Stepping Out: A New Believer’S Guide

By S. T. STONE

Self-deprecating and disarmingly humorous, Stone shares the results of his personal study of the Bible, digging into Scripture and frequently drawing homespun biblical applications from his own life in order to clarify some truths about faith. Stone admits he didnt set out to write a spiritual autobiography, but thats more or less what his book is, and its the books greatest strength for both newcomers and lifelong Christians. Kirkus Reviews

Spiritual conversions are as varied as snowflakes. But once the initial excitement fades away, a new convert is faced with a dilemma: Where do I go from here? This book attempts to answer that question.

The first part of Stepping Out was inspired by the Old Testament quotation, Can two walk together except they be agreed? Amos 3:3 (KJV). It will show that

- God the Father intends for us to be like Christ;

- God the Son enables us to be like Christ; and

- God the Holy Spirit empowers us to be like Christ.

The second part of the book discusses seven things that all believers should hold fast to no matter where they are in their spiritual walk:

1. Know that the Lord is God.

2. Know that you are a sinner and that you are lost without Christ.

3. Know that Christ has saved you and that you are a child of God.

4. Know that you must come clean.

5. Know that God will protect you.

6. Know that Christ will come again.

7. Know love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jul 29, 2015
• ISBN: 9781490883601

S. T. STONE

S. T. Stone is an ordinary man who lives in a typical small town with his best friend of thirty-two years. Although he has no formal training, he loves the Lord and steadfastly maintains that Christianity is not a religion; it is a relationship. You cant serve Jesus Christ unless you love Him, and you cant love Him unless you know Him. Our job is to help folks get to know Jesus. God will do the rest. Often the first step out of spiritual darkness for a new believer can be compared to the groundhogs reaction after he sees his shadow. In the book, Mr. Stone describes what happened to him: It was like God was playing a game of chess with me and had just taken my first pawna seemingly insignificant move at the time but a profoundly important event in terms of the final outcome of the game.

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Copyright © 2015 S. T. Stone.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Unless otherwise noted, scriptural references are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, Copyright © 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of The Churches of Christ in the United States of America, published in Iowa Falls, Iowa, by World Bible Publishers, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scriptures marked KJV are from the King James Version,

Hawthorn Boone Publishers, New York.

Scriptures marked RSV are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1946, 1952, 1971 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission.

Scriptures marked NRSV are from the The Apocrypha, New Revised Standard Version, Published by The Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge, 40 W. 20th St., New York, New York 1001 1-4211 U.S.A.

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ISBN: 978-1-4908-8361-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-8362-5 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-8360-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015909261

WestBow Press rev. date: 02/19/2016

CONTENTS

PART 1 CAN TWO WALK TOGETHER EXCEPT THEY BE AGREED?

Introduction

Chapter 1 The Reluctant Convert

Chapter 2 Finding The Core

Chapter 3 God's Intention

Chapter 4 God's Method Of Conversion Part I

Chapter 5 God's Method Of Conversion, Part Ii

Chapter 6 Enablement And Empowerment For The Believer

Chapter 7 Pulling It All Together

Chapter 8 Cut Your Meat Before You Eat It

Epilogue

PART 2 KNOW WHAT YOU KNOW

Introduction An Apology

Chapter 9 How Do You Know That You Know What You Know?

Chapter 10 Know That The Lord Is God

Chapter 11 Know That You Are A Sinner And That You Are Lost Without Christ

Chapter 12 Know That Christ Has Saved You And That You Are A Child Of God

Chapter 13 Know That You Must Come Clean

Chapter 14 Know That God Will Protect You

Chapter 15 Know That Christ Will Come Again

Chapter 16 Know Love

Epilogue

To my daughter, my pearl, who showed me where the path is.

To my wife, my love, for her love, encouragement, and support.

And to the rest of my family and friends,

in the fervent hope that they will grab hold of the life preserver that God has thrown out to them.

And finally, to my late grandfather, whose favorite hymn was O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee. We sang it at his funeral, and I wept mightily. It took me thirty-five years to understand what it means, and I still weep when I hear it sung today.

But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts.

---Malachi 4:2--3

PART I

CAN TWO WALK TOGETHER EXCEPT THEY BE AGREED?

---AMOS 3:3 (KJV)

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INTRODUCTION

A great deal of thought and literature has been devoted to the subject of the Christian's walk with God. The prophet Amos, who has been lumped into the classification of the minor prophets, raised an all-important question, which is used as the title of the first section of this book.

Can two walk together except they be agreed? This is no minor question, just as Amos was no minor prophet. He actually asked a very major question, just as he prophesied some major catastrophic events that eventually took place in the northern kingdom of Israel over 2,500 years ago. His prophecy warned a people who had totally turned away from God (even though they were numbered among God's chosen people) of impending judgment if they did not repent and turn back to God.

The question before us turns on cause and effect, which in essence, is my theme.

Cause: There must be agreement if you are to walk with God.

Effect: You will walk with God when you are in agreement with Him.

Sounds easy, doesn't it? But we humans just can't seem to accept it and get it right. That is why we need to examine it carefully. The late Dr. J. Vernon McGee, whose ideas are in large part responsible for and reflected in this study, said it best: Therefore, we must get to God's side in order to agree with Him. You have a choice. You can either ride in God's triumphant chariot, or get crushed under its wheels. Either way, He is carrying out His purpose in the world. After all, it is His world.

Once we accept the importance of dealing with the question before us and come to the realization that the answer is an emphatic No, we need to figure out how we can arrive at a state of agreement with our Lord. God is our never-changing Creator, so there is obviously no way we can change His mind. Therefore, if we don't agree with Him, we are going to have to change our minds, not the other way around.

Theologians have struggled with this issue for centuries, and if you want to read what any of them say about it, feel free. There are enough denominations and cults in this world to confirm any point of view, if you can understand what they are all talking about. Most Christian thinking along these lines centers on parts of the Bible, with the emphasis on the word parts. Isolated passages in God's Word have formed the basis of many of the world's religions.

I submit that only the Bible, in its entirety, can shed the necessary light on this topic. If the next logical question becomes, How can we attain a state of agreement with God? we cannot have any idea how God thinks until we know what He says.

The Word of God has been provided for us in the person of Jesus Christ. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1). Jesus has been there all along and is the source of all knowledge and wisdom. In the Old Testament---the Word of God, remember---we learn of the entrance of sin into the world. The cause of sin is disobedience to God. The effect of sin is separation from God, for God is a holy God and cannot tolerate nor be in the presence of sin.

Down through the ages, God spoke to His chosen people. Noah; Abraham; Enoch, who walked with God (Gen. 5:22); Joseph, the Lord was with Joseph (Gen. 39:2); Moses; Joshua; and David, to name a few, succeeded in accomplishing the tasks that God laid before them because of their faith in Him and their obedience to Him. It appears that all of these Old Testament saints were able to walk with God because they agreed with Him. How about that?

Furthermore, they all died without physically receiving God's promise but in the full and complete knowledge, through faith, that the fulfillment of the promise surely awaited them. In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would not have told you that I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am, there you will be also (John 14:7 KJV).

God saw the effect of sin and spent hundreds of years voicing warnings to the world through His prophets. Sin, and the turning away from God that it represents, has always been the problem, and the Word of God proves that God stands opposed to it and cannot coexist with it. If it sounds like I am repeating myself, first read the book of Exodus; then read the book of Deuteronomy; or perhaps read First and Second Kings followed by First and Second Chronicles; or read Ezekiel, Daniel, and Zechariah followed by Revelation. In the Bible, God always repeats the points He feels are most important.

The Old Testament prophets foretold of the fall of countless kingdoms because of their disobedience to God and their worship of other gods, and these prophesies were literally fulfilled. God gave them ample warning, but none of them permanently repented and turned to Him. Isn't this interesting? Those who believed in God turned to Him and walked with Him, met with success in their earthly endeavors on God's behalf, and were promised eternal rewards by the God whom they served. Those who rebelled against God and resisted Him met with ultimate destruction and were scattered to the four winds. If you do not believe this, try to find Sodom and Babylon today.

God has always presented man with the choice of taking God's way or his own way, and the title Christian outwardly implies that one has chosen the former. However, there are constantly going to be snares and roadblocks in one's way, and the foremost of these is the sin of pride. Chapter 8 of Deuteronomy points out that God is the source of our successes---lest we forget. When we give God the credit for our successes, we agree with Him, and when we agree with Him, we allow ourselves the privilege of walking with Him.

Conversely, when we confess our sins to God and repent of them (turn away from them), we are also agreeing with God. The act of confession serves to glorify God and enables us to continue to walk with Him; remember that He has already been given the credit for all of the positive things we possess and accomplish.

God is never-changing and is always walking the same path. We are the ones who stray like lost sheep. But God's promise is that My sheep hear my voice and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand (John 10:27--28). This is a wonderful statement that Jesus made, and it serves as a tremendous source of encouragement to the believer. But the desire to sin has made man a rebellious creature by nature, and the farther one falls into sin, the harder it is for him to hear the Good Shepherd's voice and follow it.

God's gift to us is time. After all, God is patient and long- suffering. Unfortunately we spend a great deal of this time wrestling with Him, just as Jacob (the father of the Nation of Israel) did one night in the desert hundreds of years ago (Gen. 32:24--30). But, like Jacob, we never win until we yield to God, and when we yield to God and agree with Him, we receive His blessing and His kingdom becomes ours.

This is some pretty heady stuff, and that is the reason it needs to be explained in an orderly fashion. Untrained though I am, this is my intent. If we walk through this together, I am certain that God will be walking right along with us. I'm not real sure which direction we are going to go, but after reading and studying the Bible for the past three years, I am convinced of two things: (1) the Spirit of God will lead us to His destination, and (2) I know what that destination is. Remember, I have read the book, and guess what? God wins! It is to our distinct advantage to be on His side.

In the beginning, God created man in His own image and said that man's purpose in life should be to glorify Him. Later on in the New Testament, God tells us that His intention is for us to become like Christ, whose earthly life was a perfect testimony to the glory of God by means of His perfect obedience to God's will. Jesus totally agreed with God and walked with Him continuously.

Sin has always stood in man's way of glorifying God, and we need to deal with it. What we do with the time God gives us is our gift to Him. A few definitions will help us see how God looks at things. Pride is thinking that we can do something better than God can do it. Excessive pride is taking all the credit for what we do and leaving God entirely out of it. Humility is the act of acknowledging that, without God, we are nothing. Which of these three characteristics do you think God is in favor of? After all, How can dust and ashes be proud? (Ecc. 10:9 NRSV).

Thanksgiving, confession, and humility all serve to glorify God, and that is what God put us on this earth to do. Therefore, we should dedicate our lives to the glory of God and weed out all thinking and things from our lives that oppose that goal. As Jesus said in the gospel of John, we must bear fruit.

After centuries of prophesying to deaf ears, God's solution to the sin problem was the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Isn't God wonderful? He saw that man was sinking fast, so he threw us the life preserver of the new covenant of grace. In the Old Testament, God said, I am the Lord thy God.... There is no savior beside me (Hosea 13:3--4 KJV). Man would not accept this, so God sent his only begotten Son into the world to die for our sins. But God raised him from the dead (Acts 13:30) so that through belief in Him we might be saved and have eternal life. And what is this eternal life but walking in fellowship with God forever in the absence of sin, just like Jesus Christ did? Jesus came not only to show us the way. He is the way.

The question of believing in God's gift of salvation is God's challenge to us. We can either accept the reality of God's grace, undeserved though it is, and walk with Him or suffer the consequences. The fear of the Lord is truly the beginning of wisdom (Prov. 9:10), and knowledge of and belief in the Word of God (remember from John 1:1 that Jesus Christ is the Word of God, who lowered and humbled Himself to die for us because He loved us) is the only way, the only truth, and the only life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son, to the end that all who believe in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16 KJV).

My intent in this book is to start with a general examination of the Bible as a whole. My evangelist friends will undoubtedly want to squeeze my testimony out of it, and I'll probably let them if it will help in getting out God's Word to others. I will conclude with the development of my theme, as stated in this introduction, by giving you some helpful hints on how to organize your own study of the Bible so that those of you who want to walk in agreement with God will have some tools to help you do it; and I hope that all of you will want to do it!

In between, I will present the Bible in three divisions in an attempt to show that (1) God intends for us to be like Christ, (2) God enables us to be like Christ, and (3) God empowers us to be like Christ. After all, God never asks us to do something without giving us the tools to accomplish it. A great spiritualist was once asked if he would be willing to die for Christ. His answer spoke volumes: I don't know, because God has not asked me to do that yet. But if He does ask it of me, I know He will have the grace to give me the strength to do it.

Dr. G. Campbell Morgan once said, Inspiration is 95% perspiration. The Bible needs to be studied, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and this is what I have been trying to do for quite some time. I hope you can benefit from my work and be encouraged to do some digging on your own. In fact, I will welcome the first criticism of my opinions or findings as evidence that someone bothered to read what I wrote. Maybe in this way we can learn more about God's inexhaustible Word together. An anonymous author wrote the following, which sums things up better than I ever could:

The Bible contains the mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners, and the happiness of believers. Its doctrines are holy, its precepts are binding, its histories are true and its decisions are immutable. Read it to be wise, believe it to be safe, and practice it to be holy. It contains light to direct you, food to support you, and comfort to cheer you. It is the traveler's map, the pilgrim's staff, the pilot's compass, the soldier's sword, and the Christian's character. Here, paradise is restored, heaven opened, and the gates of hell disclosed. Christ is the grand object, our good is its design, and the Glory of God its end. It shall fill the memory, rule the heart, and guide the feet. Read it slowly, frequently, and prayerfully. It is given you in life and shall be opened in the judgment and will be remembered forever. It involves the highest responsibility, will reward the greatest labour, and will condemn all who trifle with its sacred contents ... this is the Bible, know it in your head, stow it in your heart, show it in your life, and sow it in the world.

Chapter 1

THE RELUCTANT CONVERT

A ll books have a beginning and an end, and the greatest book ever written is no exception. To paraphrase an old saying, In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth in six days, and He didn't even half try. Man's salvation was a harder job and has taken God a little longer to accomplish. The one that testifies to these things says, 'Surely I am coming soon.' Amen. Come Lord Jesus! The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. (Rev. 22:20--21 NRSV). This is the last verse in the Bible. Come, Lord Jesus is the heartfelt cry of every true believer. The final sentence of the book of Revelation is an offer of grace, and this has always been God's method of saving sinners, especially since none of us really deserve to be saved at all.

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me!

I once was lost, but now am found.

Was blind, but now I see. (John Newton)

Many of us resolve to read the Bible at some stage in our lives. We may even struggle through the first few chapters of the book of Genesis before giving up, perhaps never to pick up a Bible again because we can't figure out what relevance the creation story, or anything else in the Old Testament, for that matter, could possibly have in our lives. As children in Sunday school, we learn Bible stories that manage to hold our interest for a while, but as our lives become more complicated and worldly, these stories tend to become more remote and meaningless.

Then, at some point in our lives, a few of us, by whatever means---from a near-death experience to a close friend's persuasion---manage to get saved and perhaps even vow to turn our lives over to the Lord because we are so grateful for being spared earthly disaster or are simply desirous of shutting up a well-intentioned friend who keeps shoving the need for salvation down our throats. (Please do not take offense at this seemingly unfeeling and uninformed statement. The whole point of this