John is the kind of person who excites pastors. He came into the church as a scruffy-looking hippy. Little did I know what would happen after I introduced him to Christ. His life demonstrated continual spiritual transformation. His lifestyle was radically changed. His attitudes underwent a major overhaul. His values were revolutionized. For more than 10 years I watched a continual process of transformation. John became a brand new person.
Tom is the kind of person who is a conundrum to every pastor. Some day I will be in heaven with Tom but until then, I wonder what’s happening right now. He’s been around evangelical churches all his life and knows all the right answers. He routinely goes through the forms of the Christian life, but after being a believer for more than 50 years, he continues to be obnoxious in his behavior, excessively legalistic in his attitudes and is incapable of relating well with more than a few close friends. Though he has a great deal of biblical information, there is virtually no demonstration of Christ-likeness in his personality.
It’s a puzzle to me that so many Christians plateau in their walk with God and that the process of being conformed into Christ’s image is aborted. It’s as if they say, “I’ve got this Christian life figured out now and I’m finished changing.”
Peter made it clear. ”… grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 3:18). There is to be a life-long process of practical spiritual transformation. Spiritual maturity is not a badge for accumulating biblical knowledge; it’s the daily application of that knowledge to life situations.
How can we know we’re growing? Here are six questions to ask yourself. Be honest as you work through these questions.
1. Do I have a greater hunger for God’s presence?
Has God become ho-hum to you? Do you take God for granted? Do you treat God casually? Have I lost the wonder of the Divine Majesty? Or is there an intense passion to know God more intimately?
David said, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. (Psalm 42:1).
Growing Christians crave a greater sense of God’s presence.
2. Do I demonstrate love for people more than I did last year?
Too often I think that if I do not hate someone, I must love him. Christian love is not the absence of hate. Christian love is the opposite of indifference. Love is proactive. Love initiates.
Loving others means giving up personal convenience and preferences for the well-being of someone else. True love is sacrificial.
People who genuinely love have short memories. Forgiveness comes quickly, whether it is asked for or not. There are no lingering grudges. Lovers demonstrate kindness.
What have you done in the last month that demonstrates Christ-like love?
3. Am I more intrigued with God’s Word?
While I was in university, I had a friend who knew he should read his Bible each day, but he had an interesting habit. Often at night when he knew he should be reading his Bible, he read Psalm 117, a psalm with just two verses. He must have read that psalm 50 times that year. But there was no fascination with what he was reading. There was no search to know what God was speaking into his daily experiences. He just soothed his conscience and did his religious duty.
What was the last great insight God revealed to you while reading the Bible? When was the last time you sensed God speaking directly to you?
I am continually amazed at the power of God’s Word. God’s Word is unique, eternal, life-changing and powerful. It is continually new and fresh. Most of all, it is intensely personal, speaking directly to us.
I am intrigued by what the Bible says and the topics it deals with. I am stretched to understand what it meant to its readers, but what it means today in our contemporary world. I am constantly challenged to understand how it applies to my personal experiences.
4. Are the disciplines of the Christian life more appealing to me?
Paul told Timothy, “…, train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” (1 Timothy 4:7-8).
Life change does not happen by chance. It requires our cooperation with God’s Spirit. That cooperation involves the regular practice of spiritual disciplines – regular habits of meditation, solitude, Bible reading, praying, fasting and contentment.
Have these disciplines become a drudgery and duty? Or are they a source of delight to be anticipated. For people who are growing, spiritual disciplines are never routine; they are exciting discoveries.
Spiritual disciplines are a key to spiritual transformation. What’s your attitude to these disciplines.
5 . Do I have an increasing concern about the eternal fate of spiritually lost people?
Here’s something that confuses me. Despite the biblical teaching about spiritual lostness, I’ve concluded that the longer most people have been believers, the less they are concerned about lost people.
People who are growing in Christ-likeness, become like Christ! Jesus said he came to seek and to save the lost. Growing believers are learning to seek and introduce lost people to the Savior.
6. Am I more conscious of heaven than the things of earth?
Modern thinking is a long way from the thinking of Paul. He wrote, “I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.” (Philippians 1:22-24). Not many believers today are torn between death and going on living.
In place of an increasing heaven-consciousness, we’ve become enamored with the comforts of materialism and affluence. We act as this life is the ultimate experience. We’re taken with the “here and now“ and have forgotten that the “then and there” is so much more wonderful.
It is not that we become so heavenly minded that we become useless and ineffective in this life. (It’s been a long time since I met someone too heavenly-minded.) Rather, I regularly meet people who are so earthly-minded that they are of little value to the kingdom of heaven.`
A heavenly perspective gives us a Christ-life perspective on earth. Paul said, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. (Colossians 3:1-2).
As I ride my exercise bike each day, I don’t see any noticeable change in my health that day. But the discipline of riding each day produces changes in my body that are noticeable over time. You’ll see the spiritual change after a period of time.
This data file is the sole property of Rev. Calvin C. Ratz. It may be copied only in its entirety for circulation freely without charge. All copies of this data file must contain this copyright notice.
This data file may not be copied in part, edited, revised, copied for resale or incorporated in any commercial publications, recordings, broadcasts, performances
You can receive this material regularly by email – just fill in your email address at the bottom right side of this page under subscription options and you will receive a copy of each new article as it is posted. You can also subscribe to the newsfeed at the bottom left of the home page. Just fill in your email address. To forward the material to someone else, press the “share this” button and fill in an email address.