The Christian Compass…
Sunday 8 November…
Good morning, and welcome back — by the grace of God, it is good to be walking the road with you again after the break. Here is the week in one letter: what Elaine and I have been talking about, the teachings in brief, and one step to carry into the days ahead…
Why we teach what we do: Back to Basics exists to put the whole Word of God back in front of the church, the comfortable parts and the hard ones alike, so that every believer can know it, live it and stand on it. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God [Acts 20:27 KJV].
Saturday Conversations
What Elaine and I have been talking about this week — the church, the walk, and the Book open on the table between us…
Obey Now, Understand Later
Elaine and I were talking this week about something we have both seen over and over through the years. When God speaks, whether through a verse that will not leave you alone, a prompting you cannot shake or a door He sets in front of you, the wisdom of it is hardly ever clear at the time. We obey, and it is only further down the road, looking back, that we see why. Nearly every time, the understanding has come after the obedience, not before it.
You can see it in this week's Blazing Apostles. When I saw that little house to rent in the paper, I knew it was the house for us, though it did not look much at the time. We had no idea what God had waiting for us there. We only knew He had put it on our hearts, so we went, and Elaine tells the whole story further down.
That is the way God has always worked with His people. By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went [Hebrews 11:8 KJV]. He went first and understood later. When the Lord Jesus knelt to wash Peter's feet, Peter could not see the sense in it, and Jesus did not explain it there and then: Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter [John 13:7 KJV]. Not now, but hereafter.
So if God has put something on your heart and you cannot see the sense in it yet, do not wait for the explanation before you move. Test it by the Word, every time, and if it stands, obey. 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]. The understanding will come. It usually comes later, and it is usually better than anything you could have worked out beforehand. For we walk by faith, not by sight [2 Corinthians 5:7 KJV].
🎥 Watch Saturday Conversations here 👉 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhtPbQ4aPQH63IV12O3hlzfW24gayWu31
Looking back: 19 October – 6 November we looked at:
The week just gone, in brief — for anyone who missed one…
Before the break: 19 – 23 October
- Monday 19 October — Something to Think About — The Hybrid Modern Day Preacher
- Tuesday 20 October — Messages from the Outpost — Motivational Speeches Are Not Modern-Day Parables!
- Wednesday 21 October — Write this Down — A Test for the Modern Day Prophetic Movement
- Thursday 22 October — Messages from the Outpost — The Death of the Modern Day Church
- Friday 23 October — Back to Basics: Christian living — Part 6 — Dressed for the Fight (Ephesians 6)
After the break: 2 – 6 November
- Monday 2 November — Something to Think About — Have People Forgotten What Church Is?
- Tuesday 3 November — Messages from the Outpost — Is Your Church Doing This?
- Wednesday 4 November — Write this Down — Oil and Water: Mixing What God Never Mixed!
- Thursday 5 November — Messages from the Outpost — A "Now Word" — or an Old Lie in a New Suit?
- Friday 6 November — Back to Basics: Christian living — Part 7 — Still Standing (the whole letter, brought home)
Every one is up with the teachings, each with its matching video on the channel, and the full Ephesians series 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
🎥 Watch the series in order — the playlist 👉 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhtPbQ4aPQH4XQMBbu36aO6pHQ_T4ACae
🎯 This Week's Mission
This one comes straight out of Wednesday's Write this Down — the truth the week just gone gave us to keep, carried into the week ahead.
Your mission this week: Ask Who It Was Written To Before You Live By It.
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…
When you open your Bible this week, who do you think is being spoken to? Every word of it is true, but not every word of it is addressed to you. Paul told Timothy to be rightly dividing the word of truth [2 Timothy 2:15 KJV] — not cutting it up, but laying it out the way God laid it out.
So before you claim a promise or take on a commandment, stop and ask one plain question: who was this first written to? The Old Testament was written for our learning [Romans 15:4 KJV], and you need every page of it — but the letters from Romans to Thessalonians are written to you, in the body of Christ. Which burden have you been carrying that God never laid on you? And which promise have you left on the shelf because you thought it was for somebody else?
Here is the freedom in it. You were not lent the Holy Spirit — you were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise [Ephesians 1:13 KJV]. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace [Romans 6:14 KJV]. Know what God has said to you, and you will stop living afraid of words He said to somebody else.
👣 Your step: read Ephesians 1 once this week, and write down three things God says are already yours in Christ.
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: 9 – 13 November
What is coming, day by day — so you can meet it with the Book already open…
- Monday 9 November — Something to Think About — The Gift of Prophecy and Its Proper Use in the Church
Somebody says, "I have a word for you." What is the true gift of prophecy — and how does Scripture tell you to test it, rather than simply take it on trust? - Tuesday 10 November — Messages from the Outpost — Labouring from Acceptance, Not for Acceptance
Are you still working to earn what Christ has already given you? Serving God for His acceptance and serving Him from it are two very different lives. - Wednesday 11 November — Write this Down — Spirit vs. Flesh: Your Practical Guide to Christian Living
You can look completely respectable and still be walking in the flesh. So how do you tell which one is running your day? - Thursday 12 November — Messages from the Outpost — I Hope, I Think, I Know
If somebody asked whether you are saved, would you say "I hope so," "I think so," or "I know"? Those three little words show exactly where you stand. - Friday 13 November — Back to Basics: Christian living — The Unpreached Bible — Part 1 — Repentance — The Word That Empties Pews
It sat at the heart of Peter's first sermon on the day of Pentecost — so why is repentance the word so many pulpits have quietly stopped saying?
📖 Only in the Compass — Theology vs. Practice!
When a doctrine cannot be shown from the Book, it is the doctrine that must give way — not the Book…
Some teachings have sat in church tradition so long that they are taken as foundation, even though they cannot be shown from Scripture alone. The doctrine of the Trinity is the plainest example. The word itself appears nowhere from Genesis to Revelation, and no apostle ever taught God as three co-equal, co-eternal persons in one essence. Jesus Christ Himself pointed to the Father as the one true God: And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent [John 17:3 KJV]. He draws the line plainly — the Father, the only true God, and Himself, the one the Father sent.
The rest of the Book says the same. When a scribe asked which commandment was first, Jesus answered with the Shema: The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord [Mark 12:29 KJV], the very words of Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD [Deuteronomy 6:4 KJV]. Paul keeps the same line: But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him [1 Corinthians 8:6 KJV]. And when Jesus taught His disciples to pray, He gave them one address: After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name [Matthew 6:9 KJV]. Nowhere do the apostles pray to a triune God.
So where did the doctrine come from? Not from the apostolic age. It was worked out over centuries, and set down formally at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD and the councils after it, in the language of Greek philosophy — words like "homoousios", "of the same substance" — that the writers of Scripture never used. The Book speaks of relationship and of role. Jesus said, for my Father is greater than I [John 14:28 KJV], and Paul writes that at the end then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all [1 Corinthians 15:28 KJV]. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus [1 Timothy 2:5 KJV].
None of this takes one thing away from Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our only mediator, or from the Holy Spirit at work in every believer. It simply lets the whole counsel of God stand as it is written: one God, the Father, revealed supremely through His Son, and working in us by His Holy Spirit. When a doctrine needs philosophy to explain it, and sits uneasily beside the plain words of Jesus and the apostles, we need the courage to come back to the simplicity of the Book — For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints [1 Corinthians 14:33 KJV].
📚 From the shelf — Once a Christian always a Christian!
One older teaching brought back each week, for anyone who missed it first time round…
First published on Monday 22 September 2025, this one answers a question many believers carry quietly: can a true believer lose their salvation? It answers plainly from the Word — once you are born again, you are sealed with the Holy Spirit and held fast: neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand [John 10:28 KJV]. But it lets nobody off lightly either, because security is never a licence to sit still; it is the reason to get up and serve God without fear. If Wednesday's teaching and Ephesians have both just reminded you that you were sealed, this is where to see what that seal means for you.
📖 Read the full teaching here 👉 https://back-to-basics-christian-living.ghost.io/once-a-christian-always-a-christian/
🗄️ Archive Collections
Earlier teachings from the channel, kept together for anyone who wants to go back and watch them…
Here you'll find our archived YouTube playlists, the earlier teachings from the Back to Basics: Christian living channel, kept together in one place. They're not new, but the Word in them hasn't aged a day, so take your time, find a series that meets you where you are, and watch it through.
🎥 Watch the Archive Collections here 👉 https://www.youtube.com/@backtobasicschristianliving
News
What is new, what is changing, and what stays just as it is…
From Monday 2 November the weekday teachings changed shape a little. Monday to Thursday no longer follow one theme — each day now has its own job. On Monday, Something to Think About puts one question to the church, and to us in it. On Tuesday and Thursday, Messages from the Outpost is house fellowship teaching — plain and personal, with the Book open on the table. On Wednesday, Write this Down gives one truth worth keeping for the walk, and one verse to keep it by. Friday stays the series day.
What does not change: the teaching and its video still go up together first thing each morning, every verse is still quoted from the King James Bible, and this letter still comes to you every Sunday.
And with Ephesians finished, Friday 13 November begins a new series — The Unpreached Bible.
The Unpreached Bible goes back to the parts of Scripture many pulpits have gone quiet on — not because they have left the Book, but because they cost something to say — and it begins where Jesus Christ began, with repentance.
And…
We have something new to put in your hands. Our old cards have done their job well, but they were starting to look tired, so they have been retired and replaced with our brand-new Call-Out Cards — a fresh addition to the outreach side of Back to Basics, made to go into pockets, purses and hands wherever the road takes us.
Why "Call-Out Cards"? Because that is exactly what they are for. God is still calling people out today — out of the world, out of the dark, and into the church He is building. But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light [1 Peter 2:9 KJV]. Every card handed over is a small way of calling out those who have been chosen to be part of the church today.
The front carries our new tagline — Teach, See, Do, Share — which is the whole heart of this ministry in four words: be taught the Word, see it for yourself, do it, and then pass it on. On the back is a QR code that takes you straight to our Linktree, where everything we have to offer is in one place: the teachings, the videos, the Compass, and Who We Are in Christ! to start with…
And coming soon… Back to Basics stickers. More on those in the weeks ahead, so watch this space….
Blazing Apostles
Testimonies of what God has done along the road — put on record, so we can all see Him at work…
The House God Chose for Us
We didn't see the long term of it. God did…
When we first came up to live in Carlisle, we were staying with my father. We both had jobs, but we needed somewhere of our own. Dave saw a house to rent in the paper, and he says that as soon as he saw it, he knew it was the house for us. It didn't look much on paper, and when we went to view it, I thought the rooms were smaller than I'd expected. Two up, two down, a small garden, and somewhere to put the car. But it was exactly what we needed. The landlord seemed a kind man from the start. He told us a handshake would do, with no inventory list, and when we said we didn't have a lawnmower, he bought one for us. Once our references came through, we moved in. The rent was £460 a month, about the going rate for a house that size at the time.
We stayed there ten years, and in all that time our rent never went up once. Anything that needed fixing, he fixed, sometimes within ten minutes of the phone call, because he didn't live far away. We had good neighbours too, and I'm still in touch with three of them today. My neighbour next door was paying £200 a month more than we were, and her landlord left things broken in her house that never got mended. It was in that little house that Back to Basics: Christian living began, from our second bedroom. Our first videos were filmed under the tree there, and they're still in the archive if you'd like to have a look.
When I look back, this is what strikes me. We don't always know why the Holy Spirit is leading us a certain way, and we don't see the long term of it. We only know that this is what God is putting on our hearts, so we go ahead and do it. When we moved in, we had no idea the rent would never change, that the landlord would look after us so well, or that the people next door would still be in our lives years later. But God knew. According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness [2 Peter 1:3 KJV]. He had already provided everything we needed, long before we knew we needed it.
We've now been in our new home for over a year, and once again we have kind, helpful neighbours all around us. The village is so convenient that I can walk to a number of my jobs from the door. We're running Back to Basics from here now, trusting God to lead and guide us, because we know who holds the future. If you're looking at a situation right now that you believe is where God wants you, but it doesn't look quite the way you thought it would, take time to make sure it's where He is leading. Because when you are led by Him, we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose [Romans 8:28 KJV].
— Elaine
🎥 Watch Blazing Apostles here 👉 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhtPbQ4aPQH63IV12O3hlzfW24gayWu31
Reply to this email, or 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 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 has finished a book of the Bible and been no different for it — the sort of believer this letter was written for.
➡️ Tomorrow morning — Monday 9 November — Something to Think About — The Gift of Prophecy and Its Proper Use in the Church
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
