A basic spiritual teaching: babies in Christ
Greetings once again in the name of Jesus:
One of the greatest teaching tools ever used has been the parables Christ used in teaching us about the kingdom of God. These stories have been both a physical and a deep spiritual meaning to me. Although we don't seem much of this type of teaching today I would like to introduce a series of different parables used to illustrate some of the pressing problems within the church today.
One day an infant child had grown enough to make an attempt to walk. The baby had watched others and was drawn to trying to imitate what was seen. The first attempt was very traumatic for the child because the baby stood up and immediately fell. The child's reaction was to cry out in both frustration and fear, and needed to be comforted for time and held. Because of the driving urge to still walk that was even greater than the fear of failure the child continued to try. Time after time, the same results were seen until one day the baby was close to a table work and grab hold and pull itself up to standing position. Again the baby's legs were wobbling, but with the support of the furniture the baby could stand for longer periods of time until finally the baby can let go of the support that the furniture provided. After a time the babies confidence returned to try once again to walk, and this it was met with success.
A man's spiritual walk is much like the efforts of a child when first trying to walk. We must remember that we are still newly born into a Christian way of life. The process of what it means to us to choose to will our lives to the ownership Christ, and our day by day death to the influence of this world and temporary life is tied mostly to trial and error. Our success is a child of God depends upon our ability to first be able to trust and lean upon those who are more mature in Christ. If we find an element within the church body that is untrustworthy in any way it is likely that our ability to grow to the point of trusting and walking with God on our own is impaired as well. For the new Christian there is it time when it is important that they can reach out to someone for comfort and understanding as they try and fail to mature in Christ. It is during this time that many people are dying on the vine before they can be established within the church because they have found that all important love, mercy, grace, and trust used to build up confidence to continue to try to walk spiritually is not there.
To God our success is not found in our ability to always succeed at every point, but rather in our willingness to continue to desire to walk. For any new Christian some failure is not an option, but a guarantee, and in first John chapter 1-5 this Scripture contains information that gives us a glimpse of what our life in Christ should be aiming for there is a repeated idea brought forth in these passages that ask a question over and over again in various ways. "If we say that we love God"and it brings us back every time to ask ourselves if we are really being truthful with ourselves and with God at every turn in life?1. "If we say that we love God"if you walk in the light then we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Christ cleanses all of our sin. That's first John 1:7 and if we walk in the light is a question within a question, because it indicates that we have made a confession of faith yet the truth of that confession then needs to be proven in our desire to fellowship with his many others as we can who have made that same confession. It tells us that not only have we accepted the fact that our sins have been covered by the blood of Christ, but also the sins of those who have made the same claim. In many ways it's much easier for us to feel and see the sentence that we have dealt with wiped away then to see the sins of others wiped away as well... Especially if we are viewing them through a very strong microscope. I want you to think about that first point made in this series called babies in Christ because will continue on with the second point in the next block I pray that you take the time to look up the Scripture for yourself to meditate and pray on what God is telling you. May you richly bless God through your life in him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANY
One of the greatest teaching tools ever used has been the parables Christ used in teaching us about the kingdom of God. These stories have been both a physical and a deep spiritual meaning to me. Although we don't seem much of this type of teaching today I would like to introduce a series of different parables used to illustrate some of the pressing problems within the church today.
One day an infant child had grown enough to make an attempt to walk. The baby had watched others and was drawn to trying to imitate what was seen. The first attempt was very traumatic for the child because the baby stood up and immediately fell. The child's reaction was to cry out in both frustration and fear, and needed to be comforted for time and held. Because of the driving urge to still walk that was even greater than the fear of failure the child continued to try. Time after time, the same results were seen until one day the baby was close to a table work and grab hold and pull itself up to standing position. Again the baby's legs were wobbling, but with the support of the furniture the baby could stand for longer periods of time until finally the baby can let go of the support that the furniture provided. After a time the babies confidence returned to try once again to walk, and this it was met with success.
A man's spiritual walk is much like the efforts of a child when first trying to walk. We must remember that we are still newly born into a Christian way of life. The process of what it means to us to choose to will our lives to the ownership Christ, and our day by day death to the influence of this world and temporary life is tied mostly to trial and error. Our success is a child of God depends upon our ability to first be able to trust and lean upon those who are more mature in Christ. If we find an element within the church body that is untrustworthy in any way it is likely that our ability to grow to the point of trusting and walking with God on our own is impaired as well. For the new Christian there is it time when it is important that they can reach out to someone for comfort and understanding as they try and fail to mature in Christ. It is during this time that many people are dying on the vine before they can be established within the church because they have found that all important love, mercy, grace, and trust used to build up confidence to continue to try to walk spiritually is not there.
To God our success is not found in our ability to always succeed at every point, but rather in our willingness to continue to desire to walk. For any new Christian some failure is not an option, but a guarantee, and in first John chapter 1-5 this Scripture contains information that gives us a glimpse of what our life in Christ should be aiming for there is a repeated idea brought forth in these passages that ask a question over and over again in various ways. "If we say that we love God"and it brings us back every time to ask ourselves if we are really being truthful with ourselves and with God at every turn in life?1. "If we say that we love God"if you walk in the light then we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Christ cleanses all of our sin. That's first John 1:7 and if we walk in the light is a question within a question, because it indicates that we have made a confession of faith yet the truth of that confession then needs to be proven in our desire to fellowship with his many others as we can who have made that same confession. It tells us that not only have we accepted the fact that our sins have been covered by the blood of Christ, but also the sins of those who have made the same claim. In many ways it's much easier for us to feel and see the sentence that we have dealt with wiped away then to see the sins of others wiped away as well... Especially if we are viewing them through a very strong microscope. I want you to think about that first point made in this series called babies in Christ because will continue on with the second point in the next block I pray that you take the time to look up the Scripture for yourself to meditate and pray on what God is telling you. May you richly bless God through your life in him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANY
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