12 Marks Of A Spiritually Mature Believer

http://chucklawless.com/2020/02/12-marks-of-a-spiritually-mature-believer/

The One Sure Mark of Christian Maturity

~ Challies

I suppose we all know that as Christians we are meant to grow up, to mature. We begin as infants in the faith and need to develop into adults. The New Testament writers insist that we must all make this transition from milk to meat, from the children’s table to the grown-up’s feast. And yet even though we are aware that we must go through this maturing process, many of us are prone to measure maturity in the wrong ways. We are easily fooled. This is especially true, I think, in a tradition like the Reformed one which (rightly) places a heavy emphasis on learning and on the facts of the faith.

The Bible is the means God uses to complete us, to finish us, to bring us to maturity.

When Paul writes to Timothy, he talks to him about the nature and purpose of the Bible and says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). That word complete is related to maturity. Paul says that Timothy, and by extension me and you and all of us, is incomplete, unfinished, and immature. The Bible is the means God uses to complete us, to finish us, to bring us to maturity.

There is more at: https://www.challies.com/christian-living/the-one-sure-mark-of-christian-maturity/

Colossal Truths from the Letter to the Colossians! Spiritual Maturation! (1:28-29)

Of the many, many blessings in my life is my friend Frank. We’ve been friends for decades and even though he lives in the pagan land of New Jersey, he seeks to be a shining light in a dark place. [I live in the pagan land of South Carolina, but at least we talk slower, say nice things to strangers, and drink sweet tea]. Frank and I have been doing a kind of online Bible study with each other — and we’ve recently been going through the incredible letter to the Colossians.

There are a number of prominent themes in this four-chapter epistle. The next theme we want to notice is Paul’s commitment to spiritual maturation. We read in Chapter one:

28 He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. 29 To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me. (Ch. 1)

Notice Paul’s goal in life: to present everyone fully mature in Christ! Please notice the key to spiritual maturation: the Person of the Lord Jesus! “He is the one we proclaim.” Notice Paul’s commitment to encouraging spiritual maturation in everyone: “To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.” We are not to sit idly by and watch each other stagnate in spiritual infancy!

What efforts, my friend, are you taking to admonish and teach others to grow in God’s grace? Are you striving to present everyone over whom you have some influence fully mature in Christ? Do you see such a mission as a battle — a strenuous contention to allow Christ’s power to work through you?

A challenge: what younger believer comes to your mind who could greatly benefit from a kind of informal mentoring relationship with you?

Comment at: https://larrydixon.wordpress.com/2019/05/25/colossal-truths-from-the-letter-to-the-colossians-spiritual-maturation/

What Are the Signs of an Emotionally Mature Christian?

Are you a mature Christian? Why are so many Christians judgmental, unaware and defensive? Part of the answer lies in a failure to biblically integrate emotional health and spiritual maturity.

A vast industry exists around emotional intelligence that ignores spirituality. A vast amount of information also exists that defines a “mature” Christian. Rarely are the two integrated.

The following are 11 signs of an emotionally mature Christian:

1. You anchor your life in the love of Jesus. You don’t divide your life into “secular” and “sacred” compartments. Instead, you rather enjoy communion with Him in all areas of your life—work, recreation, church and parenting. Toward that end, you regularly practice spiritual disciplines (e.g., meditation on Scripture, silence, solitude, community, confession, worship) to position yourself to practice His presence all throughout the day.

There is more at: https://churchleaders.com/outreach-missions/outreach-missions-articles/298849-what-are-the-signs-of-an-emotionally-mature-christian-pete-scazzero.html

What Are the Signs of an Emotionally Mature Christian?

By Pete Scazzero

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Are you a mature Christian? Why are so many Christians judgmental, unaware and defensive? Part of the answer lies in a failure to biblically integrate emotional health and spiritual maturity.

A vast industry exists around emotional intelligence that ignores spirituality. A vast amount of information also exists that defines a “mature” Christian. Rarely are the two integrated.

The following are 11 signs of an emotionally mature Christian:

1. You anchor your life in the love of Jesus. You don’t divide your life into “secular” and “sacred” compartments. Instead, you rather enjoy communion with Him in all areas of your life—work, recreation, church and parenting. Toward that end, you regularly practice spiritual disciplines (e.g., meditation on Scripture, silence, solitude, community, confession, worship) to position yourself to practice His presence all throughout the day.

The rest are at: https://churchleaders.com/outreach-missions/outreach-missions-articles/298849-what-are-the-signs-of-an-emotionally-mature-christian-pete-scazzero.html

What Research Says About How Self-centeredness Grows in Us

By Eric Geiger

According to research, the more isolated you are the more self-centered you are. And the more self-centered you are, the more likely you are to live isolated. University of Chicago Professor John Cacioppo led a ten-year study on self-centeredness using a scale he called the “Chronic Self Focus Scale.” He concluded that focusing on yourself causes you to feel more isolated which causes you to focus even more on yourself. A vicious cycle of self-centeredness and loneliness ensues. To put it plainly — a focus on ourselves grows when we are continually by ourselves.

Theologians throughout history would not be surprised by the results of the research. Augustine wrote that pride is the commencement of all sin – that all sin originates with a focus on ourselves and a desire to exalt ourselves. Pride causes us to run from community, not to community because community inevitably confronts us with our shortcomings.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote: “Sin demands to have a man by himself. It withdraws him from the community. The more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin over him, and the more deeply he becomes involved in it, the more disastrous is his isolation. Sin wants to remain unknown. It shuns the light. In the darkness of the unexpressed it poisons the whole being of a person.”

As I reflected on Cacioppo’s conclusions, I thought about why groups in a church are so important for the spiritual health of the people in the church. If you are a church leader, you must prioritize groups in your church, so that people can more easily be in community. If you are a Christian, get in a group! Here are three reasons why:

When we are not in biblical community, there are not people to confront us.

The more self-centered we are, the more senseless and stupid we are. When we are not in community with others, our foolishness grows. Community is always sanctifying and not being in community is to invite self-centered foolishness to grow in our lives.

When we are in community, we see God working in others.

We are reminded that life is not about us, that God is doing great things in others, that there is much to learn from others. Being in community helps us take our eyes of ourselves as we grow in awe of God’s handiwork in others and as we seek to encourage and help others.

When we are in community, we are more likely to walk in humility.

Pride grows when we are isolated, and as it grows so does our distaste for community. But the reverse is also true; humility increases when we are in community. We see a bigger picture of our world, a bigger picture of God’s grace, and thus we are more likely to develop an accurate view of ourselves. As we focus on the Lord and others, humility and happiness increase.

Comment at: http://ericgeiger.com/2019/02/what-research-says-about-how-self-centeredness-grows-in-us/

5 Ways to Get Closer to God

1. Admit you can’t do everything on your own.

One of the first steps to getting a closer to God is admitting that you need him in your life. Ironic, yeah? The reality is that we can’t do everything on our own, so admitting this will not only show a sense of humility in your life but it will also show God that are putting your faith in his strength and guidance, rather than your own. As John 3:30 states, “He must increase, I must decrease.” 

2. Remove yourself from harmful relationships.

I believe one of the biggest roadblocks to finding a deeper relationship with God is harmful relationships. Whether these relationships be with family, friends or co-workers, taking yourself out of the equation, or at least giving yourself some healthy distance, will provide you the necessary room and energy needed to first get right in your relationship with God. You must make yourself a priority in regards to your spiritual life. Although this might sound tough to accomplish, you won’t believe the freedom and liberty you will encounter when being able to solely focus on your relationship with God without having toxic relationships getting in your way.

https://churchleaders.com/outreach-missions/outreach-missions-articles/340229-closer-god.html

6 Ways to Gauge Your Spiritual Health

Two years ago I began to hit a wall. I was run down and burned out. It wasn’t that I didn’t love the Lord or people anymore. It wasn’t that I’d lost my passion for God’s Word, teaching the Bible, writing or taking mission trips to the Amazon and Moldova with Justice & Mercy International. I simply had no margin. I was so busy that there was little room for anything fresh to come in. Little was growing, and I felt as though all I was giving others were crusty leftovers.

I met with my pastor and he encouraged me to evaluate the way I was using my time. He challenged me to guard the most important tasks the Lord has given me to do and say no to what wasn’t part of that agenda. Since that meeting, I’ve recognized six things that have significantly supported my spiritual and emotional health. I’ve put them in the form of questions so you can think personally and critically about how well you’re covered in each area.

1. Who Is Teaching You?

While it sounds simple, I realized that part of my problem was that I’d stopped learning. Teachers often forget to take time to be taught. Even if you don’t consider yourself a teacher, we all need to be fed and led spiritually. In addition to being involved in a local church that feeds your soul, commit to a Bible study, take an online seminary course, listen to podcasts by teachers who point out truths from God’s Word. Continuing to learn and grow is vital to our personal refreshment.

2. Who Do You Pray With?

In busy seasons we tend to depend on our resources and strength to make it through, meanwhile prayer is the first thing to go. Several years ago I decided I wanted to see God do immeasurably more than I could ever do on my own. I wanted to be an intercessor for others who are hurting, sick or stuck. And because I love what I do, I also wanted to make sure I have a stronger relationship with Jesus than I have with my ministry. Prayer has been the game-changer for me in these areas. Whether it’s praying alone in the mornings or praying with a group, this is where the supernatural happens. So make a commitment to be renewed and encouraged in prayer, and don’t allow it to be edged out by busyness.

More at: https://outreachmagazine.com/features/discipleship/38152-6-ways-to-gauge-your-spiritual-health.html

Everyone Isn’t Who They Seem to Be

~ Dr. Ray Rooney, Jr.Digital Media Editormore

I spent the first 11 years of my life in Memphis, Tennessee.  I’m in my mid 50’s now but four things will always stick out in my memories of that phase of my life: Overton Park, the Memphis Zoo, Memphis wrestling on Saturday mornings hosted by Lance Russell and Dave Brown, and Saturday night’s horror movie tucked neatly into a show called Fantastic Features (hosted by a guy dressed as a vampire named “Sivad” which was his last name spelled backward).  As a kid, I became pretty much obsessed with monsters and aliens because of Fantastic Features.

We all fear the unknown.  New schools, new jobs, marriage, parenting and all the rest of the things that at some point we aren’t familiar (comfortable) with are symbolized by monsters and aliens.  Perhaps my younger brother’s untimely death as an infant (6 months old), my parents subsequent divorce, moving over and over again which entailed changing schools, during mid-year quite often, and never knowing what I might walk into when I got home from school, made me a perfect candidate for being captivated by the unknown represented in the horror/sci-fi genre.

One of my favorite movies as a youngster was 1951’s The Thing from Another Worldstarring James Arness as the alien.  I was kind of a bookworm as a kid and was excited to find out the movie was based on a novella by John Campbell, Jr. titled Who Goes There?Imagine my surprise when I read the book and it was nothing like the movie [sarcasm].  John Carpenter’s 1982 adaptation was a good bit closer to the book.

In a nutshell, the alien imitates other forms of life (and in the process, destroys the host).  So in both the book and the Carpenter adaptation, the paramount issue becomes trust.  Who can you trust when someone among you may not be who they claim to be?  In the Carpenter movie, helicopter pilot R.J. MacReady is visiting the scientist Blair (who has been put in isolation for fear that he has been infected by the thing).  He asks Blair how he is doing.  Blair responds, “I don’t know who to trust.”  MacReady says, “I know what you mean Blair. Trust is a tough thing to come by these days. Tell you what, why don’t you just trust in the Lord.”  Bingo. I realize that Carpenter and his character weren’t being sincere about God in that scene, but truth is truth no matter who or what acts as the vehicle that transports it.

Probably three-fourths of the issues that have been and will continue to tear at the fabric of civilization in general and American culture in particular are somehow related to trust (or the lack thereof).  Modernity has discovered that the best way to bring institutions and even entire nations to their knees isn’t by facing off in easily identifiable uniforms in well-defined battle zones (like the Revolutionary and Civil Wars).  No, you can cause far more problems through infiltration and dressing, looking like, and even behaving as the enemy.  We found out just how effective (terrifying) that can be in the Vietnam and Gulf wars.  Israel has known it since its refounding in 1948.

The enemy within (see communism, Marxism, and Saul Alinsky) is like a cancer that spreads, weakening and ultimately destroying the host usually over a rather long span of time.  But if you are a well-read Christian, you know this isn’t new.

Evil has always been most effective when it dresses up as good and cavorts with the naïve or untested righteous.  Think of the Garden of Eden and the serpent.  Whatever the serpent was then it wasn’t as serpents are today since what we have today is a result of the curse for yielding itself for use by Satan.  The only descriptive reference in Genesis 3is that “the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made” (Genesis 3:1).  Invested within the serpent, Satan passed himself off as only being concerned for Eve’s status in life.  He was having a friendly conversation with her.  And look what he was able to accomplish by gaining her respect and trust.

Another good example from the Old Testament is found in the first chapter of the book of Job.  “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them” (Job 1:6).  God immediately recognized him and put him on the spot. But what is so interesting about that verse is that there is no hint whatsoever that any of the “sons of God” (i.e. angels) recognized Satan despite the fact that he “came among them.”  Not one.  When you consider that Revelation 12:7-9 reveals a pre-creation battle between God’s loyal angels and Satan and his fallen angels, it is pretty amazing that Satan’s presence wasn’t immediately sensed or recognized by the very beings who cast him out of heaven.  Only God noticed that he had come in among the righteous.

In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul had these words of warning for the Corinthians:

But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you received a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough…And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:2-4; 14).

He knew Satan would never succeed in defeating Christianity through outright persecution (though Satan gets great enjoyment from doing so).  He warned that the most obscene and destructive tactic would be to dress up other willing “serpents” and eat away at Christianity from within.

Paul wasn’t alone in recognizing that the greatest threat to the body of Christ would come dressed as a Christian.  Jude wrote:

I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ (vs. 3-4).

They didn’t come in wearing hooded black cloaks like Druidic priests touting allegiance to the Devil.  Rather, they “crept in unnoticed” looking and acting like all the rest of the Christians but with much different intent.

Have we in the church become so spiritually dull that we can no longer recognize the alien monsters in our midst?  Do we try to ferret them out?  Do we even realize that some in our midst are not what they claim to be?  Read the New Testament carefully.  Apostasy is one of the most warned about issues throughout.

Think about it.  Which did Jesus talk about more: baptism or apostasy?  Salvation or false teachers?  The triune nature of God or false christs?  And yet we are witnessing an exodus from church participation and think the reason is an inability to relate to people because we use a book from the past as our source and standard?  My friend, we don’t need an “update” from God in order to become relevant to today’s sin-sick culture.  We don’t need better visual aids and softer sermons from our pastors.  We don’t need to get rid of steeples, altars, and crosses in favor of multimedia, stages, and messages designed to make everyone feel better about themselves.  What we need is to stop being naïve.

What we need is to return to return to an unapologetic message of repentance and atonement and to start dealing with the enemy within that has long been the greatest danger to the vitality of our churches and the spread of the gospel.  You cannot house apostasy with holiness and expect spiritual prosperity.  If we’re becoming barren it’s not because the world has changed and has moved beyond Christianity.  It’s because we no longer recognize that “fierce wolves will come in among you” (Acts 20:29) and that we are required by Scripture “not to believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone into the world” (1 John 4:1).

The “falling away” from the church is not caused by an old story’s lack of relevance in a modernistic progressive culture.  It’s caused by a spiritual cancer within called apostasy which we seem not to care to address because either we are afraid of how it will make us look or we don’t even know it’s among us.

On the one hand, Jesus promised that the gates of hell would not be able to prevail against His church (Matthew 16:18).  On the other hand, He wondered aloud if when He returned would He find any faith on Earth (Luke 18:8).  No enemy can succeed in taking out the bride of Christ…except, perhaps, the enemy within that may look and talk like a Christian, but does nothing much other than spread doubt, caricature the truth, and promise there will be no consequence for disobeying what everyone knows God has said.

You know what I’m talking about.  There’s one in almost every church.  Prone to exaggeration.  Spreading little falsehoods just enough so that everyone begins to question another’s integrity.  Always looking for a speck of dirt on a wall-sized canvas of white.  Picking at the scabs of wounds that are trying to heal.  Whispering to whoever gives them an ear why the pastor doesn’t lead the church in the direction of progressivism like so many other churches are going. But rarely does anyone have the courage to step forward and confront them.  After all, “they’re God’s children too.”

Have we forgotten that Judas was an apostle chosen by Jesus Christ?

You can get the flu from the sweetest person you know who shows no signs of sickness.  That’s why we get flu shots.  During flu season you never know who is a carrier.  If you did, you’d quickly tell all your friends and loved one to steer clear of the infected person.

Holiness is God’s protection against the unseen enemy among us.  That’s why both testaments cry out “You shall be holy…” (Leviticus 20:26 and 1 Peter 1:16).  When we compromise on holiness it’s like walking into a roomful of people who have the flu but aren’t showing the symptoms.  Never ever compromise on holiness. That’s the test that will always expose the alien.

Comment at: https://www.afa.net/the-stand/faith/2018/11/everyone-isnt-who-they-seem-to-be/

9 Hard Things You Have to Do to Move Forward with Your Life

9 Hard Things You Have to Do to Move Forward with Your Life