What should I do after I get saved? Pt 4b of 8

What to expect when you get to church part 2

Yesterday I posted part one of this topic (which BTW is part 4 of another topic). I think the most important thing you can do as a young christian is get into a good Christian church. For the rest of this series, check out the sidebar and click the graphic like the one on the top of this post.

So, without further ado, here are a couple more things you should expect in church:

1. Preaching- Some people call it "Giving a talk" some call it a message and some call it a conversation. Regardless, at some point during the service someone will stand up (usually the Lead or Senior Pastor) and speak on something from the Bible. Usually there are notes and powerpoint slides available to help you follow the sermon, and the church should be able to get you a Bible before the service if you need one. Also, if you have questions, write them down and find a staff member after church, you'll never know if you don't ask. Remember, the truth is out there!
2. Altar Call- This is the conclusion of the message, and it's a time when people can come down to the front of the stage (called the altar, I don't know why) and respond to what God is saying to them. Sometimes there is prayer for needs, or because a part of the service touched a person. Sometimes it's loud, other times it's quiet and intimate. During this time just respond as you feel that tugging on your heart.

Well, that's what to expect when you enter a church, be sure to find one near you today!

-Jeff-

What should I do after I get saved? pt 5 of 8

How to read the Bible

If you've been following along on our simple process to becoming a mega-christian superstar(or maybe you're just trying to survive without sinning every 10 minutes), then eventually the question turns to: What do I do with this book? By now you should have gotten a bible (the church you're attending can help you with this if you haven't) and maybe you've thumbed through it a couple times. You may even have decided that you're going to read the whole thing through so you started, like any book, at the beginning, determined to get to the end. I would encourage you to do it a little different.

You see, the bible isn't like any other book you've ever read. In fact, it's a compilation of 66 different books, divided into 2 sections (called testaments), written by different authors and spanning almost 1500 years. Normally I'm not the type of person who reads the end of the book first, but with the Bible you should start in the middle. In fact, start in the book of John (that's in the New Testament, right after Matthew, Mark and Luke). John tells the story of Jesus, the God who became man for you and me. After that, continue on to the end of the bible, reading over the story of the early church in the book of Acts, and then going into a series of letters that were written to encourage the first Christians, 2000 years ago. Pay close attention to these letters because they address a lot of the topics that you might be struggling with. There's some powerful stuff in those letters. And finally, once you've read the ending, go back to the beginning.

There are a few tools you can use to help understand what you're reading in the Bible:

• Devotional: This is a book that takes a portion of the bible and cuts it up into easy to understand sections. A Christian bookstore or your church can help you find one that's on your level.
• Concordance: Some Bibles have these in the back, this is a tool that cross-references all of the words used in the Bible, and allows for easy searching of themes and topics. Ex.: If you wanted to find verses about salvation, you look up the word and it points to verses like these: Acts 4:12, Romans 1:16 and others. If you'd rather look online, Biblegateway.com has a keyword search feature that's really handy.
• Christian Friends: Even among strong Christians, we don't talk about the Bible enough. So ask us questions about it, because it's through dialog that we really grow.

Hopefully this points you down the right path. Comments or questions? Send them to me and I'd be happy to try and help.

-Jeff-

What should I do after I get saved? Pt 6 of 8

Today we're going to delve into a very potent and very misunderstood facet of the Christian life: Prayer. Prayer is, in it's most basic form, a conversation between us and God. In fact, most of the time we try to complicate it and turn it into something else.

Jesus gave us a model for prayer, but He didn't say that this was the only way to pray. Before we read through this model together, take a moment to tell God about how your day is going so far. Go ahead, I'll wait. Good job! That was prayer right there, and that's all it takes to begin building a relationship with God.

However, there is more to prayer if you feel like taking the next step, and Jesus told us how we should pray (Matthew 6:9-13). I'll color code this section, and you can see my comments below.

9 Pray like this: Our Father in heaven,
may your name be kept holy.
10 May your Kingdom come soon.
May your will be done on earth,
as it is in heaven.
11 Give us today the food we need,
12 and forgive us our sins,
as we have forgiven those who sin against us.
13 And don’t let us yield to temptation,
but rescue us from the evil one.

• Jesus begins by taking time to praise God. He's done so much for us, we need to express our gratitude for how God is working in our lives.
  
• God is our King, and as believers we are a part of His Kingdom. We need to learn to obey Him in everything we do, and submit ourselves to His guidance and correction. Jesus is telling us to submit to God.
• All of us have needs, and God is interesting in helping us. He wants us to ask Him for the silly things, as well as the important. But know that He is A LOT smarter than we are, and He knows what's best for us, even if the answer is no.
• If you've messed up (and all of us have) He wants us to take the time to say we're sorry.
• And then ask Him to help keep you from sinning again.

There is a lot more that can be brought out of this teaching on the Lord's Prayer, but my goal here is to wet your appetite for more. Hopefully you're beginning with your day with Bible reading. Take a minute before you open the bible to pray and ask God to show you the truth in His Word, and when you come across something that challenges you, pray about it.