Christian Discipleship

Many born again Christians believe they have two natures within them, a new Christ-like nature and an old sinful nature, which war against each other. They believe that their new nature loves God and wants to practice righteousness, but that their old nature loves sin and wants to practice lawlessness. They think that their Christian life reflects whichever of these two conflicting natures they yield themselves to the most. However, this "tale of two natures" is not Biblically true. Many Christians have become overcome by sin and hopelessly discouraged because they have swallowed this lie, while countless others have become deceived by this lie and their self-righteousness into thinking that, through willpower and self-discipline, they can change and control their sinful behavior. This eBook is intended to put an end to this lie, so that God's people could know (and believe and act on) the truth and power of the cross of Christ, and come into their full inheritance as sons and daughters of God.

Most Christians do not know how to stop practicing sin. They find themselves continually overcome by sins such as fear, pride, envy, greed, bitterness, anger, lust, or addictions. As a result, they live lives of secret desperation, shame, frustration and defeat, always afraid of sin's destructive power over them. This is truly tragic since Jesus Christ died on the cross to set us free from sin's domination, and enable us to stop practicing sin. It is also of grave concern since the Bible says that if you do not stop practicing sin, you cannot know God or abide in God. This short eBook will give you practical and Scriptural instruction on how you can stop practicing sin. This is not just theoretical theology. We have put this Biblical truth into practice for nearly fifteen years and God's solution to the problem of sin really works!

The Bible says that, during Jesus' ministry on earth, "many of His disciples turned away and did not follow Him anymore (John 6:66)." Jesus never said that any of those one-time disciples who stopped following Him were guaranteed eternal salvation and had a secure place in heaven reserved for them. In fact, Jesus clearly said the opposite: only those disciples who do not fall away from Him have the security of knowing eternal salvation. Yet, in spite of this, many professing Christians mistakenly believe that once they have received Christ, they will go to heaven when they die no matter how they live here on earth. This myth is one of Satan's greatest lies. Every Christian should know what the Bible teaches on this very important subject.

Many Christians believe God is infinitely happy and that He also, wants us to be happy. They believe the idea of sorrow and suffering is negative thinking that should be, avoided at all costs. However, this is a false gospel. It ignores the whole counsel of God as revealed by His Word. Many Christians mistakenly believe the pursuit of happiness is God's purpose for their lives and is their God-given right and entitlement. However, this directly contradicts the Bible, which declares the pursuit of holiness is our God-given purpose and obligation. Multitudes are now reaping the godless fruit of pursuing temporal, earthly happiness and pleasure instead of the righteousness, peace and joy of God that comes by faith, and the church has been severely compromised by buying into this false gospel. The Bible is also clear we cannot pursue the holiness of God without suffering here on earth.

n the Scriptures, Jesus Christ inseparably linked discipleship with carrying your own cross. Jesus said, "Whoever does not carry his own cross and follow Me, cannot be My disciple (Luke 14:27)." Thus, Jesus Christ bore our sins on His cross, but He also said we must bear our own cross. What does this mean? The Scriptures reveal there are two essential aspects of the cross of Christ: first and foremost, there is Christ's completed work on the cross, and then there is the on-going work of the cross in our lives if we permit it. It is critical that we understand both of these aspects of the cross if we want to be Christ's disciples. This eBook explains, how we can carry our cross and lose our soul-life, so that we can know Christ and abide in Him.

What does it mean for a Christian to submit? The Bible says to "submit to God" (James 4:7), "submit to one another" (Ephesians 5:21), "wives submit to your husbands" (Colossians 3:18), "younger men submit to your elders" (1 Peter 5:5), "servants submit to your masters" (1 Peter 2:18), and "everyone submit to the governing authorities" (Romans 13:1). Although these are all different situations, the same Greek word hypotasso is used in each case. Therefore, in order to accurately understand what submit means in each situation, we must examine the individual context in which the Greek word hypotasso is used. Otherwise, when we read the Scriptures and come across the word "submit," we may not understand what kind and level of submission the verse is describing. This eBooklet focuses on two types of Christian submission: 1) a wife's submission to her husband, and 2) the saints' submission to their church leaders. Both these forms of submission are "internal" to the household of God, that is, ideally in both cases, the one receiving submission and the one giving submission is born again and belongs to the family of God. Grievously, however, corrupt men under the guise of Christianity have distorted the Biblical truth about Christian submission and misused their authority: 1) as husbands to subjugate, oppress and abuse Christian women, and 2) as pastors to control, manipulate and defraud Christian men and women. We pray this eBooklet provides Scriptural clarity on the truth about submission, and sets Christians of every race and gender free from the oppression of sin and sinful men.

Most Christians today accept without question the idea that every church should have a pastor who is the "head" of their church. However, they would be surprised to learn that there is no Scriptural or historical evidence to support our modern-day church system of a sole pastor or senior pastor who is the head of the church. In the New Testament, the term "elder" is always used interchangeably with the terms "pastor" and "overseer." All three of these words refer to the same person. The elders of the church are the overseers who shepherd the local church together. It was not, until the second and third century that church leaders began to wrongly divide the elders' role of oversight and shepherding into three separate hierarchal religious offices. Many Christians in our day have recognized that this man-made hierarchy in the institutional church is not only carnal and often prone to abuse, it severely stifles the Holy Spirit's leadership and life in the church, it robs the church from having an actively functioning priesthood of spiritually-gifted believers, and it causes many sincere pastors to suffer "burn-out" and leave the ministry. This eBook presents how Biblical church leadership functions based on Scriptural teaching on church life.

Most Christians today accept without any question the idea that pastors should receive an annual salary from their local church. However, they may be surprised to learn that there is no Scriptural or historical evidence that the elders, who pastored the local churches in the first century, were given a full-time salary to meet all their financial needs and family obligations. The elders were not full-time Christian workers, they were simply elder brothers in the local church, who had a responsibility to shepherd the flock, but still earned their living by working in a trade or profession like any other brother in the church. Unfortunately, many pastors in our day will not even consider shepherding a church if their expected total compensation package is not "adequate." This reveals a hireling or mercenary mentality rather than a true shepherd's heart for God's flock.

This short eBook surveys church history and reveals the purity and power of the church is directly related to the purity and power of the gospel that is preached and practiced. A prime example of this connection is the Protestant Reformation, which only restored half of the gospel. In practice, the Reformation restored the gospel of how "the righteous are saved by faith," but never restored the whole gospel of how "the righteous will live by faith." The result is most Christians do not know how to overcome sin and live by faith in Jesus Christ who indwells them by His Spirit. Yet this is the central purpose of Christ's death on the cross and the cornerstone of the New Covenant church. In addition to diagnosing the crux of the problem facing today's church, this book presents the remedy-a model of how the New Covenant church would work based on the complete gospel of Christ and Scriptural teaching on church life.

The myth that God's love is unconditional has become widely accepted in the church today. But nowhere in the Bible does it say God's love is unconditional. In fact, from Genesis to Revelation, both the Old and New Testaments clearly state that God's love is conditional. The Bible emphatically says of God: "You love those who love You and obey You (Daniel 9:4)." This short eBook will examine the reason why some Christians promote this myth, and what the Bible really says about God's love.