Jesus died on the cross to give us eternal life.  He did not die so that we could learn a whole new set of rules and live by rituals.  He wanted to teach us how to know God.  He wanted to teach us how to walk with God.  Jesus wanted us to know God the Father through him (see John 14).  Jesus lived to bring God honor (see John 12).  Anyone who becomes a Christian is here to bring God honor also.

This is a topic that most people have a hard time figuring out the correct answer.  Most people have at some point gone to church as a child.  They have had some good and some bad memories about church.  Many of us, as adults, we may want to revisit the idea of going back to church but we don’t know where to start.

I avoided church for a long time as an adult because, one, I did not believe that there were any churches that really wanted to truly practice the Bible, and two, I did not know how to decide which churches were true and which ones were not.

There are so many denominations in the world.  So many different churches and so many different doctrines and every one of them claims to be “the one.”  How can everybody so different and everybody be right at the same time?  There are so many ways that the churches and groups are similar and so many ways where they are opposites of each other.  So which one is right?  Who is right and who is wrong?

What has made the biggest difference for me is to start with the Bible.  Yes, there are many different versions of the Bible also.  Well, to keep it simple, find a Bible that is written in today’s modern English.  Find a Bible that has a total of 66 books (Old Testament: Genesis to Malachi, New Testament: Mathew to Revelation).  The Old Testament has 39 books and the new Testament has 27 books.  Any Bible that has more than that is to be questioned.  Less than 100 years after the birth of Christ, the Apostles of Christ, his disciples, established which books would be the complete Bible.  There is no other Bible than what they have established as the “complete” word of God.

Use the Bible as a blueprint of what church should be like.  Use the Bible to understand what the first Christians were like and how they lived among each other .  Especially focus on the gospels (Mathew, Mark, Luke and John) and the book of Acts (see chapter 2, tells you what the first Christians did).

When looking for a church as your church, see if people are bringing their Bibles to church.  Are they reading the Bible on their own?  Are they practicing what it says?  Of course, you need to know what it says also, so that you could know what to look for.  Many people know how to quote the Bible but their lives do not reflect what they say.

You want a church where people are spending time with each other than just at church service.  Are they helping each other with life?  Are they supporting and encouraging each other?  Jesus says (John 13:35): “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”  Do you see the love?  Is there a sense of “family” or are they just members coming together to practice a religion?

There is much more that can be said about this topic, but I wanted to give you just a quick idea of what to look for.  The key, get a Bible and use it as the guide.  The Bible should give you a sense of what to look for.  Christianity comes from God’s word, the Bible.  We cannot practice Christianity, true Christianity, unless the Bible is practiced.  All who want to practice true Christianity must decide that the Bible is the standard and that it is the authority and guide for how we can please God.

Leave me a comment and let me know if this helped you or if you have any questions.

How practical is it to believe in God?  Is there any logical reason to believe in God or is it just a waste of time?  Everybody should seriously look at this question and invest real quality time in answering it.  Read the full article below:

Does it Make Sense to Believe in God? – Yahoo! Voices – voices.yahoo.com