I have written a book for new believers called ‘Being a Christian’. It is a brief introduction to Christian living. Below is the opening introduction to the book:
What a joy and privilege it is to be a Christian! In Luke 15:10 Jesus tells us that there is great joy in heaven over one sinner who repents. There is every reason why this should be the case; to be a Christian is to experience the joy of sin forgiven and to enter into a loving relationship with Almighty God. To be a Christian is to move from death to life (John 5:24) and to be adopted into God’s family (Eph. 1:5). It is to be counted as a true son of God and to share in all that belongs to Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:15–17). It is the most incredible thing!
Whilst there are lots of different ways people come to know and love the Lord Jesus, there are no big flashes in the sky and usually no visible signs to indicate that anything as great as all that has taken place. This is due to the nature of coming to know Jesus personally. When the Philippian jailer asked Paul and Silas ‘What must I do to be saved?’, they simply replied, ‘Believe in the Lord Jesus’ (Acts 16:30–31). Becoming a Christian is not primarily a matter of doing but believing. Often, when people fist become Christians, the only immediate evidence of their belief is that they said a prayer asking Jesus to forgive their sin. To the casual observer, nothing much appears to have happened at all. But for the Christian, this is the start of a new life.
Once we have experienced the joy of coming to know Jesus, the question we all face is: What do we do now? We know how our sin has been forgiven, we know about trusting in Christ, but what next? We almost instinctively know there’s more to being a Christian than simply believing in Jesus. There’s certainly no more to do for salvation or to be sure of going to heaven, but our new-found life in Jesus must surely lead to a change in us. If we were dead in sin but have now been made alive in Christ (Rom. 6:11), how are we supposed to behave now? The apostle Paul writes, ‘Walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called’ (Eph. 4:1). In other words, there are things that are right and proper for a Christian to do and things that are not. So what should we do now that we are in this new relationship with Jesus? This short book wants to help answer that question.
There are many good books that deal with basic Christian belief. Now that you have come to know Jesus, such books can help you to understand the important teachings that affect what we believe about him. They look at the Bible and can help you understand the core truths, the essentials, of the Christian faith. But, important as those things are, that is not what this book is about. This book is an introduction to Christian living, looking at the next steps in your journey of faith now that you have come to know Jesus personally. In short, this book answers the question: What does being a disciple of Jesus Christ look like in practice?
You can buy a copy of Being a Christian here, following this link.