Looking for advice, help, opinion.

[Aleksander]

First, if you dont mind, a bit about why the topic...

March 5 2003 was the day I asked the LORD to forgive me of my sins and be the Lord of my life. So I'll always remember that morning, . A year and a half later, on September 5, 2004 I was baptised. So these two dates will always be a sort of that point when I slow down and think about how I lived the year, and so on...

Now the topic:

March 5 2008 marks five years of my Christian life. And after a quick review, well, I am not really happy with how far I got in growing in Christ. Not to say I am complaining, I know God has His plans for me well ahead of time so I trust that things happen the way they do for a reason, but its just that after five years I should have been more mature I think. Reading from

1 Corinthians 3:1-2 just added to my thinking that I am not up to speed. Sort of makes me feel bad...

Of course, I do see things that happened in my life that I could say slowed me down. I wasted a lot of time in the past two years playing games, even though I knew better. So I realize its my fault I let that slow me down. But by His grace I was freed from that hinderance.

I guess the question is this;

Any help, advice, etc on the subject of

*how to make up for what time I lost

*general advice in groving in my relationship with God

*ideas for improvement

and the likes?

I mean logically 5 years is enough time to mature to the point where I can say that I am ready to go on a missionary trip, or that I should be familiar with the Bible well enough to answer some basic questions that non believers can ask, or that I should be more confident when I am talking about God and His Word to them. Yet, I've noticed I am not too good at either of the mentioned. Does it sound like I am beating myself up too much for not getting far enough? Maybe I dwell too much on the past and should just get up, dust off the failures, and keep going with reneved faith and determination?

Edited March 10, 2008 by Aleksander

[Searching soul23]

I accepted the Lord in September of 1992, and sixteen years later, I am still waiting for things to fall in place so that I can start really feeling like I am serving the Lord. It isn't always easy to see how we impact others for the good of the Kingdom, but we do all the time. None of us will ever be completely mature until we are perfected in Heaven. If a 'slow down' occurred, it happened for a reason. And if you can't answer some basic Christian inquiries, maybe you could post them here so as to encourage others who may feel a similar lack of maturity.

[tsth]

Nothing will happen without consistent time in God's Word, each and every day. It would be like marrying someone and then NEVER wanting to hear them speak. If you love the Lord, you'll want to spend time with Him every day in prayer AND in His Word. It is thru His Words, that you come to understand the mind of the Lord. Without His Word, you do not know Him.

I cannot stress that enough!

See my signature line below!

In His Love,

Suzanne

[PamD]

Today is a new day. His mercies are new every morning

My Mom would say... "Pick yourself up, give yourself a shake and start fresh"

so... start fresh today. It is a wonderful day to praise the Lord because of WHO He is.

As for a mission trip? Well, if God is calling you to one then prepare to go. You will come home a changed person.

God bless you this new day in your walk with Him.

[Guest man]

I guess the question is this;

Any help, advice, etc on the subject of

*how to make up for what time I lost

*general advice in groving in my relationship with God

*ideas for improvement

and the likes?

You need to study your bible.

Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.....

Proverbs 9:10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

Proverbs 4:7 Wisdom is the principal thing, therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding.

Luke 11

9 So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

10 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

Pray before you study.

Ask for knowledge..............Ask.

Seek wisdom.....................Seek.

Pray for understanding.......Knock.

The Lord gave us a prayer.( Lords Prayer ) Use it.

Study Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7. This will give you an idea of who Christ is and what He wants from us.

I don't know what to tell you about making up for lost time. I've been at this off and on for 25 years and I believe I've only scratched the surface.

That's about all I have. If you have any other questions, don't be afraid to ask.

Peace.

[Lost in Sin]

I have just reciently taken this into account as well and here is what me and my friend came up with.

We started doing a Bible study together (we are at two different colleges) and we decided to try to do a book a week. This is very in depth reading. Then on tuesday we call eachother up and we talk about whats been going on, and how we feel we did that week. We talk about the scripture and what it ment to us and what we got from it.

This may not be a direct answer to your problem but having someone there to help you walk though and grow closer to God seems to be a good way for me to keep myself on track.

Our first study was on the Book of James.

This book seems to be idea for when you feel that you have fallen off track with the Lord and your trying to search for your way back so it could be an idea read for you.

[nebula]

I mean logically 5 years is enough time to mature to the point where I can say that I am ready to go on a missionary trip, or that I should be familiar with the Bible well enough to answer some basic questions that non believers can ask, or that I should be more confident when I am talking about God and His Word to them. Yet, I've noticed I am not too good at either of the mentioned. Does it sound like I am beating myself up too much for not getting far enough? Maybe I dwell too much on the past and should just get up, dust off the failures, and keep going with reneved faith and determination?

Hey, Aleksander -

I hope to get back to you on this, but I am on crunch time.

From my experience - please don't beat yourself up like this. You didn't become an adult in 5 years from birth, after all. Spiritual growth won't happen "overnight," either.

As for being ready for this, that, or the other . . . we all are on different "growth" schedules. Just because you have seen someone else go from salvation to ministry in a short time does not mean you are falling behind. Chances are the ministry the Lord has for you takes more time to prepare for.

But in reality, we are all called to minister right where we are with the people we interact with. Now, we are not all gifted evangelists (leading sinners to salvation). But, we can all be servants (read the Gospels and see how many times Jesus spoke about serving, laying down your rights, and all that). We can all pray. Not everyone is called specifically is a "prayer warrior," but you can pray for those in your family, your friends, those around you, the government, the country, etc. You don't have to spend 5 hours a day in prayer, so to speak, but you can always pray in some manner shape or form. We can all worship the Lord (believe it or not, nurturing your relationship with the Lord is more valuable to your Christian life than preaching and teaching and all those other things we focus on).

Let em put it this way. I'm a lousy debater. I flop at witnessing. I am not a gifted leader. But, I do have a gift of teaching. I am driven to learn and teach what I have learned. So, I would tend to be more into Bible study than others.

But not everyone is so academically inclined, and "studying the Bible" is more difficult.

Consider what you find yourself more inclined towards - do you like to speak, to debate, to teach, to preach? Or do you like to do things with your hands? To provide for others when you see a need? Do you like to enjoy encouraging? Counseling? Building others up when they are down?

You see, not all ministers are missionaries, pastors, debaters and all of that. Most ministers are just regular people holding regular jobs who just live the Gospel the best they can to those around them through whatever means they are most comfortable with.

Try pondering this for a while and see if it makes sense.

[Trusting Jesus]

We can never get back time. What we do or don't do is the past. We can only change the future. You may be surprised, though, the the last 5 years were years of more growth than you realize. Foundations probably have been put down that God is now calling you to build upon. The feeling that you have now is God telling you that it is time to move past the foundation. I agree with everyone who has said to study your Bible. Studying is much different than reading. We need both, but when you study you get into the meat.

My husband has been able to give his time to a deep study of God's word and God is using him in wonderful ways now. Let me give you a couple websites of men whose teachings that my husband (and me too!) have learned much from.

http://www.blueletterbible.org

(there are commentaries on each chapter of the Bible, there are Bible studies, word definitions, and much more)

http://www.answersingenesis.org and http://www.icr.org

(both are excellent for defending the truth of God's word)

http://www.khouse.org

(good apologecits)

I hope this helps.

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Nathele

[Treasure]

I'm with Neb on this. My difficulty lies not in wanting to study but in forcing myself to stop. Being in the Word and in prayer are absolutely essential in our preparation for any kind of ministry. Since all ministry begins in relationship, I would suggest doing an indepth study of the Gospel of John.

[Guest LadyC]

how often do you spend time with God? i mean, do you wake up each morning and start your day in prayer and in the bible?

someone told me a couple of months ago, if we take a little step towards knowing God better, He takes a giant leap closer to us. and then i made a commitment to "God first" every morning... and i've seen first-hand what they meant by that. my little steps towards God are being matched by humongous steps toward me by Him.

i've had people tell me how much they've seen me grow spiritually since then. i can't really say that i see it in myself, but i think it's hard for us to ever see ourselves as growing spiritually, until we look backwards over where we came from.