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DOCTRINAL STATEMENT
1] A Christian's personal relationship
with God is fundamental to his current spiritual condition and his
ultimate spiritual state. Prayer, Bible study, meditation, fasting and
serving fellow human beings are the chief means by which such a
relationship is initially established and continually deepened.
DOCTRINAL
OVERVIEW
2] Salvation
is an individual matter between a person and God. God will grant
salvation as an unmerited gift of mercy if the individual has the proper
relationship with Him. God will forgive our sins if we ask Him to do so
in prayer. God will greatly reward those who diligently study His Word
and meditate on His way for the purpose of better serving Him. Thus, it
is of profound importance that one attain the deepest and closest
possible state of personal fellowship with God.
3] But the
Christian does not merely seek to build and nurture this close
relationship between himself and God because he must do so. Rather, the
true Christian finds the developing rapport with his spiritual Father to
be a uniquely satisfying and joyous experience that transcends any
physical friendship or association. This warm, personal relationship
gives the peace of mind, spiritual confidence and faith that can only
come from knowing that one really has contact with the Designer,
Sustainer and Ruler of the entire universe.
4] The
intimate relationship that a Christian has with his God is that of a
family-the affinity is that of a son or daughter with his deeply loving
and concerned father. "As a father has compassion for his children, so
the Lord tenderly sympathizes with those who revere him" (Ps. 103:13,
Modern Language Bible). The tie between a Christian and God far
transcends the "blood" relationship of physical families-it is the
relationship of God's Holy Spirit (I John. 1:3). It is through this spirit
that we can have contact with God when even words cannot express our
feelings (Rom. 8:26). It is through this spirit that we are begotten as
God's sons; through it we gain the right to know God, and indeed to call
Him our "Father" (Rom. 8:15-16); and it is also through God's Holy
Spirit that we gain brotherhood with Jesus Christ so that He becomes our
spiritual elder brother (Heb. 2:11).
5] As a
physical and biological creation, man is constantly in need of food,
air, water and other necessities of life to maintain and strengthen his
body. In like manner, the Christian's life as a spirit-begotten son of
God also requires proper maintenance. The spirit of God is nurtured and
grows within our minds in much the same fashion as our muscles are
nurtured and grow within our bodies. Constant, constructive activity of
a spiritual nature is essential if a Christian is to thrive and reach
his fullest potentialities. Personal and private devotion includes
prayer, Bible study, meditation and fasting. These serve to initiate,
and then to augment and enhance, a person's relationship with God.
6] Prayer is
man's personal communication with God. When one prays, he utters
verbally or mentally his praise for God, his thanks for God's blessings,
and also his requests from God for himself and for others. Biblical
example shows one should maintain close prayerful contact on a daily
basis-even several times daily (Dan. 6:10). The Christian's prayers are
an offering to God; they are described as incense stored in golden bowls
before God's throne (Rev. 5:8). A Christian's prayers are not mere
repetitions or imposed or stylized prayers, but rather heartfelt,
personal communication with the Creator, analogous to communication with
an intimate personal friend. A Christian shares his hopes, dreams,
frustrations, needs and desires with God as he would with a physical
father whom he loves and who loves him.
7] Jesus'
instructions in Matthew 6:5-13 are the clearest in the Bible regarding
prayer. We are told to pray to our Father in secret; not to heap up
empty phrases; to address God as our Father; to hallow His name; to pray
for His Kingdom to come; to ask that His way be followed and His will be
done; to thank Him for our sustenance and other blessings; to forgive us
for our sins; to help us forgive those who sin against us; to keep us
from temptation; to deliver us from Satan; and to help us understand,
appreciate and look forward to the majesty, power and glory of God.
8] While no
one can dictate the amount of time one should spend in personal prayer,
Paul's admonition "be constant in prayer" epitomizes that the proper
mental attitude for the Christian is to always be close to God. Although
praying on one's knees is a common biblical example (Acts 20:36; 21:5),
there is no official posture or position of prayer. One can pray at any
time, in any place, with any position and for any reason, and know with
full assurance that God is listening. Of course, the attitude of
the individual is critical in determining how God reacts to our prayers.
On the one hand, God states that it is our iniquities and sins which
separate us from Him, so that He will neither hear nor answer our
prayers (Is. 59:2). On the other hand, when we go to God in faith, with
a humble and contrite spirit, He will both hear and spiritually revive
us (Is. 57:15).
9] In order
to pray, we must realize that Jesus Christ is our Mediator (I Tim. 2:5),
our Intercessor (Rom. 8:34) and our High Priest (Heb. 2:17-18). He
sympathizes with our weaknesses and understands our problems, because He
was "in all points"-."in every respect," (RSV)-"tempted as we are" (Heb.
4:15). It is only through Jesus Christ and His sacrifice that we can
approach God the Father in prayer. This is a remarkable reality, truly
an awesome opportunity to literally come into the presence of God and
have His full attention, interest and concern. This is why the veil into
the Holy of Holies (where God symbolically dwelled) was ripped apart
when Jesus died, as direct access to the Father was suddenly made
available for all mankind for the first time (Mt. 27:51; Heb. 9,
especially v. 8). But even more than this, our direct contact with God
the Father can be bold and with confidence. Through Jesus
Christ our high priest, we can "come boldly before the throne of grace,
that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Heb.
4:16). Though God is the very Creator of this vast unfathomable
universe, He wants us to speak to Him strongly, directly, honestly and
resolutely. This means that Christians should pray to God "with
confidence" (RSV), asking Him to forgive them for their sins and to
provide them with their spiritual and physical necessities. But we
must ask in our prayers; we must make the conscious effort; we are
part of the process. We must take the active step of aggressively
importuning God in faith. As Jesus told His disciples:
"Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you
will find; knock, and it will be opened to you .... If you then,
who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how
much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to
those who ask Him" (Mt. 7:7, 11).
10] In the
same way that prayer can be defined as communication with God, so can
Bible study be defined as God's communication to man through His written
Word (Heb. 1:1). The Bible is God's instruction book on how man should
live his life. It is also the record of how God has dealt with men and
mankind in the past, and how God wants human beings to respond and react
to Him. The Bible is the handbook to salvation, the textbook of eternal
life. Certainly no Christian could say he knows God if he has not read
about God in God's holy Word. He must learn to rightly divide the word
of truth (II Tim. 2:15). While the Bible may be and should be studied
from different angles and points of view (e.g., in a technical manner to
understand doctrine), the most important Bible study for a Christian is
to humbly approach God's Word to learn how he might more perfectly live
his life before his Creator. A Christian studies the Bible with the full
recognition that God is instructing him that he must personally
apply biblical laws, precepts, principles and directives in his daily
life. A true Christian seeks "training in righteousness," and this can
often come about only through correction of error; consequently, the
true Christian must search the Bible for God's correction in his life.
As Paul wrote to Timothy: "All scripture is inspired by God and
profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in
righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every
good work" (II Tim. 3:16-17).
11] Closely
related to and practically inseparable from prayer is meditation.
Meditation in the Bible is simply concentrated thinking on a spiritual
topic. It may include focused attention on a particular biblical concept
or passage in order to probe its deepest message or meaning (Ps. 1:2),
or God's wonders and work (Ps. 77:12; 143:5). Meditation can also mean
thinking before God, as it were, on a topic about which we need to grow
and understand. Similarly, meditation can be any personal thinking with
the conscious awareness that God is listening and concerned. Hence,
meditation is closely akin to prayer, and often indistinguishable from
it. (The original words are often capable of meaning either "pray" or
"meditate.")
12] Fasting
is illustrated throughout the Bible as a tool by which a Christian can
stimulate his personal relationship with God. It is not a means of
penance, but is rather a type of self inflicted trial that reminds one
of his own humanness and humbleness before his great Creator God. It is
by definition a specified period of time in which an individual goes
without food (and perhaps without water) in order to remind oneself of
his ephemeral, fleeting existence. Fasting forces us to focus full
attention on drawing close to God. The examples of fasting in the Bible
generally involve grave crises indicating that it is not a ritualistic
thing to be done on a periodic schedule. Nevertheless, one should fast
occasionally, even though he may not at the time be confronting an
emergency, so he will have the spiritual reserve necessary should an
unforeseen trial come along.
13] Prayer,
Bible study, meditation and fasting are not ends in themselves. Rather,
they are means through which we gain the spiritual strength and endurance
necessary to face the trials and tribulations common to all humanity.
The human problems of survival, health, happiness, family, marriage,
success and other such activities of normal life become challenges to
the Christian rather than merely tests of endurance. It is through
facing and handling personal problems and even tragedies that a
Christian builds faith and develops the essential strength of character
necessary for salvation. He views life as a training ground where he can
develop the positive qualities of love, patience, faith, hope, and the
other traits of God's Spirit.
14]
Likewise, the Christian understands the purpose of godly correction, and
punishment. He knows God's ultimate purpose is to reproduce Himself
through man, to elevate man from human nature to God's own nature, from
mortality to immortality. He realizes that at times God must correct His
children to stop them from hurting themselves with evil and to direct
them into the godly obedience that produces character and happiness. The
Christian realizes that all humans at one time or another need God's
loving correction and thus he responds to this correction in his own
life with repentance and submission to the laws which are intended for
his happiness. God is a loving Father who will, when the occasion
arises, correct us-not in anger or out of spite-but rather for our own
good.
15] The
twelfth chapter of Hebrews exemplifies God's attitude, His great
fatherly love, in correcting His children. We are told "not to regard
lightly the discipline of the Lord" (v. 5), because "the lord
disciplines him whom He loves" (v. 6). God is treating us as sons (v. 7)
and if He did not correct us, we would be "illegitimate children and not
sons" (v. 8). God's motivation in correction is clear: "He disciplines
us for our good, that we may share His holiness" (v. 10).
16] In the
last half of Matthew 25, Jesus Christ explains how we should be
developing a progressively more personal relationship with Him. He told
His disciples that when we serve others-when we give food to the
hungry, drink to the thirsty, clothing to the naked, welcome to the
stranger and company to the sick-we are actually serving Jesus Christ
Himself.
17] When we
extend ourselves to do good to the least of His brethren, then we are in
fact credited just as though we had done those same things to Jesus
Christ personally. It is a profound point. It shows that a Christian's
relationship with God must expand beyond internal spiritual thoughts and
express itself in an attitude of outgoing concern and compassion for
one's fellow man by external physical actions.
18] Serving
human beings is indeed one of the most spiritually penetrating concepts
revealed in the Bible. Only by loving one's fellow man can prayer, Bible
study, meditation and fasting have any real meaning,
19] James
put it succinctly: "So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead ...
and I by my works will show you my faith ... You see that a man is
justified by works and not by faith alone" (Jas. 2:17, 18, 24).
20] It is
with this overall understanding of God's ultimate plan well in mind that
the Christian, as a truly begotten son, develops his intimate
relationship with his spiritual Father through prayer, Bible study,
meditation, fasting and the full living of the active Christian life. |
