Photo credit: https://giphy.com/gifs/rockymovie-movie-rocky-sylvester-stallone-1iTH1WIUjM0VATSw Zach Young Child of the King www.purleygatesretreat.org Good morning brothers and sisters! I have missed you all so much. I am praying that today you are growing even more in your relationship with Jesus than you were yesterday. For this week’s post, I think it is time that we have a discussion on growth. There are a lot of ways to go with this topic, but I want to take us on the path of personal spiritual growth. In order to help us all have a little more clarity as we discuss, I want us all to think “our spiritual marathon” instead of just personal growth. Now, as we begin, let me help you into how God got me started on all of this. To do this, we have to take a look at Ephesians 4:11-16. This is actually a great book, so I suggest that you go read it all, but for today I am just focusing on these few verses.
So, as you read you will see that the verses start off by talking about Jesus giving us people like apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. The scriptures tell us that they will continue to teach us UNTIL we come to a certain point in our faith and unity in the body. If you are like me, that word “until” really catches your attention. So what does this mean for us? It means that there should be an end goal for each of us as Christians – just like a marathon. We should be headed for the “UNTIL” day. Yes, you have probably heard your pastors teach about a similar topic, so you are probably thinking you have a good grasp of what I am about to write. Good. Keep up with me. As Christians, we should be living like we are in a marathon – running our race towards the finish line and passing checkpoints all along the way. For another verse that goes with this theme, check out 2 Timothy 4:6-8. That is a man who made it. He got ALL of the checkpoints and left nothing in the tank. Paul finished his marathon for Jesus. I’m sure at this point most of this sounds extremely familiar to many of you, but here is where we are going to take a slight turn. You see, many of us after hearing these scriptures, have become gravely mistaken – and I put myself right smack dab in the middle of this group. I realized, after reading Ephesians, that I haven’t been running a marathon. Don’t get me wrong – I have been running, and running, and running. The problem is that I – and many other Christians – have been running in circles. We deal with the same issues all of the time, have the same “spiritual revelations” pretty consistently, and at the end of the day we feel like we really aren’t getting anywhere. Sound familiar to anyone else or is it just me? I have realized now that I haven’t been living this faith with the idea of actually going somewhere, and finishing strong. Unfortunately, our churches seem to be structured this way too. All of us as individuals should be making checkpoints in our faith, which means that we stop dealing with certain issues/sins in our lives, and we also in turn are teaching others. EVERYONE – not just pastors. Our goal as a body of Christ should be to eventually not need apostles, prophets, pastors and so on. If you happen to be one of those, this means you get the great honor of making yourself not needed anymore, so that the people you teach can go and live their faith without training wheels. Please don’t misinterpret what I am saying. I am not saying to get rid of people like pastors, teachers, and prophets and so on. Clearly, we still need them as a body of Christ. We still have many things to learn, and a lot of mending to do to make this body whole. What I AM saying is that we need to do two things: 1. Take more responsibility of our own faiths 2. Live this faith with the finish line on our minds Once we begin to take these necessary steps, we can all begin growing and winning our marathons, both individually and as a body of Christ. As we conclude today, yes this message is challenging, and yes it will not be easy in any type of way. Yes it means a lot of change in a lot of areas. I just want you to know that I believe in the God we follow, and I believe He will make this happen. Will you keep believing with me? Will you run this race with me? I hope to see you out there. Have a great week everyone, and I look forward to talking with you next week. Please remember that you are more than welcome to comment your thoughts, or even contact me at anytime to talk. I would love to hear from you. You are awesome. Jesus loves you!
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