"False Ways Of Growing As A Christian"

This week’s message addressed many of the questions that we have about what ‘to do’ and what ‘not to do’ to grow as a Christian.

The mid-evil Catholic church stated that there were three ‘things’ that we need to do:

Confession – every single sin

Contribution – contribute to the church to reduce you loved one’s wait in purgatory (called ‘indulgences’)

Contrition – sorry for our sins


One of the ways Rich Nathan (our Senior Pastor) stated ‘to do’this’ (grow as a Christian) was to find Jesus every time you read the Bible. He quotes Martin Luther as saying ‘We Christians go to the Bible to find Christ”.

Rich talked about one of the ways ‘no to do this’ called ‘asceticism’. This is defined as ‘the doctrine that a person can attain a high spiritual and moral state by practicing self-denial, self-mortification, and the like.’

Colossians 2:16-17 (New International Version)

16Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 17These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.

Rich stated that the law was given to us to point us to Christ. It is like a thermometer – it tells us we are ‘sick’. Our fundamental problem, according to Rich, is not our ‘circumstances’ but our ‘sin sickness’ and the only way to take care of this is to turn to Christ.

He addressed the issue of what he called ‘super spirituality’ which is marked by ‘disqualifying others’ and ‘losing our connection to Christ’

Colossians 1:12 (New International Version)

12giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you[a] to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.

Rich closed by stating that ‘we need to accept our acceptance by God’ and that ‘we are already qualified by trusting in Christ’.