HOW CAN I REALLY GROW IN MY CHRISTIAN FAITH?

Are you interested in steady, measured spiritual growth? In the first chapter of his book Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, Donald Whitney said, "The Spiritual Disciplines are the God-given means we are to use in the Spirit-filled pursuit of Godliness."

Begin to practice daily just three of the premiere spiritual disciplines that have been used and found fruitful by followers of Christ since the early years of Christianity: Bible study, meditation (holy contemplation of scripture), and prayer.

The early Puritan preacher and writer Thomas Manton wrote, "Meditation is a middle sort of duty between the word and prayer, and hath respect to both. The word feedeth meditation, and meditation feedeth prayer. These duties must always go hand in hand; meditation must follow hearing and precede prayer. To hear and not meditate is unfruitful. . . . What we take in by word we digest by meditation and let out by prayer. These three duties must be ordered that one may not jostle out the other. Men are barren, dry, and sapless in their prayers for want of exercising themselves in holy thoughts" [Donald Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 1991), 73].

Make time each day for serious Bible study, meditation, and prayer and you will soon discover that the Holy Spirit is growing you in the grace and knowledge of Christ. As an extra incentive not to procrastinate, consider the advice of an anonymous writer, "You have to do what others won't to achieve what others don't." Add to that encouragement the wisdom of R. Collier found below, and get started immediately.

LOST AND FOUND

Whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it" (Mk. 8:35).

At the age of six, his family migrated from Norway to America. In 1904, they settled on a 320-acre homestead in North Dakota and took up farming. By the time Johan Jonsen was a teenager, he had developed such a disgust for the farming life that he looked for any way out. He found it in a friendship with a notorious outlaw and gunslinger named Bert Dekler. Under Bert's tuterlage, Johan learned to handle a pistol and committed his first crime, a bank robbery, at age 17. Three years in the Montana State Prison did nothing to reform the young man, and he went right back to a life of crime upon his release. By the age of 32, Johan had become a hermit living in a cabin somewhere along the Rat River in the northeastern section of the Canadian Yukon. He trapped to eat but never gave up his thievery. Other trappers accused him of pilfering their traps which got the attention of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. In December 1931, he shot a mounted police officer which began a man-hunt to arrest the "Mad Trapper of Rat River," as he became known. After a 45-day manhunt the mounties trapped Johan on a frozen river. He resisted arrest by firing on the officers. They returned fire and killed the "Mad Trapper," thus ending the life of man who had already wasted his life (Read his story here).
​
America must have seemed like the land of freedom for that Norwegian family, a place where they could start fresh and have a chance at a decent life. However, what looked like a opportunity turned into a nightmare when Johan chose an unrighteous life. God offers every single person an opportunity for real life through repentance of sin and belief in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. For every person who will believe the gospel and surrender to Christ, effectively choose the righteous life that God offers, God will order the events of his or her life (Jeremiah 29:11).
​
Ironically, Johan believed he was losing his life spending it as a farmer, so he went in search of his life only to lose it. Jesus told us what would happen: "Whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it" (Mark 8:35). ​​Consequently, the Christian's life becomes one of great hope, lasting meaning, and infinite purpose. Moreover, after the earthly life of the Christian is over and eternal life has begun, God will make sure that the life he or she lived on the earth continues to bring him glory.

THE DIFFERENCE CHRIST MAKES!

"Those who are far from you will perish; you destroy all who are unfaithful to you. But as for me, it is good to be near to God. I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge; I will tell of all your deeds" (Ps. 73:27-28).

In 1986, he became the youngest heavyweight champion in the history of boxing by defeating Trevor Berbick. Mike Tyson’s skill, boxing knowledge, and tenacity made him arguably the most formidable fighter to ever step in a ring. However, this man who possessed such boxing prowess also displayed horrible character deficiency, explosive lack of self-control, and loathsome morality. Within three years of becoming the world heavyweight boxing champion, Tyson married and divorced under the accusation of domestic abuse, broke his hand in a street brawl, wrecked two cars (one of which was labeled a suicide attempt), and fired his trainer.

In early 1990, Tyson lost his championship belt in a stunning upset. The following year he was convicted of rape and spent three years in a federal prison. After his release, Tyson regained the heavyweight title only to lose it again in 1996–this time to Evander Holyfield who came out of retirement to fight the champ. On June 28, 1997, Tyson ended his boxing career in shame during a rematch with Holyfield. During the first round, the crowd turned on Tyson and began chanting Holyfield’s name. In the second round, a head butt opened a cut above Tyson’s right eye. During the third round Tyson lost every ounce of his composure. He spit out his mouthpiece, bit off a piece of Holyfield’s ear, and spit it on to the floor of the ring. Holyfield refused to stop fighting; however, when the match resumed Tyson bit Holyfield’s other ear. This time the referee stopped the fight and disqualified Tyson. Tyson’s life spirally further downhill after his boxing career ended. Read his story here.

Folks, God only knows how many lives have been ruined or lost through history because of lack of character, morality, and self-control. Romans 3:10-18 contains a stinging synopsis of the unregenerate, unconverted, unredeemed character of man: “There is no one righteous, not even one; . . . no one who seeks God; . . . they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one; . . . ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know; there is no fear of God before their eyes.”

These words describe all of us in one form or another and to one degree or another as long as we live without a real, life-changing, character-transforming relationship with Jesus Christ that brings the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. If you have genuinely repented of your sins and received Jesus by faith, then you know the depth of your depravity, the distance God has brought you, and the difference Christ makes. Now, spend your life helping others experience the same out of shear gratitude to God.

WILL WE EVER LEARN?

"Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to Your name give glory because of Your lovingkindness, because of Your truth (Ps. 115:1)."

A prestigious automobile club in Italy came up with the idea for a race called the Mille Miglia (Thousand Miles), a jealous response to not being chosen to host the famous Italian Grand Prix. The first Mille Miglia was held in March 1927. All of the leading Italian drivers entered the race which coursed a thousand miles of public roads from Brescia to Rome. The winner finished in slightly over twenty hours at an average speed of seventy-seven kilometers per hour (48 mph). The Italian government banned the race in 1938 when a racer spun out-of-control and killed ten spectators including seven children. The race resumed briefly during the early years of World War II; however, it was soon banned again. After the war ended in 1945, much of Europe’s infrastructure had to be rebuilt making the race impossible to run. Finally, on June 21, 1947, 155 race cars entered the fourteenth Mille Miglia. However, ten years later tragedy struck again when a driver spun out of control killing himself, his co-driver, and ten spectators. After this tragedy, the Italian government banned all racing on the public streets of Italy. Read the story here.

Unfortunately, we have a habit of failing to learn lessons that are right before us. How many times have the actions of people proven that so-called good ideas birthed from wrong motives usually end in disaster? Our prisons are full of people who thought they had a good idea at the time. Millions of marriages have been destroyed because a husband or wife thought an affair was a good idea at the time. How many teenagers lives and futures have been tragically altered because they thought having sex before marriage was a good idea? Moreover, how many devastated lives of children born or never allowed to be born after teenage sexual immorality prove that ideas birthed from wrong motives usually end in disaster?

The Bible is clear that all we do in our lives should be done from one grand controlling motive, the glory of God. When our thoughts, attitudes, decisions, conversations, and actions pass through the filter of God’s word, arise from a desire to allow God to rule and reign in our hearts, and aim at honoring God, we can trust that the outcomes will be for our good and for God’s glory.

Our lives are gifts from God. He never intended us live life racing at high speeds in the direction away from him. Jesus clearly said, “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Mat. 7:13-14). Check your motives; set your heart on God’s glory; get on and stay on the path that leads to eternal life; and, remember, a good idea born out of an ungodly motive is a bad idea and a disaster waiting to happen.

REVIVE US AGAIN!

"Restore us again, O God our Savior, and put away your displeasure toward us. . . . Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?" (Ps. 85:4, 6).

On June 14, 1940, residents of Paris, France, awoke to the sound of a German voice on loudspeakers announcing that the city was being taken over by Hitler’s Nazis. The people were instructed to abide by an 8 o’clock p.m. curfew. Read the story here.

​​Some two million residents had already fled the city; however, the German Gestapo wasted no time in making arrests, holding interrogations, planting a spy network, and hanging a monstrous swastika over Paris. The Paris that its residents went to sleep enjoying was gone and was replaced by an evil so horrific that both city and country were immediately overtaken with despair–and rightly so.

​​Although America has certainly not been overtaken by another country, we have positively been overtaken with evil. America is fast sinning itself into oblivion. The gutter-level immorality, the never-ending assault on traditional family values, the out-of-control government, and the liberal-led agenda to completely remove God and every vestige of Christianity from society have combined to open the flood-gates of evil.

The time is now for the Christian Church to “shine like stars in the universe as [we] hold out the word of life” (Phil. 2:15-16). The forces of evil we face are not greater than the God we worship. We need God in America again; therefore, we need a resurgence of Judeo-Christian values, a re-commitment to the authority of the Bible, and a resurrection of faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

How can we, as American Christians, be a part of spreading the gospel of Jesus from here to the utter ends of the earth if we sit idly by and watch America turn away from that gospel? Christian, will you commit to pray, sacrifice, and serve to see that God’s will is done on American soil again and then follow through on your commitment?

YOU CAN DO IT!

"I know that You can do all things. And that no ​purpose of Yours can be thwarted (Job 42:2)."

On June 7, 1913, Hudson Stuck, an Alaskan missionary, and three companions became the first mountain climbing team to ascend Mt. McKinley, the highest point on the American continent at 20,320 feet. Read their story here.

​​Can you imagine being one of first persons to accomplish such a feat? I wonder how many people tried to end their dream before it ever got started. You've known nay-sayers haven't you . . . "that's crazy talk," "it's impossible," "only a fool would attempt such a thing," "you can't do it."

​​According to their success, these men overcame their own negative fears and the killjoy remarks of skeptics. Stuck and his cohorts dared to dream and drove themselves with tenacity toward the dream God had put in their hearts.

Well, guess what? You can too. Has God planted a dream in your heart? Have you tried to forget the dream, but it just won't go away? Have you been carrying around some aspiration for too long because of paralyzing fears and pessimistic opinions of naysayers?

Do some homework: comb through the Bible searching for any command, principle, or example that warns against what is in your heart--what you find will tell you whether God will or will not sanction your dream; seek the counsel and prayers of a few folks that you know walk close to God on a daily basis; determine not to allow the destructive criticisms of doubters to ​​influence you more than the promises of God; ask God to confirm your dream and give you peace to proceed or either to assure you that your dream is not in his will for you; pray, pray, and pray some more; and, finally, remember that if God places a dream in your heart, he also equips you with the resources and strength to see it through.

​​The only person who can kill a dream God plants in you is you. Now, go with confidence and do what God has placed in your heart.