It has been a long week, but the
body seems to be settling down now.
Blaze and Wanda are still
feeling out the territory, Wanda is coming to understand that she is not the
alpha in the house – I am. Blaze is
still wary, but he is more comfortable with her around.
That is not to say there aren’t
some things I have to step in for, but they are getting comfortable enough that
both of them were on the daveno yesterday, sleeping.
Usually Blaze will jump off and
go to his Kennel or into the kitchen when someone sits on the daveno while he is
there – yesterday he just woke up, watched her from the corner of his eye for a
couple minutes then laid his head back down and went to sleep.
For Blaze that is a major
step!
Carla’s garden is showing the
amount of time that she plays in the dirt.
We have a small zucchini that is almost ready to pick, beans, potatoes,
cukes, and other plants are doing just fine – me? I am waiting for those
tomatoes!!
1 Peter 1: 15-16
But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy
in all manner of conversation;
16 Because it is written,
Be ye holy; for I am holy.
There are those verses again,
and every time I fail to live up to them, I am reminded of them.
Whether it be satan, who ‘yells’
at me in derision or the Holy Spirit who reminds me that I can do better, I
realize that I am still not living up to God’s expectations.
As I think on these verses this
morning, I can offer no excuses, I need to do better.
However, we need to also be
realistic.
Who is more holy, the new
Christian – who has just been totally washed in the blood, or the Christian who
has been saved for 50 years?
It isn’t a competition. It isn’t who is holier; it is how can I
become holy as He is holy?
The moment we accept Christ we
become Holy; God’s Holy Spirit starts working within us, to be able to serve
God.
While this is a generality, we
can say God doesn’t expect the same from a new Christian that He expects from
one who was saved years, or even months before.
But He does expect us to be Holy
and serve Him with all our current understanding. That is going to be different for different
people, but I would say it is safe to infer that the new born Christian is not
going to be held to the same standard as one who has been saved for fifty
years.
Our, and God’s, expectation of a
toddler is far different that our and His expectation of a 7 year old – or a
teenager – or a mature adult.
Comparisons, when we make them,
are usually that a person is not acting their age – meaning they are being
foolish.
Now, sometimes that is okay, if
it isn’t hurting someone or doing something stupid (just embarrassing) we just
laugh, shake it off and go about our business.
But when it comes to our
Spiritual age, we need to focus on ‘growing up’ not being foolish. God expects mature Christians who will work
for Him in understanding, growing into that maturity, not wasting away in
childish behavior.
1 Corinthians
13:11 When I was a child, I spake
as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a
man, I put away childish things.
All too frequently we hit a
plateau in our life with Christ. We go
so far and then seem to stop our spiritual growth. We grow complacent.
We cut back on our prayers
and/or study of His Word. We just seem
to go through the motions of being a Christian, but we have lost all the
Joy. We have become stagnant.
God still uses us, but we are
not as effective as we could be if we were still growing.
Carla tells the story of how she
was given an assignment by a teacher.
Her older brother, if not more siblings, had taken the same class from
that teacher.
Carla remembered something about
the assignment and went through her brother’s papers from that class. The teacher had given the same assignment on
the same day when Norm was her student.
Now, of course, there were two
ways of looking at that – the assignment was so powerful that it didn’t need
changing, or the teacher had gotten into a rut and was just going through the
motions.
Carla was a good student; she
was at or near the top student in every class.
She didn’t feel the teacher was doing her best; she was just going along
until she retired – and the students knew that.
The joy and challenge had gone
out of her teaching and now it was just a job.
Every job we undertake has a
learning curve. Depending on the
complexity of the work, or the legal requirements in education and training, it
can take a few days or several years.
However, every employee is
expected to become more skillful as their experience grows. There is an expectation that within a fairly
specified period of time the person has attained enough skills that they can be
released on their own.
The expectations are usually
flexible enough to allow for those who may take longer than others grasping the
complexity of the task.
Once on their own, some people
will look for more challenges, either how to improve so they can do their
current job better, or improve so they can go further in the company.
Others, however, seem happy with
just being at the level they reach. They
don’t strive for perfection or being better, to them, ‘good enough is good
enough.’
These are the people who have
been on the job for twenty years, but have one year’s experience 20 times.
When you see people like that
you also see that it is pretty much how they live their lives. They stay at wherever they landed without
seeking to improve themselves.
God doesn’t want those kinds of
Christians. We are fortunate that He
doesn’t fire us.
Holiness is a condition that we
must always strive for; must always ask God’s Holy Spirit to help us grow.
To point out our flaws, so that
He can help us overcome those flaws. To
each day grow closer to Him, by reading with a desire to understand His Word, by
spending time, daily, in prayer with Him and to have Him search our heart so
that the mistakes of yesterday will not be the same today.
It is not something we can do on
our own. We can’t place an outline
before someone and say, ‘do these things, for this length of time in this order
and you will become holy.’
While there are some things we
must do – and not do – those in of themselves do not make us Holy.
Some try to teach or require
that, but to be Holy is not so much deeds, as an attitude – an attitude that
allows God to work with us; allows us to listen and follow the directions of His
Holy Spirit.
Holiness comes from having that
relationship with Him that allows Him to change us – we can’t do it on our own
or by checking off items on a list.
God wants us to totally rely on
Him; to look in the mirror and see the Christ that is within us and act
accordingly.
Jesus worked with the disciples
for three years. He didn’t expect them
to understand their responsibilities immediately.
Some grasped who He was before
others. But He taught them, He taught
others so they too might understand who He is; the Christ. It takes time to understand all the
intricacies of God, His Son Jesus, and His Holy Spirit.
For some the growth in Christ
has been quicker than with the rest of us.
BUT that doesn’t mean anyone can sit back and rest, to be Holy as He is
Holy requires a continual growth all of our life – one day, we will go to be
with Him and truly be as Holy as He wants us to be, but that doesn’t mean we can
wait until then.
To grow in Him, to attain
Holiness we must come to Him and believe as a child comes to his parents who
believes they can do all he needs for him to live. We must believe that God can do all we need
to live for Him.
Mark 10:14-15 But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said
unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for
of such is the kingdom of God.
15 Verily I say unto you,
Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not
enter therein.
At all times we must have the
faith of a child, while we mature into an obedient and effective servant of
God.
There is no acceptable plateau
in our service to God.
Later, Dad :-)
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