Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity,… Hebrews 6:1 (NIV)
I do not believe this is a Scripture advocating that I ‘throw out’ John 3:16 because it is a truth that I have known for 20 years and so it is too elementary! I believe this is a Scripture that challenges me to move on and build and grow in my faith. I should not stagnate in what I learned or experienced 12 years ago!
I am a blessed woman to have a mother-in-law who is a woman after God’s own heart! I think it would be safe for me to state that Mom has known that Jesus is her Lord and Savior for over 50 years. She has carried the promises of God in her heart through many miles in the mission field with her husband, raising four children, and evolving in her ministry to the people that God has brought into her path. Her faith has produced much fruit because she has continued to study God’s word. Prayer is a daily ongoing conversation with her Lord. And she has allowed God to train her mind, her spiritual eyes, to see Him in day to day events. She has not stayed in God’s elementary school all of her life! She has grown in God’s ‘higher education’ meaning she has grown in faith. Her faith has muscle because she has allowed God to exercise it! She has a testimony because God has walked her through some tests! (If you want read an awesome story, go to www.energionpubs.com and check out her biographical book, Directed Paths)
It is a dangerous thing for me to become complacent and lazy (yes, I said LAZY!) about my daily study time in God’s word. There are NO shortcuts in growing in my relationship and knowledge of God. I have to put in the time! That requires that I put that time as a TOP PRIORITY in my day!
It is also dangerous for me to spend time ‘in the world’ and hang out with the ‘worldly’ and think that I can maintain much less grow in my faith. I must spend time with God and spend time with those of ‘like minds’. That doesn’t mean I only ‘hang’ with people who always agree with me. I ‘hang’ with people who love the Lord and want to grow in Him and choose to let Him lead!
My life has become exciting and I am filled with expectation because I am consciously choosing to seek God’s way. Every day I ask God to bless me with an obedient heart. And then I must add to that my time with Him, in Word and in listening to Him. God is so gracious and merciful. He loves us so. It is our choice.
My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight
and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. Proverbs 2:1-5 (NIV)
Luke 9:57-62
[57] As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”
[58] Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
[59] He said to another man, “Follow me.”
But the man replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
[60] Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
[61] Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family.”
[62] Jesus replied, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”
Jesus Christ comes before everything. Nothing in my past life gave me any lasting peace or satisfaction. I was always looking, searching; all my vain attempts to be noticed, appreciated, loved, or respected, ended in ashes. I’ve had it all – marriage, kids, house, car, & job security – & lost it all through, sin. My purpose in life is to proclaim the kingdom of God, without looking back on my past life. I am a sinner who deserves to go to hell but Jesus has delivered me from my inequities, through his death on the cross. His love lasts forever. I was lost but was found by Jesus. I love Jesus, so much. Oh! Merciful Jesus! Praise the Lord!!
Peace Be With You
Patrick