Some great questions (as usual). First off, people confuse what "religious" means. A religion is just a dedicated belief in something. But for many it has become a word used for tradition and ritual and devotion to a certain type of faith or denomination. The word always leaves me with a bad taste when it's used to describe my faith. "No lie is of the truth". You can be religious and not have the truth. Secondly, as you know, the word "abide" is one of my favorites. In the Greek it means "dwelling in". It carries with it the idea of having our feet planted in cement. It also describes accurately what happens when the Holy Spirit "abides" in us. He's planted. He's not leaving. He is there to guide and teach us. Great teachers just point to what we can know ourselves through the Spirit. Church for me is a place where I worship God, connect with others, and utilize my gifts for the greater good of all. Churches are not perfect as they are made up of imperfect people. But what happens there can enhance our faith. I know these thoughts probably seem random and all over the place. It happens that way in my brain sometimes. But I can say without a doubt that I am a follower and not just a believer.
When I began walking with Jesus I became a believer. I sought teaching from a spiritually filled pastor. I wasn’t just a believer but indeed a follower. What I received from my acceptance of Jesus was freedom to read, learn and use the Holy Spirit as a guide to interpret what I was reading. What you said about not just trusting what you say but checking out God’s word to see if it matches up. That pastor taught the same thing. I do have false things thrown at me, like I’m the reason they are messed up. It’s all your fault, I am messed up. I know who that comes from and it should not hurt but it does. All this comes at me only makes me draw even closer to Jesus. My dog believed in me since being a puppy. I gained his trust so I rarely am out his sight. That is how I want to follow Jesus.
Wow Donny you sure know the questions to ask to make me take a good look at my walk with Jesus. I would love to say that yes I am a follower but when I look back over my life as a christian I would have to say that there have been times when I definitely followed and other times when I stopped following but still believed. I so want to follow Him all the time so I have lots of repenting and praying to do for that to become a reality in my life. Thank you for asking the hard questions.
Donny, another great prayer walk. There are so many false teachers around us. In the Message translation of verses 22-23, it states that anyone who denies that Jesus is the Divine Christ is NOT a believer and is considered an antichrist. I’m definitely a believer in Jesus Christ even though I fail at the process of “following” him as I should. What I mean by failing to properly follow him is when Pride overtakes, the devil swings in and produces the lies about me that takes my focus away from Jesus!
I’m involved in church because I need and desire to be around the fellowship of other believers! I also enjoy being involved with the choir to sing songs of worship and praise to Jesus. Being a part of this nourishes and feeds my soul. That’s the best way for me to describe it. Most importantly, when I meet someone and they are seeking a new church home, I try and explain to them to make sure you look for a Bible believing preaching teaching church that welcomes all but proclaims and preaches the Gospel. There are the feel good churches and there are those who actually preach the word. You have to be careful as this is where the false teachers sound good but in reality are not.
For me, I’m a sinner and I’m not perfect, but I pray and meditate on and in the Word each day. I sincerely try to really see and understand where and how God directs the path for me. I look to those two things most importantly to guide any decision. Yes, I seek out advice occasionally and attend Sunday morning Bible Study at church, but ultimately, it is my deep rooted faith in Jesus that I try and listen to.
I hope I’m not coming across arrogant because I definitely do NOT have it all together because I constantly fail at this, but I honestly try my best and follow His will and direction for my life to love, encourage, listen, and care for others. Believer or non believer it doesn’t matter in regards to that.
Thank you for another great prayer walk, Donny! Take care and God bless you and everyone! 🙏🙏
This is a very interesting and thought-provoking topic! I was going to sit this one out, but feel that it is important to respond. I don’t view “belief in Christ” and “following the Lord” as two distinct concept, but as fully integrated. Belief comes through faith, and one who truly believes will also be a follower. However, sometimes our faith is weak. During such times we find ourselves not following Jesus as we should. When our faith is weak, we don’t become unbelievers. We are still believers, just not as strong in the faith. The Holy Spirit will convict us of this and when we respond we are revived and returned to true faith. During this time we don’t cease being followers, but we tend to wander because our faith is weak. I’m convinced that genuine believers must trust that no matter the strength of our faith, we remain believers. Otherwise, we fall into the “elevator salvation” concept which to me is dangerous. We also remain followers, but perhaps are wandering. During these times we must pray and allow grace to work in our lives. It is during these times that “going to Church” is particularly important. While I am not a fan of that expression (language can be a barrier to spiritual realities), there is a lot of truth in it. We regain strength through the community of believers, and I believe that when we gather together, there is a special presence of God. The bottom line is that we must remain open to being challenged with respect to whether we are truly following our Lord, but not to let the enemy gain ground and make us fear that perhaps we are no longer true followers and/or believers. To think this way, in my opinion, is to deny God and His promises to us. Grace and mercy to all of us!!!
Donny, again you have challenged me to really reflect on my relationship with Jesus the son and God the father. I am a believer who follows Jesus, but there have been times when I stopped , in fact I was angry with God. In my heart I still believed as I continued to search for the why, but it was a struggle. When my path finally brought me back, I literally emotionally broke down as I realized God had been with me, guiding me the whole time to the place where I was at the time. My faith became stronger as a result, but there have still been struggles, especially these past two years. Recently I started attending a church around the corner from my home, it has been so rewarding, as I’m finding the “ nourishment “ my faith has needed. The Sunday messages are scripture based, further challenging me to open my Bible. It fills my cup to be around the fellow worshipers who share love of Christ. My son-in-law had a T-shirt that he would to church..the back said “the church has left the building”, it took me a minute to fully understand what it meant. In answer to your question when I attend church I’m getting my cup filled to go out into the world to give love to others. Blessings to you once again as you continue on your journey with Christ.
I am still pondering all this great questions Donny , I am a believer and I am preaching myself as much as any. It’s one thing to believe but another to act as if it’s true, especially when life keeps throwing fiery darts our way. Seek the Lords face and ask for encouragement,ask for strength and joy. Trying to give is for the word deep into my soul so that I can illuminate and light the way for many those around me.Gods promises empower me and the Holy Spirit. It is easy to have faith,when everything is going well, but courageous and robust faith is forged only thru testing. Let my faith grow and let God that move mountains,that parted the sea, that feed thousands from a meal for a few, continue to sand off the rough patches and help me shine and be a light to others. I am not sure if anyone else has been fighting the whispering,sometimes roaring voice of lies and evil enemy lately, but I know I sure have. The events of the current time and trials of life can seem like a roadblock that I can’t get over. God still has a great and mighty plan.
Wonderful questions! First of all, I really like that you are encouraging us to open our Bibles. I enjoy reading different translations and so it was very helpful to do that before I listened to your thoughts. Then, I could form my own before listening to yours. It also allowed me to touch into the Holy Spirit in me for Him to guide me according to what He wanted me to hear. So I really like that change.
As far as your question about the church. I’m not super involved in my church. It makes me sad some days but what it has forced me to do is seek out other ways to be connected with other believers. It also has empowered me to seek out different teachers that I can learn from. I loved the scripture that talked about the Holy Spirit is in us so we don’t need teaching. That lead me to really be called to continue to see that our teacher is the Word. That’s where we get our wisdom so it really ignites me to want to dive more into scripture.
I’ll keep pondering all of the different questions that she raised. Thank you for another thought-provoking walk!
What interesting questions and which allow me a lot of reflections. I don't know if the translation offered to me really corresponds, so I will answer according to what I have understood. It seems to me that there is a difference between the words: 1) religion comes from the Latin “religere” which means to reread, to link. Religion therefore connects us to God, it gives meaning to eternal questions. 2) Faith is a gift from God, a conviction, it is not scientific. The world of Faith is not the world of knowledge but that of trust. 3) Believing for me is not knowing everything, if we don't doubt we are in knowledge whereas a believer must be in abandonment, in trust. For me the Church is a place where we meet in community, it is a very important moment for all Catholics. It allows me to be in the presence of God and to receive the Eucharist which is the essential sacrament of my faith. I sometimes participate in activities with the choir, songs, praises, which for me are moments of communion and deep relationship with God. There are also moments of adoration which allow me to meditate. Am I a believer? a follower? I've never asked myself this question... I'll think about it!!. Again, I am impressed with the quality and content of these prayer walks. Thank you Dan for all that you offer us, it is very enriching to read the different comments which bring us all back to Jesus, to the importance he has in our lives. God bless you all.🙏
It took me a while to comment as I felt I needed to think more about the message, especially this passage: “You don't need anyone to teach you” - 1 John 2:27.
It seems to me that John meant to tell those people that they were not so ignorant and therefore he was not imposing anything that the Spirit of God could not directly reveal to them, as I understand John does not say that "teaching is not necessary", John did not attribute to these people so much wisdom as to deny the need for "someone to teach".
John says, that people taught by the Holy Spirit already understood what the Spirit delivered to them, so it seems to me that he was warning about being cautious in the sense of learning unknown things, I also understand that John considered the measure of faith, that is, the faith in some was small, in others stronger, but not perfect, which leads me to think that João considered that no one knew so much that there was no room to be taught.
Anyway, this is just a contribution, please don't take this as "arrogance" because I'm also a learner. Also, on almost every walk I am amazed at the way you lead us to understand the scriptures from other perspectives.
I just thought it wise to make this caveat, as I'm afraid of misinterpretation, using this passage to exclude church and ministry from "teaching."
I bring Hebrews 5:12 into my life, mainly because I am inserted in the academic environment where we are often led to think that we know everything...
Thank you so much for the walk and such an instigating message, I will certainly continue to reflect.
Hi Donny ~ I am falling down on church attendance. I used to be very active in my church. During the Covid pandemic our church was closed so it was really easy to start "watching" church on Sunday mornings. It was also during that time I began reading more Lutheran publications and found that our bishop was quite political. I understand some say it's the church's responsible to teach, to fight for social justice, but for some reason it turns me off when our bishop openly condemns or endorses certain politicians. I went to church to learn more about Christ, to experience His grace, to help others. I am doing that more outside the church now. I'm interested in knowing if you think "going to Church on Sunday" is essential to being a Follower of Jesus?
Some great questions (as usual). First off, people confuse what "religious" means. A religion is just a dedicated belief in something. But for many it has become a word used for tradition and ritual and devotion to a certain type of faith or denomination. The word always leaves me with a bad taste when it's used to describe my faith. "No lie is of the truth". You can be religious and not have the truth. Secondly, as you know, the word "abide" is one of my favorites. In the Greek it means "dwelling in". It carries with it the idea of having our feet planted in cement. It also describes accurately what happens when the Holy Spirit "abides" in us. He's planted. He's not leaving. He is there to guide and teach us. Great teachers just point to what we can know ourselves through the Spirit. Church for me is a place where I worship God, connect with others, and utilize my gifts for the greater good of all. Churches are not perfect as they are made up of imperfect people. But what happens there can enhance our faith. I know these thoughts probably seem random and all over the place. It happens that way in my brain sometimes. But I can say without a doubt that I am a follower and not just a believer.
When I began walking with Jesus I became a believer. I sought teaching from a spiritually filled pastor. I wasn’t just a believer but indeed a follower. What I received from my acceptance of Jesus was freedom to read, learn and use the Holy Spirit as a guide to interpret what I was reading. What you said about not just trusting what you say but checking out God’s word to see if it matches up. That pastor taught the same thing. I do have false things thrown at me, like I’m the reason they are messed up. It’s all your fault, I am messed up. I know who that comes from and it should not hurt but it does. All this comes at me only makes me draw even closer to Jesus. My dog believed in me since being a puppy. I gained his trust so I rarely am out his sight. That is how I want to follow Jesus.
Wow Donny you sure know the questions to ask to make me take a good look at my walk with Jesus. I would love to say that yes I am a follower but when I look back over my life as a christian I would have to say that there have been times when I definitely followed and other times when I stopped following but still believed. I so want to follow Him all the time so I have lots of repenting and praying to do for that to become a reality in my life. Thank you for asking the hard questions.
Donny, another great prayer walk. There are so many false teachers around us. In the Message translation of verses 22-23, it states that anyone who denies that Jesus is the Divine Christ is NOT a believer and is considered an antichrist. I’m definitely a believer in Jesus Christ even though I fail at the process of “following” him as I should. What I mean by failing to properly follow him is when Pride overtakes, the devil swings in and produces the lies about me that takes my focus away from Jesus!
I’m involved in church because I need and desire to be around the fellowship of other believers! I also enjoy being involved with the choir to sing songs of worship and praise to Jesus. Being a part of this nourishes and feeds my soul. That’s the best way for me to describe it. Most importantly, when I meet someone and they are seeking a new church home, I try and explain to them to make sure you look for a Bible believing preaching teaching church that welcomes all but proclaims and preaches the Gospel. There are the feel good churches and there are those who actually preach the word. You have to be careful as this is where the false teachers sound good but in reality are not.
For me, I’m a sinner and I’m not perfect, but I pray and meditate on and in the Word each day. I sincerely try to really see and understand where and how God directs the path for me. I look to those two things most importantly to guide any decision. Yes, I seek out advice occasionally and attend Sunday morning Bible Study at church, but ultimately, it is my deep rooted faith in Jesus that I try and listen to.
I hope I’m not coming across arrogant because I definitely do NOT have it all together because I constantly fail at this, but I honestly try my best and follow His will and direction for my life to love, encourage, listen, and care for others. Believer or non believer it doesn’t matter in regards to that.
Thank you for another great prayer walk, Donny! Take care and God bless you and everyone! 🙏🙏
This is a very interesting and thought-provoking topic! I was going to sit this one out, but feel that it is important to respond. I don’t view “belief in Christ” and “following the Lord” as two distinct concept, but as fully integrated. Belief comes through faith, and one who truly believes will also be a follower. However, sometimes our faith is weak. During such times we find ourselves not following Jesus as we should. When our faith is weak, we don’t become unbelievers. We are still believers, just not as strong in the faith. The Holy Spirit will convict us of this and when we respond we are revived and returned to true faith. During this time we don’t cease being followers, but we tend to wander because our faith is weak. I’m convinced that genuine believers must trust that no matter the strength of our faith, we remain believers. Otherwise, we fall into the “elevator salvation” concept which to me is dangerous. We also remain followers, but perhaps are wandering. During these times we must pray and allow grace to work in our lives. It is during these times that “going to Church” is particularly important. While I am not a fan of that expression (language can be a barrier to spiritual realities), there is a lot of truth in it. We regain strength through the community of believers, and I believe that when we gather together, there is a special presence of God. The bottom line is that we must remain open to being challenged with respect to whether we are truly following our Lord, but not to let the enemy gain ground and make us fear that perhaps we are no longer true followers and/or believers. To think this way, in my opinion, is to deny God and His promises to us. Grace and mercy to all of us!!!
Donny, again you have challenged me to really reflect on my relationship with Jesus the son and God the father. I am a believer who follows Jesus, but there have been times when I stopped , in fact I was angry with God. In my heart I still believed as I continued to search for the why, but it was a struggle. When my path finally brought me back, I literally emotionally broke down as I realized God had been with me, guiding me the whole time to the place where I was at the time. My faith became stronger as a result, but there have still been struggles, especially these past two years. Recently I started attending a church around the corner from my home, it has been so rewarding, as I’m finding the “ nourishment “ my faith has needed. The Sunday messages are scripture based, further challenging me to open my Bible. It fills my cup to be around the fellow worshipers who share love of Christ. My son-in-law had a T-shirt that he would to church..the back said “the church has left the building”, it took me a minute to fully understand what it meant. In answer to your question when I attend church I’m getting my cup filled to go out into the world to give love to others. Blessings to you once again as you continue on your journey with Christ.
I am still pondering all this great questions Donny , I am a believer and I am preaching myself as much as any. It’s one thing to believe but another to act as if it’s true, especially when life keeps throwing fiery darts our way. Seek the Lords face and ask for encouragement,ask for strength and joy. Trying to give is for the word deep into my soul so that I can illuminate and light the way for many those around me.Gods promises empower me and the Holy Spirit. It is easy to have faith,when everything is going well, but courageous and robust faith is forged only thru testing. Let my faith grow and let God that move mountains,that parted the sea, that feed thousands from a meal for a few, continue to sand off the rough patches and help me shine and be a light to others. I am not sure if anyone else has been fighting the whispering,sometimes roaring voice of lies and evil enemy lately, but I know I sure have. The events of the current time and trials of life can seem like a roadblock that I can’t get over. God still has a great and mighty plan.
Wonderful questions! First of all, I really like that you are encouraging us to open our Bibles. I enjoy reading different translations and so it was very helpful to do that before I listened to your thoughts. Then, I could form my own before listening to yours. It also allowed me to touch into the Holy Spirit in me for Him to guide me according to what He wanted me to hear. So I really like that change.
As far as your question about the church. I’m not super involved in my church. It makes me sad some days but what it has forced me to do is seek out other ways to be connected with other believers. It also has empowered me to seek out different teachers that I can learn from. I loved the scripture that talked about the Holy Spirit is in us so we don’t need teaching. That lead me to really be called to continue to see that our teacher is the Word. That’s where we get our wisdom so it really ignites me to want to dive more into scripture.
I’ll keep pondering all of the different questions that she raised. Thank you for another thought-provoking walk!
What interesting questions and which allow me a lot of reflections. I don't know if the translation offered to me really corresponds, so I will answer according to what I have understood. It seems to me that there is a difference between the words: 1) religion comes from the Latin “religere” which means to reread, to link. Religion therefore connects us to God, it gives meaning to eternal questions. 2) Faith is a gift from God, a conviction, it is not scientific. The world of Faith is not the world of knowledge but that of trust. 3) Believing for me is not knowing everything, if we don't doubt we are in knowledge whereas a believer must be in abandonment, in trust. For me the Church is a place where we meet in community, it is a very important moment for all Catholics. It allows me to be in the presence of God and to receive the Eucharist which is the essential sacrament of my faith. I sometimes participate in activities with the choir, songs, praises, which for me are moments of communion and deep relationship with God. There are also moments of adoration which allow me to meditate. Am I a believer? a follower? I've never asked myself this question... I'll think about it!!. Again, I am impressed with the quality and content of these prayer walks. Thank you Dan for all that you offer us, it is very enriching to read the different comments which bring us all back to Jesus, to the importance he has in our lives. God bless you all.🙏
Thank you Donny I actually need to ponder my thoughts on these questions..... what a nice reality check.....
It took me a while to comment as I felt I needed to think more about the message, especially this passage: “You don't need anyone to teach you” - 1 John 2:27.
It seems to me that John meant to tell those people that they were not so ignorant and therefore he was not imposing anything that the Spirit of God could not directly reveal to them, as I understand John does not say that "teaching is not necessary", John did not attribute to these people so much wisdom as to deny the need for "someone to teach".
John says, that people taught by the Holy Spirit already understood what the Spirit delivered to them, so it seems to me that he was warning about being cautious in the sense of learning unknown things, I also understand that John considered the measure of faith, that is, the faith in some was small, in others stronger, but not perfect, which leads me to think that João considered that no one knew so much that there was no room to be taught.
Anyway, this is just a contribution, please don't take this as "arrogance" because I'm also a learner. Also, on almost every walk I am amazed at the way you lead us to understand the scriptures from other perspectives.
I just thought it wise to make this caveat, as I'm afraid of misinterpretation, using this passage to exclude church and ministry from "teaching."
I bring Hebrews 5:12 into my life, mainly because I am inserted in the academic environment where we are often led to think that we know everything...
Thank you so much for the walk and such an instigating message, I will certainly continue to reflect.
God bless you!
Hi Donny ~ I am falling down on church attendance. I used to be very active in my church. During the Covid pandemic our church was closed so it was really easy to start "watching" church on Sunday mornings. It was also during that time I began reading more Lutheran publications and found that our bishop was quite political. I understand some say it's the church's responsible to teach, to fight for social justice, but for some reason it turns me off when our bishop openly condemns or endorses certain politicians. I went to church to learn more about Christ, to experience His grace, to help others. I am doing that more outside the church now. I'm interested in knowing if you think "going to Church on Sunday" is essential to being a Follower of Jesus?
Donny I will have to read more later today and write my answers tonight a very good questions.