maturity

Waiting on God’s Promises – VOTD.03.12.18

The One who began this glorious work  in you will faithfully continue the process of maturing you and will put his finishing touches to it until the unveiling of our Lord Jesus Christ!  Philippians 1:6

A common question when considering the promises of God is, “Why haven’t my promises come to pass yet?” What does it mean when the gap only seems to widen between promise we’ve received and promise fulfilled? And what do we do with the time in between?

Often, when we find ourselves waiting for God to fulfill some promise He’s given, it means that God is creating a new level of partnership and fellowship with us – and you and I are invited to join Him. He’s making us able to receive the fulfillment of the promise – capable of handling the responsibility that goes along with any of the gifts that He gives us.

And sometimes when we find ourselves waiting a long time for God to fulfill His promises, we become distracted from those promises. We remember them, but we’ve stopped actively agreeing and aligning our hearts with God’s intention. When we do that, we step out of the place of agreement that He has for us and lose some of the and fullness that is needed to walk out His promises.

So how do we rediscover and realign with God’s gifts of promise?
1) Hear the unchanging commitment of God in His promises. Dwell on His loving commitment to keep fulfilling in us all that He promises, just as today’s verse promises us. (more…)

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Life in the Vineyard – VOTD.04.03.17

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ…If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.  1 Corinthians12:12,26

Last time we were talking about nurturing new believers and used Paul’s analogy of a mother nursing a child. Another metaphor that might help, is vineyards. Jesus used this in talking about vines and vine-dressers (Jn 15).

Sure, having a healthy vineyard includes weeding out the ugly, and often that’s all the help people will get from their more entrenched churchmates because it’s all we can see. But nurturing Christians can see a lot more and go much further.

A nurturing vinedresser can take the newly-growing shoots and attach them to a trellis so they can get the support sunshine and watering they need to grow higher, stronger, and more fruitful. Otherwise, the newbie might just wallow in the dirt and never go anywhere.

And while the nurturing person might do some weeding, too, they are also backfilling. Like Jesus’ warning about chasing out a demon and leaving the host clean but EMPTY, we often find that Christian discipleship programs are good at ‘weeding’ out the ugly in the lives of people we minister to, but leave craters in their place—like an open invitation for seven-times worse problems in the future (Lk 11:26) if we aren’t backfilling the hole that left with Jesus.

Hurt people are often the ones who are drawn to Jesus. He offers solutions they know they need. But hurt people have a real knack at getting themselves into situations where they will be hurt again and again. Nurturing disciple-makers know that removing the weeds from hurting people’s lives is not enough. (more…)

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Got Milk? – VOTD.04.03.17

I could not address you as spiritual, but as worldly—as infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink and I did not give you solid food, for you were not yet ready for solid food. 1 Corinthians 3:1,2

I have a Facebook friend who has been defining ‘Christian words’ and phrases you might be used to if you grew up in church, but are meaningless, or apt to be crazily misunderstood, by a non-believer or a new believers who come into our midst.

Done in a humorous way, it underscores just how comfortable we can be with an entire lexicon of church terminology that are lost in the translation for those who haven’t been filled in along the way. One of those terms is ‘disciple’ as in what we are (or should be) as Christians.

So what’s a disciple? A disciple is someone who finds their entire identity, purpose and meaning in Jesus. Jesus is the center of their lives. They are all in, fully committed to Jesus.

Now obviously, most newly-churched people don’t fit that definition… they don’t even know the definition. Sadly, many who have been in the Christian faith a long time don’t know it either. So to counteract that, we have something we call discipling.

‘Discipling’ can be traced to ‘succor’ which is an old fashion term for nursing (as in nursing a baby). This is what Paul was talking about in today’s verse. He’s been discipling these new believers with milk-like truths, easy to deal with. Early on they were babies in the faith and needed to be cared for like spiritual babies if they are going to become mature followers of Jesus. That’s the ministry of discipling in a nutshell. (more…)

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Returning to Our First Love in 2017 pt 2 – VOTD.01.24.17

You have forsaken your first love. Revelation 2:4

 

“The good is ever the enemy of the best.” Think about it. Even in military warfare, an opponent will allow their enemy to win a series of small skirmishes to distract them from readiness for the big battle. They’re so busy taking and occupying acres that they miss the enemy advance on miles. Our enemy employs this tactic against Christians all the time. It’s one of the enemy’s oldest schemes.

However, the Bible tells us that we are not unaware of our enemy’s schemes. Wherever God is at work, you can be certain that the devil is not far behind. He is our enemy who like a roaring lion is seeking whoever he can devour. One of the enemy’s more common schemes is to “defeat us with victory.”

In the context of today’s verse, Jesus applauds his followers in Ephesus for many things: they were serving, discerning, and persevering (vv. 2-3). They were ministering to the practical needs around them; they pursued the truth of good doctrine with care; they faced opposition with diligence, standing firm in their faith. So what’s the problem? (more…)

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Returning to Our First Love in 2017 pt 1 – VOTD.01.23.17

As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. 1 Peter 2:2,3

Some of us can remember what it was like when we were new to the Christian faith; that’s why I always feel a little awkward thinking about “returning to (my) first love”. I’m afraid my “first-love” days were pretty uninspiring. But I’ve learned something along the way…

Returning to our first love isn’t so much becoming a Bible-ignorant newbie again, but growing in true and deep intimacy and passion for the Jesus we once had a superficial (though real) crush on. Babies aren’t supposed to be adults. They have diapers—lots of diapers. They are self-focused. They need constant attention and lots of milk—and spit up a lot of the milk that their caregivers so selflessly supply. That’s all as it should be—for babies. For spiritual babes, too.

But babies don’t just turn into adults one day—not without going through childhood and adolescence. Those teen years can be pretty tough…and when they finally find themselves out in the “real world” with “adult” plastered on their foreheads they’re still growing up, really. (more…)

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Growing in the Image of Jesus – VOTD.08.22.16

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son. Romans 8:29

There are a lot of reasons why Christians listen to one teacher or another. Some Christian authors appeal to some groups of people better than others. Some of us like humor, others want exciting stories or erudite language.

But by-and-large, the purpose of our reading or listening to Christian teaching is so that our eyes will be opened—that we’ll discover the truth more clearly—that we’ll be changed by the information imparted. God’s truth never changes, but our understanding of it does change and should change as we grow closer to Him, and the Spirit conforms us more and more to His image.

As the Holy Spirit enlarges us as Christians to receive more of what God has for us, we become ready for deeper teaching. Truths that might have just passed over us with a nod five years ago now go off like fireworks in our spirits. The eyes of our hearts are further opened and we see spiritual things more clearly. (more…)

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The Holiness Measure: Maturity (pt 2) – VOTD.07.19.16

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. (Col 3:1-3)

Last time we concluded that in Jesus we can walk in freedom, not because we can’t sin anymore, but because we now CAN walk in holiness. Freedom is another way of saying we have been separated from (hate) our sin.

In the same way, “hating sin” (being separated from sin) is not a matter of will. When we encounter the cross of Jesus and we find that we are are crucified with Him we find we are now living at this moment by the same resurrection power that raised Jesus from the dead. This cannot be accomplished through human effort. Hating sin (being separated from sin) is a natural consequence of knowing and loving God.

When I talk about this with other Christians, some know exactly what I’m saying and others have this look of incredulity or “whatever works for you…”. They don’t seem to be able to relate to it in their personal experience. (more…)

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The Holiness Measure: Maturity (pt 1) – VOTD.07.18.16

What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means!… But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. Romans 6:15-18

There’s an internet meme that says: I’m not a human being having a spiritual experience. I’m a spiritual being having a human experience. I’m not sure the origin of that was entirely Christian but it speaks to a truth that less mature Christians often miss.

In fact, less mature Christians nearly always get the matter of holiness wrong because (as I mentioned earlier in this series) we usually see maturity as something we do, rather than something that we are. So we can fake a lot of Christian behavior and often Christian teachers encourage this “behavior modification” approach to “Christian” living on young believers rather than the transformation from the inside that God wants for each of us. (more…)

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The Love Measure: Maturity (pt 2) – VOTD.07.12.16

Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. So the law was our guardian… Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.  Galatians 3:23-25

We’re talking about loving God and its relationship to Christian maturity. A child is little more than a slave until he or she comes of age. A guardian directs their lives (Gal 4: 1-7). The rules Paul scatters through his writings are like that. They take care of us and show us the way when we are immature. But with maturity comes the freedom of loving God more exclusively and passionately, so that “Love God and do as you please” becomes no longer a phrase, flippantly thrown around to get what we want, but a truth that is manifested in our lives.

For example, when we love our children, we take care of their needs, protect them, even do things to bring them pleasure… Now, at the same time there are some government laws to protect children, but they are totally unnecessary if we love our children. We don’t need those laws. (more…)

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The Love Measure: Maturity (pt 1) – VOTD.07.13.16

“‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.  A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:37-40

Summarizing Jesus words in today’s verses, Augustine said, “Love God and do whatever you please: for the soul trained in love to God will do nothing to offend the One who is Beloved.”

Great words. True words. Something inside me resonates with these often-quoted words…and saddens me a little, too. And I think, if only we could pull it off better. We seem to do a lot better at the “do as you please” part of Augustine’s famous quote, than the “love God” part. And this is compounded because the pandemicly shallow grasp of loving God among His people.

It seems like the phrase is more often used to justify what we want to do than to describe the life of a passionate lover of God. (more…)

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