The Equipping Church

My church, Bible Baptist (of Otsego), does a great job equipping its people with the truth of God's Word. The teaching and preaching at our church is constantly focused on this idea. I am grateful for it. Because these truths are ever before us as a congregation, I am soaking in more than I realize.

Last weekend, I had a visit at my door from a woman of the Jehovah Witness faith. She was accompanied by her young daughter (the daughter looked to be about 9 or 10). She wanted to leave a couple Watchtower magazines with me. I declined them and told her I was somewhat familiar with the teaching in the magazine, and I disagreed with it. She asked my spiritual background and what I disagreed with. I said, "I think we believe in a different Jesus."

She said, "We believe in Jesus. We believe he's God's son. We believe he died for our sins. We believe he's our savior."

I said, "I believe He is fully God and fully man."

She said, "Ohh, I don't believe that."

She then spent a few minutes trying to convince me of what she believed. She quoted a lot of Scripture in the process (not really in context or as logical evidence to support what she was saying, but she quoted a lot of Scripture nonetheless). She ended with this statement, "It doesn't really matter if we don't agree about who Jesus is."

I said, "Oh, but I think it does." I told her that the gospel of John is pretty clear about this issue and recommended that she read it with this in mind. We then parted ways.

Which brings me back to my opening paragraph about the equipping ministry of my church. Because so much time is spent on the basic Christian doctrines (such as, who is Jesus) and Scriptures to support it, I am aware of what I believe, why I believe it, and I'm able to articulate it and defend it when necessary (though I was a little surprised to hear the words come out of my mouth and to realize they were actually in my head--Praise be to God for the retention of thought!).

So, again I'll be sharing with you the link to our Thursday Night Bible study and prayer meeting service. This is the last message in the Basic Christian Doctrines series. The topic for this message is "future events". Click Here to listen to the message.