Most Important

If you've kept up with my writing at all, you've noticed that I have a focus on action within the Christian faith.  I believe that a Christian absolutely must be doing things.  And I mean that in the sense that salvation depends on it.  Salvation is the result of righteous action, which is the result of faith.  To say that faith alone can save a person is like saying swimming can make you a fish.  Or, to say that faith can exist without works is like saying fire can exist without heat.  Faith without works is dead.  I stand on this principle, and I'm going to keep saying it till I die.  To clarify, and hopefully to help anyone wanting to know more, I should be more specific about what kind of actions a Christian must be doing.  I'm going to start with what I feel to be the two most primary and important things that a Christian must be doing.

Prayer
All good things come from God.  But what we must do, before we can expect to get anything from God, is ask for it.  If it is the Lord's will, and if we trust Him to answer our prayer, then it will be done.  When I talk about prayer, I am not talking about the pretty sounding, usual sounding, prayers that you hear in church or around the dinner table.  This kind of prayer, I hate to say it, has been typified to such an extent that its hard to know if anyone actually considers it speaking to God.  I know it often doesn't sound like speaking to God; it often sounds like a performance put on to show off how "spiritual" the prayer leader is.  But anyways, all of that is irrelevant, because that's not at all what I mean by prayer.  What I mean by prayer is speaking directly, reverently and humbly to God in the isolation of one's bedroom.  And by speaking I really mean begging.  These prayers are the honest prayers that come straight from the heart and are spoken straight to God, because the person praying actually believes that he/she is not alone in their bedroom.  That is what prayer is, and for anyone wanting to be a child of God, I strongly suggest doing it.  It can be as simple as asking for daily provision or protection.  Or a person may ask God for wisdom, virtues or a desire to do His will.  Whatever it is, be specific.  I imagine God hears plenty of the usual Christianese, so leave behind the fancy church words.  Just ask God earnestly for whatever your needs are.  But always ALWAYS be reverent.  Get on your knees, bow down before the Lord and humble yourself.

Reading the Bible
We will never know God unless we read our Bibles.  We cannot be children of the Most High unless we know who He is.  And we must know what He commands and what He plans.  All of this is in the Bible.  In fact, one of the biggest reasons to pray, and why I group prayer and Bible reading together, is so that we would understand the Bible.  Bible reading and prayer are the essential building blocks of a Christian life.  Before we do anything else, we should be reading our Bibles and praying.  Before we can even know what to do, we must read the Bible.  You will always hear me say, and I absolutely believe, reading the Bible is much more important than going to church and hearing someone preach.  The man preaching could be telling you a bunch of lies, or he may just be a rather lousy preacher.  But, we can be sure that what is written in the Bible is true.  And for that matter, I'd much rather have you read the Bible than read anything I write (if you had to choose of course).  With our knowledge of the truth, we will not be led astray by lies.  With our knowledge of the truth, we will know almost precisely what God wants us to be doing - beyond the building blocks, reading the Bible and praying.  I could go further in this note and talk about all the other things a Christian should be doing, but I'm actually going to stop here.  So, for anyone just getting started with their Christian life, and unsure of what he/she should be doing, I say start by reading your Bible and praying.  If you don't know what to pray for, then pray that God would help you understand the Bible.  After you do that you'll know exactly what else you should be doing, or not doing.