In Mark 10, Jesus happened upon a blind fellow, begging on the street leading into Jericho. The man called out to Jesus and Jesus called the man to Himself. Then, Jesus said, “What do you want me to do for you?” [Mark 10:51]. At that moment, time was suspended. Every option lay before the blind man. Like an audience watching a contestant in a game show, the crowd waited to see how he would answer.
Not surprisingly, the man responded, “I want to see.” He wasn’t afraid to ask Jesus for what only Jesus could give. That’s intentionality.
Spiritual growth isn’t automatic. If we don’t stand to our feet and seek Jesus to change us, it will likely not happen. We learned last week that spiritual growth does happen incidentally—along the way—without us even noticing it. But most growth is the result of us taking responsibility to join God in our own spiritual transformation.
Years ago, when I discipled college young men, I would often take them to 1 Corinthians 13:11, “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.” Then, I would ask my group, “Do you still live like a child or have you become a man?” True, much of our physical maturity was incidental—beyond our control. But, in the spiritual life, we grow from childhood to adult by actively seeking our spiritual transformation.
What do you think? Are you a child or an adult? What are you doing to “grow up?” If Jesus asked you, “What do you want?” how would you respond?
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9 comments:
What are you doing to “grow up?”
Great question...One thing I do is to read books that address specific areas of personal spiritual growth. Over the years I have been challenged, mentored, exhorted and taught by many godly men and women as they have penned their ideas and thoughts for others to glean from. For me, reading has stretched my thinking and forced me to evaluate and examine my beliefs. I have been confronted on many levels with addressing how my beliefs translated into my life.
I would never place any of these books on a par with the inspired Word of God. I believe you should most often go to the source of Truth to be transformed...as Jesus said to the Father in John 17:17, "Sanctify (make them holy) by the truth. Your Word is truth." But if you are serious about growing in your faith and practice, then I would strongly encourage every believer to take advantage of the wonderful resources that can be found at your local Christian bookstore. If you don't know what to choose...ask someone whose spiritual life you admire what they would recommend. Or stop by the Connection Bookstore at church on Sunday and see what's available.
I'd be very interested in hearing from others...What book or books have you read that God has used in a mighty way to take you further in your spiritual transformation?
The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges
"Jerry takes holiness out of the realm of the impossible and brings it into the real world of our daily lives and decisions. Whether you’re continuing your pursuit of holiness or just beginning, the principles and guidelines in The Pursuit of Holiness will challenge you to obey God’s command of holiness."
(...this was taken from an online review from Navpress.)
We spend a lot of time talking about how to develop ourselves as Christians, how to become "more like Christ'. We attend Church on Sunday, we go to community groups and home groups, we read our bibles and we pray.
All of these things are good things, and we do them with good intentions. But I often think we don't have the first clue about what it costs to be like Jesus.
All of the above activities are easy and comfortable. Granted it takes time, effort and discipline to do them regularly. They will provide more knowledge, allow us to be in community with others and open up a channel of communication with the Lord.
But rarely do we actually see the world as Christ saw it. There is more pain in this world, more injustice and unfairness that most people ever see or understand.
Yes, we serve at the shelters and participate in one activity or another to help the needs of the less fortunate. But how often do we really get our hands dirty? How often do we spend the time to get to know the people who we are helping? I think when you do this you begin to see what Christ saw.
But then the other problem creeps in. When you take the time to dig deeper you begin to realize the magnitude of the pain and suffering in people's lives. And the issue is not only that is it deep but it is vast and widespread.
And you realize there is no way to fix it all. You would be lucky to fix one person and yet that is like a drop of water in the ocean.
So when we discuss being intentional how do we lead and teach our church that getting out of our comfort zone is not simply making ourselves available to talk about Christ. It calls for us to suffer as he did and therefore to invest ourselves an to thrust ourselves into the pain of others, and not for the short term, the in-and-out, but for the long term?
Anonymous,
I really appreciate your insight and passion. I agree that living like Christ means that we embrace the WHOLE life of Christ--His character, His mind and His lifestyle. The Son of Man didn't come to be served but to serve [Mark 10:45], Jesus came "to the least of these" [Matthew 25] and suffered even to the point of death [Philippians 2:5-11].
At the same time, I see discipleship as a process. Students do not instantly become imitators of their master. It takes time. No doubt, some Christians have been educated and "fellowshipped" beyond their means or needs, but many others are still very much still on the way...and making headway.
I think alot of responsibility comes back to the way churches have been doing church for a long time. For a long time, evangelical Christianity has held up head knowledge as the test of spiritual maturity. You know, "notebook Christianity." But, of course, knowledge can puff up [it doesn't HAVE to puff up, but it can].
Recently there has been counter movement in the church that suggests that discipleship is all about "mission." Just get out and live like Jesus. As noble as it sounds, it neglects that belief and action are married. Jesus came full of grace AND truth. I can name quite of cults and social agencies doing "good deeds" with wrong ideologies.
So, the church's idea of discipleship has often been imbalanced. Swing to the left, swing to the right. I humbly think its an interweaving of head, heart and hands. This is why our community model makes sense when it operates as it is designed. When God's people, in community, learn and grow together, they express the life of Christ into their larger community in practical, sacrificial ways. As God changes our values and our virtues, He makes us to live as change agents in our world.
OK....I'm rambling. If anything, I thought it would add some fodder to the trough for us to chew on. I'd appreciate any more comments.
"OK..... I'd appreciate any more comments"
Really?? Do you mean that??
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WARNING: The "Pantego police" are deleting comments to this blog!!
Martin Luther, yes, we really DO appreciate more comments. the only comments that have been deleted from this posting are two identical comments that reflected an anonymous, "generic" criticism of the American church rather than an engagement of the specific topic at hand.
If the writer of the deleted posts would like to talk directly about why they wrote the comments they did, I would be very glad to dialogue. I can be reached at danielspantego@yahoo.com.
I like what anonymous said regarding being "imitators of Christ." I understand David's comments but I don't think that anonymous implied that anything would happen instantly. It keeps sounding like we are looking for the easy way. It does take time and spiritual maturity to really imitate Christ, as David wrote. However, we have so many in our church that have both of those on their side and are still doing it the easy way. They don't really want to get their hands dirty. I see them in my CG, my HG, etc. So, yes, if our CG and HG models are followed then we should be growing in Christ and serving Him. Unfortunately, it won't always work that way because they are run by humans. So, there has to be a responsibility on our mature Christians in our church to be an example of living a life for Christ. We owe it to Jesus to take up our cross and follow him.
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