Pastor, how do I become a better Christian? - Emeka Anslem
Simple... Proverbs 23:23 gives a perfect answer. It says, "Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding".
So yes, buy the truth, buy wisdom, buy instruction, buy understanding. Don't wait for someone to spoon feed you with everything your destiny needs to succeed, make daily efforts to search the scriptures for yourself. Unfortunately, many Christians are Sunday-Service believers, all they know about Jesus is what their pastor taught on Sundays.
If all you know are things your pastor taught you, then you haven't started your Christian walk. I Sometimes get irritated when I hear Christians say, "My pastor said... My pastor said...", especially when what their pastor said is in the Bible. Why couldn't they just quote the Bible?
Your pastor's teaching should start you off, not put you off. If your pastor's teaching doesn't create an hunger within you to engage in a personal search, then you might need to look for another pastor.
Buy the truth! And I don't necessarily mean buying books or messages with money, no! I mean investing the required resource to get knowledge, and sometimes, money alone might not be the required resource to get the knowledge you need. There are people who have bought loads of books they've never created time to read. So in their case, money isn't the required resource, time is.
When it comes to buying truth, you don't only buy books, you also buy time to read those books. Woe unto a man who buys books with money but hasn't bought time to read them.
I know what's playing in your mind right now, "What does Anslem mean by buying time?". Think about it, what is the one thing that won't make you read for at least one hour during the day? Strategic meetings, work, fun? Can a portion of any of these things be traded just to create the time required to read? Whatever you eventually trade becomes the payment for the time you bought or created. That's right, we don't buy time with money, we trade-off, something has to go for it. And I think this is why most people think they don't have enough time to study.
Surprisingly, we unconsciously use the word "buy time" in our conversations, except that we use it when we're either trying to delay a process or when we are waiting for an occurrence. Say for instance, you're planning a surprise birthday party for your spouse and he or she suddenly arrives home, you could send your kids to keep him or her outside just to buy time enough to be ready.
Instead of engaging in frivolous chats in your meetings, why not skip the chats and go straight to business just to buy the time you need to read? Instead of spending an hour for break, why not use 30 minutes and use the rest for studying?
I laugh when people tell me they had a very busy day. Because if you do the analysis, they only engaged in four hours of active work. That's not a busy day!
Knowledge gives you an edge over others. The difference between you and that mentor you admire so much is knowledge. So if you want to become better at anything at all, including Christianity, get knowledge!
I hope this has brought enlightenment to someone.
Remain ever blessed!
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