Discipleship and Church planting 

The goal of evangelism, to make God known, is not only to see people being saved, but to make disciples of Jesus Christ, of those who get converted. Jesus made it clear in the Great Commission to his disciples before he went to heaven 2,000 years ago:

“And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”” (Matthew 28:18-20 ESV)

God wanted His disciples to be His witnesses (Acts 1:8) “unto the uttermost ends of the earth”, not just for the sake of making Him known, but so that He might have a people who become like Jesus Christ (Ephesians 4:13). God’s goal in giving his church the gospel is so that those who would believe begin to live in a way that corresponds to His character. That is the reason why God gave his people the Ten Commandments back in the Old Testament. The Ten Commandments reflect God’s character and were never given as a means of being right with God, but to show us how to please him and how to love him. The Ten Commandments were given to show His people how to live and how not to live before God. When God gave the Ten Commandments, He did so that we might observe the things he has commanded. Many people think that, in the New Testament, God has set aside the Ten Commandments. Jesus, however, never set aside His moral law. How could He? God will judge the world according to the moral law summarized in the Ten Commandments (Romans 2:14-16). Jesus upheld the moral law by saying that if anyone lusts after a woman, that man has already committed adultery with her in his heart; again, if anyone hates another person, he has committed murder (See Matthew 5:24-36). The Ten Commandments have been rephrased and expanded on in the New Testament. We need to remember that It was God who gave the Ten Commandments. 

We know that the Ten Commandments don’t give us the power to obey God. We know that they don’t give us the ability to obey God. They serve rather as a signpost, a rule of life, a map showing us how to please and honor God. Therefore, when Jesus said we must observe all that He has commanded us, he included the moral law given in the Old Testament with all He has commanded in the New. It is only the Old Testament ceremonial law and the civic law that concerned Israel as a nation that have been abolished.  But the moral law and its principles in the civic law still apply, and will, to all eternity. 

God desires a people that will love Him and love other people with all their hearts. God desires to have a people that will live holy lives and seek righteousness. God desires a people that will seek for justice in their cities and countries, because by doing and desiring that, and loving people and justice and righteousness and holiness, we reflect the character of God. The Cultural Mandate given to Adam and Eve in Genesis 1:26-28 should also be observed until Jesus comes again, because that is what Christ commanded: to rule and reign over God’s creation and to represent Him in this world.

To make disciples of all ethnic groups (nations) is possible because of three great truths: first, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Christ (Matthew 28:18). Because He has the most power in the universe nothing can stop Him from accomplishing His purposes. No one and nothing can stop Him. Secondly, it is because it is His will and purpose to make people His disciplesfrom the very beginning of time. In fact, God planned to have a people that will worship and reflect his glory before time began (see Ephesians 1:3-14). And thirdly, God has given us his presence to accomplish this task. He said that He would be with us to the end of the age. God has given His church his Spirit and because of that fact the task will be accomplished. But how do church planting and discipleship relate to one another? Do you first make disciples and then do church planting? Or does church planting come first and then discipleship? If we want to explore how these two relate to one another we need to ask: what is a church? And what is a disciple? 

A church is a body of believers in a local setting where fellowship, the worship of God and the preaching of the word take place; where the sacraments (The Lord’s supper and baptism) are faithfully being administered; and where we practice church discipline. Without these things you there is no church. A church consists of church members, born-again believers in Christ. The goal of evangelism is that people become members of a local body where they experience the dynamics of the community of the saints, which includes praying together for one other’s needs, loving one another, worshipping together, studying God’s word and being strengthened in the faith. 

A disciple is someone who is fully committed to following Jesus Christ with his whole heart. A disciple of Jesus Christ is not someone who is interested only in Christ’s teachings. A disciple of Christ is not someone who just reads the Bible and prays before a meal or is just a churchgoer. A disciple of Christ is someone who has committed himself/herself to Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. He is even willing to die for Christ. 

“And he (Jesus) said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when he comes in his glory and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.” (Luke 9:23-26 ESV)

It is true that there are people such as Judas Iscariot, a fake, one who pretended to be a disciple of Jesus. Judas never belonged to Jesus. That is noticeably clear from the gospels. Jesus called him a devil (John 6:68). A disciple of Christ is someone who has left all to follow Christ, one who has surrendered and submitted to Him as King, who is willing to obey God at any cost. 

So, if we say that the goal of evangelism and making God known is discipleship, we are saying that the conversion of unbelievers is not the end of evangelism; conversion is actually the starting point of the process of discipleship. In some circles, people say that persons can be disciples of Christ without being born again through the Holy Spirit. If that is true then we have many false, Judas-like disciples. The emphasis in discipleship should never be that one can follow Christ authentically without trusting in Him as Lord and Savior. The ways of discipleship are manifold. But discipleship is the sine qua non[1] for believers in Christ. 

Discipleship is a life-long process for the believer in Christ. Moreover, one never grows beyond one’s need to learn more of Jesus. We will never stop learning more of God, even in eternity. We grow in our understanding of discipleship. We become more mature disciples, yet we never stop growing. 

The ideal setting for discipleship is the local church, but it is not limited to that. Discipleship can happen anywhere where believers are together: at high schools during a Bible study; during open air preaching; in one-on-one or casual conversations; in counseling a believer; on the Internet; in a parent-child or employer-employee relationship, etc. Discipleship and Evangelism take on many forms and happen in different settings, but both should eventually lead to fellowship with other believers and flow out into experiencing the dynamics of a local church.

Church planting and discipleship frequently overlap, although they can be separated. The focus in discipleship should be on incorporating saved souls into a local body of believers. If people are converted to Christ but don’t belong to a local church, then church planting should necessarily follow. If a church exists and it grows in a certain location, then discipleship should be the focus of that church, especially with regard to people who are new to Christianity. The goal of evangelism is to see Christians become committed followers of Jesus Christ. 

Also, in the process of discipleship we continue to evangelize, firstly because we are not sure if those we do disciple are genuinely saved and whether they correctly understand the essentials of the gospel. Also, we continue to evangelize during the discipleship and church-planting

process because preaching the gospel is not only necessary for the conversion of unbelievers but also for building Christians up in their most holy faith (Jude 1:20). The gospel is necessary throughout our Christian walk because Christians tend so easily to forget the doctrine of justification by faith through Christ only and start to rely on their own righteousness! 

May God’s goal be our goal in evangelism. May we have God’s vision and mission for the nations!

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[1] An absolutely indispensable or essential thing (Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary).

Justification and Adoption 

When God converts sinners through the means that He has appointed, namely the preaching of the gospel, and the prayers of the saints, and the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit, bringing the dead to life, and granting faith in Christ and repentance towards God – it is then that God justifies and adopts the sinner. These two things, justification, and adoption are two great realities revealed in the Scriptures; they are not peripheral things. 

“For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,” (Romans 4:3-5 ESV)

“So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.” (Galatians 3:24-26 ESV)

“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”  So, you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.” (Galatians 4:4-7 ESV)

It is clear from these texts, and others, that sinners are justified and adopted by God through faith in Christ. It is not by works or the works of the law that we are justified and adopted into God’s family. So, what do these words, justification, and adoption, actually mean?

Both words, justification, and adoption, are legal terms. To be justified means that before justification took place, a person was found to be guilty. And we know, as said before, that we were all once condemned because of our sins (Romans 3:19,20). In God’s court, before God’s judgment throne, we all stood guilty, hundreds and thousands of times, for crimes against God. We despised his authority, rejected his laws; we deserved to die and be condemned. But because Jesus Christ came down from heaven to earth, and obtained a perfect righteousness, and came to stand in our place to bear the punishment we deserved, and died the death we deserved; because Jesus was condemned in our place and became a curse for us, by dying on the cross, you and I can have our sins forgiven. We can be declared innocent. It is wonderful to be forgiven but to be declared righteous and just, is even greater! And that is what the gospel is all about. It is about God making a way for you and me to be made acceptable in God’s sight. In the gospel, God made Jesus to be sin for us, so that we can become the righteousness of God in Him. In the gospel, a divine exchange takes place. When a person believes in Christ, God credits Christ’s righteousness to the sinner, and the sinner’s sin to Christ. In fact, Jesus died for the sins of the believer 2,000 years ago. But by faith, in real time, when the sinner believes in Christ, God forgives the sinner, and God credits Christ’s obedience to the law, Christ’s righteousness, to the believer. And when God does this, he declares the sinner to be just or righteous. Justification is a legal declaration by God, in His courtroom. By faith in Christ, God looks on the sinner as if he has never sinned, as if he or she is Jesus Christ Himself!

This is why we evangelize and make God known. We want people across the world to be justified by God, to be accepted by Him, by virtue of Christ. Justification is a once-off declaration by God to a sinner, never to be repeated, never to be canceled. Once a person is justified by God, he can never be unjustified. Those whom God justified, he glorified (Romans 8:29,30). 

But there is more:  after God has justified a person, he doesn’t stop there. It gets better! Once God justifies the sinner by faith, he proceeds   to adopt him or her into his family.  Adoption, like justification, is a legal declaration. It is a legal process. Before anything happens to our sinful natures, before the purification process starts, God justifies us by faith and adopts us into His family. These two glorious things, we can say, happen almost simultaneously. But, logically, justification comes first. Once God has justified the sinner, he proceeds to adopt the one   justified into his family. He declares the justified one to be his son or daughter! As proof that he has done this, he sends the Spirit of God, the Spirit of sonship, into that person’s life, in order to seal the declaration and legal process. All those whom God justifies by faith in Christ, he also adopts. And once they are adopted, they are baptized by the Holy Spirit and receive the filling of the Holy Spirit. 

There is much to say about these things! All I want to say for now is this: the reason we share the gospel, and the goal of going out into the world to evangelize, is so that God, by his grace, would justify and adopt people into His family! Sharing the gospel is about God making people like Jesus. That doesn’t happen unless sinners are justified and adopted into his family. We are not by nature righteous in God’s sight. We are sinful and desperately wicked, in need of mercy. We are not by nature God’s sons or daughters, but sons and daughters of disobedience and wrath. We are by nature sons of the devil and under the curse. Through the gospel, and the gospel alone, we come into the privileged positions of being called sons and daughters of God and we receive the Spirit of God. And by receiving this declaration, we not only receive the filling of Spirit of God, but also an inheritance prepared for us in heaven!

You are no longer called a sinner but a saint in Christ. You are no longer called a slave, but a son. You are no longer condemned; you are justified by faith. Because of this, God no longer counts your sins against you, but credits Christ’s righteousness to you! This is why we make God known, that God would justify, and adopt sinners to Himself. 

Conversion of unbelievers 

The reason why we are involved in this great task is that we want people to be reconciled to God. We want unsaved people to experience the blessing we have experienced, of knowing God. We don’t evangelize by using quick fixes and underhand methods. So many evangelists hurry people through the gospel and make an appeal for a commitment to Christ without taking them through the Ten Commandments. We have seen in mass crusades how people have been manipulated by so-called evangelists to come forward and receive Christ by using the “sinner’s prayer”, just so that the evangelists can boast about how many have “given their lives to Jesus”. We must not be simplistic: let us rather follow the Word of God when we evangelize. Jesus Christ and the apostles never used the sinner’s prayer as a means of getting people converted. We have no record of this in the gospels or the Bible. We see that Jesus and the apostles and the prophets of old used the law of God to bring conviction of sin and when people were convicted, pointed them to Christ for salvation (Acts 2:20-41; Mark 10; Romans 1-3). 

We evangelize so that people may come to a saving knowledge of Christ; so as to bring them to conviction of sin; so that people of all tribes and tongues and languages might come to know the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus Christ (Philippians 3:6-9). We are to be like the apostle Paul, who was “in great anguish of soul” for his own countrymen, that they might be saved (Romans 9:1-3). We want people to be soundly converted because we believe that God has a people across the world who belong to Him. And we long to see God’s purposes fulfilled in the world. 

The Bible makes it clear:

“For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so, turn, and live.”” (Ezekiel 18:32 ESV)

And:

“This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:3-4 ESV)

And: 

“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9 ESV)

Now these texts do not imply that it is God’s sovereign will and his will of decree that all people who have ever lived should be saved (this is called Universalism in theology). These texts mean that it is God’s will of command, it is God’s will of disposition that all people should be saved. It is God’s sovereign will that all whom He would draw to Himself should be saved (John 6:37-44). God will accomplish all his purposes. His effectual will cannot be frustrated or thwarted. Everything that pleases Him, He does (Psalm 115:6). We see in these texts that God’s desire is to make his salvation known on the earth. We see it is God’s will for people to turn and live, but we also know that this will not happen everywhere, because people love their sin too much. People’s hearts are desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9). People are estranged from the womb (See Psalm 58:3). We cannot come to God unless God effectually draws us to Himself. God finds no delight in the death of the wicked in one way, but He will find delight (See Deuteronomy 28:63) in destroying the unrepentant sinners and the devil and the demons, because then God will accomplish his purposes in judgment and so display the panorama of His perfections in the universe. 

In short: We make God known to get people saved by the means God has appointed: the prayers of his people and the proclamation of the Gospel. We evangelize so that God’s elect, whom He has chosen before the foundation of the world, may be gathered into the fold and family of God (Ephesians 1:3-5; John 10:16). God desires the conversion of his elect in a definite and ultimate way; God desires the conversion of the non-elect in a temporal and indefinite way: the former He has planned to accomplish; the latter He has not decided to accomplish. God’s will of disposition is so towards the creature that His common grace is extended to all and that He is good to all (Psalm 145:9,10; Matthew 5:44-48) and that His tender mercies are over all, so that the humans who don’t repent and receive Christ will have no excuse on Judgment Day. Those who go to hell will have only themselves to blame in that horrible day. In his general revelation, God has made known his divine attributes to all.

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So, they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” (Romans 1:18-21 ESV)

Because we do not know who the elect of God are and because they don’t have a badge on their foreheads saying, “I am the elect of God”, our goal is to proclaim the gospel to all and to convict, exhort and to warn every person to turn from the wrath to come (1 Thessalonians 1:10).  We know as evangelists that for anyone who turns from his sins there will be joy in heaven (Luke 15:1-10) and that makes us joyful and expectant regarding the task set before us. 

Making the way of salvation known (among all ethnic groups)

We are commanded many times in the Bible to tell of God’s salvation. The Israelites in the Old Testament were commanded to tell of all his wonderful acts (See Psalm 67; 145). The revelation about the gospel of God was not complete in the Old Testament, but now that we have the full revelation of God in the New and Old Testaments, we ought to tell of his wonderful acts all the more. God’s glory has been revealed in the life and death of Jesus Christ; it would be a crime against God not to tell of His salvation. We know that there is salvation in no other, among men, than Christ (See Acts 4:12). We know that there is only one Mediator between God and man (Read 1 Timothy 2:3-4), which is Christ, and we know that there is only one way to the Father and it is through Christ (See John 14:6). To ignore this fact and to keep silent about this reality would be a grievous sin! 

Oh, sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth! Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples! For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength!

Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth! Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns!” (Psalms 96:1-7, 9 ESV)

God has chosen in His sovereignty to save his elect from every tribe, nation, and language group (see Revelation 5:9; 7:9) by using means. And those means are the prayers of his people and the proclamation of the gospel. God commands all men everywhere to repent because He has fixed a day in which he will judge the living and dead by a man whom He has appointed (See Acts 17:30-31). God has overlooked the times of ignorance in ages before Jesus came to earth. But now repentance and remission of sins should be proclaimed in the Name of Jesus to all ethnic groups (Read Luke 24:47,48). 

The goal of evangelism is that all people on the earth hear about the good news of Christ. Not all people will believe, or repent of their sins, or embrace and cherish the life-saving message of Christ. Yet the offer of salvation should be made to all people because that is how God has appointed that people will be saved from their sins. Part of the Armor of God in Ephesians 6:10-18 is the readiness to proclaim the gospel of peace. Are you ready and willing to do this? Are you wearing the shoes of readiness? Are you going on the offensive to proclaim the message? Woe to us if we keep the message to ourselves! May God forgive us for our sloth in this enterprise. Moreover, may God get us out of our comfort-zones.  He has a people among all the peoples of the earth. We see this very clearly in the Book of Revelation, where we get a glimpse of heaven:

“And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”” (Revelation 5:9-10 ESV)

God has sheep that are not yet in his kingdom and He must gather them as well (See John 10:16), and He does this through the church, believers in Him. They are those who pray for the lost and preach and share the gospel wherever they go. It is necessary for us to proclaim the gospel: general revelation in nature cannot convince people of their need of a Savior. Our prayers alone cannot show people the Savior; we must go and tell. People cannot hear our prayers in prayer meetings or when we are alone. Our good deeds and our kindness and our longsuffering, although particularly important to adorn the gospel of God, cannot save people. We need to proclaim the gospel!

  “For ‘everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:13-15, 17 ESV)

Will you go and tell those who have never heard the gospel? According to missiologists more than a billion people have never heard the true gospel of Christ. How will the elect of God be saved unless someone goes and tells? The goal of evangelism is to fill the face of the earth with the glorious gospel of Christ, as the waters cover the sea. No one should go to hell unless they have been prayed for and unless they have been told of the way of salvation. God is just and holy and people who go to hell will go there because of their rebellion and sin. But let us bow down to the King of kings and let us diffuse the fragrance of the knowledge of God in every place (See 2 Corinthians 2:14-16). For some it will be an aroma of death to death, but for those who believe it will be an aroma of life and of great delight. May we go and tell the wondrous story of God’s love and salvation. God gets glory and is magnified when we tell “the old, old story”. Let no one tell you the proclamation of the gospel is just for mature Christians and pastors. God has commanded all Christians to proclaim the gospel, to small and great, to the poor and to the rich, to young and old, to the educated and uneducated (See Romans 1:14): God reigns!

The manifestation of the glory and grace of God

It was Gisbertus Voetius, the theologian, who said that the first goal of mission work to the unconverted is the display or the manifestation of the glory and grace of God. All of creation exists for the glory of God. We see this truth throughout Scripture. Everything that exists, exists to glorify God: the starry constellations, the sun and moon, the varieties of animal and bird and plant life, the insect world, and all human beings. And the apex of God’s glory is his grace revealed in the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,” (Ephesians 1:3-7 ESV)

The reason why we evangelize, the reason we go out and share the gospel and make God known to the world, is because it glorifies God. God designed and planned it to be that way. The way God will save all his elect and the way He planned it and executed his plan in history, and the way he uses the means of preaching the gospel and the way he applies salvation to the human heart through the Holy Spirit, gives him the greatest glory. We don’t evangelize to glorify ourselves. We don’t evangelize so that we can get trophies and applause from the Christian community or the world. We don’t evangelize so that we can become famous. We don’t do it to be honored by men. We evangelize because there is no other way that people can be rescued from the power of sin and Satan and the wrath of God. We evangelize because God commands us to do so. We do so because God ordained that it would be through the preaching of the gospel that people would be saved for God’s glory. The word of God states:

“For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So, faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:13-17 ESV)

The gospel humbles the pride of man. It leaves no room for men to boast in their own achievements or titles or qualifications. The gospel leaves no room for man to lift his head in pride and glory in his own righteousness. The proclamation of the gospel leads to God extending his grace to vile sinners like you and me. God wants to display and manifest his grace to sinners, and he has chosen to do this through the proclamation of the gospel (See 1 Corinthians 1:21). 

“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age,” (Titus 2:11-12 ESV)

God is most glorified through the gospel because it is there that people are united in fellowship with Him. And God wants to extend this grace to all peoples, people from every nation and tribe and language group (Read Revelation 5:9). When people are united to God through Christ in the Holy Spirit, God achieves his purpose of being glorified. Let those who boast, boast in Christ, for God has made Christ to be our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification, and our redemption (1 Corinthians 1:30). 

Dear reader: Are you committed to being involved in the manifestation of God’s glory and grace? God seeks for people to be committed to becoming his image bearers, proclaiming his glorious gospel to a lost world. God is seeking people who will proclaim his gospel so that He might be glorified.

“And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.” (Mark 16:15 ESV)

How can and should I talk to people about God? (Witnessing and ministry)

If the Holy Spirit lives inside you, God will enable you to live a life that glorifies Him. The Holy Spirit always glorifies Jesus Christ. When you are filled with the Holy Spirit, God will lead you to look for opportunities to make much of Jesus Christ and to glorify Him (See John 16:14). God is glorified in us when we bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit. The fruit of the   Spirit is love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, patience, self-control and humility (Read Galatians 5:22,23). The Holy Spirit takes that which belongs to Jesus and gives it to us. 

If you are truly saved by God, it would be impossible to remain silent about the great things God has done in you and for you. If God has granted you eternal life, justification, forgiveness of sins, a new heart, an inheritance in heaven, deliverance from sins, and the wonderful Holy Spirit inside of you, how will you remain silent? It is like a person who has found medicine to cure cancer or a global pandemic, like the corona virus. If you discovered that kind of medicine, would you not share it with those people who so desperately need it? Only a spiritually sick and evil person would not share a discovery that could save hundreds of thousands of lives. In the same way, if you have found the Prince of Life, Jesus Christ, the Treasure of treasures, the King of kings, who can save from the devasting soul-sickness of sin, would you not tell people about Him?

The Bible says that we don’t have to worry about how or what to say to people who ask us about the hope we have, because the Holy Spirit within us will give us the right words to speak (Read Matthew 10:19,20). Jesus said to his disciples before He went to heaven: “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be witnesses to Me … to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8 NKJV) Jesus told this to his followers about 2,000 years ago, and even as you read this, it is being fulfilled over and over throughout the world, to the ends of the earth. You may ask what we today, as Jesus’ followers, should be witnessing about. We have to testify to the great things Jesus has done in our lives. We are to tell others about Jesus Christ’s death and work of redemption on the cross; his work of redemption in us and His resurrection from the dead! Even if we have not seen Him, we know it is true, because the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, witnesses in our hearts that Jesus is the Savior of the world and the Conqueror over death. 

We are also to prophesy about the great Day of The Lord, the Final Judgment that is coming, when Jesus will judge the living and the dead in righteousness. Jesus Christ is coming again to this earth, not as the Lamb of God that was slain the first time, but as the Lion of Judah. He will judge everyone who has ever lived, is living now, and will live on this earth (Revelation 5, 19, 20). We, as Jesus’ followers, are to warn people against loving sin and the world and all that is in it. We are to urge people to flee to the only Savior of the world, Jesus Christ. The wrath of God is coming, and everyone whose name is not written in the Book of Life will be thrown into the lake of fire where they will burn and be tormented for eternity (Revelation 20:10-15). Jesus is calling sinners to come to Him and be saved from God’s wrath, from themselves and their sins. The devil and his angels are already judged, and they will have their portion in the lake of fire for eternity. Jesus has a purpose and a plan for your life as a believer in Christ, and that is to tell others, your friends, family and strangers about the Savior and King, Jesus Christ. Many will not receive Jesus, many will hate Him, and many will reject you because they love the world and themselves more than God. But we have the privilege and the obligation to go and tell of the mighty works of God and of the New Jerusalem where Jesus reigns forever.

Mark 16:15

        Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature

How can I live a life pleasing to God? (The Holy Spirit)

We must realize that there is nothing good in ourselves, as the Bible says in Romans 7:18. We are all sold under sin, and we will have this body of sin, this body subject to sin and decay, until the day we die. If you belong to Christ you will receive a glorified body when you are in heaven, a body free from sin (1 Corinthians 15:22-50). To live a life pleasing to God is a supernatural life. We need the glorious Holy Spirit to live a life pleasing to God.  The combined power of sin, the world and evil are too strong to overcome in one’s own strength.  The day you received Jesus Christ as your Savior and King, the Holy Spirit came to live inside you. God gave Him to you to help, guide, and comfort you; to strengthen you to live a life acceptable to God. In our own strength it is impossible to please God. Without Christ we cannot do anything useful (Read John 15:4,5).

As you might have realized, one cannot see God with the naked eye. The Holy Spirit is invisible. That’s why the Bible says we live by faith and not by sight. Without faith it is impossible to please God (Read Hebrews 11:6). A life that pleases God is a life of trusting Him in everything. God has told us that the future is in his hands and that He knows the end from the beginning: of Him and through Him and to Him are all things (Read Romans 11:33-36). He is all-knowing, all-powerful, and omnipresent. He is a God of goodness, truth, justice and love: he keeps his promises; He has given us many! We must believe them. Because God is trustworthy, we can trust in Him: he has proven his faithfulness over and over again.  Because God has revealed Himself in these ways through the centuries, we can trust Him with our future and with our lives. We can trust Him to care for and support us when we go through difficult times and suffering (Read Matthew 6:33). God has made it clear that following Jesus entails going through suffering, tribulation and heartache (Romans 8:31-39). Maybe your own family and friends will not understand you, precisely because you do what is right and follow Jesus Christ. A life that pleases God is one in which you surrender your life, your time, your future, possessions and resources to God. God gave you your life and everything that you own. Surrendering to God means to live your life under the control and guidance of the Holy Spirit. It is a life where you always ask: Lord, what is your will in this? Not my will be done, but Your will. A life pleasing to God is a life that gives up its rights. You will say: God whatever you say, I’ll do; wherever you send, I’ll go; whatever price I have to pay, I’ll pay.  Living under the control of the Spirit is not always easy, but by doing so, we please God. Jesus said, “The gate is narrow, and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matthew 7:14 ESV).

To check if you are on this narrow road that leads to heaven, and that you are living a life pleasing to God, you should read the Bible regularly, obediently and with faith. The more you do so, the more you will realize what God’s will is and what he requires of you. To live a life pleasing to God is the path of obedience. It takes endurance and sacrifice to please Him, but it is the only path to lasting joy and happiness. It is like running a marathon: difficult but rewarding. A holy life is a happy life. That is why Jesus was filled with joy above all other people (See Hebrews 1:9; Luke 10:21); Jesus was the happiest person, and still is, because He hated sin and loved righteousness. Because He never sinned, his joy is immeasurable, and He wants to impart that joy to us. Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you, (referring to his words in the Bible), that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:11 ESV). To live a life pleasing to God is a life of paradoxes; it’s full of joy in suffering, of peace in difficulties, of certainty in God in the unknown, and in the immediate future. It is a life filled with the power, love and joy of the Holy Spirit. 

Galatians 5:16

Walk in the Spirit and you shall never fulfill the lust of the flesh

How can I have a close relationship with God? (Prayer)

To have a close relationship with God, to walk with God, you have to start with Jesus Christ. If you try to communicate with God on your own, in your own strength, it won’t work. You cannot go through “Mother Mary”, a dead saint, or some dead forefather to God. The dead have no contact with the living. They cannot help you from the other side. Don’t let the devil deceive you. God has made it clear that once people are dead, they will face judgment (Hebrew 9:27), and then, whoever dies, will either live eternally with God in heaven or without God’s glory in hell. Jesus is the only Mediator between God and us (1 Timothy 2:5). Jesus is our High Priest who intercedes (prays) “24/7” (24 hours, 7 days a week) for those who come to God through Him (Hebrews 7:25). There is no other way to come to God but through the blood of Christ (1 John 1:7).

Once you have this vision that Jesus is always there for you, always praying for you, and that He is for you (Romans 8:31,33), because of his sacrifice for you at the cross 2000 years ago, then life becomes a joy. You will find courage to face opposition and rejection and suffering, because you know the most powerful Person in the universe is on your side (Matthew 28:18-20). You should not think of prayer and talking to God as only doing your duty. It should be as natural as breathing. Prayer should flow spontaneously out of you. God knows everything about you. He knows you much better than you know yourself (Matthew 6:6-8). To walk closely with God means to be honest with God about your weaknesses and sins. Share your thoughts, feelings and secrets with Him. Admit your weaknesses and sins to Him and He will help and forgive you. It will not help to live a lie and try to hide your sin. The Bible says, “if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). God knows you through and through and his aim is for you to live a victorious life over sin (1 John 5:1-5). You may not have instant victory over every sin in your life, but as you share your fears and failures with God, He will help you and strengthen you to become more and more like Jesus in love and holiness. 

God has given us his church for support as well. If our burdens become too big, God wants us to share them with our fellow Christians. That’s why James 5:16 says: “confess your sins to one another so that you will be healed.” As we humble ourselves before God, He will lift us up in greater victory over sin. One thing is certain: God resists the proud (See James 4:5-8)! Pride in your life will definitely create distance between you and God. If we try to live life independently of God, we will not grow with God and God will resist us. That is why the book of Proverbs   says: “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18 NKJV).To stay close to God is to stay on your knees and ask for his help, his strength, wisdom and forgiveness as we live life with all the challenges we face every day. Jesus was tempted in every way when He lived on this planet and that is why He can help us face any and every difficulty in life (Hebrews 4:14-16). Because He never sinned when He lived on this earth, He is able to help us in our time of need and distress. 

Another thing that will help us to walk closely with God is to know God’s will as it is revealed in the Bible. The better we know the Bible, the better we will know what God expects of us and we will therefore walk closely with Him. God speaks to us through his Spirit, through his words, revealed in the Bible. When we open it and read the words of God, paying close attention to the meaning of his words in the contexts in which they were given, we will be encouraged and directed and enlightened about God’s will and plans for our lives. 

1 Thessalonians 5:17

Pray without ceasing

How can I meet with people who know God (Church)?

If you have received Jesus Christ as your Savior and King, as the God of your life, you belong to God’s family. If Jesus is your Savior and King, then the Holy Spirit lives inside you and you are then born from heaven, born from above (John 3:3-6): you are God’s son or daughter (John 1:12,13). If Christ is your King, you have literally millions of brothers and sisters. This family is scattered all over the world! God’s Book says that He will have children in every language and ethnic group at the end of history (Revelation 5:9; 7:9). Because you have an eternal family you need to learn how to have good relationships with your fellow family members. We live in a world filled with sin, suffering and sickness. But we wait for a better country, the heavenly one God promised to those who believe (Hebrews 11). In this tough world we need support and prayer from our Christian brothers and sisters. This is why God commanded us not to make close friends with unbelievers (those who don’t belong to God). People that don’t belong to Christ shouldn’t be your best friends.

Psalm 1:1-3 in God’s Book says: “Blessed are those who walk not in the counsel of the ungodly, who stand not in the way of sinners and who sit not in the seat of the mockers, but his/her delight is in the word of God.” The Bible warns us in James 4:4 not to be friends with the world, because he/she who is a friend of the world is an enemy of God. God’s Book also says in Hebrew 10:25 that “we should not forsake the gathering of believers.” It is good to make friends with Christians with whom you can pray when you have any problem. Scripture says in Galatians 6:2, “we must bear each other’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Jesus Christ.” The art of Christian living is to be in this world, but not of it. If we make a fire in a fireplace and remove one log, that log will not continue to burn. So, we need to stay in fellowship with other believers otherwise we will cease to burn for God’s glory and not fulfill our function in the world, which is to build his kingdom.

But meeting with Christians can be difficult in the country where you live or because of certain circumstances like a global pandemic. There may be people who will hate you and even want to kill you if you belong to Christ. You may have to meet secretly with friends and other believers in Jesus. You may face suffering and rejection because you belong to God. For these very reasons we need to pray with each other and encourage each other. God’s Book says in Romans 12:15: “rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.” When Jesus was enthroned in heaven about 2000 years ago the first disciples cared for one another and lived in community with one another (Acts 2:42-47). God wants us to care for one another and to be at peace with one another. Remember to be vigilant and watchful, because some people in the church (gathering of Christians) might be there not because they belong to God but because they have evil intentions.  In any case we should love them too because godly love is the main characteristic of any believer in Jesus.

Pray to God that he may show you which church He wants you to attend. There are many different churches in the world and they don’t all understand the Bible in the same way. But all true believers in Christ love one another, work for unity in God and hold on to the truth of God. The church you go to does not need to be a big church. It can be a small one, or a house church, but two requirements are necessary. They need to believe in Jesus Christ as the only Savior and King of the world, and they have to believe that the Bible is the reliable and true words of God. That is the 66 books of the New and Old Testament. May God help you.

1 Timothy 3:15

The house of God, which is the church of the living God, is the pillar and ground of the truth.

How can I find and know the Words of God? (Bible and prophecy)

Many people in many parts of the world claim to have the words of God. In what Christians call the Bible, we find the true words of God. The New Testament states: “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.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV). In the Bible (the Scriptures) we find two parts: the Old Testament and the New Testament. In the Old Testament we find the story of creation, the fall of mankind into sin, God choosing a special people to whom He revealed his words, and the mighty acts of God. We also find prophecies about the future and about the life and death of Jesus Christ. Only God knows the future and in the Old Testament we find historical accounts of God’s words and acts as well as the fore-telling (prophecies) of future events. Many of these prophecies have already been fulfilled, but others still await fulfillment.  

In the New Testament we find historical accounts of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We see God acting in history and making a way for his people to be united to Him and find deliverance from sin. Many of the prophecies in the Old Testament have been fulfilled in the life of Jesus Christ. The New Testament also contains letters to God’s people and prophecies about the end of the world as we know it.

All in all, there are 66 books in the Bible. Christians believe that the Bible is God’s word to the human race. In it we find what God expects of us, and how we can be brought into a restored relationship with God Almighty. We find the words of eternal life in the Bible (John 6:68). The Holy Spirit given to God’s children led them to compile the Bible. All of the books in the New Testament were written while the 12 apostles (or some of them; Jesus’ chosen disciples), who saw Jesus alive after his death, were still living. The church (God’s people) recognized that those books written by the apostles (or written in close relationship with an apostle) in the New Testament are enough to enable us to know about the way to God and how to be saved for time and eternity. The Bible is the standard for us to distinguish truth from falsehood, truth from error and righteousness from unrighteousness.

Because there was no printing press or electronic media for centuries, there are literally thousands of handwritten copies of the Bible (of the original manuscripts, called “the autographs”) and parts of the Bible. God led His people, the church, to make many copies of the original manuscripts over the centuries to preserve His words. Because so many manuscripts were copied over the centuries, human errors do occur. But in comparison to the large number of manuscripts available (more than 5,500 containing the New Testament or parts of it), these errors are few. They comprise only about 1 % of all the words in the manuscripts. This is so because the manuscripts were meticulously and carefully copied by the people of God. And what is more, the errors that do occur are mainly of a grammatical nature. They do not have an impact on the core truths about Jesus, God, life, righteousness or our salvation. 

All the handwritten copies of the Bible have a striking similarity in the main message and doctrines of God, his acts in history and what we need to know in order to be saved for time and eternity. The Bible, in all of its thousands of manuscripts, has the same clear message: how we should live a life pleasing to God and how to be reconciled to Him for time and eternity. Therefore, we can trust God’s words in the Bible, and know that through his people, He has preserved for us in the Bibleall that we need to know to have a blessed relationship with Him.

Matthew 24:35

Heaven and earth will pass away but My words will never pass away.