TLT Worship Help Feb. 24

This is a substitute for a church by no means. Every believer is supposed to have good fellowship with brothers and sisters.  

Have you seen a lifetime baby? That doesn't make any sense, does it? Even a minute cell doesn't stay as mere "baby". It divides and multiplies so fast. It grows. It increases.
 
But many believers are just staying as novices. As a matter of fact, they like that way! They want to be babies even forever, if possible.

I'm telling you this because they don't want to grow up. They don't want to get bothered holding on their "mamma mia"s unless the mammas really bother them. Cry-cry babies!

Well, sometimes we can be like babies. You may behave like a toddler. I may talk like a little kid. That could happen to anybody somewhere along the way. But that doesn't mean you are a baby.

Notwithstanding, many people in the church are babies today. One thing they don't know is who and what they are.
They talk like grown-ups. They gesture and behave like spiritual adults. But really they aren't. Problem is that they believe they are! There are so many of them, all over the church. Even lots of church leaders, intellectual and socially sophisticated elites, and some scholars are babies, in a spiritual or biblical sense. 

That's why the Apostle Paul (the supposed writer of the letter to the Hebrews) says this way:

     In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!
Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.
But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. (Heb. 5:12~14, NIV)

You need to grow. You have to grow. We've got to all grow up. You can't stay here forever saying, "여기가 좋사오니-Yugiga johssaoni" that means: "Master, it is good for us to be here-(in this baby stage)."
No! No matter how they adore your chubby and ruddy baby cheeks and gugugaga baby talks, PEEKABOO!...you've got to escape from that state.

How, then? How can you grow up?
Well, first of all, you have to graduate. Graduate from what? The baby school! Kindergarden!
Let's go to the next part of Hebrews: 6:1~2.

Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment(Hb. 6:1,2).

These are basics of Christianity: repentance from already-dead acts (here I don't like the twisted NIV translation...refer to some other versions), belief in God's existence, the doctrine of baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment (you can't escape from it unless you have believed in Jesus in advance).

"Elementary? Are you kidding me?" Is that your frank response? Well, then barely are you an "adultish" Christian. If you are not an early beginner, you should've graduated from these all.

You don't repent your dead old behaviors. Don't repeat vain repentance over and over again. Enough is enough. God is not a deaf person. He promised to forgive, and even to discard and forget about your past and sins in it once and for all.  

If God says, He means. Do you believe Him? Then, you'd better believe what He said, too. God is that good. He's far more generous than your biological father, isn't He?
Sometimes your daddy would probe at your past and passed things. He gets down to nitty-gritty. Lots of nit-picking. It's a freaky situation.
But don't worry. Your spiritual Father doesn't do that.

Then, you have to believe in God. He is. He is alive. He is up there in heaven, and here in my heart. He's in your spirit. God says "I AM." Actually, Yaweh means I AM THAT I AM. God exists forever, no matter how hard atheists holler and bray like wild donkeys.
Whenever you approach to God, you've got to believe He is, and He is a rewarder. A rewarder, "misthapodotes" in Greek, which is used only once here in the whole NT, means a person who meets your payroll. God pays for your faith. PTL!

And you'd better believe in baptisms: water baptism and the baptism in the Holy Spirit. The water baptism doesn't have an actual power to save you in itself, though the Roman Catholics insist so. No. It's only a symbol that you are united with Christ through his death and resurrection (Rom. 6:3,4).

The Holy Spirit baptism lets you speak in tongues. A lot of Christians don't believe this, but you are supposed to do. It's the gateway to various gifts of the Spirit. And without it, you are just a natural-tongue talker instead of spiritual or supernatural talker.
Since God is a Spirit, He works in supernatural ways.  

Then, believe in the laying on of hands for anointing, healing, and spiritual ordination (not superficial or systemical). Jesus did it. The Apostles did it. Every born-again believer can do that. You can even lay hand on yourself believing Jesus would anoint or heal you! Refer to Mark. 16:17,18 and James 5:14. Don't ever doubt it; otherwise He should tell you can lay on of your feet instead.

Do you believe in the resurrection of the dead? If not, do you believe in annihilation of people altogether? Then you are just like a materialist. A man survives in his spirit even when he dies. Good or evil, he eventually restores his body to get the final judgment before the Lord.

If you are a born-again believer and die, then you go into heaven and stay there until Jesus will bring you with all the saints to meet in the air when all the dead faithful get united with their bodies. However, many so-called Christians don't trust in the resurrection truth. Leave them alone unless they like to hear you.

Finally, you must believe God's eternal judgment. God is not just God of love. He is God of justice, too. Jesus is the great Justice. You, as a regenerated believer, will be exempted from one judgment but not from the judgment of acts. It probes you according to all of your eartly acts and decides whether you are eligible for a crown or mere shame.

Let's all grow up beyond the elementary faith.

May God richly bless you.