The Christian Compass...
Sunday 20 September
A word to start — the direction of travel
There are weeks where the teaching comforts you and weeks where it moves you, and this last one was meant to move you. We started at the cross, which is where most of the church has settled down, and we did not stay there — because the cross was never the end of the account. He died, He rose, He ascended, and He sent the Holy Spirit to a waiting company of believers. Anything less than that leaves you with half a gospel and a quarter of the power.
So here is the direction of travel. The cross is where you came in; it is not where you were meant to settle. Christ died, rose, ascended and sat down, and then He poured out the Holy Spirit on people who were only waiting because He had told them to. That is the whole line, and a believer who stops halfway along it ends up forgiven and stranded — pardoned, but powerless in a week that needs power. The four teachings this week were not an attack on Calvary. They were an argument for taking the road all the way to where the Head of the church actually is.
This week we looked at what happened after the cross
Four days on one subject: a church that has camped at Calvary and forgotten Pentecost, and what it costs a believer to live that way.
Monday 14 September — Something to Think About — The Church is Stuck at the Foot of the Cross
Week after week the same ground — the nails, the thorns, the blood — and then it stops dead. Never a word against Calvary; but the cross is the doorway, not the house. Christ finished the work and sat down, so if the Head has moved to the throne, what is the body doing still kneeling at the hill? A believer who stays there ends up forgiven but stranded, fed on milk when God has laid out strong meat.
Tuesday 15 September — Messages from the Outpost — Beyond the Cross
The cross paid the price — and then God did not stop. Christ rose, ascended, and sat down as Head over all things to the church, and the Holy Spirit was poured out. So the question is not whether you are forgiven, but whether you are living like a man who has been reconciled to God, which is a great deal more than a pardon.
Wednesday 16 September — Write this Down — How the Church Lost Pentecost!
Nobody ever voted the Holy Spirit out. The emphasis simply drifted — an institution that needed control, a Reformation rightly fighting works and ritual, and then a fear of excess that made careful men go quiet. Drift long enough and it begins to look like doctrine. The cross was never in competition with Pentecost; Pentecost is the fruit of the finished work.
Thursday 17 September — Messages from the Outpost — You Can't Handle the Truth!
That line from the film has lasted decades because it describes us. We ask for the truth and settle for a version we can live with, then keep the Christian name tag on the front of it. Scripture does not call that a mistake; it calls it deception, and it names who is deceived — ourselves. Truth is not a subject to argue over — it is Christ Himself, and faith, worship and obedience all stand or fall on Him.
Friday 18 September — Back to Basics: Christian living — Part 1 — Blessed Before You Did Anything (Ephesians 1), the first chapter of our new Friday series Ephesians: The Letter Written to You. Four days of asking what lies beyond the cross, and then Friday hands you the letter that tells you what came of it — chosen, adopted, accepted in the beloved, sealed with the Spirit, and every bit of it settled before you had done a single thing to deserve it. Your welcome rests on Christ, not on your best week of prayer or your worst day of failure. Most of us are still working for a list God has already written in ink. Friday is about learning to work from it.
Power first, witness second — and in that order. They were not sent out on enthusiasm. They were sent out endued, and so are you.
In case you missed one:
- Monday 14 September — Something to Think About — The Church is Stuck at the Foot of the Cross
- Tuesday 15 September — Messages from the Outpost — Beyond the Cross
- Wednesday 16 September — Write this Down — How the Church Lost Pentecost!
- Thursday 17 September — Messages from the Outpost — You Can't Handle the Truth!
- Friday 18 September — Back to Basics: Christian living — Part 1 — Blessed Before You Did Anything (Ephesians 1)
All five are up with the teachings, and every one has its matching video on the channel.
📖 Read the full teaching here 👉 Back to Basics: Christian living
📽️ Watch the full teaching here 👉 Back to Basics: Christian living on YouTube
News
Something is changing here, and today there is a piece explaining it properly. Joining the Dots: What's Changing at Back to Basics — and Why is up with the teachings from this morning, and it is worth ten minutes of your time if you want to know where this ministry is going.
The short version is this. We have been publishing a great deal — a teaching most mornings, videos, shorts, posts, the weekend send — and almost none of it was joined up. People read a teaching and never knew a video had been made of it; others watched a video and never found the fuller teaching behind it. And somebody would take a real step of obedience on an ordinary Tuesday with nobody to tell.
So from tomorrow it runs differently. Four teachings Monday to Thursday on one subject, the series on Friday, this round-up on Sunday. Every teaching linked to its video, every video pointing back to the teaching. One social post a day instead of two. And a new Start Here page for anyone beginning, or beginning again — the seven teachings to read first, with a playlist to match them. What does not change is the ground it stands on: the King James quoted exactly, plain teaching over entertainment, and no compromise.
Today the whole thing goes live together, and the new rhythm starts tomorrow morning. If you read one thing beyond this email, read Joining the Dots — it is the map of where we are going, and it will make sense of everything you see change from here.
📖 Read Joining the Dots here 👉 https://back-to-basics-christian-living.ghost.io/joining-the-dots/
Testimony
This is the first week we have asked for these, so there is nothing to print yet — and we would rather say so plainly than fill the space with something manufactured.
So here is the invitation. When you take the step at the top of this email, write and tell us what happened. It does not need to be dramatic and it does not need writing up nicely. I read Acts 1 and asked God for that power, and here is what changed on Monday is exactly the sort of thing that steadies somebody who is tired and wondering whether any of it works. Nothing is printed without your permission, and nothing carries your name unless you say so.
Reply to this email, or write to backtobasicschristianliving@gmail.com with Testimony in the subject line.
One account, every week, in this spot. It starts with somebody replying — Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven [Matthew 5:16 KJV]
The week ahead — who is telling you what the Bible says
Ask most believers where they got what they believe and they will tell you a name — a preacher, a channel, a book, a church they grew up in. Very few will tell you a chapter. That is the ground we are walking this week, and it is not a comfortable week. Four teachings on who is handling the Word in front of you, what they are doing with it, and what it costs you when you take their word for it without ever opening the Book yourself. It is not written to make you suspicious of everybody. It is written to put the Bible back in your hands, where God meant it to sit.
Monday 21 September — Something to Think About — Has the Bible Been Hijacked?
Deception rarely begins with a man denying the Word. It begins with distance from it. Put the Book far enough out of reach and people will believe whatever they are told it says.
Tuesday 22 September — Messages from the Outpost — When the Accusers Become the False Teachers!
Some of the loudest voices exposing error are guilty of it themselves. Counterfeits do not exist for things that are not real.
Wednesday 23 September — Write this Down — The Empty Prophecies!
Every year brings another "word for the year", and nobody goes back to check whether it came to pass. Scripture sets the standard, and the standard does not move.
Thursday 24 September — Messages from the Outpost — Under Pressure?
Mocked by the world for believing the Bible, corrected by religion for believing it too plainly. You were never handed the job of refereeing the religious world — only of knowing your Bible and holding it.
Friday 25 September — Back to Basics: Christian living — Part 2 — From Dead to Seated (Ephesians 2)
The second chapter of Ephesians: The Letter Written to You. After four days of tampering, accusing and pressure, Friday tells you where you are actually sat — and how far God had to move you to get you there.
🎯 This Week's Mission
Your mission this week: check it in the Book before you believe it.
It takes two minutes. Your own Bible open, the verse found where it actually sits, and the lines either side of it read before you decide what you think. That is the whole job — and it is the difference between a believer who gets carried along and one who cannot be shifted.
👣 Your step: once this week, before you accept a thing you have been told, read it for yourself in its own place.
❓ Walk it out: take one belief you have carried for years because somebody told you it was in there, and read the whole chapter it comes from — not the verse on its own, the chapter. Then ask God plainly to show you whether it says what you were told it says.
📖 This week's mission verse:
Don't overthink it. One step. One act of obedience. Do that, and let God do the rest.
🎥 Watch this week's mission here 👉 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPt7S_XpF2Dk
📖 Only in the Compass — Prove All Things
Here is a teaching you will not find in the teachings or on the channel this week. It is for the people who read this letter, and it sits underneath everything coming in the days ahead…
There is a habit in Scripture that hardly anyone preaches on, and yet God had it written down and called the men who practised it noble. The Bereans heard Paul — Paul, of all men — and then went home and checked him. They did not check him because they disliked him; they received the word with all readiness of mind. They checked him because a message is only worth what the Book behind it says. And notice what God calls that: not pride, not rebellion, not a sour spirit. Noble. If an apostle's preaching was fair game for a Berean's Bible, then no preacher alive stands above it — and that includes this ministry. We would rather you checked us and stayed than swallowed us and drifted.
The instruction is plain enough. Prove all things; hold fast that which is good [1 Thessalonians 5:21 KJV]. Prove it first, then hold it fast — that order, never the other way round. And it is not a suggestion tucked away in a corner of the New Testament; it is written to the whole body of believers, to ordinary people with ordinary Bibles. Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world [1 John 4:1 KJV]. He does not tell you to try them because you are clever. He tells you to try them because there are many, and because you are the one who has to live with what you swallow.
So what do you try them by? Not by how the meeting felt, not by how many follow the man, not by whether it lines up with what you have always been told. There is only ever one measure — To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them [Isaiah 8:20 KJV]. No light. Not a slightly different angle, not a fresh perspective on a familiar text. No light at all. That is God's own verdict on teaching that will not stand next to His Word, and it settles a great many arguments before they start.
The reason most believers never check anything is simply that they have never been taught how, and they are half afraid of what they might find. But God never asked you to be a scholar. He asked you to be a workman. Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth [2 Timothy 2:15 KJV] — a workman turns up, picks up his tools and does the job in front of him, day after day. Ten minutes with the Book open is worth more than ten years of taking somebody's word for it. And the man who reads his own Bible is remarkably hard to deceive…
If you are just joining us
Start with the Start Here page, which sits with the teachings. It gives you the seven teachings to read first — Who We Are in Christ!, in order — and a video playlist of the same name to watch alongside them. Nothing to sign up for, and about ten minutes each morning.
One ask: send this to one person who has settled for half a gospel — somebody who knows the cross and has never been told what came after it.
🧭 New here, or picking up where you left off? 👉 https://back-to-basics-christian-living.ghost.io/start-here/ — the seven teachings to read first, and the playlist to watch alongside them 👉 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEPKdqB9RuLI
🙏 Tell us what God has done 👉 backtobasicschristianliving@gmail.com, with Testimony in the subject line.
God bless you.
David & Elaine
