To read Part Three, click here.

They didn't have a chance—or so it seems. Some people don't seem to get a chance and I want to mention this one because it's one of the saddest situations facing Christians today. This condition of "abandonment" has been caused by a shortage of spiritual fathers and mothers ... as well as by an independent, "I'll do it myself" attitude that plagues our society. This "abandonment" has created a variety of spiritual eating disorders.

The goal.
When a person is born again, the goal is that they eventually reach a place of being independently, dependent upon the Lord. But first, it's likely that they will be dependent upon their church, pastor or a more mature Christian to help feed them, to answer their questions, to help them grow and develop. Unfortunately, a sense of abandonment has plagued newborn Christians.

What is abandonment? It is the baby Christian—the newborn—left to fend for themselves. It's the baby alone. Can you imagine what would happen to a newborn baby if they were abandoned soon after their birth? What if the mother, father, doctor, nurse or some mature, compassionate person did not feed that baby. What would happen? The baby would die!

If by some miracle, the baby lived and found a way to scavenge food—can you guess what types of things they would put in their mouths? Everything! Babies, without supervision, put EVERYTHING in their mouths! They'll eat a little bit of cracker crumb on the carpet, they lick a little bit of spilled pop on the kitchen floor, they eat a paper clip and mouse poison if they can read it ... anything they can get their hands on goes in their mouth. This is dangerous for any baby or toddler.

This happens every day for newborn Christians! What happens to a baby Christian who does not have a "mother or father" in the faith? What if they don't have an older, more mature believer in their life to help "feed" them. What happens to the believer who does not attend church and sit under an anointed Pastor and Bible teacher? They struggle. They backslide. Their growth is stunted. They have issues.

We've watched it happen. Here's what happens ... if by some miracle that new Christian doesn't backslide and fall away, then that newborn baby begins to put everything in their mouths! They'll eat a little bit of Bible, a little bit of New Age, a little bit of Hindu, a little bit of humanism and pretty soon they've eaten too much poison and toxic spiritual food and they become another Christian statistic. Another person who "prayed the prayer," but never had a chance ... they were never spoon-fed or given a healthy spiritual diet. This is so sad.

Over the years, we've seen person after person "pray the prayer" or "walk the aisle" and then if they are not taught and discipled by an older more mature "mom or dad' in the faith—they struggle. They backslide. They drift. Baby Christians need the basics! New believers and young believers need the basic essentials! It's tragic to see a believer who has missed "spiritual phonics."

They've never been taught the "abc's" and they live the hit or miss Christian life. Often we'll see a Christian try to attend a Bible class that is at the 3rd, 7th or 10th grade level—spiritually—and since they don't have the basics down; they just shoot in the dark! They know just enough to be dangerous! They have a shot glass of info about the antichrist and the end times, they've gotten one dose of the gifts of the Spirit and they are full of rhetorical questions like: Who was Cain's wife? Did the angels marry humans and create giants? Did dinosaurs dwell with men? Why is this happening? What's wrong with this picture? These dear baby Christians were abandoned! They never had that big brother or big sister come along side of them learn spiritual phonics! They didn't get the abc's and were never given a chance to ask their spiritual mom or dad those rhetorical questions.

Where are the spiritual moms and dads? Where are the fathers and mothers in the faith? Where are the teachers? Hebrews 5:12-14 describes this sad state:

"You have been Christians a long time now, and you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things a beginner must learn about the Scriptures. You are like babies who drink only milk and cannot eat solid food. And a person who is living on milk isn't very far along in the Christian life and doesn't know much about doing what is right. Solid food is for those who are mature, who have trained themselves to recognize the difference between right and wrong and then do what is right." (NLT)

What about you? Should you be teaching others by now? Are you still a baby who needs to be taught? Locate yourself and get busy!

I had a dream once that startled me and challenged me. In the dream I was on a big party boat heading out to deep waters. Everyone on the boat was having a great time and some would jump off the boat to swim in the deep waters and splash around. Suddenly it seemed like the boat got into a storm and hit some rocks, I looked back towards the shore and I saw our youngest son, a toddler at the time, starting walk out into the water and I could tell that he was going to try to swim out to our boat. I realized that there was no way he could swim and he would never make it to the boat. If I didn't rescue him he would drown! Immediately I jumped off the boat and began to swim back to shallow waters to help him and all the babies. If the babies don't learn to swim, they will drown! It was my responsibility—as it is every mature Christian's responsibility—to help these babies!

So, let me challenge you: determine if you are a basically healthy, maturing Christian—free from spiritual eating disorders. If you are, then my challenge is this: what babies are you feeding? What babies are you teaching to swim? Isn't it time you start making up bottles of the Word of God and start feeding baby Christians the pure milk of the Word?

To read Part Five, click here.

Copyright © 2007 Beth Jones Ministries All rights reserved.