Most people want and enjoy more than basic needs. In their souls they want to love and be loved. Jesus offers authentic relationship, and more. He offers His perfection in exchange for our sins.

People use many things to feel good. Feeling good, however, does not mean that we love or are loved. It does not mean that we have authentic relationships with other people or that we know God. When material possessions and bad habits fail to fill the void, some resort to the use of illegal substances which often leads to criminality and increased problems and stress. Although they spend years and vast sums of money fighting their unhealthy behaviors, few win the battle. Those who accept Jesus, love and obey God. Their sins are erased, and their spirits fed, in Christ.

Christians rely on the Holy Spirit to comfort and guide them through challenging circumstances. They find wisdom through prayer, the Bible, and others who help them deal with pain and make hard decisions. They may not rely on a church or its leadership if they attend one. Jesus’s early followers worked hard to further His church, but power struggles and egos created dissension. True Christ followers continue what Jesus started while avoiding discord.

No Christian denomination or leader can lead the church as Jesus does. Many people today feel that they have the right to be right about everything, even about God and faith. Many do not want to learn from a Bible or church leader. They desire to be the expert in all aspects of their lives even when that means rejecting the God who created them in His image.

God calls everyone into a personal relationship with Him which can be deepened through Bible study. Interpretations by scholars who know the Bible from the original languages agree on most content although there are some minor disagreements that do not influence salvation. Readers can usually find clear meaning by reading the content word by word as they consider the preceding and following passages and study them in relation to their historical context.

People try to understand God’s mind, but no person can. Some erroneously believe that artificial intelligence can interpret Christianity better than people can, but such persons have little or no understanding of the spirit which God created within every person for Him alone. The people who create technology may have little or no spiritual understanding, but the things which they create can be inhabited by ungodly spirits and demons just like people can.

The greatest factor regarding Christianity is the relationship between a person’s spirit and God. When people trust in God through Jesus, they are different people than they were before they knew Him. Saved persons know that they are redeemed through Christ. They know where to go in times of trouble. They know who to talk to. And they know which book they should read. The most important action required of them is to accept and believe that Jesus is God’s Son.

None of the extraneous information regarding the Bible and how it was formed, and the books outside of the Canon (such as the Ethiopian Bible which includes extra information), impact faith unless one gets caught up in learning facts instead of loving God. All details and facts can never be known in life. Born again Christians know that they cannot know everything, but they know who does. They know why Jesus lived, died, resurrected, and ascended. They know and study what Jesus studied and taught (the Old Testament). Most importantly, they have a relationship with God through Jesus, and they know how to talk with Him because they walk with Him and hold Him closer than a brother or sister.

Disagreements among Christian denominations are diverse. There are churches with liturgical focus while others may have a more evangelical or charismatic one. Some churches omit parts of the Bible while others add to it. A song or hymn may be permitted in one church, but not in another. Some churches have alternative biblical interpretations and different traditions from others. Additionally, how each body lives out the great commission to love each other and people outside of their church may be profoundly different, but only Jesus judges.

God’s love and mercy helps those who are saved to concentrate on Christ and welcome the Holy Spirit’s work on their spirits so that they can discern what is good and of God, from what is evil. Efforts to lure them away from their faith and desire to understand scripture are unsuccessful for their hearts are sealed. Their faith (with them twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week) is exceedingly more important than knowing Christians and attending church several times a week.

Christians love even when in disagreement. They may speak their thoughts or be silent because their words cannot contravene the Bible. Sometimes they say nothing because they feel that it is better for them to be silent than to agree (and risk telling a lie) or disagree (and risk showing anger). A nexus of basic Christian doctrine surviving two millennia of erosion and embellishment empowers Christians to remain steadfast in Jesus and to His mission because they need Him.

The most important thing that those of us who accept Christ know is that we are God’s children and one day we will inhabit a perfect sinless world. Until then, we will persevere in the world’s ways. We live in love and truth as Jesus lived. Because we know and are known by God, we reciprocate God’s perfect love to Him and to other people because Jesus, our model, is also our life’s focus. When we live with God in our spirits we live in the hope of eternal life with Him.