Youth and Recreation Activity Resource Center
Activity and Resource Center
Growing in Grace and Maturing as a Christian
Chapter Ten
Now that you have accepted Jesus as your Savior you want to begin growing in you understanding of the Christian life and what it mean to grow in grace. To do this you will want to set a time for regular Bible study and prayer. Communication with God on a moment by moment basis is known as walking in the Spirit. You talk to God through prayer and God talks to you through Bible study.
When you study the Bible you need to realize that there are different translations of the Bible. The King James Version is probably the most popular but also the hardest to understand since it is not written in modern English. The New King James Version takes out the Old English pronouns and substitutes currently used pronouns. The Revised Standard Version is an accurate translation into modern English. The Living Bible is probably the most fun to read because it is a paraphrase into everyday language but is not a true translation. The New International Version is an accurate translation into modern English and very popular among Bible scholars. The Message, put out by Navpress, is a book containing the New Testament with Psalms and Proverbs and is a paraphrase written in book form. This is a very enjoyable book to read and is translated by the author who uses manuscripts of the original languages as his source of information. It is important to do your Bible study from a true translation, but in our opinion the Living Bible will afford the new Christian an easy to read manuscript that will not lead you astray. It stays very close to the original translations.
To begin your Bible study, you could read a chapter from Psalms and a chapter from Proverbs each day.
Psalms presents the love of God and how God deals with his people.
Proverbs presents how one should live with his fellowman and in right relationship with God.
The book of 1 John will give you a good picture of the way God wants to bless you and teaches you about His love and how to return that love and share that love with others.
The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John will teach you about the life and teachings of Jesus.
You should read the book of John before the other three.
There are three books that will help you in your Bible study:
Learn how to use these three books and they will help you tremendously in understanding difficult scriptures.
The next step in growing in grace is to get involved with a group of believers for fellowship and Bible study. You will want to find you a good church and become an active member of that church. You should look for a church that is growing and has a happy, warm and friendly atmosphere. The pastor and leadership of ministers and teachers should preach and teach from the Word of God. The sermons and lessons should center around helping you to understand the Bible instead of just taking one or two scriptures and building a teaching lesson around them. There is a big difference in listening to a man's lesson based on a few scriptures and listening to the teaching from the Word of God. After a few sermons and Bible lessons you will be able to identify the difference very easily. Always seek someone who teaches and preaches the word over a person who is a good speaker but teaches secular living based on some scriptures instead of teaching what the Bible says and lets you make your own decisions about how to apply it to life.
The church should be a spirit filled church that teaches the works of the Holy Spirit and teaches the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Be careful to check out what the church teaches about the work of the Holy Spirit. Many churches try to limit the work of the Holy Spirit while others put too much emphasis on the gifts of the Holy Spirit. You have to seek God's leadership in finding the church that you need. Make it a matter of study and prayer and God will be faithful to lead you into the right fellowship.
As Paul states in his letter to the Philippians "Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God. I always pray for you, and I make my requests with a heart full of joy because you have been my partners in spreading the Good News about Christ from the time you first heard it until now. And I am sure that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on that day when Christ Jesus comes back again." (Philippians 1:3-6).
GOD BLESS YOU AND MAY YOU CONTINUE TO HAVE THE HAPPIEST AND MOST JOYFUL JOURNEY IN THE LORD JESUS CHRIST AND IN THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
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