The Christian Compass…
Sunday 18 October
Good morning, and welcome to this week's Compass — by the grace of God, another week of the walk is behind us, and this is the last letter before Elaine and I take a short holiday. Here is the week in one letter: the teachings in brief, one step to carry into the days ahead, and what is coming over the next seven days…
This week: 12 – 16 October we looked at:
The week just gone, in brief — for anyone who missed one…
- Monday 12 October — Something to Think About — Be Patient, Be Present, Be Deliberate
- Tuesday 13 October — Messages from the Outpost — The Digital Distraction: When Viral Videos Outshine Purpose
- Wednesday 14 October — Write this Down — Three Words That Describe Your Commitment as a Christian: Honour, Code & Loyalty!
- Thursday 15 October — Messages from the Outpost — Mind the Gap!
- Friday 16 October — Back to Basics: Christian living — Part 5 — Christianity With Its Shoes On (Ephesians 5)
Every one is up with the teachings, each with its matching video on the channel, and the Ephesians series so far is there in order.
📖 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: Buy Back One Hour
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…
Where did your evenings go last week? Not the busy ones — the ordinary ones. The half-hour after tea, the scrolling before bed, the extra episode you never really chose. Nobody drifts into a strong prayer life or an open Bible. Those hours have to be bought.
Paul puts it in one plain line: Redeeming the time, because the days are evil [Ephesians 5:16 KJV]. Redeeming means buying back. So what are you going to buy it back from? The phone? The television? The aimless hour you already know is soft? And what will you give it to — your Bible, your prayer, your marriage, your children?
It need not be large. One hour, named before the week starts, so it does not quietly disappear. And here is the promise in it: Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you [James 4:8 KJV]. Give Him the hour, and you will not find Him absent from it. So which hour is it going to be?
👣 Your step: buy back one hour this week — name it before Monday, take it from something soft, and give it to your Bible, your prayer or your family.
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: 19 – 23 October
What is coming, day by day — so you can meet it with the Book already open…
- Monday 19 October — Something to Think About — The Hybrid Modern Day Preacher
Have you ever come home from church uneasy, and could not quite say why? Truth mixed with error, the Old Testament preached as if it were written to you this morning — it sounds convincing, and that is exactly the danger. - Tuesday 20 October — Messages from the Outpost — Motivational Speeches Are Not Modern-Day Parables!
When did a pep talk with a verse tacked on become a parable? More and more pulpits are selling the one as the other — so how do you tell the counterfeit from the real thing? - Wednesday 21 October — Write this Down — A Test for the Modern Day Prophetic Movement
Somebody stands up and says, "The Lord told me." Do you simply accept it, or is there a test? Scripture gives one, and every believer is meant to use it. - Thursday 22 October — Messages from the Outpost — The Death of the Modern Day Church
Is the church being led by the Spirit of God, or by the soul of man? Entertainment where the teaching should be, songs empty of Scripture — can a church that keeps folding the world into itself find its way back? - Friday 23 October — Back to Basics: Christian living — Part 6 — Dressed for the Fight (Ephesians 6)
Who are you really fighting? Most Christians spend their strength on people and leave the real adversary undisturbed. Ephesians 6 starts at the kitchen table, then hands you the armour — and the goal is simpler than you think.
📖 Only in the Compass — Are You Living The Life You Believe?
Belief isn't proved on a Sunday morning. It's proved on a Tuesday afternoon…
This one grew out of last week's testimony, and the question Elaine asked me over coffee that we could not shake off. Here is a question that deserves an honest answer, and I ask it of myself as much as of you: are you living the life you believe? Most of us would say yes straight away. We believe the Bible is the Word of God, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the Head of the church, and that we are born again — Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new [2 Corinthians 5:17 KJV]. But believing something and living it are two different things, and the space between them is where many Christians spend their whole lives. We sing it, quote it and nod along to it, then go home and live exactly as we did before. Paul put it plainly: They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him [Titus 1:16 KJV]. Profess with the mouth, deny with the life. The trouble is that the gap rarely feels like hypocrisy from the inside. It feels normal, because so many around us live in it too.
James does not soften it. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves [James 1:22 KJV]. Notice who is deceived. Not the world, and not the church — us. Then he gives us a picture we cannot wriggle out of: For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was [James 1:23-24 KJV]. He sees the smudge and walks out of the door with it still there. Jesus drew the same line at the end of the Sermon on the Mount. Everyone in that crowd had heard; the difference was who did. Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock [Matthew 7:24 KJV]. From the street the two houses looked the same. Only the storm showed the difference — and the storm always comes. And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? [Luke 6:46 KJV]
So what does living the life you believe actually look like? Not a platform, a title or one big moment at the front of a meeting. Paul puts it in one word: I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called [Ephesians 4:1 KJV]. Not sprint, not soar — walk, one foot in front of the other, in the places nobody is watching. Ephesians 5 took that walk into the home last week, and this is where it is proved: telling the truth when a lie would be easier, putting anger right before the sun goes down, an honest day's work when nobody is checking, the way you speak about people who are not in the room, the laptop you close and the secret sin you stop. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked [1 John 2:6 KJV]. And James tells us what faith is when it never gets off the page: Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone [James 2:17 KJV]. Not weak. Not immature. Dead.
Before that lands as condemnation, hear this: God has not left you to close the gap in your own strength. Grace comes first, then the walk. You do not walk worthy to become His; you walk worthy because you already are. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure [Philippians 2:13 KJV]. And He has given the Holy Spirit for this very thing: This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh [Galatians 5:16 KJV]. So be honest with yourself this week. Take the last teaching that convicted you, the one you nodded along to, and ask, "What did I actually do about it?" If the answer is nothing, do not beat yourself up. Go back to the mirror, look again, and this time deal with what you see. That is how the gap closes — not all at once, but one obedient step at a time, until what you believe and how you live start to look like the same thing…
📚 From the shelf — Your Standing with God is Anchored in Christ!
One older teaching brought back each week, for anyone who missed it first time round…
First published on Tuesday 14 April, this one answers the question you may have asked lying awake at night: am I right with God today — and what about tomorrow? Your standing with God does not rise and fall with your feelings, your performance or how well you prayed this morning; it rests on the finished work of Christ. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus [Romans 8:1 KJV]. It sits well beside last Thursday's Mind the Gap! — the gap is in our walk, never in our standing.
📖 Read the full teaching here 👉 https://back-to-basics-christian-living.ghost.io/your-standing-with-god-is-anchored-in-christ/
📽️ Watch the full teaching here 👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BK98z6VswnU&list=PLhtPbQ4aPQH5L9BycdIkD1Cmh288M1oaK&index=59
News
What is new, what is changing, and what stays just as it is…
A short holiday at the end of October
Elaine and I are taking a short holiday, from Saturday 24 October to Sunday 1 November. This letter is the last Compass before the holiday, and Friday's teaching, Part 6 — Dressed for the Fight, is the last teaching before it. That means no daily teachings from Monday 26 to Friday 30 October, and no Compass on Sunday 25 October or Sunday 1 November. The teachings return on Monday 2 November, and the Compass is back with you on Sunday 8 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 holiday is a good time to catch up.
Find a Teaching — now live
Something new has gone up with the teachings. Find a Teaching gathers our teachings under eight honest questions, with more added each week — from Am I really saved? to How do I stand when life hits hard? — so you no longer have to scroll back by date to find the one you need. Pick the question you're carrying, read a teaching, watch the video alongside it, and do the one thing it asks. The rhythm stays the same: the teachings still come Monday to Friday, and the Compass still comes every Sunday.
📖 Read Find a Teaching here 👉 https://back-to-basics-christian-living.ghost.io/find-a-teaching/
The Linktree has had a tidy-up too. It is slimmer now, with our five social links along the top and a shorter menu beneath them, so it takes you straight to where you need to go without the hunting about.
🔗 Everything in one place 👉 linktr.ee/backtobasicschristianliving
Testimony has a new name — Blazing Apostles
From this week, the Testimony section of the Compass goes by a new name: Blazing Apostles. It is the same name as the podcast Elaine and I record, where we talk through what God has done for us along our own Christian walk — the prayers He answered, the hard roads He carried us down, and the times He turned up when we least expected Him. The section and the podcast do the same job, putting on record what God has done, so it is only right they carry the same name. Elaine and I explain more about why in the Blazing Apostles section further down.
And until your testimonies start coming in, we will share some of the testimonies God has given us over the years — the answered prayers, the provision, and the times He carried us when we could not carry ourselves — so there will always be something here to show what He has done.
🎥 Watch the Blazing Apostles podcast here 👉 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhtPbQ4aPQH63IV12O3hlzfW24gayWu31
Nothing else changes. If God has healed you, provided for you, restored something you thought was lost, or simply kept you when you could not keep yourself, we still want to hear it.
Write to us at backtobasicschristianliving@gmail.com with Testimony in the subject line, just as before, and with your permission we will share it here in your own words. Let the redeemed of the LORD say so [Psalm 107:2 KJV].
Blazing Apostles
Testimonies of what God has done along the road — put on record, so we can all see Him at work…
Elaine and I wanted to tell you, in our own words, why this part of the letter has a new name. For years we have sat down together and talked through what God has done for us — the prayers He answered, the hard roads He carried us down, and the times we had no idea which way to turn and He turned up anyway. That is what our podcast, Blazing Apostles, is all about, and the more we recorded, the plainer it became that this section of the Compass was doing exactly the same work. Both are here for one reason: so that we, and you, see God in action. Not God as an idea, or God as a Sunday subject, but God at work in ordinary lives on ordinary days.
That matters so much to us as a couple, because the Word is not a dead book. For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword [Hebrews 4:12 KJV] — and quick means living. God speaks through His Word and works through it, but it has to be put into action. It is no use admiring a promise and never leaning on it. Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths [Proverbs 3:5-6 KJV]. Every testimony we have ever shared started right there — with a moment when we had to stop leaning on what we could work out, trust Him instead, and then watch Him direct the path.
And it never stops at one answered prayer. When God called us, He called us with a purpose, and He means to fulfil it in us. Our part is to pursue it — to keep walking, keep trusting, and keep standing when it is hard. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called [1 Timothy 6:12 KJV]. That is the Christian walk: a journey with Him, and a fight of faith along the way. So this is where we will tell what He has done — in our lives and, with your permission, in yours. Because when one believer sees God move in another's life, it puts fresh strength into their own walk.
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. 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].
If you are just joining us
New here, or coming back to it? Here is where to begin…
Start with the Start Here page, which sits with the teachings. It gives you Who We Are in Christ! — the teachings to read first, 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 has sat in a pew and wondered whether what they heard was really in the Book — the sort of believer this coming week was written for.
➡️ Tomorrow morning — Monday 19 October — Something to Think About — The Hybrid Modern Day Preacher
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.
This is the last Compass before our holiday, and the next one comes to you on Sunday 8 November. Until then, keep the Book open, keep walking, and keep testing what you hear by it.
God bless you.
David & Elaine
