Booklet 01: Principles for New Life with Jesus

Welcome to the family of God at Calvary Chapel Palos Verdes! When Jesus called His first disciples, we see in Matt. 4:19 that He did so by saying “Come, follow Me.” Today, nearly 2000 years later, He still calls people to Himself the same personal way – with an invitation to follow Him. Before we came to Jesus, we were all following someone or something else, so this is an invitation to a new way of living that begins now, but which lasts for all eternity. The intent of this booklet is to introduce you to some principles from God’s Word, the Bible, which we believe will be helpful to you in learning and growing in your walk with Jesus.

By accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior, some amazing things have happened to you. All of your sins (the things we do that go against God’s ways and fall short of His holiness) have been forgiven. You have become a child of God, and have been justified and made right in God’s sight. He has given you eternal life, and has placed the Holy Spirit inside of you to transform you and make you more like Jesus. You are now on a journey with Him that will one day safely bring you home to Him in Heaven, where you will enjoy His presence forever.

This booklet will introduce you to a few key principles which are foundational to life with Jesus. Since the Bible is our only completely reliable source of authority for anything about God or how He intends for us to live, we will start with a look at some of the things that the Bible declares about itself. Then, we will look at the topics of Sin and Salvation, the Holy Spirit, and Prayer. Our sincere hope is that this will help you as you embark on your life with Jesus.

Booklet 02: An Introduction to the Attributes of God

The Christian life is a life-long process of walking with Jesus so as to be more like Him, whom Hebrews 12:2 says is the author and perfecter of our faith.  Rom. 8:29 tells us that if you are a Christian, God has chosen you to be conformed to the image of His Son.  Through some of the things you studied in Vol. 1 of Foundations of Faith, such as God’s Word, an understanding of Sin & Salvation, the Holy Spirit, and Prayer, God is always at work in the life of a believer to mature us and make us more like Jesus.  In this Booklet, we will examine some of God’s character attributes which should enlighten us as to the true nature of God, and motivate us to pursue Him more, and to grow deeper in our faith.

God has numerous attributes, all of which tell us something about His character.  Knowing them and becoming familiar with them will help us grow in our understanding of God and our faith in Him.  Some of His attributes are what are called “communicable”, which means that to some degree they can be learned, developed, and put into practice by us as His children.   Some examples of the communicable attributes of God would be Holiness and Love, which His Word clearly calls us to pursue and live out.  In Leviticus 11:44-45, as well as several other places in the Old Testament, and in 1 Pet. 1:16, we are told to be Holy, because God is Holy.   Heb. 12:14 tells us to strive for or pursue holiness.  In John 13:34, Jesus tells us to love one another, as He has loved us, and that this is one of the ways that people will know that we are His followers.

Other attributes of God, such as His omniscience and omnipotence are reserved for Him alone and are thus referred to as “incommunicable” attributes of His.  Deut. 29:29 tells us that there are certain things that are secret to God, and that rather than concern ourselves with them, we should focus on doing or living out the things about Him which we do understand.  Many verses in Scripture speak of God’s immense power.  Ps. 145:3 says, “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable”, and Ps. 145:5 says, “Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; His understanding is beyond measure.”  Our strength and our knowledge will be increased in Him and by Him, but we will never be all-powerful or all-knowledgeable like Him.  Those are attributes reserved for Him alone.

Yet even though some of God’s attributes are incommunicable, knowing of them will still help build our faith.  His omniscience, or ability to know all things, enables and encourages us to turn to him for counsel and wisdom.  His omnipotence, which tells us that He is all powerful, enables and encourages us to trust in Him no matter in what circumstance or difficulty we find ourselves.  Col. 2:3 tells us that “all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” are found in Christ.   Is 9:6 tells us that He is our “Wonderful Counselor” and “Mighty God.”  Part of why He is our Wonderful Counselor is that He is also our Mighty God, so that unlike any human counselor, He has the power and ability to do something about the problems and issues in our lives when we seek counsel from Him about them.  The best thing, therefore, that any human counselor can do for us, is to bring us to Jesus who is the One in whom all wisdom and knowledge is found and who is our Wonderful Counselor and Mighty God.  That is the intent and goal of this booklet.

With these thoughts in mind, we will now examine and reflect upon God’s Holiness, His Love, His Sovereignty, and His Immutability.  In each section, we will 1st learn something from Scripture about each of these attributes of God, and then will explore how it should affect us.

Booklet 03: Sharing The Gospel

The word “Gospel” means good news.  In most contexts good news is something that people who have it want to share, and that those who hear it are glad to hear.  Yet, when it comes to the good news of salvation freely offered by faith in Jesus, many Christians are afraid to share it, and many non-believers often don’t want to hear it.  The purpose of this Booklet is to encourage believers that sharing their faith can be a very natural part of their lives, and that God has given all believers several powerful and effective tools to help them do so.

All of us have loved ones or good friends that we have no problem telling others about.  The more we grow in our relationship with and love for Jesus, the easier we will be able to share Him with others.  When Jesus called His 1st Disciples in Matt. 4:19, He said, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” It is in the process of following Jesus and growing in our relationship with Him, that He will turn us into people who have the desire and ability to tell others about Him.  The more we grow in our relationship with Him, the more we will love Him, and the more we will find ourselves just naturally sharing Him with others

The reason Jesus called us was not just for our own benefit of being saved, but so that He could also transform us into fishers of men who would go out and call others to salvation also.  There is a principle which can be found in many places in Scripture that when God blesses us, He does so for the purpose of us then sharing that blessing with others.  When God called Abram (later known as Abraham) in Gen. 12:1, He then said to Abram in the next verse, “I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing.”   When Jesus spoke in John 7:37-39 of the promise of the indwelling Holy Spirit, He said “rivers of living water” would flow out of our hearts, not that it would be dammed up inside of us just for our own benefit.   So, we as the church were created as a group of followers of Jesus, not just for the sake of ourselves who are already part of it, but also for the sake of those who are not part of it yet.

God could have chosen to spread the Gospel through any means.  He could have decided to have angels shout it forth from Heaven, but except for the night that Jesus was born on the earth, He has generally not done so.  His primary means of sharing the Gospel is for those who have received it to go and tell others about it.  Scripture is full of examples of this.  Luke 2:17 tells us that the shepherds who heard the angels on that first Christmas night, went and told others about it.  We see in John 1:40-41 that after Andrew decided to follow Jesus, the first thing he did was to go and tell his brother, Peter, about Jesus.  After a Samaritan woman encountered Jesus in John 4 and realized in John 4:26 that He is the Messiah, we see in John 4:28-30 that she went into her town and started telling other people about Him.  Jesus gave His disciples the Great Commission in Matt. 28:19-20 to go and make disciples of all nations.  And Acts 1:8 tells us that right before He ascended back to the Father in heaven, He told them that they would receive the power of the Holy Spirit to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth.  So, part of being a follower of Jesus is to tell others about Him.

The Great Commission is not a suggestion.  It is a commandment, but obeying it should not be burdensome.  It should be a regular part of our lives as Christians.  It is not just for a few people set aside as full time missionaries.  Rather, it is for everyone who is a follower of Jesus.  It says, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

The words “Go therefore” are often misunderstood to mean that living out the Great Commission necessarily involves going to a far away land to share the gospel with people in a foreign culture who speak a foreign language.  While it may at times involve that, the words actually convey in Greek a sense of doing this “as you are going.”  Therefore, living out the Great Commission is first and foremost meant to be something that we all do as part of our regular everyday life.  This makes it much like the Hebrew “shema” found in Deut. 6:7 where Jewish parents were told to teach their children about the Lord throughout the day when they rise up, while they are at home, while they are going about their regular daily activities, and when they lie down.  God wants all of His people to live missionally. Finally, note that the Great Commission ends with the assurance that Jesus is with us at all times, including when we are sharing our faith.

We need to realize that our salvation was not just about us but was part of God’s plan to use us to bring others to Himself through faith in His Son.  There is great joy in heaven every time someone repents and is saved (Luke 15:7).  The Bible shows us in Rev. 7:9-10 that in Heaven there will be a huge crowd, so large that they cannot even be numbered, who will be worshipping God for the salvation that He gives through Jesus.  So, we were saved, in part, to be God’s instruments to gather this great crowd together so that there will be as many people as possible worshipping Him forever in Heaven.

Physical copies of these booklets are available for you ahead of courses starting, pick one up in the lobby.

You can also access the digital version here: calvarypalosverdes.com/resources