living sacrifice

After I participated in a Bible study group, I proposed to the group leader, Ms. Zhao, not to participate in the future, and Ms. Zhao agreed.But I know You Yan will not let me go.

Sure enough, she didn't know where she found out about this, and immediately sent me a WeChat voice message.

I rejected You Yan and said, "I don't want to participate in the Bible study for the time being, so you don't have to rush me anymore."

"Lin Xiao, you always have to participate in the Bible study. No member can be separated from the body."

"I'm not separated from the body, am I still in the church?"

"Lin Xiao, we are all members. The Bible says that the head cannot be without feet, and the feet cannot be without a head. Reading the Bible is one aspect, and another aspect is to connect with the members."

I became annoyed and accused her: "Didn't you promise me that you wouldn't pester me anymore? I have participated in the Bible study now, and after actually experiencing it, I don't feel interested."

"But Lin Xiao, I'm not pestering you, why are you so furious all of a sudden?"

My violent temper has already come out a little bit, I was not furious at first, but when I was not furious, You Yan's words seemed to really ignite my thunder.

I suppressed my anger and said, "My time is really tight. I'm not like you who don't have a job. I need to work during the day and I get home at seven o'clock. I have to cook, wash clothes and do housework. I have to read the Bible and pray at night. I have to study a lot of things, where do I have time?"

You Yan's pretended to speak softly and softly, it really made me want to beat her up.She said: "The Bible says 'don't stop gatherings', Lin Xiao, you can't stop gatherings, otherwise you will easily be swallowed by the devil if you are outside alone."

"Then you go to the meeting every day 7 * 24 hours, why come back from the church? Just don't sleep, don't eat, don't do anything, just go to the meeting every day!"

I am very good at this kind of thing. If I really want to go all out, I can really hate people so much that my own mother doesn't recognize them, but I don't want to do it anymore. I suddenly feel that it is not beautiful to do so.

You Yan was speechless by me, I could hear her panting heavily on the phone.But she swallowed that rough breath, and still answered me in that pretended warm tone: "Since you don't want to participate for the time being, I won't force you. Don't be angry, anger will leave a hole for the devil." .”

"It's not just this time that I don't want to participate in the Bible study? If you do this again, I don't want to participate in the Bible study again in the future! I just promised you something, why come one after another endlessly? Do I still have a little personal space? ? Let me tell you, don't bother me, I'm not like you, I'm very busy!"

I was really pissed off by her.

She also stopped talking and hung up the phone, and I figured we were both sulking.

Although I was angry with her, I took God's word seriously.I began to carefully investigate whether "don't stop gatherings" was God's command. If it was God's command and I didn't do it, I would probably be in trouble again very soon.I don't want to wander around the mouth of Hell again.

I think the phrase "don't stop gatherings" may not be in the Bible at all, or it may be another wild goose talking out of context.But I searched it with the mobile phone software, and there is really this sentence in the Bible!

Now, I started to hate the Bible, why did I have to write such a sentence?I think that's definitely not the case.

Huang Jiale supported me. What he said "don't stop gatherings" should be read in context. The original text said that some Christians who originally believed in Judaism left Christianity after being baptized because they were coerced by the Judaizers and returned to Christianity. Back to the synagogue meeting.Therefore, the "Bible" means that "our own" gatherings cannot be stopped. It means that after learning the truth, we cannot abandon Christ and return to Judaism. This is to clearly crucify the Son of God again. on the cross.

I think what Huang Jiale said is correct, but I can't stand You Yan's repeated questions. I checked one after another for this question. Some people are the same as Huang Jiale, but some people hold another opinion. point of view.

I found that no matter what scripture answers, it is really difficult for me to find a very unified answer.

Unlike when I was studying in the past, if I didn't understand a question, I could always find a consistent answer that everyone recognized.But here, no matter what kind of question, there are all kinds of answers.If you don't make a distinction and believe in everything, you will soon lose your way.

What is heresy?This question came to my mind again.

I have an idea in my heart that the reason why the church’s interpretation of the Bible is so chaotic is because the devil has done a great job in it, making a sentence that was originally very simple so that everyone does not recognize it. When the meaning of the original text of the Bible is changed, people When it comes to actual operation, of course, it will do all kinds of things.

I think it was You Yan who told me the secret, otherwise it would be impossible for Sister Zhao to persuade me to join the Bible study group with the same voice as her.I think it's man-made and not the work of the Holy Spirit, but I have no proof.

Sister Zhao also called me. Her attitude was much better than You Yan's: "Lin Xiao, don't get me wrong. I don't mean to force you to join the Bible study group. Don't take what You Yan said to heart."

When she said that, I felt much more at ease.I told her: "I didn't have a good attitude yesterday. But to be honest, I don't think I learned much from the Bible study group. I think I study faster on my own."

"Do you feel that you didn't gain anything in the Bible study group? How could it be? Can you explain it specifically? Let's think about where our problems lie."

Sister Zhao's attitude is sincere, but I don't want to tell the whole story. It would hurt people's self-esteem to say that their level is not good, even though it is the truth.

I still decided to give them face, this decision was really wrong after thinking about it.At that time, I already knew that the "Bible" told people not to lie, and I knew in my heart that I should not lie, but because of human feelings, I thought about it and took the problem on myself.

I said, "Probably because I don't have the foundation of the Bible, I feel that many things are fragmented to me. And you are sharing many things about the church that I don't understand. I don't think I can keep up. I need to make up for it myself."

Sister Zhao said "hmm" twice, and then said: "I understand. You are right. For someone like you who has just come into contact with the Bible, there is indeed a checkpoint that needs to be passed. When you say that, I But when I think about it, when I first read the "Bible", I also felt that the "Bible" was scattered. In fact, many brothers and sisters have been in the church for so many years, and their reading of the Bible is still scattered. I wonder if I can take a seminary course Come here, let you be organized from the basics, and not read in bits and pieces."

"It would be nice to have something like that."

"Yes, I was just reading a course called 'Essentials of Faith'. But I wanted to ask if this would be too difficult for you, so I didn't recommend it to you."

"What class is this?"

"This is an outline course. It is introduced from the perspective of the whole Bible, which can give brothers and sisters an overview."

"I need this class," I said.

"Then I would like to ask Brother Liu to distribute the courses to the brothers and sisters this week. Brother Liu, you probably haven't met him yet, right? He is the brother in charge of technology here. If you have any problems with computer technology or hardware, you can ask him."

I think this is the solution to the problem.What I need are professional teachers and professional technicians, not brothers and sisters who share indiscriminately and confuse me even more.

Probably because of my needs, when I went to church the next week, they had already prepared a new curriculum.

Qian Junru explained to me on the podium: "Sister Zhao may not be able to come back for a week or two. What she means is that we can carry on our study first, and don't let our study be left behind because of her absence. It happens that our church has A new fellow seeker is our Lin Xiao. We love Lin Xiao very much, and Sister Zhao loves her very much, so we specially prepared this set of courses for her."

"Thank the Lord!" Almost everyone said in unison.

Qian Junru said: "I can't explain the specific meaning, why don't I ask Sister Zhao to tell everyone on the phone. I have already connected her, and she is online now."

I feel that the brothers and sisters in this church are very enthusiastic, but their professional level really makes me unable to compliment them.At such a moment, there is even a way of "asking for help outside the court".

Sister Zhao also said on the phone: "Qian Junru, in fact, you can simply explain to everyone, there is no need to ask me everything. How about this, since everyone is here, let me explain.

These two sets of courses are the basic courses I studied when I was in theology. One is 'Essentials of Faith' and the other is 'Christian Ethics'.I think Lin Xiao's fellowship with me last week was very good, and I encourage everyone to truthfully report their problems to our co-workers like her, so that we can help everyone.Lin Xiao's problem is that she feels that she has no foundation and can't keep up with the church's Bible study, so I also agree with her to suspend the Bible study and give her a supplementary foundation.This set of "Essences of Faith" is the foundation of faith. In fact, although some brothers and sisters in our church have been in the church for a long time, their foundation is not very solid. I hope this set of basic courses can help brothers and sisters.The other course is mainly aimed at daily life applications. "

You could tell everyone in the church was interested, and so was I.

Sister Zhao said: "People who read the Bible for the first time may feel that each chapter is fragmented and it is difficult to form a system. The 'Essentials of Faith' is to help brothers and sisters build a structure first, and then fill in it. , so as not to read the "Bible" piecemeal. Our church's current plan is to listen to the "Essences of Faith" in three months. This requirement should not be high. You can also listen to it while doing housework at home. The class lasted 20 minutes, and there were a total of about 30 lessons, which were quickly finished. We set up an online group, and after everyone finished listening, they all went to Qian Junru to make a report, and we urged each other."

"Brother Liu is also here today. We ask Brother Liu to prepare these materials for us later, so that we can go home and study slowly." Qian Junru said.

In fact, I am still looking forward to the sermon. I am looking forward to another sermon by Qian Junru so that I can experience God speaking to me again. However, today’s sermon is so ordinary that I spread out my small notebook and write it down in the end. A lonely.