Am I fully following Jesus?

[DaughterofTheKing1029]

As I was watching this bible study to help define carnal Christianity and how to avoid it
(Eph. 17-24).
The teacher spoke on v. 17 saying that we are to not follow the Gentiles and the futility of their thinking. He broke this down using examples like focusing too much on your job, your salary, building a family and even education can cause us to think like the Gentiles because it's thinking of things that are temporary and worldly as opposed to filling ourselves daily with God's word. I may have misinterpreted what he said but I took a step to ask the question :
Should Christians attend college if their major/studies is not related to ministry?

(I should mention I am a history major so it's somewhat helpful to my faith)
But is college worth it, to get a degree and a job in the secular worth or is it better to devote my life to full-time ministry?

In addition to this question, should I, as a believer be keeping the sabbath?
Romans 7 speaks on keeping the law while living under grace and even Hebrews 4:9-11 talks about making an effort to enter the Sabbath rest. I'm just lost since I am a Sunday worshipper. I am aware that the day of worship was changed to Sunday during the time of Constantine when the Catholic church had full power.

Hope you can help, thanks!
God bless

 

[StephenDiscipleofYHWH]

As I was watching this bible study to help define carnal Christianity and how to avoid it
(Eph. 17-24).
The teacher spoke on v. 17 saying that we are to not follow the Gentiles and the futility of their thinking. He broke this down using examples like focusing too much on your job, your salary, building a family and even education can cause us to think like the Gentiles because it's thinking of things that are temporary and worldly as opposed to filling ourselves daily with God's word. I may have misinterpreted what he said but I took a step to ask the question :
Should Christians attend college if their major/studies is not related to ministry?

(I should mention I am a history major so it's somewhat helpful to my faith)
But is college worth it, to get a degree and a job in the secular worth or is it better to devote my life to full-time ministry?

In addition to this question, should I, as a believer be keeping the sabbath?
Romans 7 speaks on keeping the law while living under grace and even Hebrews 4:9-11 talks about making an effort to enter the Sabbath rest. I'm just lost since I am a Sunday worshipper. I am aware that the day of worship was changed to Sunday during the time of Constantine when the Catholic church had full power.

Hope you can help, thanks!
God bless

There is nothing wrong with studying and taking courses to get a Job to pay the bills. It only becomes a problem when you start to desire more and more money, or when you let yourself get into debt by borrowing money for a home, car, etc, thus creating a need to devote all your time to making money taking away the time you could be spending working for the Lord. Even the Apostles had Jobs that they did to make money(since they did not make/taken any money for their ministry), Paul was a tent maker and that is how he made his money. Studying for a specific Career is the same as being an apprentice for a certain period of time before taking up a trade, there is nothing wrong with it as we all must work to eat as commanded.

So long as everything you are doing is to the Glory of the Lord then you will be fine.

As to your second question, yes we are still to keep the Sabbath. The Seventh day Adventists would have the most information on the subject if you were interested in studying it for yourself. Otherwise I have a decent sized study on the subject(though not as detailed as what the SDA's could provide) that I could send you if you would like, or if you have any specific questions about certain passages I would be happy to answer them according to what the bible teaches.

Romans 7 is speaking of the Fact that we are married to a new husband. Here is a short breakdown of the Chapter.

Romans 7-Married to a New Husband
6. The law of the covenant hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth(Romans 7:1) just as a woman who is married to a man by law is bound to the husband as long as he liveth(Romans 7:2) that if a woman marry again while the first husband still lives she is in adultery(Romans 7:3). If the husband be dead the woman becomes loosed from the bond(Romans 7:2,3) and is free to marry another man and not be called an adulteress(Romans 7:2,3) in like manner also are we. For at first we were married to the law of the covenant(Romans 7:1) but so that we would not be in adultery we were made dead to the law of the covenant(Romans 7:4,6,8,9,10,11) by the body of Christ(Romans 7:4) by the which we could be married again to our New husband who is Christ(Romans 7:4). By this way we are delivered from the letter of the Law of the Covenant(Old Husband) which was after the Flesh(Romans 7:17-19,21,23-25) and put under that Spiritual law that came by Christ(New Husband)(Romans 7:6,12,14-16,22,25).

I hope this helps,
May God guide you in all things

 

[Loyce KG]

As I was watching this bible study to help define carnal Christianity and how to avoid it
(Eph. 17-24).
The teacher spoke on v. 17 saying that we are to not follow the Gentiles and the futility of their thinking. He broke this down using examples like focusing too much on your job, your salary, building a family and even education can cause us to think like the Gentiles because it's thinking of things that are temporary and worldly as opposed to filling ourselves daily with God's word. I may have misinterpreted what he said but I took a step to ask the question :
Should Christians attend college if their major/studies is not related to ministry?

(I should mention I am a history major so it's somewhat helpful to my faith)
But is college worth it, to get a degree and a job in the secular worth or is it better to devote my life to full-time ministry?

In addition to this question, should I, as a believer be keeping the sabbath?
Romans 7 speaks on keeping the law while living under grace and even Hebrews 4:9-11 talks about making an effort to enter the Sabbath rest. I'm just lost since I am a Sunday worshipper. I am aware that the day of worship was changed to Sunday during the time of Constantine when the Catholic church had full power.

Hope you can help, thanks!
God bless

Ministry simply means to serve others for the Glory of God. We have all been called to serve mankind in different ways with our talents, abilities and intellect. There are many ways to serve outside of the five-fold ministries in scripture. Not all are called to be evangelists, or apostles or prophets etc. I believe God has equipped some to be good accountants, doctors, politicians. The question is do we serve with integrity and put God first. Christ commands us to love our neighbors as we DO ourselves and this is through service.
Pursue your degree and get a job but do it diligently. May your employer see your light shine and may you be the salt at your workplace. If God calls you to full-time ministry, you will know. It will come from a place of passion in your heart and God will confirm it in many ways.

I agree you may have misinterpreted the message. It's a call to seek first the Kingdom of God not the things of the world. God is FIRST. So in all endeavors, is God the ultimate priority. That's what dying to self means. We still pursue education at school, learn skills for all these things have originated from God.

Entering the sabbath rest is more than just keeping the sabbath in the literal sense. It is a shift from living by the law to living by grace. We don't labor to please God, faith does.
“For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.”
‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭4:10‬ ‭

Hope this helps.

 

[~Anastasia~]

Hello and welcome to CF.

Discerning a particular call to ministry isn't something we can do over a forum. But please understand that the point is that we should all serve God wherever we are placed ... not all are called to be evangelists, pastors, teachers, etc. Some serve God by being kind to everyone around them who need it, or by raising Godly children, or by earning money and helping the poor with it, or any of many other ways.

But nothing in Christianity is against being educated. The only problem is if God clearly called someone to a particular vocation and they refuse it for one of their own choosing (even then, God will redeem it if we cooperate with Him - He well knows our weaknesses).

As to keeping the Sabbath - remember that the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. It is good to make sure we rest our bodies, but don't get caught up in legalism. The bit about Constantine changing the day is pseudo-history. This is not the forum to discuss particular denominations (it's actually against the rules in this section) ... but think back and see that in the Scriptures, we already see the Lord appearing on the first day of the week (Sunday) and the early Christians began to refer to it as the Lord's Day. It wasn't Constantine. (Nor did Catholicism have full power - only primacy - the Eastern Churches did not fall under Rome.)

I think I'll leave it at that. We don't want this discussion shut down. By the way, there are sections where you can debate that question. Just not here in this area. (General Theology or Denomination-Specific Theology are two possibilities - and there is a specific subforum in General Theology. Links below.)

General Theology

Sabbath and The Law

Denomination Specific Theology

Again, welcome to CF! And feel free to ask if we can help with questions about the forums.

As I was watching this bible study to help define carnal Christianity and how to avoid it
(Eph. 17-24).
The teacher spoke on v. 17 saying that we are to not follow the Gentiles and the futility of their thinking. He broke this down using examples like focusing too much on your job, your salary, building a family and even education can cause us to think like the Gentiles because it's thinking of things that are temporary and worldly as opposed to filling ourselves daily with God's word. I may have misinterpreted what he said but I took a step to ask the question :
Should Christians attend college if their major/studies is not related to ministry?

(I should mention I am a history major so it's somewhat helpful to my faith)
But is college worth it, to get a degree and a job in the secular worth or is it better to devote my life to full-time ministry?

In addition to this question, should I, as a believer be keeping the sabbath?
Romans 7 speaks on keeping the law while living under grace and even Hebrews 4:9-11 talks about making an effort to enter the Sabbath rest. I'm just lost since I am a Sunday worshipper. I am aware that the day of worship was changed to Sunday during the time of Constantine when the Catholic church had full power.

Hope you can help, thanks!
God bless

 

[DaughterofTheKing1029]

I’ve also been struggling with trying to not become a “Legalistic Christian” as I continue to study and dive deeper into the faith. Thank you for your response!
QUOTE="~Anastasia~, post: 73650116, member: 343500"]Hello and welcome to CF.

Discerning a particular call to ministry isn't something we can do over a forum. But please understand that the point is that we should all serve God wherever we are placed ... not all are called to be evangelists, pastors, teachers, etc. Some serve God by being kind to everyone around them who need it, or by raising Godly children, or by earning money and helping the poor with it, or any of many other ways.

But nothing in Christianity is against being educated. The only problem is if God clearly called someone to a particular vocation and they refuse it for one of their own choosing (even then, God will redeem it if we cooperate with Him - He well knows our weaknesses).

As to keeping the Sabbath - remember that the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. It is good to make sure we rest our bodies, but don't get caught up in legalism. The bit about Constantine changing the day is pseudo-history. This is not the forum to discuss particular denominations (it's actually against the rules in this section) ... but think back and see that in the Scriptures, we already see the Lord appearing on the first day of the week (Sunday) and the early Christians began to refer to it as the Lord's Day. It wasn't Constantine. (Nor did Catholicism have full power - only primacy - the Eastern Churches did not fall under Rome.)

I think I'll leave it at that. We don't want this discussion shut down. By the way, there are sections where you can debate that question. Just not here in this area. (General Theology or Denomination-Specific Theology are two possibilities - and there is a specific subforum in General Theology. Links below.)

General Theology

Sabbath and The Law

Denomination Specific Theology

Again, welcome to CF! And feel free to ask if we can help with questions about the forums.[/QUOTE]
Thank

 

[~Anastasia~]

You're welcome if it could help.

Trust that God guides us all and wants us to be saved. We all learn as we go.

I’ve also been struggling with trying to not become a “Legalistic Christian” as I continue to study and dive deeper into the faith. Thank you for your response!
QUOTE="~Anastasia~, post: 73650116, member: 343500"]Hello and welcome to CF.

Discerning a particular call to ministry isn't something we can do over a forum. But please understand that the point is that we should all serve God wherever we are placed ... not all are called to be evangelists, pastors, teachers, etc. Some serve God by being kind to everyone around them who need it, or by raising Godly children, or by earning money and helping the poor with it, or any of many other ways.

But nothing in Christianity is against being educated. The only problem is if God clearly called someone to a particular vocation and they refuse it for one of their own choosing (even then, God will redeem it if we cooperate with Him - He well knows our weaknesses).

As to keeping the Sabbath - remember that the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. It is good to make sure we rest our bodies, but don't get caught up in legalism. The bit about Constantine changing the day is pseudo-history. This is not the forum to discuss particular denominations (it's actually against the rules in this section) ... but think back and see that in the Scriptures, we already see the Lord appearing on the first day of the week (Sunday) and the early Christians began to refer to it as the Lord's Day. It wasn't Constantine. (Nor did Catholicism have full power - only primacy - the Eastern Churches did not fall under Rome.)

I think I'll leave it at that. We don't want this discussion shut down. By the way, there are sections where you can debate that question. Just not here in this area. (General Theology or Denomination-Specific Theology are two possibilities - and there is a specific subforum in General Theology. Links below.)

General Theology

Sabbath and The Law

Denomination Specific Theology

Again, welcome to CF! And feel free to ask if we can help with questions about the forums.

Thank[/QUOTE]

 

[Dave-W]

First off - WELCOME to the forums! Could you post an introduction over in the Introduce Yourself Folder?

Secondly, Our Lord spend years under the tutelage of Joseph in the carpenter shop. Nothing wrong with a secular job (and the training required to do that job) at all.

And thirdly, about the sabbath. Biblically, the sabbath is a covenant sign with the physical children of Abraham, and even more so with physical Israel.

Exodus 31:17
It [Sabbath] is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased from labor, and was refreshed.
​

Can a gentile believer participate? ABSOLUTELY! And the bible describes blessings for doing so. But it is NOT a requirement.

 

[Rosesandthorns]

Great question. God tells us to use our talents and gifts to serve others, so I would assume so. The fact you are seeking answers is pleasing to him.

 

[Strong in Him]

As I was watching this bible study to help define carnal Christianity and how to avoid it
(Eph. 17-24).
The teacher spoke on v. 17 saying that we are to not follow the Gentiles and the futility of their thinking. He broke this down using examples like focusing too much on your job, your salary, building a family and even education can cause us to think like the Gentiles because it's thinking of things that are temporary and worldly as opposed to filling ourselves daily with God's word. I may have misinterpreted what he said but I took a step to ask the question :
Should Christians attend college if their major/studies is not related to ministry?

What is ministry?
There are some who would say that ministry is only ordination, preaching, teaching the Bible or church work.
Scripture says "whatever you do, do it with your whole heart as for the Lord", Colossians 3:23. Two of the gifts listed in 1 Corinthians 12:28 are helping others and administration; a fact which seems to get overlooked when people talk about Spiritual gifts. In the OT God gave the gift of craftsmanship so that people could build the tabernacle.

You said the speaker was talking about focusing too much on your job; he is correct. Even church work and "ministry" can become an idol if we focus on IT rather than the One who called us to do it.

In addition to this question, should I, as a believer be keeping the sabbath?

Not unless you are Jewish and/or want to keep the entire Jewish law also.

I'm just lost since I am a Sunday worshipper.

I'm assuming you mean that you worship God ON Sunday?

That's ok; it's resurrection day.
IMO, ALL days belong to God and we can worship him on any, and all, of them. Sunday is just the day on which most believers gather together for corporate worship and fellowship.