As a follower of Jesus, we need “it!” Everyday, circumstances come our way that requires us to have it! What is “it?” “IT” is the ability to articulate our faith every day of our lives, not just at church.

We live in such a tech saturated society with tools and apps and phones and whatever. But yet, we are losing our ability to articulate what we believe and why we believe it. Why is this? We look at the landscape of history and see the unbelievable minds of the faith and they did not have any of the “conveniences” of today. Should I dare say that they were more committed to the faith than this generation? Maybe there was just more at stake in generations past than there is today. Who knows. But one thing is for certain, as a follower of Jesus we need “it” now more than ever before.

Our churches need “it” too. It is my opinion, that the church in the United States does not know what they believe. In our entertainment starved culture, our churches have bought into the mentality that we need to produce a “product” for our “customer.” As church leaders, we are all guilty of this. We use different language around different circles, but it all boils down to the same thing… consumerism. Scripture is very clear that the Kingdom of God is an obedient life to Jesus Christ. “Take up your cross daily and follow Me” and ” whoever wants to save his life must lose it” are not comments of consumerism. The crowds followed Jesus because the power of God displayed, not because He was “pushing” a product to become popular or even to just simply attract the crowds because He was entertaining.

So… how do we get “it?” or a better question, how are we equipped with “it?” The historical church has produced some amazing tools that we can learn from. Mainly the Heidelberg Catechism, Belgic Confession, and Cannons of Dort. Now some will say “I don’t need these, I have my bible” Well, these are great roadmaps of scripture to learn and grow. Unfortunately, it is my opinion and experience (I don’t want to sound judgmental, I just want to be honest), that the people that say this type of thing; are the very people who have a shifting belief system.

Now we have to learn and take seriously these historic tools. If we choose to ignore them, then we will continue to have a shifting belief system. Now do I have all this figured out? By no means. I am a fellow learner, and it is my prayer that I grow closer to Jesus tomorrow than I am today and that I have grown more today than yesterday.

I am becoming more convinced that when we know what we believe and why we believe it, then our hearts will grow more and more for the people around us; then we have the courage to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with them. I am also becoming more convinced that a biblical attraction church is one that has the power of the Holy Spirit working in and though individuals and the community of faith as they, and we, see; repentance, forgiveness, healing, miracles, transformation, grace, and obedience. We need this more now than any time in recent history. We need to learn and grow in historic orthodox Christianity!

To God be all the GLORY!

Historical tools that we can learn from:
Heidelberg Catechism
Belgic Confession
Cannons of Dort

Other historical tools to learn from:
Westminster Confession of Faith
Westminster Shorter Catechism