A Christian Guidebook: Introduction (2)

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Hebrews 5.12-14

Guidebooks
In my library are several helpful guidebooks. For example, I possess a walking guide to downtown Baltimore which highlights the architectural features to be observed there. Another guidebook introduces the historical sites available for visiting in the Northern Virginia/Washington D. C. area. Then I possess three of the books in Roger Tory Peterson’s “Field Guides” series: on birds, wildflowers, and the night sky. I have two guidebooks focusing on wildlife in Appalachia, where we live. Perhaps my favorite guidebook is the National Audubon Society’s Field Guide to New England. I keep that close by and peruse it frequently.

I have found many of these guidebooks to be invaluable in helping me understand and appreciate my surroundings and helping others do so as well. The guidebooks are interesting, but they are not the ultimate goal. Reading a guidebook prepares me for an encounter with whatever it features. Encountering that reality is where the satisfaction and delight are found. The guidebooks tell me what to look for, how to identify things, and what to enjoy about them. The things themselves are the payoff and goal of consulting a guidebook.

The purpose of A Christian Guidebook is not to serve as an end in itself, as if reading these studies were all you need to run with endurance the race God has appointed for you (Heb. 12.1). No. Our purpose, anticipating a growing interest in spiritual matters, is to highlight important teachings of Scripture relative to the essence of our salvation. Our goal is to lead you into the Scriptures for fresh insight and greater clarity, so that you may better understand, more consistently and joyfully live, and more clearly and intelligently explain what God’s Word reveals.

Put another way, our purpose in A Christian Guidebook is to enhance your joy and delight in reading, meditating on, and studying the Word of God, so that you may be ready to run with it to serve the needs of others.

A little clarification needed
We must be clear about what we believe and why it matters. We Christians are often guilty of talking about profound and transformative truths in ways that empty them of their real power. We have become so familiar in our use of certain terms that we have lost the deeper and more life-changing meaning these intend.

In A Christian Guidebook we’ll bring many of those terms out for closer inspection. We don’t want to be in the position of the Sicilian in the classic film, “The Princess Bride,” whose every word of exclamation—inimitably uttered by Wallace Shawn—is “inconceivable!” Having heard him say this once too often, the Spaniard—played by Mandy Patinkin—opines, “You keep on using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

We Christians may be in danger of falling into the same rut. We use certain terms over and over in our teaching, prayers, singing, discussions, and other contexts, words like “faith”, “grace”, “salvation”, “Kingdom of God”, and even “Christian” and “Jesus”, with confidence and authority. Just like the Sicilian. But do we know these words as God intends? As His Word reveals? Do we know them well enough to explain them—in all their depth, wonder, and beauty—to one who may be seeking a more transcendent experience of life, and who may ply us with question after question about such topics?

Only the Bible can give us the experience of God and His truth that leads to full and abundant life in Jesus (Jn. 6.63; 17.17). This Guidebook clarifies important teachings, usages, and meanings from all over the Scriptures, so that we, following the leading of God’s Spirit, can become more deeply immersed in His Word, comparing spiritual things with spiritual things, so that we may be furnished with grace and truth (1 Cor. 2.12, 13). Our prayer is that this Guidebook will help renew our walk with and work for the Lord, and prepare us to be more effective in running with His Word to others.

Recovering a lost language
In the Christian community, we are in danger of losing our most precious truths through laziness and misuse. A kind of Gresham’s Law of language has set in, so that the beauty of our Kingdom vernacular goes unperceived, the power of our doctrines has been degraded, the wonder of where we have arrived is minimized, and the transforming potential of our teaching is not fully appropriated. We need to be renewed in the great truths of the Christian faith, so that we are able, at every opportunity, to show and tell the reality of Christ and His Kingdom to those to whom God sends us day by day.

We hope to refresh our souls in the living and powerful Word of Jesus, as the Holy Spirit works within us to make all things new for the glory of God the Father. This Guidebook has as its purpose to highlight core teachings of our Christian faith for greater clarity and more continuous revival and renewal in our lives and churches. While we believe this Guidebook can help, ultimately the response we seek is that of the Samaritans to the woman who guided them to Jesus: “Then they said to the woman, ‘Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world’” (Jn. 4.42).

Only the Word of God has the power to awaken and transform sinners. But we must wield it confidently, continuously, courageously, and with clarity if it is to have its powerful effects in our world. (Ps. 149.5-9). We offer A Christian Guidebook to help in this effort.

For reflection
1. Do you feel a need for a greater clarity concerning essential doctrines of the Christian faith? Explain.

2. All believers “ought to be teachers”. How would you assess your own readiness to fulfill that role?

3. Have you mapped out your Personal Mission Field? Do you have before you the people to whom God sends you each day? Begin praying daily for them, that God might woo and draw them to Himself. 

Next Steps—Preparation: Make a list of what you think are the “core terms” of Christian faith. Then evaluate your clarity on these terms before the Lord in prayer.

T. M. Moore

Resources for your race
What do we mean by “revival” or “renewal”? If we don’t understand these terms, we won’t be inclined to desire them for our own lives as Christians. Our book, Revived!, can help. Learn more and order your copy of the book by clicking here.

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Except as indicated, all Scriptures are taken from theNew King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.