The most terrifying thing about God is…

 

How are you growing?

In a spiritual sense, as a Christian, how do you know if you or someone else is growing? For that matter, are you still growing or have you reached a plateau? What are the things you look for in your life to know whether it’s possible to grow any more or if it’s OK to not be growing?

A typical trajectory of Christian growth (as noted similarly by Andrew Hong) often looks something like:
New believers learn about Bible Stories, characters
Later: they study deeper doctrines, such as the trinity, predestination etc
Teacher: Then they get asked to lead a study, or have some regular involvement in a Sunday School or similar type of activity.
Leader: If they persist they might be asked to join a Committee or become a Coordinator of a Church ministry department.

At each stage, you acquire new skills and new information that need a kind of growth.

But, have you grown? Or have you instead, substituted information and skills for Spiritual growth?

In the region of ancient Galatia (near modern Turkey) some Christians in some Churches came to value external behaviour and theological knowledge more than internal Christ-like growth. This resulted in an elitism and exclusion of a sort that produced internal conflict and various expressions of arrogance in how they related to others that they didn’t consider to be on the same level.

After all, they reasoned, if you know more you must, of necessity, be more spiritual! To which the Apostle Paul replied, in the New Testament letter of Galatians – What a load of piffle! Well, actually he used much stronger language…

You see, the idea that you can improve on the basics of the Christian gospel with superior knowledge or added religious behaviours was anathema. Paul considered it an abomination for any addition to the gospel, or anything that involved constructing a system that demanded people follow a particular process or behavioural code as the way to get God’s blessing and favour.

We don’t help God save us or change us. As soon as we do that, we despise and cancel out God’s grace and we are saying that Jesus died for no purpose whatsoever.

What’s all that got to do with growing?

Too often, too many defraud themselves by exchanging the life altering (& often painful) growth in holiness, Christ-likeness, and fruit of the Spirit for an educational experience. They are deceived into thinking that memorizing a few verses from the Bible or knowing a few fancy theological words somehow excuses them from a life of denying yourself and losing yourself to Christ and the gospel.

So, how are you growing?

 

Mouthing Off

Paul describes those who talk the talk, but don’t walk the walk as arrogant. Their arrogance is rooted in their firmly held belief (and the lifestyle that flows out of it) that God’s approval is given to them because of their outward behaviour – regardless of the true condition of their heart. They are keeping up appearances, maintaining the external illusion of peace, harmony and unity whilst inside are enemies of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

… the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power ~ 1 Corinthians 4:20

You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’” ~ Matthew 15:7-9

This is the place to address those who, having nothing of Christ but the name and sign, would yet be called Christians. How dare they boast of this sacred name? … The Apostle denies that any man truly has learned Christ who has not learned to put off “the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and put on Christ,” (Eph. 4:22). They are convicted, therefore, of falsely and unjustly pretending a knowledge of Christ, whatever be the volubility and eloquence with which they can talk of the Gospel. Doctrine is not an affair of the tongue, but of the life; is not apprehended by the intellect and memory merely, like other branches of learning; but is received only when it possesses the whole soul, and finds its seat and habitation in the inmost recesses of the heart. Let them, therefore, either cease to insult God, by boasting that they are what they are not, or let them show themselves not unworthy disciples of their divine Master. Calvin Institutes 3.6.4

The means to avoid this superficiality is provided in Jesus Christ through the gospel. As you deepen your delight in Christ, not in your performance and not in your ability to manage your external reputation, you move from “talk” to the “power of the kingdom of God.” Let him be your deepest delight and highest allegiance.

 

Do you have all the answers?

‎”Jesus is asked 183 questions in the Gospels. He answers just three of them – and he asks 307 questions back.” (Don Everts and Doug Schaupp “I Once Was Lost” IVP, 2008)

Charles Stone also talks about the importance of a well placed question.

Good leaders ask good questions. What questions do you think are important?

 

Competitive Worship

As a kid you were involved in sibling or peer rivalries. You competed with your brothers, sisters and friends for attention. However, adults are much more sophisticated when it comes to attention seeking. When our friends, colleagues and coworkers don’t acknowledge us as better and superior we find a way to put them in their place. Or maybe we smile, nod and then stab them in the back because we prefer a passive aggressive approach and don’t love them enough to be direct.

James 4:1-2 “What causes fights and quarrels? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but you don’t get it.”

James says that a cause of conflict is competing desires to be worshipped. Our society teaches us instant gratification. When my needs conflict with your needs, we have trouble.

The gospel diffuses this competition because it places us on equal footing. No one is more deserving, than another, of God’s grace. Yet we jostle for attention and get offended that we are not the centre, because it offends our pride. We behave as though we do not believe the gospel. If we believingly trust in Jesus, then we are not offended by someone who is different (for whatever reason!) – instead, we can love them and work with them in spirit and purpose because God loves them and they belong to Jesus and need his forgiveness – JUST LIKE US.

What are some things you can do that will defuse competition with those closest to you this week?

 

Jesus Yes! Church No?

People have always been drawn to Jesus more than they have to whatever form established Christian convention takes. Whether the “tax collectors and sinners” of the 1st century or the hippy “Jesus-people” of the 1960′s, Jesus has always been considered more desirable or attractive than the Church supposedly filled with his followers. Now pontificate all you want about this being a false dichotomy, there is an important lesson to learn.

Tim Keller in The Prodigal God explains:

Jesus’s [sic] teaching consistently attracted the irreligious while offending the Bible-believing, religious people of his day. However, in the main, our churches today do not have this effect. The kind of outsiders Jesus attracted are not attracted to contemporary churches, even our most avant-garde ones. We tend to draw conservative, buttoned-down, moralistic people. The licentious and liberated or the broken and marginal avoid church. That can mean only one thing. If the preaching of our ministers and the practice of our parishioners do not have the same effect on people that Jesus had, then we must not be declaring the same message that Jesus did. If our churches aren’t appealing to [tax collectors and sinners], they must be more full of [pharisees and teachers of the law] than we’d like to think.

Ouch!