Don't rush growth - baseball illustration

When I talk about 'spiritual growth' or 'spiritual maturity,' I'm simply talking about growing in grace - growing in the knowing and expressing of who we already are in Christ. I've talked a lot in the past about "slow growth" and "natural growth," etc. I've talked about enjoying where we are in our individual journeys, and not trying to rush the growth process. Last night I listened to an incredible illustration of this while I was watching baseball.

St. Louis Cardinals rookie outfielder Colby Rasmus hit a home run - his fourth of the young season. That's great for the Cardinals, of course, but I was then floored as I listened to the commentators talk about how the team's management and trainers have been working with Rasmus to "not get too home run conscious." I was in awe of the team's logic, as they are taking time to work with young Rasmus to develop him as a Major League player.

See, Rasmus is only 22 years old. He signed into baseball right out of high school (far from a common thing). He spent his first few years in the Minor Leauges, and this is his first season (rookie season) in the Major Leagues. The commentators said that the team is still working to establish Rasmus as a Major League player. He IS a Major League player, but they are working to establish and develop his particular role as a player. And it's gonna take time. He's gonna make mistakes and he's gonna learn.

At the present time, the team is working to establish him not as a home run hitter, but as a line drive hitter. Essentially, a line drive hit can get you on base and can also advance or score runners who are already on base. The team believes that eventually Rasmus will be a home run hitter, perhaps hitting 20 to 25 home runs per season. But here's the interesting phrase that the commentators used. The team wants to "mature him into a home run hitter" (as opposed to putting a lot of emphasis now on hitting home runs). I'm sure there are many reasons for this, not the least of which would be that if he gets too "home run conscious," his overall hitting may not develop properly. If he takes time to develop his skills as a line drive hitter, his overall hitting - including home runs - will become more natural.

As our heavenly Father is rooting us and establishing us in His love and grace, and as He's developing us and forming the life of Christ in us over a period of a lifetime, it's OK to be right where we're at. In fact, it's not only OK - it's essential for our overall development that we remain right where we are and not try to force growth. Let God develop your "line drive." The "home runs" will come naturally in time. Ahhh.... relax!

Works - Part 2 of 4

I don't believe that God created Adam and Eve (the first humans) and the rest of the human race for the purpose of living by instructions. In fact, wasn't it the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that God told Adam not to eat from? We all know what happened (sin entered the world, and death through sin), but as we fast-forward to the Cross, and the Resurrection of Jesus we see that Christ came to take away sin, and through faith in Christ, man can be restored to LIFE. Through faith, man now has righteousness, holiness, completeness, goodness. God has taken away the sinful spirit that we were born with in Adam and has given us a new spirit that is alive together with Christ. By faith, we can walk according to this newness of life.

Rom 6:4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

The "baptism" above isn't water baptism, but it's a death and burial of our old sinful nature - the spiritual person we were in Adam. It's now dead and gone, and we've been raised together with Christ into new life! The natural result of growing and maturing in who we now are in this new life is a life of goodness. And the growing process is lifelong. It's by no means instantaneous.

This new life - which is nothing less (or more) than the very life of Christ in us - is where holiness and goodness and righteousness and good works flow from. This new life - Christ-in-me - is the foundation of the Christian life.

Unripe and plastic fruit - Part 2 of 2

Another blog post that brought about my desire to post on this subject is Until Love Pleases... from Matthew's blog. Matthew brings out a verse from Song of Solomon that says not to "stir up or awaken love until it pleases." We're in such a hurry these days. Such a hurry to do, such a hurry to perform, such a hurry to produce, such a hurry to grow. Which leads to another huge problem that can easily come as a result of performance-based Christian teaching - fake lifestyles and fake love that only appears holy --- also known as self-righteousness. I realize that self-righteousness is often perceived to mean a "holier than thou" attitude, but actually I think far more often it's expressed in the form of a performance-based lifestyle - me trying my best perform for God or for people.

Last week I shared with my pastor (again, agreeing on some things and disagreeing on other things - which is perfectly fine) my thoughts that there are many people who hear all the principles taught in churches every week, and, sincerely wanting to be 'good Christians,' they put up the appearance of having it all together - but in reality they're just faking it. They're faking holiness. It's not only fruit that's unripe. It's fake, plastic fruit. It may have every appearance of being real, but it's not real. I think that due to all the "doing" teaching in the church today there is a lot of pressure to look as if you're living it, and living it well. Sometimes it's pressure we put on ourselves and other times it's peer pressure, but either way, performance-based Christianity does not help at all!

The fruit that I'm talking about includes, but is not limited to, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal 5:22-23). We're taught that all of these things - along with all the good works - are the marks of a good Christian, so we go around trying to display them, or treating them like "projects" that we need to work on and become better at. And so in our meetings we talk the talk and we act as if we're walking the walk, and we can make it look reeeeal good, but all it really is is an external appearance on the outside that hasn't truly come from who we are inside. And that's because we're not living from the Life that we already have on the inside, but rather we're constantly trying to follow all these principles and rules through external means ("the flesh"), trying to make ourselves to be something, when in fact we already are holy, righteous and complete in Him!

My purpose here is not to get down on anyone, but simply to point out the difference between unripe and plastic fruit that is the result of forced, contrived, fleshly growth, and real fruit that comes naturally and in due season as the Lord Himself works in us through His very life. The fruit of the Spirit is... the fruit of the Spirit. It's not up to us, but it's His fruit that He patiently works out of us as we simply abide (rest, remain) in Him and grow in His supernatural timing. His fruit in us is never unripe, never fake, never bad tasting, never plastic.

And so... what are some solutions to all this? I think the comments that came in after I posted Part 1 are excellent! Mainly... let's preach the pure gospel of grace. Let's preach Jesus. Let's not add anything to the gospel (such as our own works) or take anything away from it (such as the finished work of Jesus). And let's relax and lighten up! It's my opinion (and you can judge for yourself the validity of my opinion) that the various principles and exhortations to good works in the New Testament weren't written as a means of studying every week and then going out and trying to apply them to become better Christians. Rather, they are things that, as we grow in our understanding of who God is and who we truly are in Christ (the true foundation of our entire life of grace), show us what it looks like when it's "worked out" over the course of our lifetimes.

You simply can't force any of it. It must come naturally, and I believe it comes naturally as we grow in the gospel of grace, not as we try to "apply" principles. I believe it comes from the constant sharing with each other of the freedom and peace that we have in Christ, and God's unconditional love. I think most people know all the "do's and don'ts" of the Christian life, but how many people really know who they are in Christ? How many people really know the love of God? How many people are truly rooted and established in God's love and grace?

And so my plea to the Christian church is to preach Christ and Him crucified, dead and raised again! There is more power than you could ever imagine in this alone!

Unripe and plastic fruit - Part 1 of 2

Green bananas not only taste terrible but they feel terrible as you chew them! The reason is simple. They haven't ripened yet to the enjoyable yellow, softer, sweeter, good-to-eat state. There is a proper time to eat a banana.

Likewise, there is a proper time and a proper process for the formation and outward expression of "fruit" in the life of a Christian - but yet I've seen all too many examples of Christians who seem to be in a rush to produce fruit and to get others to produce fruit. Check out the post Unripe Grapes from Following Him Alone last week. That post, along with my meeting with a pastor the other day, as well as some other things I've felt the Lord whispering to my heart lately, has brought about the desire to post this blog.

The pastor, by the way, is someone who I love dearly. He's the pastor of the church my family has been a part of for almost nine years. As some of you know, I haven't been attending for over a year, for various reasons, but I still love the people and I was very touched when the pastor called me out of the blue a few weeks ago to say he missed seeing me and wanted to get together. When we finally got together last week we talked about many things (many agreements as well as disagreements), most of which I won't get into here, but part of our conversation relates to this post.

It has to do with the constant preaching of principles and methods, and always trying to get people to go out and do, do, do. Yes, we want to "do" as Christians! But my concern is that the principles- and performance-based teachings don't actually help Christians in the way that's intended, but rather can cause harm. I'll explain what I mean and you can agree or disagree with me.

In my case I've found that the constant preaching of methods and principles (the "how to's" of the Christian life) end up jamming me. My heart, which is indwelled by the Spirit of Jesus and is complete in Him, longs to express itself in love in so many ways, but quite frankly when all I hear is a bombardment of principles being taught all the time, I become overwhelmed because I simply can't keep up with it all. I need time to grow naturally, not hurriedly or under the impatient lead of performance-based teachers and preachers, of which there is no shortage. I've found that when I've sincerely tried to live by the teachings of principles, the "fruit" that has generally come (if any) has ended up unripe - that is, underdeveloped and not fully formed. And the sad things is, I've found that the church will still accept it, most of the time, because at least it shows that I'm "doing" something. But it ain't right.

Since this is getting long, I'll make it a two-parter. In the next part I'll talk about a second problem I see, and I'll take a look at some solutions as well!