COLUMNS

A Guidebook Preview

T.M. Moore

August 2, 2024

Coming attractions.

A Christian Guidebook: Introduction (7)

And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. Luke 24.27

What the world needs—now and always
For a period in our granddaughter Reagan’s education, she was homeschooled, and Susie and I had a part in that effort. Once a week Reagan came to our home and Susie taught spelling and home economics, while my subject was what we used to call earth science.

In my section we delighted together in learning about trees and weather and how plants work and what bugs do and other down-to-earth, familiar stuff like that. As part of my time with Reagan, we would take a field trip to observe something we were studying. We walked around our neighborhood, especially the conserved water features—ponds, grasses, woody stands—looking for wildflowers, bugs, tree bark, and other things that were part of our textbook.

We took photos of what we observed, then we came back home and broke out the guidebooks to get a better understanding of what we’d seen. We kept notes and journals, drew pictures, and did experiments and, overall, had a delightful time together engaging and understanding God’s world.

Consider this Guidebook a resource for gaining a deeper and more expansive understanding of the world of Christ’s Kingdom. This Guidebook will encourage you to take a daily field trip into the Word of God. There you will look more closely at the topics considered in this Guidebook. Take notes. Begin a journal. Come back to the Guidebook to compare what you’re learning with how it is explained here.

Then run in obedience as an agent of grace to those in your Personal Mission Field.

A four-part study
A Christian Guidebook unfolds over twenty-six installments in a four-part study of our great salvation. Again, we’re trying to anticipate topics and questions we might have to field from those in our Personal Mission Field who are beginning to be open to spiritual truth.

Part 1, “The Gospel and Salvation” includes nine installments set up as questions:

Who is Jesus?
Who is a Christian?
What is the Gospel?
What is the Kingdom of God?
What is grace?
What is faith?
What is eternal life?
What does it mean to be saved?
Why has God saved us?

Obviously, these are elementary teachings, like those mentioned in Hebrews 6.1-3. But we will explore them at deeper levels and against the backdrop of our secular age, to help our neighbors fit these elementary Christian concepts into their own thinking.

Part 2 is entitled “Discipleship” and consists of six installments constructed around six questions:

What is discipleship?
What is the soul?
Why do we need the Church?
What is worship?
What is fellowship?
How can we do any of this?

Part 3, “In the World but not of the World” addresses seven questions:

What in the world is going on? The age of lies
What in the world is going on? The larger real world
What is the Law of God?
What are the “last days”?
What should we do now? Growing in grace
What should we do now? Building the Church
What should we do now? Seeking the Kingdom of God

Part 4, “The Life to Come”, will consider the following issues:

What is the Christian’s hope?
What happens when I die?
What is heaven?
Where does it all end?

Armed with the Word of God
Each installment will take you deeper into God’s Word so that you not only understand these concepts and how to explain them to the people in your Personal Mission Field, but that you also experience our great salvation with greater joy and enthusiasm. And so that you will be ready to run and able to help any who may be seeking a higher life than the dead-end secularism which has been suffocating our society for decades.

We have a golden opportunity to renew our witness for the Lord by bringing the Name of Jesus into more of our everyday conversations. But that won’t happen unless we are truly excited about Jesus and able to explain Him and His work clearly and convincingly.

A Christian Guidebook can help. Our prayer is you will find this Guidebook a reliable and helpful guide to the one Guidebook alone which can enrich your faith and bring life to our world (Jn. 6.63).

For reflection
1. Review the topics to be considered in this Guidebook. Which of these do you know best?

2. Which of these topics do you most need to learn more about?

3. Have you been asked about any of these topics by an unbelieving friend? Which?

Next Steps—Transformation: Download the free PDF of this Introduction by clicking here. Send this around to several of your friends, encouraging them to join you in this study. Get a group together, or just another person, who will study and grow with you as we work our way through A Christian Guidebook.

T. M. Moore

Resources for your race
Perhaps it would be helpful, as we begin A Christian Guidebook, to keep the larger system of Christian doctrine in mind. You can do so by ordering our book, The Pattern of Sound Worlds. Learn more about this book and order your copy by clicking here, or download a free PDF by clicking here.

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