I Can’t Live the Christian Life

Oddly enough that is the best thing I can say to God.  It’s the starting place.  The place where I know without a shadow of a doubt that I can do nothing, absolutely nothing without God’s help. 

Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:3 that the poor in spirit are blessed.  Huummm. . . what does “poor in spirit” mean?  The word used is for a state of being totally and completely helpless to help ourselves.  Everyone in “Recovery” is familiar with this principle.  We just don’t think of it as the first step to Christian Growth.  But it is. 

 We have stated many times that Christian maturity means to become like Jesus.  Becoming like Jesus means ore than that I will recognize my need for Him in every single area of my life.  It means dying to all those things.  Everything that is not like Jesus has to be cut out.  I can tell you right now that I am not capable of such drastic measures.  It scares me.  Dying to self scares me.  So what am I to do?  What are we to do? 

 Surrender!!!

 Tell Jesus that you can’t do it without Him.  Let Him live His life in you and through you moment by moment one day at a time.  Confess your sins moment by moment as it happens.  Don’t let it fester.  “When we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  1 John 1:9  The instant we confess our sins to God we are cleansed.  We may not feel like but God says in His Word that we are clean.  The next moment I need to ask the Holy Spirit to fill me and control me.  It’s all very quick but very effective.                             

This spiritual exercise is like any physical exercise.  It must be done over and over and over again to be effective and build spiritual muscles and strength.  Spiritual growth will not happen without it.  The filling of the Holy Spirit of Jesus living His life in us and through us is the only way.  No too painful, I think.

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Loving God is Hard

What does it mean to love God?  What are we talking about when we say “I have a personal relationship with Jesus.”?

When we have relationships with people there are certain expectations from each other.  In a friendship the least we can do is call our friend from time to time but then that might be more of an acquaintance rather than a friend.  Most of the friendships I’ve enjoyed in my life involved lots of calling, writing, emails and just talking with her or him.  Communication is the very least we can do when we want someone to be our friend or we want to be someone else’s friend.  But doing things together is also an important part of friendship.  Enjoying each other’s company.

We sing “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” and it’s true.  He is a wonderful friend to have.  He listens to us, He’s there for us all the time, He’s ready to provide anything we might need.  But what kind of friend am I to Him.  Abraham was called “the friend of God.”  No one else in Scripture has that designation.  How hard would it be to be God’s friend?

A good starting point for beginning to love God might just be to learn to be His friend.  “Call on Me and I will answer you. . .”  God says to us.  I can call on God and He will respond.  It’s a promise.  But will I?  On a regular basis, just because I love to be with God and see what He’s got to say to me today, will I meet with Him, talk with Him, listen to Him, and even more importantly just enjoy being with Him?

See what I mean.  Loving God is hard.

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There and Back Again. . . Spiritual Maturity

A little hobbit said that.  But after a bout of heart failure and some unidentified lung problem, that’s how I feel.  Chris had to finish up the class this summer but that was truly of God.  “I didn’t want to teach this subject.  You know more about this than I do.  I’m not comfortable at all with it.”  He said.  Well, now he’s on fire with the subject and teaching to the whole congregation through the book “Irresistible Church” both in small group and on Sunday mornings.

I am much, much better now to being on oxygen 24/7.  That gets me up and OUT!!!  So, what can you expect from this blog now?  Hopefully, every day you will see my thoughts, gatherings and gleanings from books and the internet, as well as stuff from Chris’s new class and his sermons.  He:re’s a link to his sermons, by the way:  SERMONS

May the Lord bring you home rejoicing
at the wonders He has shown you.

Kathy

 

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