If you ARE a Christian, you need not have that fear, or any of those fears. You will be snatched away, possibly in your very sleep, before it even begins. But you have to be a true Christian, not just someone who says he is. And it won't be your opinion that matters - it'll be His.
Yesterday, we looked at the three things that every Christian must do to become a Christian, essentially:
1) admit that we are all sinners, and accept Jesus Christ as not only our Savior but our Lord;
2) be baptized by water and by the Holy Spirit; and
3) accept the communion on a regular basis (there's no hard/fast rule, but at least once per year...).
Today, we need to look at the three things that must happen on a daily (or weekly) basis for every single person who considers themselves to be a Christian - and more importantly, for every single person who wishes for the Holy Trinity to consider them a Christian, because the Rapture of the Believers is coming in the VERY near future, specifically (I believe) within the next two years or so. In addition, there's a fourth thing that I think we ought to do every day, but until I can convince myself to follow this advice, it'd be hypocritical for me to insist that YOU do it every day. We'll come back to that...
Before we can dive into that, however, we need to talk about your vertical spiritual health and your horizontal spiritual health.
As a Christian, we need to have healthy vertical spiritual relationships - our relationship with God, with Christ, and with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will be living within us if we've done the three things we talked of yesterday, but we need to stay in communication with Christ and God the Father as well. Christ died so that He could become our intercessor, the "go-between" for us to come to the foot of the Throne of God Almighty. This is Hebrews 4:14-16 →
Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
But in order to communicate with either of Them, we must pray.
Regular prayer to God must happen no less than daily; Paul famously tells us in his epistle to Timothy to "Pray continually", in fact. And once you get comfortable in prayer, you probably will find yourself in regular, more "informal" conversations with the Lord throughout your day. I tend to thank Him for everything that ever goes right during my day, and that's not an accident.
"The more thankful you are, the more you'll have to be thankful for." - me
But to start with, and this is something you MUST continue throughout your life, find a time and place during your day when and where you can have some peace and quiet, and pray. What do you say? Well, when in doubt, find a Psalm that says what you're feeling - a Psalm of thanks, a Psalm of worry, a Psalm of desperation, a Psalm of whatever happens to strike your thoughts at the time. There ARE a few things that ought to be in every formal prayer, however:
***Praise for the Almighty. (He DID create you and the entire universe, remember!)
***Recognition of His might, steadfast love, and the grace He's given you. (See previous.)
***Any specific praises, requests, concerns, burdens to share with Him. (Be honest - He already knows everything about your life! No point in trying to keep secrets from Him!)
***Thanks "in Jesus' Name" of some sort (again, Christ is our intercessor - without Him, there IS no communication with God!)
***Closure. (It doesn't HAVE to be "Amen", but if in doubt?...)
So, that's a healthy relationship going UPWARDS, and on rare occasion you might hear something coming from above. But the PRIMARY way that God communicates with US is through His Book.
Read the Bible DAILY. No Exceptions! Set aside an important time in your day: if you're a morning person, in the morning; if you're a night person, at night. Do NOT do it as an "obligation". The Creator of the Universe and the Being Who Can Control Every and Any Detail of your life Wants To Communicate With You! Don't you think you should listen to Him?
How you choose to read the Bible is up to you. I read through the Bible from front-to-back every year, but that doesn't take up the entire year. Sometimes, there's a section that came up in church, or in a sermon I heard on line, or in some other manner, and that dictates what I read that morning. (I pray and read first thing, while I still have strength.) Other mornings, there's something that's on my mind, and that's what I feel I need to look up or pray about or most often both.
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. (2nd Timothy 3:16-17)
But the most exciting thing to read in the morning is the "random" passage that God leads you to in prayer or through the "luck" of pure chance (doesn't exist where God's concerned!). He's led me to some amazing sections that have helped me choose the right job, date the right girl, you name it.
The purposes of reading the Word of God are far more varied than just to allow God to communicate with you, but even if that were the ONLY reason to do it? That would be enough, don't you think?
Now, let's talk about having a healthy horizontal spiritual relationship.
"With whom?" you might ask.
With other believers and FUTURE believers.
You MUST attend church on a weekly basis (at least). Contact with other Believers is critical, both for you and for them. Without others for you to not only learn from but to hone your own beliefs and understandings with, you are forced into trying to understand the Bible on your own - and that NEVER goes well. We never understand such a complex book without help - at least, not ALL of it. Depending on how much research you do, you might get more rather than less; hopefully, you do better than my sister-in-law, the one who got as far as Deuteronomy and started giving up pork before I told her to keep reading if she was aiming for Christianity and not Judaism. Too many people read their own beliefs into God's Word because we all have that "confirmation bias" in our systems - we all want our own opinions to be confirmed, and sorry, friends: God's not here to make friends. He's right and we're wrong, even when it sucks.
For the exact same reason, it's important to go to church so you can be the sounding board for others as well. We all have strengths and weaknesses. I'm (frankly) an extremely erudite scholar - longtime readers of this blog know my academic history and understand that I'm not just blowing smoke here. But I cannot tell you the number of times I've had misconceptions of mine cleared up by others in church (or more often, in BIBLE STUDY CLASS - get in one through your church ASAP!) The more amazing part, even when I've understood something when I've read it, is that there are so often layers upon layer throughout the Book. (The Bible is like an ogre. Or an onion, or parfait.) I thought I'd gleaned everything I could get out of a chapter, and BAM! Someone has another level for me to dig into!
By the way, you won't go to Hell if you miss a week of church because you're out of town, or you've got the stomach flu. But go every Sunday with at LEAST the same priority as you go to work, or school, or any other activity that's critical to you.
The fourth element of a healthy Christian's life is the other part of your horizontal relationship with those around you: Share the Good News with the unsaved of the world! That is our Great Commission, listed in Matthew 28:19-20 → "Go and make disciples of the world." I mention that I cannot rightly preach this until I can honestly say that I do it on a daily basis, because unless you count this blog site, I don't do it every day myself. I try to share my beliefs as often as I can, but sometimes I don't see the opportunities that God places in my path, and sometimes my own introversion and fear of rejection overwhelms my desire to fulfill His Command. Forgive me, Father, and please strengthen my resolve to share Your Word with the entire world! (If you're not praying for the tools you need to follow His Word to the letter, that's something worth adding to your prayer life!)
Incidentally, this is another great reason to read and memorize Scripture every day - so you can share the Word whenever the situation arises! We'll talk more about all of this tomorrow, however - there's a LOT more to discuss on these topics! Until then...
PRAY! READ! WORSHIP! SHARE!
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