homosexuality isn't subtle. Once it was, not subtle now...blatant, flagrant, defiant, in-your-face along with all the other immorality in our culture, it's right there staring you right in the eye all the time. Nothing subtle about this.

So the church in its gullibility gets concerned about all this stuff and it's all sin and you have to have a biblical view about it. I agree with that. But the church gets all concerned about that and say...We've got to defeat this abortion thing, we've got to defeat this homosexual thing, we've got to defeat this deal over here with pornography, we've got to do all this stuff on the cultural level, we've got to win all these great battles out there to save the cultural morality and in order to do that, do you know what we have to do? We have to all get together. Now in order for all of us to get together, we've got to make something not an issue. What's that? Truth. So we win this little obvious battle and we're totally defeated at the same time because we just gave up the only thing we have...the truth. This is the gullibility of the church.

And so we say, "Well, if we're going to win this battle, we can't be quiveling about whether...whether the Catholics have a different gospel than we do, we've just got to accept them as brothers and sisters in Christ, we can't worry about that." And as Peter Kreep(?) says in his book Ecumenical Jihad, we've got to realize that Muslims are going to heaven too and Confucianists are going to heaven too, and Buddhists are going to heaven too, and even orthodox Jews who believe in the same God we believe in and they'll find out what they didn't know about Christ once they get there. And even atheists, he says, who are seeking for truth are seeking for God they just don't know that God is truth and so they'll get there too. And if we keep fighting with these people we'll never win the cultural war, so what we need to do is win the cultural war and we just need to all get together and not make these doctrinal things an issue.

And what have we done? We have literally been eaten by the roaring lion, just got swallowed. How gullible are we? We've abandoned truth for the sake of this tolerance thing. Let's not question any...and then we're not allowed, especially in this sort of this television environment thing, we're not allowed to question any of the so-called apostles of Christ who come along with their divine messages for us and who bear all this supposed divine power, we can't question anything they say. So we've taken truth and set it aside, we're going to try to win this big cultural war, try to get everybody on the same page all agreeing and we'll sweep all of these social issues aside and in the process lose the Christian faith.

Let me tell you, it can get lost. It got lost for...it got lost for a thousand years between 500 and 1500, there were just vestiges of a remnant left. I mean, we have to know where the battle is, you can't be that gullible.

Citation: MacArthur , John. "Marks of a False Apostle." Sermon. Marks of a False Apostle. Grace Community Church, California. Grace To You. 23 Nov. 1997. Web. <http://www.gty.org>.

4 Practical Remedies for Lack of Assurance of Salvation

Here are four practical remedies for your lack of assurance:

1. Stir up your gift. 2 Tim 1:6: "Stir up the gift of God which is in you." Get involved in ministry and serve others with whatever spiritual gifts you have. Be more sacrificial and you'll have less time to be introspective, and that alone will bolster your assurance.
2. Face those fears. Verse 7: "For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control." Quit nurturing your fears and draw on God's power to face whatever makes you timid and uncertain.
3. Embrace that suffering. Verse 8: "Share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God." I've never met anyone suffering for the sake of his or her testimony who struggled with a lack of assurance. Assurance is an element of the grace God gives to sustain those who suffer.
4. Trust our savior. Verses 9-10: understand that"[God] saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel."
   
   
   Again, that is the key to assurance: look away from yourself, and fix your heart on Christ. Know Him, and the power of His resurrection as you are made conformable to His death. And if you truly know Him and rest your hope in His ability to save, your heart will echo this affirmation of assurance Paul made: "I am not ashamed, for I know whom I
   have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day [my deposits]."

Johnson, Phil. "A Remedy for Timid Souls ." The Gracelife Pulpit. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Aug. 2011. .