A word to new Christians from J.I. Packer

I saw this on Justin Taylor's blog, Between Two Worlds, which borrowed it from from Mike Anderson at Resurgence:


JI Packer Speaks To New Christians from Mike Anderson on Vimeo.

Below is a transcription of the audio.

J.I. Packer’s advice to a new Christian:

I’m speaking to a young Christian who has just found Christ. Actually, it’ll be better to say whom Christ has just found, ‘cause he’s the Lord now; he’s in charge. You’ve discovered the joy of forgiven sins. You’ve discovered the joy of a hope of glory. You’ve discovered that you now have a new allegiance. You don’t belong to yourself; you belong to your Savior, who will be with you forever. He promised, “I am with you always.” And you will be with him always, as his disciple in this world and as his friend in the world to come. OK, so that’s where you are.

Read, study, and mediate on God's Word

Get into the Bible. Learn to love the Word. Read it. Read it with a willingness to leave –for your first journey through it anyway – passages that you don’t fully understand, but don’t stop reading the Word. Read it through, right the way through, cover to cover, Genesis to Revelation. You should be aiming, I think, to read the Bible once a year. Read what you can, understand what you can, and appreciate that the Bible is written to be spiritual food for disciples. That means folk like you.

Pray to God at all times

Then pray. Keep in touch with your Savior and with your heavenly Father every day of your life. Get into the habit of praying as you go along in life, shooting off arrow prayers, you see, to God as you do your ordinary everyday business, keeping up your sense of being in his presence because that’s where you really are.

Worship God with and serve other Christians

Worship in church and get to know the folk with whom you’re worshiping. Christianity is fellowship, needs to be fellowship right from the start. One helps another along. You know how it is in a group; you encourage each other. You know how it is in a team; each one plays better because of the quality of the play that’s going on around them. Well OK, a church is a team. A Christian community is a team, and we encourage each other to play better. So stay with the church; don’t go off on your own.

Share the gospel and your testimony with other people

And just get into the way of talking to those who will understand you about the Lord and his love and the life that you’re now living for him and about the Bible. Christians are talking about these things every day of their lives. Well, develop the habit, join the club. Walk with the Lord’s people as you walk with the Lord.

Rejoice in the Lord

And rejoice; you’ve found the secret of real life. And, I’ll tell you, it’ll get better and better and better all the way until you get to glory.