If you have given your heart and your life to Jesus, you should be going to church to learn more about your Savior and your part in His Kingdom. Does a preacher tell you these things? No, but studying the Bible does and you usually do that from listening to a preacher’s sermon from a scripture in the Bible that God has placed in his heart to preach from. If you are trying to learn your place in God’s Kingdom, that is the place to start. Whether you hear it from a “TV preacher” or from a local church doesn’t matter but you can ask questions when you are at a local church.
The Bible says that we should not “forsake the gathering of the saints” and if you are a born-again Christian then you are a saint of God’s Kingdom. Many people seem to think that they can worship from a boat while fishing or from a tree-stand while hunting and in some small way you can appreciate God’s Creation while doing these things but it is not true worship.
Worship is a state of mind and heart that you cannot achieve while hunting or fishing. You can be in a prayerful state of mind while driving down the highway because I do this every time I’m on the road but that isn’t the same as worshiping the Lord while learning from His Word. As His adopted children, we are supposed to learn as much as possible about Him as we can and the only way to do this is by studying the Bible and most of us need a Bible-study leader to help us to do this. It isn’t a skill that we are given when we become believers. Growing in your life as a Christian, deepening the relationship with your Savior can only be done by studying the Bible.
Get into it a chapter at a time. Pray about what you have read and if you have questions, find a pastor or a friend who knows Jesus and ask them to help you understand. The Bible is a book that can teach you and me so much about God and about Jesus and what our responsibility is in our walk with Jesus every day. Even if you have read the Bible all the way through, read it again because the Holy Spirit will teach you even more about what you have already read. Each verse will show you something that you didn’t see or understand before and you will grow in your walk as you learn more from Him each day.
In the Bible there are many times where it tells what God doesn’t like. He isn’t impressed when we try to do things on our own or in our own strength. He doesn’t like it when we are angry with each other. He doesn’t like it when we worship something or someone other than Him, because He is God and the only God there is. But…what does God love?
He loves us, mankind, and He loves His Creation meaning the Earth and the universe and everything in it. He also loves the angels even though a third of them rebelled against Him eons ago and were cast out of Heaven because of it. If you are wondering how much He loves us, read the book of John in the New Testament. Watch “The Chosen” series and you can see what Jesus said and how He chose His disciples. I have been watching it since the first season and it is really good.
God’s love is more than we can imagine. It encompasses every part of Creation. Every atom, every blade of grass, every leaf, every strand of hair…His love infuses all of it. That is why even the slightest bit of disobedience on our part hurts God deeply. Creation sings praises to Him in ways that we can’t imagine but one day we will see it in Heaven and feel it too. I pray that you will seek to know Jesus as your Savior soon because the day is coming when He will appear and call His church to be with Him “in His Father’s house”.
The Living Message of Christ 