Growth Formula

What Are You Doing to Grow Spiritually?
You have probably heard this definition of adulthood: An adult is someone who has stopped growing vertically and started growing horizontally.  Those of us who have reached the age of "physical maturity" may have a hard time remembering the days when we dreamed of getting older, when we longed to grow up.  The Christ follower needs to recall that longing and apply it to being a disciple of Jesus.

When Jesus' invited us to follow Him, he never said or implied it was a short journey that would reach a destination where we could stop the pursuit.  The opposite is true. The invitation to follow Jesus is an invitation to a life of seeking, striving after, and growing up to become like Him.   

Each follower of Jesus, you and me, have a personal responsibility when it comes to our spiritual growth.  In other words, it's on us to take action in order to grow spiritually. There are actually three entities responsible for the believer's spiritual growth:

1. God, who has given us the New Testament and the Holy Spirit.
   
2. The church, which provides teachers and where we are in relationship with other disciples of Jesus who encourage us.
   
3. The individual (me and you), who makes learning and living out God's word a priority in his or her life.
   

What are you doing to grow spiritually?  Are you striving to hear, understand and live out what your Lord is saying?  Have you joined a Community Bible Experience Group to read through the New Testament?  If not, how come?  What is the reason for your resistance?  (Here's a challenge - speak that reason out loud to God and listen in your heart to His reply).

Then Jesus called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said:“Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and FOLLOW ME. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. - Mark 8:34-35 (NIV)

Serving Jesus,
Pastor Tim

It's not to late to join one of our groups this week:
·  Sundays 9am in the Sanctuary
·  Sundays 9am in Fellowship Hall
·  Sundays 9am in the Barn (middle & high school)
·  Sundays 6:00pm in Fellowship Hall
·  Tuesdays 11am at the Parsonage
·  Wednesdays 9am in the Fellowship Hall

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