The Christian Compass…

Sunday 27 September…

A word to start — the direction of travel

Good to have you with us again this Sunday — pull up a chair, whatever the Lord has been walking you through this week.

Last week ended in one place: the Book back in your own hands. Four days on false teaching, empty prophecies and pressure, and every one of them closed the same way — check it for yourself. A believer who reads for himself is a lot harder to frighten and a lot harder to fool.

But that was never meant to be the finish line. The Word was not given to make us safe; it was given to make us useful. So this week the needle turns outward — from checking what you believe to carrying it — and it starts with the oldest word in the gospel there is: repent. From there we face the quiet assumption that most people will be saved in the end regardless, ask a plain question about street evangelism, and finish with the proof the world is actually reading — your life.

This week we looked at who is telling you what the Bible says

Four days on one subject: false teaching, and how it gets in. Not to frighten anybody, and not to hand you a list of names — every one of the four teachings ended in the same place, with an open Bible in your own hands.

Monday 21 September — Something to Think About — Has the Bible Been Hijacked?
The Bible has been quietly lifted out of the hands of ordinary believers and handed over to clever men, big platforms and teaching that costs us nothing. Men once suffered and died so that the common man could hold the Word for himself, and we have let it sit shut on a shelf. Scripture warns plainly that deception arrives as doctrine, carried by men in sheep's clothing, and that congregations themselves will gather the teachers they want to hear. The result is a church that looks like the world it was saved out of — a form of godliness with no power, no faith, no believing. The way back is the old way: open the Book yourself, test everything by it, and walk in what it says…

Tuesday 22 September — Messages from the Outpost — When the Accusers Become the False Teachers!
There is a loud breed of teachers today who deny the manifestations of the Spirit, then point at people misusing those very manifestations as proof of their case. It is dishonest, and it is out of context. The Holy Spirit poured out at Pentecost has not departed. Counterfeits prove the genuine exists. The answer is not louder argument — it is the Spirit of truth, the Word in context, and a return to basic, practical, lived-out New Testament Christianity. Stop being a hearer only. Be a doer of the Word…

Wednesday 23 September — Write this Down — The Empty Prophecies!
Every January, churches issue bold prophetic words for the year ahead — then let them fade, unexamined, by spring. Scripture sets a plain test: a true word from God comes to pass [Deuteronomy 18:22 KJV]; anything less is presumption. These declarations often serve engagement and fundraising more than truth, and Christ told us to judge by fruit, not confidence. The real loss is that chasing a new word each year distracts from the sure word already given — Scripture itself, sufficient for doctrine, correction and instruction. This teaching calls the church back to accountability and to the basics…

Thursday 24 September — Messages from the Outpost — Under Pressure?
Christians today are under real pressure to speak for Christ — squeezed by a self-absorbed world that shuts down anything offending it, and squeezed again by countless false religions and false doctrines inside Christianity itself. This teaching faces that pressure honestly: Scripture promises it, it is aimed at Christ before it ever reaches us, and it is no sign that our faith has failed. The believer's answer is not to shout louder or shrink back, but to know the Word, hold it, pray, live clean, and speak plainly with meekness when asked. Stand in God's armour, trust the power of the Gospel rather than your delivery of it, and keep walking worthy under the load…

Friday 25 September — Back to Basics: Christian living — Part 2 — From Dead to Seated (Ephesians 2), the second chapter of our new Friday series Ephesians: The Letter Written to You. Ephesians 2 starts in a graveyard and ends in a family home. God's diagnosis of us before Christ was not struggling but dead — and dead people cannot improve themselves. Then come the two greatest words in the letter: But God. Rich in mercy, He made us alive with Christ while we were still dead in sins, raised us, and seated us with Him. Salvation is by grace through faith, a gift and not a wage, so no one can boast — but the chapter does not stop at verse nine. We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works that God prepared for us to walk in. Works are the fruit of salvation, never the root. And the same blood that brought us near tore down the dividing wall, making strangers into fellowcitizens and family, built on Christ the corner stone. You were dead; God made you alive. Now live like it…

Readiness of mind and a daily search — both together. Open-hearted, and with an opened Bible. They were not commended for swallowing everything an apostle said. They were commended for checking it.

Every one of them is up with the teachings, with the video alongside it.

📖 Read the full teaching here 👉 https://back-to-basics-christian-living.ghost.io/
📽️ Watch the full teaching here 👉 https://www.youtube.com/@backtobasicschristianliving

The week ahead — from repentance to the street

Monday 28 September — Something to Think About — Repent or Die!
Two roads, two eternities, and one word that decides which you walk. Scripture divides the whole world by one thing only — our relationship to Jesus Christ. For the one who repents and believes there is no condemnation, only everlasting life; for the one who refuses, sin's wage is eternal death. While there is breath there is time, and God commands all to turn today. Repent, and live…

Tuesday 29 September — Messages from the Outpost — Saved in the End? Why the Natural Man Thinks He'll Make It Regardless
Most people assume they'll be saved in the end no matter how they've lived — presuming on God's mercy, mistaking His patience for approval, expecting to sow as they please and still escape the harvest, or banking on a last-minute change that death may never allow. This teaching opens up why the natural man feels so safe, and why Scripture leaves no room for such presumption. Salvation was never earned by good living — but a life untouched by God proves the new birth never happened. How you live matters, because it reveals whose you are. The call is the same as ever: repent, be born again, and build on the Rock while there is still time…

Wednesday 30 September — Write this Down — Street Evangelism: Does It Work?
Does street evangelism work? It depends what we mean. If we mean instant crowds and visible conversions every time, then much of the preaching in the Bible would "fail" too. But Jesus preached in the open, the apostles took the gospel to the streets at Pentecost, and Paul reasoned daily in the marketplace. Scripture measures evangelism by faithfulness, not footfall. We sow; God gives the increase. And His Word never returns void. So the real question is not "is anyone stopping?" but "is the seed going out?" Be faithful with the Word, kind to the scornful, bold for the gospel — and leave the harvest to God…

Thursday 1 October — Messages from the Outpost — Proof of Concept!
If the Bible is the concept, the believer is the proof. Scripture has done its part — the doctrine is settled, the Saviour is risen, the Spirit is given. What's left is a life that demonstrates the truth in the open. Living epistles, walking worthy, fruitful in every good work — that's the proof the world is actually reading. The concept doesn't need defending; it needs demonstrating. And the only thing missing in the proof of concept… is you…

Friday 2 October — Back to Basics: Christian living — Part 3 — The Secret Now Made Plain (Ephesians 3)
The third chapter of Ephesians: The Letter Written to You. Ephesians 3 unlocks the word mystery. It is not a puzzle but a secret God kept hidden for ages and has now revealed — and He wrote it down so that when ye read, ye may understand. The secret is one body: Jew and Gentile as fellowheirs, of the same body, partakers of the same promise in Christ. No inner circle, no second-class believers, no waiting list. Because of that we have boldness, access and confidence with God, purchased at the cross and given the day we believed. Paul then prays not for easier circumstances but for inner strength by the Holy Spirit, roots and foundations in love, and a growing knowledge of the love of Christ that passes knowledge. And the famous promise that God is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think comes with six words we often forget — according to the power that worketh in us. God strengthens the inside first, then does more than we asked through it…

🎯 This Week's Mission

Your mission this week: Don't let a confident voice move you off what the Word has already settled.

Every week the Word gives us something to carry — not just to know, but to do. Here's your one step for the week ahead…

False teachers rarely announce themselves — they simply sound sure of themselves, and sureness is not the same as truth. This week, when somebody speaks with more confidence than Scripture gives them the right to, let that be your signal to hold your ground rather than yours to move.

👣 Your step: name one voice — a preacher, a channel, a conversation — that regularly makes you doubt something you already know is true from the Word, and decide in advance that you will not shift on it without going back to Scripture first.

❓ Walk it out: ask God to show you where confidence, charisma or pressure has done the work that only His Word should do in your life. Write down one thing you have let slide because somebody sounded so sure — then go and stand on what is actually written.

📖 This week's mission verse:

Don't overthink it. One voice named. One line held. Do that, and let the Word settle it.

🎥 Watch this week's mission here 👉 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPt7S_XpF2Dk

📖 Only in the Compass — The Nowhere Prophet

He was never sent — but he sounds like he was, and only the Word can tell the difference…

There is a kind of preacher the New Testament warned us about long before he had a name — call him the Nowhere Prophet. He is not sent by God, but he sounds as if he is. He fills pulpits and social media feeds with messages that tickle the ear rather than search the heart: your best life now, your inner potential, your path to blessing — with barely a mention of repentance, sin or the cost of following Christ. Paul saw him coming: For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables [2 Timothy 4:3-4 KJV]. He thrives because we have grown an appetite for words that make us feel good rather than words that make us grow godly.

What marks him out is that his message comes from the soul, not the Spirit — emotion and human reasoning dressed up as revelation. Scripture is blunt about wisdom of that kind: This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish [James 3:15 KJV]. The Word of God does something this man never does — it cuts: For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit [Hebrews 4:12 KJV]. He offers a pillow for your head. Scripture brings a sword to your heart. He comforts the comfortable; the Word disturbs the complacent, on purpose, because that is how it heals.

So how do you know him when he is standing in front of you, Bible in hand and all the right language on his lips? Jesus told us plainly: Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits [Matthew 7:15-16 KJV]. Not by his confidence, his following or his platform — by his fruit. Does his teaching produce repentance, the fear of the Lord, obedience? Or does it simply leave people more pleased with themselves? And you are not meant to take even a good speaker's word for it: 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]. Test the man against the Book, not the Book against the man.

The antidote is not cleverness, it is familiarity — know the Word well enough yourself, and the counterfeit stops fooling you. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness [2 Timothy 3:16 KJV]. The Nowhere Prophet will keep filling stadiums for as long as we prefer comfort to conviction. He has nothing to say to a believer who already knows what God has said…

News

That is the first full week of the new rhythm done. Four teachings on one subject Monday to Thursday, the series on Friday, and this email on Sunday. If you have been with us a while you will have noticed the difference — fewer things arriving, and each one joined to the next. That was the whole point of last Sunday's article, Joining the Dots, and if you have not read it yet it is still up with the teachings and explains where all this is going.

A few of you have asked how the pieces fit together, so here is the shape of a teaching day, start to finish:

It takes more care each morning to build it that way, but that joining up is exactly what this ministry needs — so bear with us while we keep tightening the links that hold it together.

And the last thing is the one that matters most to us. We asked last Sunday to hear from you, and we meant it — not as a courtesy at the bottom of an email. If the Word has done something in your week, write and tell us.

Testimony

We asked last Sunday for you to write in and tell us what God has done when you took the step, and this is where those accounts will sit — one a week, in the writer's own words, never printed without permission and never with a name on it unless you say so.

If you have been meaning to and have not got round to it, it takes two lines. Reply to this email, or write to us at backtobasicschristianliving@gmail.com with Testimony in the subject line. I checked the thing I had been taught, and here is what I found is enough. It is not for our encouragement, it is for the believer three streets away who is tired and quietly wondering whether any of this works. That is the whole reason the section exists — And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony [Revelation 12:11 KJV]

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.

And the week ahead has its own word behind it — And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent [Acts 17:30 KJV]. Every where. All men. Now. That is the week we are walking into.

One ask: think of one person this week who has never once been told the truth plainly and kindly. Not argued with — told. Send them Monday's teaching, or better still, say it yourself and leave it with them.

🧭 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.
David & Elaine