Thursday, March 22, 2012

head slaps and spiritual milk

Growing up on the farm we had a ritual every fall and it usually happened around Labor Day Weekend. It was usually time to separate the cows from the calves and to lock the steers up to get them ready for butchering. The reason we separated the cows and calves is so the calves would be weaned off of the cows and they wouldn’t be dependant on their moms for milk and nourishment. They often complained for the first few days, but after the realization they were eating better, it usually stopped. Being weaned off of milk also has spiritual terms also.

There are several places in the New Testament where the writers explain that we need to move from spiritual milk to spiritual meat. It is our way of not only growing up, but also maturing in the faith. We can not stay an immature Christian forever. In 1 Corinthians 3 the Apostle Paul is exhorting the church for not growing up. They have gotten the Jesus loves them idea, but growing up just wasn’t happening. They were claiming to be Christians, but were still doing worldly things such as gossip, jealousy, and petty fighting. What Paul was saying to the church at Corinth and can still be said for us today is, its time to knock off the petty stuff and grow up. There has to be a point in our lives that we go from knowing that Jesus loves us no matter what, to putting earthly things away and living a transformed life. Living this transformed life does mean we can put the old or bad things away and then live a holy life by ourselves. If that was the case, Christ death and resurrection would be pointless and His grace would be cheap. The only way I know how not to cheapen God's grace, is by participating in Christ death, so not only that we can be raised up with Him and to be transformed in His image and live in that image of being a child of God

Now we are all at different points in our spiritual maturity and our age does not matter or even how long we have been in the church. Being in the church and growing in maturity are two different things. We can spend all of our time in church and be immature, but if we don't go to church, there is no chance of maturing. We can walk into a auto mechanic shop and spend a lot of time there, learning how to be a mechanic, but that doesn't make us a mechanic. Not until we spend time learning and putting into practice what a mechanic does, this is when we become a mechanic. This is true with our Christian life, we can go to church and learn about God, but until we put into practice and grow, are we really growing in Christ. Our goal is to grow in God’s grace and to have Him change us. We are to reflect God’s character and not anybody else, because God is the author and the perfector of our faith. We all have areas where God is challenging us to grow up. There are times where God challenges us gently, but then there are times where He comes and does the Gibbs head slap. (on the tv show NCIS, one of the character; Gibbs, often gives his subordinates a slap to the back of the head when its time to knock it off and to grow up). It is not easy nor is it even fun at times to grow up, this means that we need to put away old habits and ways of life, but the results of this will be very beneficial. It has been said that we are either growing up and maturing or sliding and becoming immature in our Christian faith. There is no standing still, so with this challenge, I challenge all of us that it is time to grow up.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Spring time resurrection

Spring time is in the air and to be honest with you all, its not my favorite time of the year. Up north spring means plenty of brown, mud and impassible roads at times. Not to mention the work that has been put off because of the winter weather, or the cleanup that comes because of the winter weather, but I digress. It has gotten me thinking about several things though in relation to spring. When most people think of spring, they think of new life, warmer weather and a reason to wear the shorts and shirts. This idea of new life comes in many forms. Whether it is the baby animals being born, the leaves on trees, or even a moment of personal growth/self improvement can and is often started in spring. Spring gives hope, because there is something better to come,. whether it is warmer weather and longer days, or the chance at new life and new relationships. With the chance of longer days and new life, it has gotten me thinking, about two things that are kind of related......maybe and those are resurrection and discipline.
Resurrection means in my book not only something being brought to life, but not having to die again. Essentially, death has been conqured and we do not or will not have to die again. As a Christian, we do have that hope of final resurrection and hope that we will be in heaven when we die or when Christ returns. But there might be another form of resurrection that we can have here on earth. How many of us struggle with things here on earth. Whether it is food, what we watch, how we spend our money, we all struggle with something. That is why most of us make New Years Resolutions, so we can maybe conquer those things and so we can over come those things and be better people. I really think that we want to be resurrected from those things that hinder us is so that we do not have to deal with them again and we be raised up and have new life.
Here is the scary thing about this sort of thing, in order to obtain new life, something has to die. If it doesn't die, we are just making behavior modifications. These modifications may last for awhile, but eventually, they will come back to bite us in the backside. It may not be today, tomorrow or five years from now, but it will come back and bite us. If we are the sole provider of the death and resurrection, were in trouble because we are a pretty messed up people. Trying to get someone who is broken to fix themselves is like asking mud to turn itself into gold. It just doesn't or wont happen. We need someone or something to come and not only fix us, but provide that resurrection. Jesus death and resurrection provides that way for us. Jesus death provided the ultimate sacrifice for us and was more than sufficiant sacrifice for our sin and His resurrection provided victory over death. If we call ourselves Christians, Christ followers or any other name for Christians, we need to participate in Christ death also. Even though Christ sacrifice was and is sufficient, being a Christian means we put on the character of Christ. We are still created in God's image, but are scared with sin and its tendencies. So to replace those tendencies and our bad character, we need to die, so that Christ may live in and through us.
This takes work, but we are not at it alone. It takes both kinds of discipline. The first kind of discipline is the fortitude and actions to go through and do something to get it done. The second kind of discipline is a matter of correction. I am like anybody else, I hate correction and discipline. I don't view it as a chance to get better, but as I have done something wrong and shame. I don't like to think that I do things wrong, and I hope to do everything right the first time, but the likelyhood of this is not that good. With God's discipline, He is looking for more than just for action or attitude change. He is not only looking for us to stop gossiping about other people, but for our character to change and not only to stop it, but not have the desire to gossip and change it when it comes our way. If it was just about action change, it not only cheapens God's grace, but it diminishes who God is. My hope is that we can embrace discipline, so that we can not cheapen God and to be made into His image.
So here is a closing illustration. In the fall, a tree loses most of its leaves quite easily. They just fall off and then they are done. There are a few leaves who hold on tight and it takes a strong wind to knock them off. Then their are the one or two leaves that hang on no matter what. The only reason they fall off is because the new leaves are coming forth. This is the way for our lives to. Some habits are easy to kick, for other habits, it takes plenty of prayer or event to go away. That third leave represents those hangups that just don't go away no matter how hard we try. Until there is new life and God's grace, it isn't going away. So in this time of spring and while we are still in the Lenten Season, lets die to ourselves and cloth ourselves in the righteousness of God and grow more dependent on Him every day