You may have been wondering what this Untrained Christian thing means. Funny thing is, so have I. My heart has always desired to be worthy of heaven, of God’s approval if you will, of a relationship with Jesus. If I were to be completely honest, I haven’t always been the best at making sense of that or putting it into action. Sometimes I struggle with knowing how to move, how to listen, how to hear God’s voice and be certain it is His. Other times I have gotten in my own way…my biggest enemies seem to be my self-doubt and my ego. That may sound contradictory, but I have a feeling each of us has some component of life where we feel completely qualified to tell people how right we are, and then we all have those areas of life where we feel totally inadequate, need reassurance, and are completely unsettled. Both can hold us back.

The name “Untrained Christian” came to me in a church service. It was one of those sermons I am positive I should have been better tuned into. For some reason, though, I couldn’t focus. The day prior to the church service, and that same morning, I had read some quick devotionals that just seemed to be leading me toward this moment. I have been reading a lot of faith based stuff lately. I have been searching for direction on what to do in response to God’s blessings in my life. All of a sudden, that day, I felt strongly that I needed to start blogging again, but this time I needed to take it to the next level. I had a blog on another site. In those blogs I took on the role of encourager and didn’t write more than a handful of blogs before I was done. With this, I am feeling the need to stay in a very focused direction…write from a biblical place rather than with my own agenda.

In the church service, as I wasn’t listening and my mind was racing, I kept hearing this “Untrained Christian” phrase going through my head. I wasn’t sure where this was supposed to lead, but that day I sat down, took the plunge, and followed my heart into where this has evolved today…pretty much no where yet, but if God uses it to speak to me I am grateful. If He uses it to speak to you, even better.

Back to the point, the Untrained Christian represents lots of things that I am still exploring. This is what I know about this phrase so far:

  • I love God. I am a Christian.
  • I don’t claim to have a degree in anything a minister would have studied.
  • There are lots of people in the world willing to give their opinion, trained or untrained. What you will get here isn’t necessarily all about my opinion, but I do claim to be someone exploring what God is trying to tell me, just in a very forward facing way.
  • I don’t have all the right things to say, and I will likely misinterpret something unintentionally. I think it is most important for you to know how much I try to just listen before I write.
  • This is not an undermining of the work that has been done by others, namely those who are trained and those who have made this their life in every aspect of the word. Please never assume such a thing.
  • If you are looking for what God is saying to you, you need to do some exploration of your own. I am not trained in interpreting anything correctly, having historical knowledge of the Nile, nor do I speak Hebrew/Greek/Latin. I have not had manna or a tour of Jerusalem.
  • Nothing qualifies me to write a blog about faith other than the fact that I believe.
  • To be untrained means to admit I am in that vulnerable place where I can’t rely on my expertise. It means I know there is a plethora of material out there much better at this than mine.
  • The perspective I hope you don’t find here is that you have to know a certain amount of religious speak or biblical history in order to feel you’re qualified to read this. God loves you no matter where you are and what you know.
  • This is my perspective of the Word through an untrained eye. I don’t do this without inspiration from other sources. I never copy anything. I do find inspiration everywhere.

Another goal for this blog is to give biblical context to the topic I am writing about. Let’s look at one here:

Romans 9:30-33 NLT

30 What does all this mean? Even though the Gentiles were not trying to follow God’s standards, they were made right with God. And it was by faith that this took place.

31 But the people of Israel, who tried so hard to get right with God by keeping the law, never succeeded.
32 Why not? Because they were trying to get right with God by keeping the law instead of by trusting in him. They stumbled over the great rock in their path.
33 God warned them of this in the Scriptures when he said, “I am placing a stone in Jerusalem that makes people stumble, a rock that makes them fall. But anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.”
What does this mean as an Untrained Christian? This passage speaks to me because so many people tried to get this life right, with good intentions and with lots of training, but that doesn’t mean they do. I always have that sneaky suspicion that I am missing the big picture, that I haven’t done my due diligence, asked the right questions, done enough thinking around a subject. I don’t want that to be the story of my faith.
In this passage, people had rocks in their path. Much like you and me, we get distracted or off track because of all the rocks that make us fall. The most freeing thought lies within the end of that last verse…”But anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.” I think what that might mean is that untrained or trained, if we are truly trying to deliver love to God’s people, honor God’s will, and bring God the glory, he will not let us be in that place at the end of this life where we wonder if we missed something. I may not be credentialed, but God’s love transcends knowledge, so why should we limit ourselves to only learning from the experts. Let’s do some searching of our own. Let’s be living this life in preparation for our death – which will mean life. Let’s do this God’s way – not ours, not our neighbor’s, not our pastor’s. All of those have their place and significance in our lives. For now, let’s dial in to what’s between you and God, breathe that in, and let Him speak…no manipulation, no overthinking, untrained, and willing.

3 thoughts

  1. “Untrained and willing.” How many times has the “untrained” part been used as a reason to not be “willing”? I have used that as an excuse. I have also flown into things without a clue and nothing but God as my parachute. I just think of the phrase of a song “Little is much when God is in it.”

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  2. When I started being a kids ministry leader at my church, I was terrified & felt very untrained and still do, it’s been about 4 years or so that I have been doing it (feels like 2) But God has been by my side the whole time, while I try to figure it out, I am pretty sure that this has been my saving grace. The odd part about it, although I know I have failed at different times, my kid count has grown & God continues to put them in my path.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a comment