The Christian Compass…
Sunday 11 October
A word to start — the direction of travel
Good morning, and welcome back. Another week of the walk is behind us by His grace, and whatever it held, He did not leave us to walk a single day of it alone.
Last week we asked you to sow one seed and leave the increase to God. This week the teaching turned the other way — not what we take out to people, but what we bring back to God. Four days on worship leave one plain finding: the test of it is never how it felt at the time. It is what God makes of it, and what is left of it on a Monday.
That is where the needle points now — at the ordinary week. The obedience nobody applauds, the tongue held, the job done properly when there is no credit in it. Worship that is real on a Sunday has to be walked on a Monday, and a believer who stops at the singing has stopped halfway. Friday's teaching on walking worthy said the same of the whole of life: a calling received, then lived up to…
This week we looked at worship — what it is, and who it is for
Four days on one theme: worship — what the words mean, who it is for, where it drifts, and what God makes of it.
Monday 5 October — Something to Think About — Praise & Worship: What They Mean & How They Differ
Modern church vocabulary has shrunk worship down to a music style — praise is the fast part, worship the slow part. Scripture will not allow it. Praise is what you express to God; worship is what you offer Him — and the honest test is not whether the songs moved you, but whether you are keeping His commandments.
Tuesday 6 October — Messages from the Outpost — Worship: For Him or For Us?
Worship is not about what we receive, but what we render to God. Judge it by how it made us feel and we have turned it into a consumer experience. The better question is not “What did I get from this?” but “Did I honour God?” True worship costs something, and it does not end when the music stops.
Wednesday 7 October — Write this Down — Quiet Before the Lord: When Worship Turns into Performance
Shouting to be heard, dancing to be seen, kneeling to be admired — it sounds like praise, but it is feeding the ego, and Jesus named its wage plainly: They have their reward [Matthew 6:2 KJV]. God ponders the heart. What He asks for is the shut door and the audience of One — and quiet has never meant weak.
Thursday 8 October — Messages from the Outpost — Worship From Heaven's Perspective: Is Our Praise Pleasing to God?
Worship is not a feeling we chase — it is a response we bring, weighed against one question: does this honour God according to His Word, or does it simply make us feel good? The modern church has borrowed the world's toolbox, but the beauty of holiness [Psalm 29:2 KJV] is not the beauty of trendiness.
Friday 9 October — Back to Basics: Christian living — Part 4 — Walk Worthy (Ephesians 4)
The hinge of the letter: I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy [Ephesians 4:1 KJV] — because of all God has already done, live like it. Lowliness, meekness and forbearing love; the old man put off and the new put on. Much of it is about the tongue. Change that, and most of the walk changes with it.
The Father seeketh such. He is not looking for a performance and He is not short of noise. He is looking for people who will come to Him in spirit and in truth.
All five are up with the teachings, and every one has its matching video on the channel.
📖 Read the full teaching here 👉 https://back-to-basics-christian-living.ghost.io/
📽️ Watch the full teaching here 👉 https://www.youtube.com/@backtobasicschristianliving
🎯 This Week's Mission
This one comes straight out of the four days just gone — the step that week leaves you with, carried into the week ahead.
Your mission this week: offer God one thing nobody else will see
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…
What have you given God this week that nobody else knows about? Not the singing on a Sunday, and not the things people can see — something only He saw. That is where worship is tested. Not in the songs, but on a Monday morning, when there is no one watching, no one thanking you, and no credit in it at all.
Paul does not leave you guessing what God is asking for: present your bodies a living sacrifice [Romans 12:1 KJV]. Not a feeling, not a song, but you — the whole of you — handed over to Him. So what does that look like in your week? A tongue held when you would rather say it? A job done properly when nobody is checking? A habit you know has to go, or an obedience you have been putting off for months? It need not be large. It just has to be real, and it has to cost you something.
And here is the promise in it: thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly [Matthew 6:4 KJV]. Nobody else sees it. He does, and He does not miss a thing. Paul calls it your reasonable service [Romans 12:1 KJV] — not extreme, not just for the few. Reasonable. So what is yours going to be this week?
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
The week ahead — the Christian walk, four days on the ordinary week
If last week asked what we bring to God, this week asks how we walk with Him once the singing has stopped. The theme in one line: the Christian walk is proved in the ordinary week. Monday sets the posture for hard days, Tuesday names the thief of our hours, Wednesday gives the standard we walk by, and Thursday deals honestly with the gap. Then Friday brings Part 5 — Christianity With Its Shoes On, where Ephesians 5 walks the whole letter through the front door. Four days, one road — and it runs straight through your house.
Monday 12 October — Something to Think About — Be Patient, Be Present, Be Deliberate
When trouble comes, do you meet it or simply wait for it to pass? Three words for the hard weeks — and the quiet killer that finishes off more believers than any crisis ever does.
Tuesday 13 October — Messages from the Outpost — The Digital Distraction: When Viral Videos Outshine Purpose
A five-minute video about a celebrity's dead pet: a hundred and fifty thousand views. The gospel: still struggling to be heard. Is that an accident — and how many of your hours has it already taken?
Wednesday 14 October — Write this Down — Three Words That Describe Your Commitment as a Christian: Honour, Code & Loyalty!
What does your commitment to Christ actually amount to? Ask most believers, and the answer wanders. Three words bring it down to something you can carry — and one of them is a book.
Thursday 15 October — Messages from the Outpost — Mind the Gap!
How close are you to God right now? Not last year — now. Two things open a gap, one quietly and one outright, and there is only one way to close it. The question is how soon.
Friday 16 October — Back to Basics: Christian living — Part 5 — Christianity With Its Shoes On (Ephesians 5)
You were darkness; now you are light. But is the light on in your evenings, or only on a Sunday? Ephesians 5 takes the teaching home — and asks whether your house is easier to live in because you are a Christian.
📖 Only in the Compass — Stuck in Thanksgiving? Sing the Victory!
Thankfulness is the gate we enter by — but victory is where God calls us to walk…
There is a moment in many a service when you can almost guess what is coming next. The music softens, somebody steps to the front, and the call goes up: "Let's just thank Him." And so we do — and rightly so, because thanksgiving is commanded: In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you [1 Thessalonians 5:18 KJV]. But here is the honest question. Have we got stuck there? The Psalmist gives us the picture: Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise [Psalm 100:4 KJV]. Thanksgiving is the gate. It is how we come in. Nobody builds a house and then spends the rest of his life standing in the doorway — a gate is made to lead somewhere.
Watch how Scripture itself moves. Paul never leaves thanks sitting still; he drives it forward into triumph: But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ [1 Corinthians 15:57 KJV]. Biblical thanksgiving is not a soft, sleepy feeling. It is the war-cry of people who know the battle is already won — the tomb empty, sin defeated, and believers more than conquerors through him that loved us [Romans 8:37 KJV]. So why do we settle at the gate? Sometimes it is comfort. Sometimes it is emotion mistaken for direction, judging a service by how it made us feel rather than where it moved us to go. And sometimes, if we are honest, it is because moving forward costs something. Victory songs lead to kingdom work, and kingdom work asks for our time, our courage and our obedience.
Remember Israel at the Red Sea — hemmed in, frightened and crying out. And what did God say? Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward [Exodus 14:15 KJV]. There is a time to cry out, a time to give thanks, and a time when God says plainly: enough standing still — move. A grateful heart that goes nowhere has missed the whole point of grace. When our songs only ever circle back to how we feel, worship quietly becomes about us; when we sing the victory of Christ, it becomes about Him, and suddenly it has direction. The same lips that say "thank You" begin to say "send me."
That is the posture of a believer on the move: forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus [Philippians 3:13-14 KJV]. Pressing, reaching, straining ahead — a world away from camping at the gate. We are called to walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work [Colossians 1:10 KJV]. Fruitful. Not parked. So thank Him with all your heart — then walk through the gate, and take the victory with you into Monday…
📚 From the shelf — Heaven Isn't for Good People — It's for Believers!
One older teaching brought back each week, for anyone who missed it first time round…
First published on Monday 27 July, this one answers the line you will have heard at a funeral or over a cup of tea: "They were a good person. They'll be in heaven." It sounds kind, but Jesus put it plainly: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me [John 14:6 KJV]. This teaching walks through who heaven is actually for, and why the most loving thing you can do for someone you love is tell them the truth while there is still time. A week on worship asked what we bring to God; this one asks the question underneath it — on what ground do we stand before Him at all?
📖 Read the full teaching here 👉 https://back-to-basics-christian-living.ghost.io/heaven-isnt-for-good-people-its-for-believers/
📽️ Watch the full teaching here 👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHj-faDORj0
News
A short break at the end of October
Elaine and I are taking a short break later this month, from Saturday 24 October to Sunday 1 November. The last teaching before we go is Friday 23 October, and we are back on Monday 2 November with the next week's teachings and their videos. That means no daily teachings from Monday 26 to Friday 30 October, and no Compass on Sunday 25 October or Sunday 1 November.
It is a rest, not a stopping. Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while [Mark 6:31 KJV]. Everything already published stays right where it is — Who We Are in Christ!, the Ephesians series so far, and every one of the teachings with its matching video on the channel — so if you have missed a few, the break is a good time to catch up. We will take the rest gladly, and come back ready to go on…
Finding your way around — the reading plans, and a teaching for what you need
A few things have changed on the website, all with the same aim: to get the Word open in your hands and make it easier to find the teaching you need.
First, our two reading plans now sit together on one page, Read the Word — Two Ways In. The 31-Day Christian Living Reading Plan is for the month ahead — one short passage, one honest question and one small step of obedience a day, built for busy lives. Project 356 is for the long road, when you are ready to get a real feel for what is written, how it is written and who it is written to. Not sure which to pick? Start with the 31 days, and don't wait for Monday.
📖 Read the Word — Two Ways In 👉 https://back-to-basics-christian-living.ghost.io/reading-plans/
Second, we are in the middle of changing the Find a Teaching part of the website, so that you can find a teaching by what you need, when you need it — whether you are just starting out, going through a hard time, or wanting to go deeper in the Word. It is a work in progress, and we are taking it a step at a time, so you may notice things changing as we go. We will let you know here as it comes together.
And you will find the menu behind the three dots at the top of the page has been slimmed down, so the things you need are easier to spot.
While you are in that menu, don't miss Search, right at the bottom of the list. It is one of the most useful things on the website, and very few people use it. Type in a word — prayer, fear, Ephesians, healing — and it brings up the teachings that carry that word or something close to it, so you can go straight to what you need without scrolling.
Testimony
Most weeks this space is kept for what God has been doing in your lives. This week the testimony comes from closer to home — from our own table, and from one question we could not shake off. It is not the story of something finished, but of something God is still working on in us, and we share it because we suspect a good many of you have been carrying the same question too.
Elaine asked a question over coffee this week that stopped us both in our tracks: "Are we living the life we believe?" Not "Do we believe the right things?" — we would both have answered that one quickly — but are we actually living it, day to day, when nobody is watching? It is a simple question, and it is not a comfortable one. We sat with it for a good while.
What struck us is that it is the right question wherever you are in the Christian walk — at the very beginning, somewhere in the middle, towards the end, or, as for us, in these later years God has given us to run Back to Basics: Christian living. Running a ministry does not excuse you from it; if anything, it makes it more pressing. It would be easy to spend every week writing about obedience and never stop to ask whether we are doing it ourselves. James puts it plainly: But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves [James 1:22 KJV].
So that is what we are doing this week — taking stock, honestly and before God. Where our walk matches what we believe, we give thanks. Where it does not, we ask Him to help us close the gap. And we pass Elaine's question on to you, just as she put it to me across the table: are you living the life you believe — a doer of the Word, or only a hearer of it…
And if God has been at work in you — a prayer answered, a habit broken, a gap closed, or simply a question like this one that would not leave you alone — we would love to hear it. Your story may be the very thing another reader needs to take their next step.
Write to us at backtobasicschristianliving@gmail.com with Testimony in the subject line, and with your permission we will share it here, in your own words, so that all of us who read this letter can give thanks together. Let the redeemed of the LORD say so [Psalm 107:2 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.
One ask: if this letter has helped you, send it to one person who is tired of noise and hungry for something plain — the sort of believer this coming week was written for.
➡️ Tomorrow morning — Monday 12 October — Something to Think About — Be Patient, Be Present, Be Deliberate
The week starts here. The teaching and its video go up together first thing, so read it over your morning cuppa and carry it into the day.
🧭 New here, or picking up where you left off? — Who We Are in Christ!, the teachings to read first 👉 https://back-to-basics-christian-living.ghost.io/start-here/
🎥 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
