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What to believe about Christianity? It can be maddening! I speak from personal experience. 'What bible am I to read and trust?' 'Do I need to be water baptized to be saved or don't I?' 'Do I have to speak in tongues to convince my friends (or myself) I'm filled with the Holy Spirit or don't I?' "Is healing available or isn't it?" "Pre-trib; Mid-trib; Post-trib rapture?" "Book of Revelation to be taken literal or not?" "Israel matter or not?" "Women Pastors - Elders or not?" 'Do I have to tithe 10% like my Pastor says or maybe I'm not a Christian at all if I don't?' 'Can I lose my salvation by sinning one too many times?' 'Which denomination do I align myself with to please God?'

Questions like these and so many more can emotionally frazzle a person! So much in fact ' that you can miss the MOST IMPORTANT thing to focus on in Christianity. And what is THAT, brother Norm? To DAILY stay focused on your personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Once you've made a commitment to Jesus Christ, Satan now uses his 'confusion option' - (though he tried to employ it prior to you making a commitment as well). His 'confusion option' is (and will continue to BE) to get you so focused on what you think you are supposed to believe about various Christian bible doctrines (and you can include politics and the economy and morality in the mix as well) that really have very little or no relevance to your eternal salvation that you just want to throw your hands up and quit Christianity completely ... or at least quit thinking about God and spiritual things all together. Am I hitting home?

Let's get to the very heart of reality. If you know you are about to die, there is only ONE primary thing that is going to be on your mind. 'Will I spend eternity with God once dead, or will I be judged and sent to hell?'

All the rest of the stuff that wants to drive you crazy in the jungle of Christianity won't matter to a hill of beans. Issues like: How much you read your bible throughout your lifetime won't really matter. Whether you spoke in tongues or didn't speak in tongues won't matter. Whether you gave millions or pennies to the work of the Lord won't matter. Whether you attended a local church fellowship regularly or didn't won't really matter. Whether you were a Catholic or a Baptist won't really matter. There will be only one primary thing on your mind -- well, actually two things -- as you are nearing death: 'Where will I spend eternity, and what will it be like meeting God face to face?'

Please don't think that I'm minimizing the importance of understanding and believing correct Christian doctrines. Believing incorrect Christian doctrines can put a person in so much spiritual bondage that it can literally suck any meaningful, joyful, spiritual life out of a Christian ... which is precisely what Satan desires!

Satan wants to keep us so frustrated in his jungle of confusion that it keeps us from focusing in on what we are to be DOING to help advance the Kingdom of God in the lives of other people. Afterall, that's what Satan is REALLY trying to do by keeping Christians frustrated about various Christian doctrine disputes. He wants to keep you ineffective at soul winning and Christian discipleship (DOING Matthew 6:33, in other words). And if he can even get you so frustrated that you basically QUIT being a Christian period ' bingo! That's big-time celebration time for him! That means he gets to hang YOU on the wall of his trophy room.

Yet back to the point of this writing. How does a person survive this 'bible doctrinal dispute' jungle and stay at peace with God? Figure out what is TRULY important and what isn't. Figure out what you need to do to get saved and stay saved, and what you need to do to please Jesus Christ on a daily basis. That's all that truly really matters in the end anyway. Everything else won't matter once you step into eternity.

Yeah, if you've believed deceptive bible doctrines and taught them to others during your life, there may be some loss of rewards for you. And yes, if you lived in sin much of your Christian life, you might be like that Corinthian dude who was sleeping with his mother-in-law and was considered 'to be saved as by fire' ' but yet to be saved "by fire" is VICTORY! Spending eternity in hell is NOT victory.

Looking at the jungle of Christianity ' if a person wants excuses NOT to become a Christian or stay being a Christian, nor be concerned what Jesus Christ thinks about your daily thoughts and conduct ' there is plenty of opportunities to go 'Mad' in the Christian jungle. Satan has and will make certain of it. If you think we have too many bible translations to try to sort from NOW in the Christian jungle, just wait a few more years. We'll have even MORE bible translations to sort through! Not sure which local church and/or'denomination' you want to align yourself with? Wait a few years and you'll have MORE OPTIONS! (Though this depends on when you read this. The day is coming when the anti-christ element is going to be allowed by God to put a damper on most of what is happening at present regarding Christianity). The monsters in the jungle are growing both in number and species, folks. If you can't handle the monsters in the jungle presently ' you're going to have a more difficult time handling the additional monsters you'll have to deal with as time goes on. Count on it. Satan has everything to gain and nothing to lose by keeping you focused on the jungle monsters, and what makes his job so easy is that he can easily use 'Christians' to do his dirty work. Many bible publishers don't concern themselves a whole lot, it would seem apparent to many, how many bible translations are already available for people to have to choose from. Staying in business is all that seems to matter to them! 'Nothing wrong with coming out with a new Bible translation that puts money into the pockets of our employees, is there? We have to put food on our tables just like everyone else. Besides, the more bible translations there are, odds would seem that MORE people will want to become Christians, right?!'

Yet with all the bible translations in existence, and all the NEW bible translations that haven't even been thought up yet and put into existence ' unless Satan is able to grossly contaminate them (and of course try to convince skeptics that NONE of them could possibly be translated accurately so that they can be trusted anymore, so don't read nor believe ANY of them! - [Satan doing our thinking for us]) ' what remains CENTRAL in each of them? Here's the answer: We are all born sinners and God the Father sent Jesus Christ to earth to die for their sins so they won't be held against them on the Judgment Day.

We either believe it or we don't. Either my believing it entitles me to stay in heaven with God for eternity ' or it doesn't. Either I'm saved from my sins by God's grace and my faith that Jesus Christ paid full penalty for my sins by dying on the cross in my place when He didn't have to ' or my sins are NOT forgiven by believing that upon death.

Personally I'm taking my chances that it will save me from my sins. I made that decison a long time ago. I am fully persuaded I have everything to gain believing it and nothing to lose. Best decision I ever made in this life, I'm fully convinced. Best decision anyone can make, I'm 100% convinced.

So dear one. If you feel like you are trapped in the Christian jungle ' please do yourself a HUGE favor and remember what is truly important. Are you confident you are saved from your sins so they won't be held against you on the Judgment Day, or aren't you? That's ALL that is really going to matter when you stand there facing God. That, and of course, did you DO what God expected you to DO while you lived your life on earth ... though even that issue comes under the umbrella of God's forgiveness, so we're still ultimately dealing with one primary issue, aren't we?: God the Father's forgiveness in and through Christ Jesus. Everything else that kept you frustrated and angry while you were in the Christian jungle will fall away into nothingness.

Bottom Line: Your personal relationship with Jesus Christ is the most important thing you need to stay focused on as each day passes until your time is up down here. Each day - are you doing what the Holy Spirit is asking you to do to please Him and the Father and Jesus Christ, or aren't you? That is what God is saying to each of us who consider ourselves Christians. Everything else we are faced with in the Christian jungle is VERY secondary.

And in our determination to do everything God desires of us each day ... let us constanly - soberly keep reminding ourselves of what is always top priority on God's agenda in our daily relationship with Him: ADMIT ANY SIN IN OUR LIFE, AND STOP SINNING! Afterall, sin IS disobedience to God. Yes - sin is forgiveable because of what Jesus accomplished for us on the cross, but God didn't give us His Spirit to stay sloppy and careless with sin indefinitely. Sin seperates God's desire to bless us with all He has available for us. Sin always brings some sort of death to blessings and favor from God if not dealt with quickly. Christians are the only people on this planet who have been given the power of the Holy Spirit to stop sinning. Non-Christians don't have that power until they welcome Jesus Christ to be Savior and Lord of their life. Thus we Christians have no excuse to continue to keep on sinning indefinitely. Daily we are to make it our top priority to work with God to say "No!" to sin when tempted.

That's the kind of daily personal relationship Jesus Christ desires from His people.

And keep these things in mind. We are to discern how to not let Satan and his demon helpers frazzle us. We can only do that through the help of the Holy Spirit and by using the weapons of our warfare wisely. That's what the bible refers to as "walking and living in the Spirit." And what is the key to our hindering the devil in frustrating us as we purpose to walk and live in the Spirit? Walking in daily obedience to the all powerful Creator and Judge: God The Father; God the Son Jesus Christ; God the Holy Spirit. Seperate persons, yet doing nothing against the will of the other Two. Always One in perfect harmony with every decision They make.

Another writing that importantly dovetails closely with this one can be read at this link: http://www.precious-testimonies.com/MEncouragerArchives/JoylessChristianity.htm