Christian Fellowship Community Group
A safe place for Christians who Love Jesus Christ to meet and ask for prayer and share scriptures from the bible. We value the posting of Christian music, poems, stories and also personal testimonies. Please let us know your needs, concerns and have some fun getting to know each other. We treat each other with respect.
The wisdom of the fathers
TO CHRISTIAN WORKERS
Let us consider the present situation. All around us, Christians are seeking to convert the lost to Jesus Christ. What is the best way to do this? And once men have been converted, what is the best way to aid them in attaining full perfection in Christ?
The way to reach the lost is to reach them by the HEART. If a new convert were introduced to REAL PRAYER and to a TRUE INWARD EXPERIENCE OF CHRIST as soon as he became converted, you would see
On the other hand, you can see that the present way of dealing only with external matters in the life of the new convert brings little fruit. Burdening the new Christian with countless rules and all sorts of standards does not help him grow in Christ. Here is what should be done: The new Christian should be led to God.
How? By learning to turn within to Jesus Christ and by giving the Lord his whole heart. If you are one of those in charge of new believers, lead then to a REAL INNER KNOWLEDGE of Jesus Christ. Oh, what a difference there would be in the lives of those new Christians! Consider the results!
We would see the simple farmer, as he ploughed his field, spend his days in the blessing of the presence of God. The shepherd, while watching his flocks, would have the same anbandoned love for the Lord which marked the early Christians. The factory worker, while labouring with his outward man, would be renewed with strength in his inner man.
You would see each of these people put away every kind of sin from their life; all would become spiritual men and women WITH HEARTS SET ON KNOWING and experiencing Jesus Christ.
For a new Christians - for all of us in fact - the heart is all important if we are to go forward in Christ. Once the heart has been gained by God, everything else will eventually take car of itself.
This is why He requires the heart above all else. If the heart could be gained, Jesus Christ would reign in peace, and the whole Church would be renewed. In fact it is the very thing that caused the early church to lose its life and beauty. It was the loss of a deep, inner, spiritual relationship with Christ. On the other hand, the Church could soon be restored if this inner relationship was recovered.
(Jeanne Guyon)
TO CHRISTIAN WORKERS
Let us consider the present situation. All around us, Christians are seeking to convert the lost to Jesus Christ. What is the best way to do this? And once men have been converted, what is the best way to aid them in attaining full perfection in Christ?
The way to reach the lost is to reach them by the HEART. If a new convert were introduced to REAL PRAYER and to a TRUE INWARD EXPERIENCE OF CHRIST as soon as he became converted, you would see
On the other hand, you can see that the present way of dealing only with external matters in the life of the new convert brings little fruit. Burdening the new Christian with countless rules and all sorts of standards does not help him grow in Christ. Here is what should be done: The new Christian should be led to God.
How? By learning to turn within to Jesus Christ and by giving the Lord his whole heart. If you are one of those in charge of new believers, lead then to a REAL INNER KNOWLEDGE of Jesus Christ. Oh, what a difference there would be in the lives of those new Christians! Consider the results!
We would see the simple farmer, as he ploughed his field, spend his days in the blessing of the presence of God. The shepherd, while watching his flocks, would have the same anbandoned love for the Lord which marked the early Christians. The factory worker, while labouring with his outward man, would be renewed with strength in his inner man.
You would see each of these people put away every kind of sin from their life; all would become spiritual men and women WITH HEARTS SET ON KNOWING and experiencing Jesus Christ.
For a new Christians - for all of us in fact - the heart is all important if we are to go forward in Christ. Once the heart has been gained by God, everything else will eventually take car of itself.
This is why He requires the heart above all else. If the heart could be gained, Jesus Christ would reign in peace, and the whole Church would be renewed. In fact it is the very thing that caused the early church to lose its life and beauty. It was the loss of a deep, inner, spiritual relationship with Christ. On the other hand, the Church could soon be restored if this inner relationship was recovered.
(Jeanne Guyon)
- - - - -
* “ ...attaining full perfection in Christ? ” - How is this even possible as we are human beings still living in a fallen world? Earth is not about perfection. After the fall of Adam and Eve, we fell too and the world became impossibly imperfect.
* “ The way to reach the lost is to reach them by the HEART. If a new convert were introduced to REAL PRAYER and to a TRUE INWARD EXPERIENCE OF CHRIST as soon as he became converted, you would see. On the other hand, you can see that the present way of dealing only with external matters in the life of the new convert brings little fruit. Burdening the new Christian with countless rules and all sorts of standards does not help him grow in Christ. ” - It was the external matters that brought me back to God and has kept me there. It is the external matters of everyday life we all deal with and have to over come to survive everyday. These matters also teach us valuable lessons about ourselves and our relationship with God, thus allowing us to grow stronger and wiser as Christians. You can not discount them as having no value or as meaningless. That would be like saying that only the front windshield of your car matters because you are only trying to move forward so ignore the back windshield. It doesn’t work that way including with down grading external matters. As to the rules, yes they do help us to grow. Rules give us a sense of the right and wrong directions. Without them, we would be more all over the place with are Christian walk as so many are in other faiths that don’t use rules. Rules are necessary and have a useful need for Christian’s abilities to grow.
- - - - -
The impressions I get from this post is that it is saying all we need is a true heart and boom, all are sinning will stop and we will become perfect. That is so not true. We live in a fallen world as real human beings. As long as we do, we will always be tainted by sin and subjected to giving into sin. It’s human life on this earth and with the truest heart of the most dedicated believer, we can not reach a sin free life or perfection. It’s just not going to happen. YES, we can give more of our hearts and thus, live a life with less sin and even grow as believers. That I do believe is possible, but sin free or perfect...? Nope, not realistic at all on this planet in our current form of being human.
If you think you can be sin free and perfect with having a true heart...Good luck believing in that. Last time I check, even the best believer I know has yet to walk on water or bring back the dead.