Bonnie77 said in post 1:
Do you have any advice for me to help become a more knowledgeable Christian?
The best way to become a more knowledgeable Christian is to read every word of the Bible (Matthew 4:4), over and over again. It ends up explaining itself once what it says has become engrained in your memory, and you see the connections between verses regarding something in one place in the Bible and other verses regarding that same thing in other places in the Bible. It's by comparing and combining related verses from different places in the Bible that we arrive at correct doctrine (Isaiah 28:9-10; 1 Corinthians 2:13).
It's also a good practice to always start and end each reading session with a prayer for understanding and remembrance of the whole Bible.
One great way to read the whole Bible, over and over, is to think of it as 7 volumes:
1. Genesis to Deuteronomy
2. Joshua to Esther
3. Job to Song of Solomon
4. Isaiah to Malachi
5. Matthew to Acts
6. Romans to Philemon
7. Hebrews to Revelation
You can read a chapter in each volume every day. This will keep you current in every part of the Bible. After a while, there won't be any part that you haven't read recently enough to remember what it says. When you reach the end of a volume, simply start again at the 1st chapter of that volume. In this way, you will be cycling through smaller volumes like #6 and #7 much more often than larger volumes like #2, but the smaller volumes are so much more dense with doctrine that it can be profitable to read them over and over more often.
Also, you can listen to recordings of people reading the Bible whenever you need to keep your eyes on something else while you listen (such as keeping your eyes on the road while you drive, or on a cutting board while you're preparing food, or on your clippers while you're trimming a hedge). In this way, you can listen to the Bible throughout the day, whenever you don't need to be thinking about something else (such as at your workplace). Also, you can listen to the Bible even while you're going to sleep, so it will become part of even your subconscious mind.
Bonnie77 said in post 1:
I know there's more to being a Christian than just being able to quote scripture or going to church.
That's right.
If people haven't become Christians yet, all they need to do in order to become Christians is believe Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ and the human/divine Son of God (John 20:31, John 3:36; 1 John 2:23), and that he died on the Cross for their sins and rose from the dead on the 3rd day (1 Corinthians 15:1-4, Luke 24:46-47, Matthew 20:19, Matthew 26:28).
After people become Christians, to help develop and keep up their relationship with God, they should pray to him every day, such as with the Lord's prayer (Matthew 6:9-13), praising and worshipping him (Revelation 4:11), confessing their sins to him (1 John 1:9), asking him for what they need today (Luke 11:3), and thanking him for all he's given them (Philippians 4:6). And throughout the day, they should immediately bring to him in prayer anything they become worried about at anytime (Philippians 4:6-7).
They should also fellowship with other Christians every day (Hebrews 3:13, Hebrews 10:25), at least in some fashion (Matthew 18:20), such as on this forum, being exhorted by them and exhorting them in turn (Hebrews 3:13).
They also need to examine themselves to make sure they're truly in the faith (2 Corinthians 13:5, Proverbs 28:26, Proverbs 14:12). The way to do this is to read every word of the Bible (Hebrews 4:12, Matthew 4:4) and see if they accept everything it teaches as having come from God (John 8:47; 2 Timothy 3:16). For just as a true faith will initially come from reading (or hearing) what the Bible teaches (Romans 10:17; 2 Timothy 3:15), so people can know they're remaining in the true faith if they continue to believe everything the Bible teaches came from God (John 8:31b; 2 Timothy 4:2-4; 1 Timothy 4:1, Mark 8:35-38).
In order to have any real relationship with Jesus, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19), most importantly people must believe the right things about Jesus (John 14:6-7): that he's God the Word made flesh (John 1:1,14), that he's the Christ (1 John 5:1; 1 John 2:22), and that he's the only begotten (only born) Son of God (John 3:16,36; 1 John 2:23), meaning he's the only person ever born without any human father (Luke 1:34-35). And people must believe Jesus lived a perfectly sinless life (Hebrews 4:15; 2 Corinthians 5:21) and so could die on the Cross for people's sins and rise from the dead on the 3rd day (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). He rose and will remain forever in an immortal flesh and bones human body (Luke 24:39; 2 John 1:7) as saved people's eternally-human high priest/mediator (1 Timothy 2:5, Hebrews 2:16-17, Hebrews 7:24-26).
Once people come into faith in Jesus, they must obey him, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit by repenting from their sins and getting water-immersion (burial) baptized into Jesus (Acts 2:38, Romans 6:3-5, Galatians 3:27). And they must partake of the divine flesh and blood of the bread and wine of communion (John 6:53, Matthew 26:26-28; 1 Corinthians 10:16; 1 Corinthians 11:27-30). And they can get hands laid on them to receive Holy Spirit baptism (Acts 8:17) and one or more of the Holy Spirit's wonderful Spiritual gifts (Acts 19:6; 1 Corinthians 12:8-10). Then, washed from their sins by water baptism (Acts 22:16) and empowered by the Holy Spirit within them (Acts 1:8, Ephesians 3:16), they must each and every day for the rest of their lives deny themselves, take up their crosses and follow Jesus (Luke 9:23; 2 Corinthians 5:15), by continuing in the faith to the end (Hebrews 3:6,12,14, Hebrews 6:4-8, John 15:6; 2 Timothy 2:12), by repenting to the end from every sin they commit (Hebrews 10:26-29; 1 Corinthians 9:27, Luke 12:45-46), and by doing to the end the particular spiritual works which he's given them as individuals to do (Mark 13:34, Romans 12:6-8, Titus 3:8).
But if they as believers wrongly employ their free will to refuse to do these things, then they can't expect to have any continued real relationship with Jesus, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit. For a continued real relationship with them requires people not only continue to believe in them, but also continue to obey them (John 15:10, John 14:21,23). Faith without works is dead (James 2:20), and can't ultimately save people (James 2:14-26, Romans 2:6-8, Matthew 7:21, Hebrews 5:9).
