Hi, I'm new

[R. Malcolm Newton]

Hello, I'm new so just dropping a quick post. I'm male, married, 41, and located in NJ. I currently attend Calvary Chapel. I was baptized in 2014 and really started to dedicate my life to Jesus around 2016.

Among other things, I'm hoping to use this forum for the following:

1. Help me advance Bible studies.

2. Help revealing my spiritual gift(s).

3. Discuss callings; others and my own.
I feel called to learn as much as possible about the Bible. Therefore, I'm hoping to attend seminary. But then what? I don't feel that I am called to be a pastor. Perhaps a writer?? (I'm actually a terrible writer but God can do anything, right?)

4. Mentorship. I believe as Christians we should all find someone to mentor and someone to mentor us. So that at any point in our lives, we should be a Paul to someone and a Timothy to someone else. I know I have so much to learn, so I am looking to come under the wing of some mature Christians. However, I also feel that I have some unique life experiences that I can share with others to hopefully build them up in their Christian faith.

There's plenty more that I could say but that's all for now. I'm excited to be part of forum.

R. Malcolm Newton

 

[Tigger45]

Glad you decided to join us Malcolm!

 

[Aussie Pete]

Hello, I'm new so just dropping a quick post. I'm male, married, 41, and located in NJ. I currently attend Calvary Chapel. I was baptized in 2014 and really started to dedicate my life to Jesus around 2016.

Among other things, I'm hoping to use this forum for the following:

1. Help me advance Bible studies.

2. Help revealing my spiritual gift(s).

3. Discuss callings; others and my own.
I feel called to learn as much as possible about the Bible. Therefore, I'm hoping to attend seminary. But then what? I don't feel that I am called to be a pastor. Perhaps a writer?? (I'm actually a terrible writer but God can do anything, right?)

4. Mentorship. I believe as Christians we should all find someone to mentor and someone to mentor us. So that at any point in our lives, we should be a Paul to someone and a Timothy to someone else. I know I have so much to learn, so I am looking to come under the wing of some mature Christians. However, I also feel that I have some unique life experiences that I can share with others to hopefully build them up in their Christian faith.

There's plenty more that I could say but that's all for now. I'm excited to be part of forum.

R. Malcolm Newton

Welcome! Please pray for the right seminary. There are plenty that have the desire to teach you into a state of total unbelief. It's great to hear from someone who knows the value of a mentor. I had one for 30 years or so and I am eternally thankful for what he was able to teach me.

We have a web site with a great deal of helpful teaching. We also have a Bible School, but it's a bit far for you to travel..... Christian Life Frankston | Daily Bread (Fresh Weekly)

 

[musicalpilgrim]

Hi Malcolm, welcome to the forum in Jesus name it's a great place to be for fellowship with other Christians

 

[Greengardener]

Hi Malcolm! Welcome! I highly recommend finding several translations of the Bible and maybe even using an online/electronic source like eSword (free) to be able to study the Bible for yourself. In Seminary, you will be taught what they believe or what they want to teach you, but where the rubber meets the road is honestly what YOU believe from your own study. Believe me, there are multitudes of doctrines out there, a plethora of creeds, and many denominations. I would encourage you early to make this your commitment with your whole heart to follow God. I would encourage you to avoid making this about a religion where you pick your flavor and then wonder if you picked correctly, but instead that you make this about the relationship that God wants to have with you (just look at the price He was willing to pay to obtain it!) and then take every action toward the goal of following YOUR course of obedience to God and not someone else's conclusions. Humility is essential, but don't forget that God gave you your brain and it's not necessarily humility to bow to someone else's ideas. You've been called to learn His word and His voice for yourself.

God is trustworthy and He gave us what is needed for life and godliness. If you have followed placing your faith in Jesus with obeying in baptism in His name, you can rely on the Holy Spirit to remind you of what God told us. Since we have the Scriptures in our hands, and since most believers have read more of the New Testament than Old Testament, and since you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ, I suggest you ingest it as if your life depends on it. Indeed, doesn't it? Man doesn't live by bread alone, but by every word of God.

Read the OT as the history of God working with mankind. When you get to the histories (Samuels, Kinds, Chronicles), line them up with the prophets that were speaking in that "real time," so it makes sense. I read both the histories and the prophets for several years and would hear sermons citing a few verses here and there, and I didn't see the big picture, but it all came together when I began to read them together. What a difference it made!

Read the NT again after you have a good grasp of the OT. Look at what Jesus and the disciples both said and taught in light of what you read in the Old Testament, so you can see that they weren't throwing out the written words that God gave them but were throwing out the interpretations, traditions, and oral law that had developed, and showing how God as fulfilling what He said He would do in taking His words to the nations. Thank God He did!

God may yet lead you to seminary, but through the years I have known a good many people who wanted to feel prepared by seminary, and some have found their faith simply shipwrecked by an inaccurate instruction in the Scriptures. It's not rocket science, and the tools for interpreting what was in the original languages is within the grasp of the average person. Please feel free to save yourselves from the multitude of other scholars' attempts to improve on what God. Know that God is interested in taking His words into your own heart and transforming your mind to be like Christ.

Best to you! Again, welcome!

 

[Steve97]

Welcome to Christian Forums!

 

[Deade]

Hello Malcolm,
welcome to CF.

I hope you'll enjoy your stay here.

 

[R. Malcolm Newton]

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome!

Where would I post a Bible question? I find it a bit difficult to navigate the forums on my mobile device.

My question is which Bible figures never died? Is it only Enoch and Elijah?

So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.
Genesis 5:23‭-‬24 NASB
Genesis 5:23-24 So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him. | New American Standard Bible (NASB) | Download The Bible App Now

And as they still went on and talked, behold, chariots of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
2 Kings 2:11 ESV
2 Kings 2:11 And as they still went on and talked, behold, chariots of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. | English Standard Version (ESV) | Download The Bible App Now

Thanks,
R. Malcolm Newton

 

[thelord's_pearl]

Welcome to CF! I would like to truly dedicate my life to Jesus Christ too and learn the whole Bible from here where all Christians are. I'm on disability for having anxiety so here's the best place to learn. I hope all of my questions/unclarity will be answered too as then I could help other people in the future too or even now but it probably won't be as clear.

I prayed this prayer today, "Dear heavenly Father God, you said 'Ask and it will be given to you', 'Seek and you will find', 'Knock and the door will be opened to you'. For anyone who asks, it will be given, whoever seeks will find and whoever knocks, the door will be opened to you so I have been asking, seeking and knocking and pray that hopefully all of my questions will be answered, thank you for listening in Jesus' name, amen!

Ask is asking questions
Seeking is by reading the Word of God
Knocking is when no one is answering your question but you bring the thread back up like you're saying "hello?" LOL!

 

[Deade]

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome!

Where would I post a Bible question? I find it a bit difficult to navigate the forums on my mobile device.

My question is which Bible figures never died? Is it only Enoch and Elijah?

So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.
Genesis 5:23‭-‬24 NASB
Genesis 5:23-24 So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him. | New American Standard Bible (NASB) | Download The Bible App Now

And as they still went on and talked, behold, chariots of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.
2 Kings 2:11 ESV
2 Kings 2:11 And as they still went on and talked, behold, chariots of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. | English Standard Version (ESV) | Download The Bible App Now

Thanks,
R. Malcolm Newton

Oh, they died Malcolm. God would not have numbered their days unless He ended them. It is just they didn't experience a normal death like the rest of us. We need to quit reading into scripture what we think rather than what it says.

 

[thelord's_pearl]

Thank you @Deade, for liking my post, how come you don't call yourself 'Alive'? you're Alive in Christ!

 

[Deade]

Thank you @Deade, for liking my post, how come you don't call yourself 'Alive'? you're Alive in Christ!

Actually, we are both dead and alive. Dead to this world but alive in Christ.