Brick Building - Section Eight- Learning to Dress Yourself

In the last section, we discussed how being in the word helps us grow up in our relationship with Christ. Here we will consider how as we mature, we learn to get dressed just as a toddler learns to dress him/herself.

According to scripture, we are told to “put on” which implies our responsibility. The scriptures listed below demonstrates our need to take action. It tells us what we need to put on and how we are to clothe ourselves.

Romans 13:12 The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.

Ephesians 4:24 Put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.

Ephesians 6:11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes

Ephesians 6:13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

Colossians 3:10 Put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

Colossians 3:14 Over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

1 Thessalonians 5:8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. 

Romans 13:14 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh

Galatians 3:27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

Just as we need to get dressed daily for whatever is on our daily agenda, we also need to get dressed in our spiritual clothing. We do not know what we will encounter each day in the spirit realm, but God does. We need to seek Him daily in His word and in prayer in order to be able to be prepared for whatever the day has in store for us and for others.

There may be others that need us to be ready for battle.  They may need us to stand beside them, to stand behind them, and at times to even stand over them and defend them because they aren't able to defend themselves. But whatever the case, we need to be ready at all times. We never know what is up ahead.

Be sure to get dressed and put on Christ. In doing so, we will mature and grow up in our faith.

Brick Building Section One-Maturity
Brick Building Section Two-Immaturity
Brick Building Section Three
Brick Building Section Four - Cooperating with the Holy Spirit
Brick Building Section Five - Prayer
Brick Building - Section Six - Believe/Faith
Brick Building - Section Seven - The Word

Brick Building - Section Seven - The Word

Sorry for the delay in getting this one out.  I have been busy with getting my oldest daughter settled into college, and getting back to a normal schedule for my youngest daughter who is in high school and busy with club soccer. This has been a hectic month.

In the last blog we took a look at faith as part of our growing up in our relationship with Christ, in this section, we are going to discuss the importance of being in the Word of God. We've all heard the saying "You are what you eat." Well if that is true in the spiritual sense, we need a steady diet of God's Word in order to grow up and mature in our walk with Jesus Christ. We are going to look at the importance of our focus on the Word of God, being saturated in the Word of God and obeying the Word of God. 

Steady Diet of the Word

We need to read the Word of God regularly. This is not so we can feel good about ourselves or out of a sense of duty. We do this because it is how we get to know the Lord, His character, His will and His voice. The word of God is the sword of the Spirit we use in battle. It is a road map that directs our path. It is words of life. With regular exposure to the word, we are nourishing our spiritual self just as healthy eating keeps us healthy and strong.

Once we accept Christ as our savior, we should begin to study the word, focus our eyes upon the Lord through the scripture. All scripture is a story about Him! As we do this, we begin to be transformed by Christ. We are converted immediately and transformed over time

Focus on the Word

Focus: Whatever can get your attention can influence you, and whatever can keep your attention can master you. So we need to focus on the Lord.

Focus is a way to be successful at anything we do in life.  In our jobs, in athletic training, weight loss, our families, relationships in general…

If we will take note of where we are focused, we may find the areas in our lives where we have idols. Anything that has our focus tends to have our heart.

Let’s set our focus on Christ!  Why? ... Because he deserves it. Consider the price that He paid for each of us, the price each of us SHOULD have paid. Focus on the enormous price that was paid. Consider the cross. Focus your eyes upon it. Look into the eyes of your savior who willingly suffered and died for you. Nothing can motivate quite as much as a grateful heart. If we will stay focused we can stay grateful.

Focus: Whatever can get your attention can influence you, and whatever can keep your attention can master you. So we need to focus on the Lord.

Look at King Josiah: 2 Kings 22:1-2 1 Josiah was eight years old when he became king…. 2 He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD … not turning aside to the right or to the left.  He was focused

Immerse

According to scripture, we are to teach others all about the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. I believe that we are to immerse them in all that the scripture says about them, or in essence, be baptized in the Word. We need to study the Word of God in order to start comprehending the character of our Lord. We need to study it in order to begin to understand how to enter into this relationship. We need to study the Word in order to be able to arm ourselves against our enemy. We need to study so we will be able to discern truth, direction and God's will. As we study, we know Him more, believe Him more and love Him more.

When addressing immersion and baptizing, I am not diminishing the need and practice of baptizing in water as we follow in obedience to Jesus. That is the outward demonstration to the world to show we accepted Jesus' sacrifice for our sin and will now follow Him. However, I am looking deeper into the scripture where baptism is mentioned to see if there may be clues to more than a onetime outward demonstration.

There was an old pickle recipe that used the words baptized and dipped. In the recipe, the first part of the process was to dip the cucumber in water referred to as bapto, and then followed by the instruction to baptize the cucumber into vinegar referred to as baptizo. Both steps in the process require the vegetable to be placed in a liquid. So why is one referred to as bapto and the other baptizo? The difference is that while the vegetable is placed in the water, it is cleaned but it is still a cucumber. However, when the cucumber is placed into the vinegar it becomes another thing all together. It is no longer a cucumber but now it is a pickle. See Bible Study Tools for this information.

Immersing ourselves in the WORD (fully saturating ourselves in the WORD)

Obey the Word

We can obey the word and generations will be blessed, or we can disobey and curse many. We need to live in obedience not just to please God, but I believe we need to do so for the sake of others. We need to grow up and consider how our actions may affect others. Take some time to read Deuteronomy 28.

Luke 6:47-49 As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like. They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”

Gen 22:18 through your offspring, all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.

We need to obey the word, and as a result, we will grow up and mature. But we do it with the indwelling inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit will illuminate the word and bring it to mind.

We obey the commands of the Lord as we are introduced to them in order to mature in our walk. In Philippians 3, we are told to live up to whatever truth we have attained. Let's keep that in mind as we are exposed to the Word, but also keep it in mind when walking with others. Let's not hold them accountable for truths they have not even been exposed to yet. As we study the Word, be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Being in the Word, we become familiar to the Lord’s voice and the “types” of things He would say. I believe this is crucial in discerning the Lord from your own thoughts or that of the enemy. We need to surround ourselves with godly people to encourage us, challenge us and hold us accountable to be in the Word. 

So seek the word in order to know the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. As the Holy Spirit leads you, be pliable and moldable to the work the Spirit desires to do in you. Think of obeying the word as cooperating with the Holy Spirit who is working in you to complete the work that was starting in you at your salvation.

We need to obey the word and as a result we will grow up and mature.

Remember the word of God is the sword of the Spirit we use in battle. It is a road map that directs our path. It is words of life. Also remember, regular exposure to the word is like eating right physically. We grow up healthy and strong.

See also older posts: Do We Need the Word of God?, Road Map to Freedom and Searching the Scripture


Brick Building Section One-Maturity
Brick Building Section Two-Immaturity
Brick Building Section Three
Brick Building Section Four - Cooperating with the Holy Spirit
Brick Building Section Five - Prayer
Brick Building - Section Six - Believe/Faith

Brick Building - Section Six - Believe/Faith

Last week we took a look at prayer as it impacts our maturity, and today we’ll take a look at the area of faith when considering growing up in our walk with the Lord.   

We call Christians people of faith or believers, but what is really being said is that we are believers of Jesus Christ, we believe what God says about Him, and we have faith in the work of Christ. However, we all believe in something even if it is not God or Jesus. It is the object of our belief that defines our faith. It may be that we believe in science, we may believe in the existence of gravity and other laws, we may believe in self; even an atheist believes. (They simply believe that God doesn’t exist.) So the object for them is the non-existence of an object. But even in that, faith is required. So really we are all people of faith. It is actually funny how loosely the words faith, belief and trust gets used. It is a simple fact that we all believe and have faith.

We believe that the other drivers will stop at the stop sign when we are crossing an intersection (at least until a driver runs a stop sign and hits us). We believe an elevator will get us to the floor we want. We believe the educational system will prepare and educate our children. We believe the sun will come up each day. We believe in so many things, but our belief does not affect reality.

Let’s consider the law of gravity…Regardless of what you believe, this law remains the same.  If you jump off a tall building you will fall and get hurt or die.  The law exist whether we believe it or not.  Our faith of its existence has no effect on it.  It only affects our behavior. For example, if you believe the law does not exist, then you will act in opposition and jump from a building.

Our Heavenly Father’s existence is not dependent upon our belief. As with the case for gravity, you can choose not to believe in it, but it will not change the fact of His existence.

However, a believer and follower of Jesus Christ believes God exist, believes what God says about Jesus’ death and places his/her faith in the sacrifice to pay for his/her sin. In order to grow up in this faith, we have to believe what God says in the word of God, scripture.

We must believe that He will mature us when we cooperate and surrender to Him. He will do the work to transform us. We will grow up and mature not by our own doing but by the work of Christ in us thru the Holy Spirit. He will do it little by little from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:18).We are saved by faith, we walk by faith, and we are right with God because of our faith.

Look at the following scriptures:

·        2 Corinthians 3:5 Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.

·        Philippians 3:3-9 We put no confidence in the flesh- though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.

·        Ephesians 2:8-10 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

•      1 Corinthians 1:30-31 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God--that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord."

•      Genesis 15:6 Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness

•      Galatians 3:6 Consider Abraham: "He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."

So assuming we believe He exist and assuming we want to please Him, I believe we mature in our relationship by not just believing in Him, but I believe we must believe Him. We must believe what He says, and in order to believe what He says, we need to know what He says.  The best place to determine that is to be in the word, studying it, pondering it, praying it and meditating upon it. The next two sections we'll delve deeper into this.
Remember that we act out of what we believe. If you believe other drivers will stop at a stop sign, you act in faith by going through the intersection. If on the other hand, you believe other drivers will not stop, you tend to be slightly paralyzed at the intersection. Our actions will demonstrate our beliefs. So if you find yourself acting contrary to God’s Word, I suggest you take a look at what you are believing about God or yourself that isn’t true.
As you dig into the scripture and study about God, get to know His character and plan, you will find that you are better able to trust Him. He is trustworthy.

So to mature in our walk, we need to not only believe in God but also believe what He says. We must be a follower of the object of our faith and trust He will complete the work He started in us when we first believed.

Brick Building Section One-Maturity
Brick Building Section Two-Immaturity
Brick Building Section Three
Brick Building Section Four - Cooperating with the Holy Spirit
Brick Building Section Five - Prayer

Brick Building - Section Five - Prayer

Let's take a look at prayer as a way to mature in our walk with God.

Prayer is simply a two-way conversation with God. Maybe that is too simplistic, but it is the way I approach it. Too often, we feel inadequate to pray but just think who wins if we believe that. We may feel we do not have the flowery words to say or speak eloquently, but that leaves us in good company with the likes of Moses. However, all of us can pray. If we have anything at all to say, we can say it to our Father in heaven.

We are not bothering Him...  He is longing for us to talk to Him, and He has much to say to us if we will listen.

Honestly, if we want to grow up into our salvation, we need to be conversing regularly with the Father. We need to seek His will for our lives, our direction and our correction. We need to be in open dialogue with God.

I believe we were created to be in a relationship with our creator. I believe when we accept by faith the very idea that Jesus paid the penalty for our sinfulness which kept us from being in connection with God, the Holy Spirit comes alive within us. That is where we meet with God.

I believe prayer is a time of us talking with Him about our cares, concerns, excitements, basically sharing our thoughts with Him. In our earthly relationships, we get to know one another by spending time together. We connect with one another when we share our lives through conversation, and we connect with God in the same manner.

Remember also that prayer is a two-way conversation as well. I believe we all will benefit from allowing God time to speak back to us. We can listen as we sit still and know that He is God. As we read scripture, we can allow Him to communicate to us. It is always a good idea to find scripture to pray to Him as well. For example, I pray the Lord's Prayer piece by piece, and it helps me focus my prayer. Or take a look at the following scriptures:

Psalms 26:2 Test me, Oh Lord, and try me, examine my heart and my mind.
Psalms 193:23 Search me, Oh God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
Ephesians 1:18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you.

Just as we have different types of conversations with one another, there are many types of prayers; petitions, thanksgiving, praise, requests, intersession...

Regarding my prayers of praise and thankfulness; when I praise Him or thank Him my perspective changes, my view point alters and it always helps me set my eyes on Him. In Psalms, we are told that we enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise. I find that I enjoy His presence when I thank Him and praise Him. I believe it is a key component to being in relationship with Him.

When I spend time talking with God, it allows me to see myself as I am and see Him as He is.


Brick Building Section One-Maturity
Brick Building Section Two-Immaturity
Brick Building Section Three
Brick Building Section Four - Cooperating with the Holy Spirit

Brick Building - Section Four - Cooperating with the Holy Spirit

So are you starting to wonder where the brick wall fits into all of this?  Or are you thinking I had forgotten about it?  Well I haven’t forgotten, we are just working toward it. Let’s just say that Jesus has us in the process of being formed into bricks. 

Today let’s consider what it might look like to cooperate with the Holy Spirit. As I noted over the last several weeks, the goal of a Christian is to mature or to pursue maturity instead of going back to the initial basic elementary rules of Christianity. We are being formed into individual bricks in the process

In Jesus' last words to the disciples, He said He had to go so another would come. In John 16: "It is for your benefit that I go away, because if I don’t go away the Counselor will not come to you. If I go, I will send Him to you. When He comes, He will convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment".  See Act 2: After Jesus' departure from this earth, the disciples, apostles, were filled with the Holy Spirit. 

After we accept Jesus Christ as our savior, I believe we begin a journey with Him by the Holy Spirit. (Consider it a journey of learning to allow Him to be the Lord of our lives.) We begin to learn to listen and be sensitive to the leading of the Spirit. This process I am breaking down into 3 phases in order to simplify this discussion.

Phase 1:  Infant Stage of Cooperating with the Holy Spirit: Initially, similar to an infant learning to walk, our walk with God may look awkard. We are not sure how to fully cooperate with the Spirit. We may even be a little resistant, but we are trying to learn. We may fall a lot during this time just as a baby falls a good bit when they are learning to walk. We let go of His hand and grab back on a good bit, but that is part of learning just as a toddler does. Which leads us to the "I do it myself" time. Each one of these represents growth, but also these represent our desire to be independent from God. -- On a side note, as others begin their journey from infancy, let's walk beside them with encouragement.  Just as a mother would not scold their child as they fall while learning to walk, let's give that same grace and freedom to newer believers. Let's remind one another that God is not calling us to "do it myself", but He is equipping us, enabling us, leading us and maturing us; but we have to be willing to be dependent on Him and obey His leading -- we will talk about this later.

Phase 2:  Teen Stage of Cooperating with the Holy Spirit: This phase is a place where the independence is worked through, and we begin to test our boundaries. We have a bit more of a defiance and perhaps a bit of rebellion during this phase, but this phase helps us understand we cannot do it on our own. It teaches us we were not called to do it on our own. Unfortunately, many of us find ourselves during this phase, "doing for God". It is a time of failure and testing. It is a time for us to see where our dependence lies, and it is not with ourselves, but it is with God by the indwelling Spirit. This is where we begin to discover God is reliable. (Just as not every teen rebels or is defiant, nor does ever believer... I am just demonstrating a time of hashing out our boundaries of where we end and He begins. Similar to a teen discovering their independence from their parents.)

Phase 3:  Mature Adult Stage of Cooperating with the Holy Spirit: This is a lifelong process as is the majority of our physical life is spent as an adult. This is where we have become convinced of the sufficiency of God and our own insufficiency. This is a place where we surrender to Him and learn to allow Him to lead us. This is the phase of our walk where we learn to abide with Him. In this phase, I believe the believer becomes an ambassador for Christ. -- I believe God uses us during all of the phases, and God can be glorified in us during each stage. But I believe we will see the kingdom expand exponentially when the body as a whole cooperates with the Holy Spirit, let's Him complete His refining process and become mature in the faith. This is where the individual brick is formed and ready to be set in place in the wall figuratively speaking.

Ponder these phases. Each of us may find that although we are mature in one area, we are indeed still an infant in another area of our life. We may find this to be true with our fellow co-workers in Christ as well. So let's offer grace to ourselves and to one another as we move through these phases of growth. We need to understand that we all can use some encouragement seasoned lightly with correction in love.  Let's come to an understanding that we too are not fully mature in all areas. This is a process of sanctification. Thankfully God doesn't sanctify us all at once. I wonder if He did, would we be able to stand it... I say it would simply destroy us. Thankfully He takes us from glory to glory in this refining process. Just as a silversmith would heat up the metal only enough to melt it so the impurities would rise to the top and be removed but not so hot to destroy the metal, circumstances in our lives become the heat to allow our impurities to come to the top to be removed. The cool thing about refining silver, the silversmith watched the silver and knew the silver was ready when he could see his reflection in the metal. Hmmm. That is Jesus' goal for us. He watches over us and takes us through each stage until we reach adulthood where He continues to develop us. He is taking us from glory to glory until He sees His reflection in us. (forming us into usable bricks.)

Are you READY!

To see more about Abiding see also: Abiding in the Temple

Brick Building Section One-Maturity

Brick Building Section Two-Immaturity

Brick Building Section Three

Brick Building - Section Three - Growing Up!

Last week we in looked at spiritual immaturity which was the 2nd in this series of posts that go together. This week let's see ways we can grow up in our faith. As I noted last week, the goal of a Christian is to mature or to pursue maturity instead of going back to the initial basic elementary rules of Christianity. The next few weeks we will begin to look at each of the following and see how each component will help us grow up:

1.   Cooperate with the Holy Spirit

2.   Prayer

3.   Believe / Faith

4.   Steady Diet of the Word

5.   Focus, Immerse and Obey the Word

6.   Learning to Dress Ourselves

7.   UNITY - Become God and Others – centered

So on the contrary, let's consider things that may be hindrances to us growing in Christ:

·        There may be STUFF we have held onto in our past.

·        There may be unconfessed Sin / ours or unforgiven sin of others

·        Trauma, tragedy, abuse, victimization

We need to deal with these things before the Lord so that we can move on and grow up. We need to begin to reflect the character of God in our actions and responses. I do not believe that any of us want to discredit the gospel of hope that is in Christ.

Regarding hurts done to us that we have not forgiven, I have heard it said many times that holding on to offenses toward others is like taking poison to punish the other person, but we are the only ones that gets hurt. Hanging on to offenses and refusing to forgive over time develops into bitterness – bitterness is the poison. Remember there are counselors, pastors, crisis centers and even other fellow believers who can walk with us and help us through the stuff that is holding us back.

However, once we have dealt with our past, let’s do as Paul said, “Forgetting the past and pressing on toward what lies ahead.” Let’s free up some space in our head and heart so we can begin to GROW up in the faith.

If we do not deal with our past, we will be stuck there, and many others will be hurt by us.  Why, because hurt people will hurt people. This is part of what discredits the good news of the gospel and the church. Many of us have been hurt by a “well intended” Christian. How many of us have hurt another person because of your past injuries that haven’t been healed? There are many people hurt by the church and by fellow believers. (I have heard it said that a church is like a hospital for believers.) But let’s not stay sick. Let’s allow God to heal us by His Spirit. If we are to be effective ambassadors for Christ, we need to be healed.

But if we are to be Christ’s ambassadors, we need to prepare. We need to train, and we need to focus. It is time to GROW UP IN OUR FAITH!

ARE YOU READY! 

Brick Building Section One-Maturity
Brick Building Section Two-Immaturity           

Filled Up to Pour Out!!!!!!!! (reposted)

Why is it we become so convinced of our own sufficiency.  I believe we are in the most danger when we become convinced of our own supply.  We need to cling to the truth that we are NOTHING without the work of Christ on the cross and the filling of the Holy Spirit.  We need to be convinced of our deficit.  As we come to this conclusion, we fall hopelessly at the feet of Jesus and say fill me once again.  Then in an act of obedience to the leading of the Spirit, we pour out in service to those around us those the Spirit places on our heart.  So it is a continuous FLOW and reliance on HIM!!!! He fills us, we pour out, He fills us, we pour out...  You get the picture.

The truth is that we need Jesus for our salvation.  We cannot save ourselves.  But also, we cannot fill ourselves.  We must be an empty vessel in order to be useful to the kingdom of God.  If you look at II Kings 4:3-4

Elisha said, "Go around and ask all your neighbors for empty jars. Don't ask for just a few. Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side."

Notice that the jar that is filled is "put aside".  But what happens as we are filled daily and then pour out in service to all around us by the leading of the Spirit of God.  If we walk in obedience to that leading daily, and He is filling us daily, WE remain useful.  It is not by our talents, gifting or abilities, but by our willingness to see our condition that we have nothing to offer except our EMPTY JAR.  To whatever degree we are willing to admit we are NOTHING without Him, that is the degree we are THEN useful to Him.  This TRUTH will set us free. (free from performance, free from needing to have the right answer, free from needing to know what to do)  Knowing the truth about yourself will set you free to truly be used by God as you surrender to both the fact of your emptiness and surrender to His filling.  But as you become satisfied, it is possible that you are not pouring out.  I believe we can get settled in the FATNESS of the Word and the Spirit and say I am fine Lord, I have no need to be filled.  That should scare us to death.  Because if you notice what Elisha says regarding the jars that are full;  SET THEM ASIDE!    YIKES!

I pray today to be made fully aware of my own insufficiency.  I pray that I am NOT like the church in Laodicea mentioned in Revelations 3:14 - 22

"To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."

Meditate today on your condition, ask the Lord to fill you and to use you today.  Ask Him to open your eyes to see what and where He would like to pour you out today.  And repeat again tomorrow, and the next and the next.  (REPEAT)  This will set you on fire with the FRESH oil of the Holy Spirit flowing through you.  This is where we can have true fellowship with the Lord.  Why else would you fill a jar except to pour it out.  THAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE JAR.

We are jars of clay, created to be an empty vessel for the use of our Lord!!!! 

And by His use of us, we become instruments of righteousness.

Brick Building - Section Two - Immaturity

Last week, I began a series of posts that go together, and this post is the second one in that series.

Last week, I asked you if a brick wall resembled Jesus and the body of Christ. I discussed being born again as the beginning of a spiritual journey of growing up in your faith. 

Let's take a look at how scripture defines spiritual immaturity.

• 1 Corinthians 3:1-3 Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly--mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men?

(Remember from section one, we looked at 1 Peter 2:2 that encouraged us to "crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation" - but I believe this scripture in 1 Corinthians indicates that we are to grow up and begin to consume the deeper truths of God which is solid food.)  We expect a new born baby to only be able to drink milk, but we never anticipate a child to remain there. We know that a child must start eating solid food to grow up and be healthy.

So if we are going to grow up into a mature Christian, we must take a look at what things will nourish us.

When I was little, I walked like a child, I talked like a child, but as I grew up, I put away childish ways. My mom didn’t allow me to continue to do the things that were cute as a toddler. Believe it or not, she stopped thinking it was cute.  WHY? 

Let's consider some signs of immaturity:

Selfish and self-centered (its all about ME, MINE)

NO or limited walking & talking

Helpless 

Whines A LOT

Can’t dress themselves

Doesn’t see the dangers ahead

Easily distracted

Pretends to be grown up

Consider how children throw rocks at each other on the playground

Many in the body are throwing stones as well, and the are not on the playground. Take a look at John 8 where the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery to Jesus knowing that the penalty for this according to the law from Moses was to stone her. They were doing it to trap Jesus. He told them in verse 7: “The one without sin among you should be the first to throw a stone at her.”  Now look at what happens in verse 9: When they heard this, they left one by one, starting with the older men. Only He was left, with the woman in the center.

Isn't it interesting that the older among them dropped the stones first. I was watching a video last week from SSMT - Living Proof where Beth Moore references this very verse. She notes that those with the spiritual wrinkles on their hands tend to not hold stones because they know how much they are in need of mercy. 

So what does it look like when we throw stones in the body? We may be critical and throw stones at others when we observe their sins and talk about it to others, point it out to the sinner in a non-restorative manner (not in love), and we may throw stones by withdrawal, disapproving looks or coolness toward them. However, by our critical spirit toward others we become guilty and in need of stones being thrown at ourselves due to the internal sins within us as a result (our critical spirit becomes our sin.)  So as we become aware of our own sinfulness, we tend to drop our stones toward others.

It is funny that in as much as we have sinned, that is how much we tend to give mercy to others and no more. That was a point made in the video as well. Beth described it as a measuring tape. We will extend grace to cover other's sin only as far as we have been in need of forgiveness ourselves. I know that to be true because I am found guilty of doing this very thing.  

Take a look at the list below:  Possible reasons we throw stones

External Sins (we observe in others)

•       Uncontrolled appetite of anything

•       Gluttony

•       Drunkenness

•       Lust, Greed and laziness

Internal Sins (we may not observe in ourselves)

•       Gossip

•       Self-righteousness

•       Arrogance

•       Judgmental

•       Pride (remember -- Pride goes before a fall and God opposes the proud)

What if instead of throwing stones at one another, we only pick up stones for the purpose of marking spiritual progress (maturity) in our own lives. Those are called stones of remembrance. Let's start remembering what God is doing and has done in our lives and get rid of those stones that we hurl at the sin in others. Let's use those stones of remembrance to note when God helped us recognize and deal with the plank stuck  in our own eye, and cast away the stones we would have used to throw at our brothers and sisters in Christ who have splinters in their eyes. 

Look at a few more scripture verses that deal with immaturity.

• Heb 5: 11- 13 We have much to say about this*, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. (*See Heb 4:14-5:8 regarding Jesus as High Priest, His reverent submission and obedience, and the source of eternal salvation to those who obey Him.)

• Heb 5:14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. 

• Heb 6: 1 Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation …(list of what he calls elementary truths)

Note that the goal of a Christian is to mature or to pursue maturity instead of going back to the initial basic elementary rules of Christianity. Take some time to think through this material, especially the scriptures, and I hope to see you back next week when we begin to look at ways we can grow up in our faith.

Brick Building Section One-Maturity