Questions & Answers
You have asked us so many great questions that we want to share them with you! If you desire an answer to a spritual question, please feel free to send us an email. If you desire to remain anonymous, we will keep your name private. We know that by sharing, we will help others for God through Good News Ministries!
July 2010 - Church-Goer Makes Me A Christian?
Dear Judy,
A high school classmate tells me that it’s okay if she parties, gets drunk, and sleeps with her boyfriend because she goes to church. She says she won't go to hell because she asks God to forgive her. On the other hand, she tells me that I’ll go to hell for doing these things because I don't go to church. This doesn’t sound right to me. Is that why people go to church? Is church the difference between a Christian and a non-Christian? --Confused
Dear Confused,
I would be confused too if I had someone telling me this silly nonsense. Christians go to church to praise and worship the Lord, and to receive what God is speaking through the message given. If a person is just listening to the words and not hearing with their heart, their moral character won’t be changed. But hearing the truth of the Bible will cause positive changes in our life.
Years ago I listened to how Jesus died on the cross for my sin. I knew I was a sinner and needed to repent of my sin and ask Jesus to come into my life, but I did nothing about it. I did not repent nor ask. Some years later, when I went from listening to hearing, I repented of my sin and asked Jesus to be my Savior. I believed God’s Word: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). That was 25 years ago when I responded and my life changed!
Your classmate is right in one sense. God does forgive us for immoral behavior, but our motive must be sincere. We must REPENT from our heart and not just be sorry we got caught! God’s grace doesn’t mean we can go on repeating immoral behavior before God, repent, and then do it again as if our behavior didn’t matter. Repentance means that you turn from the wrong doing toward God and His ways.
Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than living in a garage makes you a car! In the same way, not going to church doesn’t mean necessarily that you are condemned and headed for hell. Church is not the deciding factor between heaven and hell.
Some people believe if they are baptized with water, they are going to heaven, or if their parents are Christians, they too are headed for heaven. NOT so! This is not biblical nor is it the deciding factor of heaven and hell. Jesus Christ is the deciding factor and what you do with who He is and why He came and died on that cross is the deciding factor!
The Bible says, “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:17) and that “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9,10).
The Bible also says we will know a Christian by the fruit in his life. Getting drunk and fornicating is certainly not the fruit of a saved person. Yes, a Christian can make a mistake and allow the flesh to overrule a moral decision, but a lifestyle of immorality is not what a Christian looks like.
Heaven and hell are real places and one can’t live like hell on this earth and go to heaven! I don’t care if they go to church every day of the week, just because someone says they are a Christian doesn’t make it true! I hope this helps to clear your confusion. I also pray that you will take heaven and hell seriously. I ask you to re-read the Scriptures in this letter and receive Jesus as your personal Savior and Lord! Be heaven bound!
Do you have a question that you would like answered? Submit questions to baus1@juno.com or pceditor@pcrecordtimes.com attention Dr. Judy Baus.
June 2010 - Tired of My Ho-Hum Life by Dr. Judy Baus
Dear Judy,
I’m feeling extremely down and have been for some time. Our economy scares me. If I lost my job, I wouldn’t be able to pay even one month’s rent. It’s not only the economy and bills. I can’t seem to force myself to do anything I don’t absolutely have to. They say you should find someone to help and then you’ll feel better, but I don’t give a rip about people anymore. I hate feeling this way. I try reading the Bible but it’s just words on a page. I’m just going through the motions of living. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not suicidal. I’m just tired of living like this.
Dear Tired of Living,
Yes, I do have some suggestions for you. You say you read the Bible, so are you a born-again Christian? The key I see is that it is NEVER a waste of time to read the word of God. It may feel like it at the time, but here’s what God says about it:
“For as the rain comes down and the snow from heaven, and do not return there. But water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall MY WORD be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55: 10,11).
You see, it does not matter what you feel like, God’s Word is true. Feelings are fickle. Look at your own life. You’ve not always felt this down in the dumps, nor will you always feel this way, I pray. Feelings are changeable, but the Word of God is not! His Word is the truth you need to hang on to. When you read the word of God with this understanding, you’ll eventually see just how big your God is compared to your situation. There is no situation too big for the Lord Jesus Christ to handle.
When you read the Bible, remember you’re not reading a fairy tale. It’s a divinely inspired book about real people who lived on earth and faced very hard times themselves, and how they came through with God’s help. The Holy Spirit inspired select individuals to write the Bible for our edification, reproving, correcting, and inspiration. Through it God shows His people how to keep going forward until their journey here is over! Read the Bible in this way and it will come to life for you.
Yes the economy is scary; a lot of things in our country are scary. This is the time for Christians to rise up and remember to Whom we belong. We’re just pilgrims on this earth. Jesus said we’ll have tribulations because we’re in the world, but that He has overcome the world. He also says for us not to worry six times in Mathew 6:25-34. Worry is a choice and when we allow worry to consume us, it will turn to anxiety. The Apostle Paul says in Philippians 4:6 “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.” Proverbs 12:25 says, “Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression.” If we do not get worry out of our thought life, it will turn into anxiety and if we allow it to get into our heart, it will cause depression.
You sound depressed and you need to make sure you are getting enough sleep. If my suggestions do not seem to help, please go see a doctor. The Key is to stop negativity, doubt, and disbelief by thinking God-thoughts… how great the almighty God is. Tell yourself daily, “God is for my highest good and no matter what is happening, I will focus on God’s greatness and love for me.” Before long, you will develop a stronghold of faith and hope instead of one of despair and distress.
Who you run with is who will influence your life. Seek out a Christian friend who reads, believes, and obeys God’s Word. Talk and pray with him or her. This kind of friend will build you up and want to see you grow in the Lord.
When I look around and see devastations everywhere I look UP and know the Lord is returning soon; then I look around and remember that God called me out of my darkness and that it is my job to help others out of their darkness and into HIS marvelous light. This is never a waste of your time and life!
Dr. Judy Baus and her husband Vic, who was born and raised in Wheatland, left their “ordinary” jobs in 1991 to attend Bible school. After graduation, they started Good News Ministries, Inc. and travel throughout the United States in their motorhome preaching the Good News, binding up the brokenhearted, and meetings needs as God provides along the way. Judy has written two books—her testimony “From Rags to Riches” and “Faith, Does It Really Move Mountains?" Both books are available at Huffer Food Pride and in your local bookstore or online bookstores.