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2. Don’t try to gain assurance of
your relationship with Christ or grow in spiritual truth through "mystical
feelings" or "quite little voices" inside your head. What we "feel" in
our heart is no more reliable a guide to spiritual truth than it is to
truths concerning mathematics or geography. Would you try to drive
hundreds of miles of back country roads in the fog without a roadmap simply
by trusting your "feelings?" Of course not! And yet this is how
many people foolishly try to live their Christian lives!
3. In order for us to grow in
spiritual truth, God has given us a source of truth that is sure and
steadfast. It is called the Bible. Try to read your Bible
every day. Start by reading the Book of Galatians. It is St.
Paul’s defense of the Gospel and the doctrine of grace. Read one chapter
each day until you have read the entire book (six chapters) five times.
This will take one month. In the next month, read through the entire
book once a day. This will firmly establish you in some of the most
basic and important doctrines of the Christian faith, providing the kind of
foundation that is essential for sound Christian growth.
Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the Word of God.
Romans 10:17
Once you have become rooted in your
understanding of the Gospel, find a good church. To do this, ask the
pastor how one gets to heaven. If he says it is through living a good
life, obeying the Ten Commandments, baptism, confession, church membership,
or some other incorrect answer — turn around and look for another church.
If the pastor doesn’t even know the Gospel, the most basic belief of the
Christian faith, then he doesn’t even know the first thing about
Christianity! Why would you want to go to a church where the pastor
doesn’t even know how to get to heaven? Find a good church!
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