Indeed the hour is
coming…that you will be scattered… —John 16:32
{CHAMBERS} “Jesus was not rebuking the disciples in this passage.
Their faith was real, but it was disordered
and unfocused, and was not at work in the important realities of life. The
disciples were scattered to their own concerns and they had interests apart from Jesus Christ.
After we have the perfect relationship with God, through the sanctifying work
of the Holy Spirit, our faith must be exercised in the realities of everyday
life. […] … our faith is sustained only by feelings and by blessings. But once
we get there, no matter where God may place us or what inner emptiness we
experience, we can praise God that all is well. That is what is meant by faith
being exercised in the realities of life. […] Are we prepared to let God do what He wants
with us? […] Until Jesus Christ is truly our Lord, we each have goals of our
own which we serve.”
{ELGIN} A disordered and unfocused spiritual life. That is more normal than we would like to
think. One of the things I see missing in
the Church today is discipleship. People hungry to know more about God .. more
interested in fellowship .. hanging out and having a good time … feeling good
.. than drawing close to Jesus. This is
not a new problem. Going back a few years,
about 1980, Martie and I had just arrived in Savannah, GA – Hunter Army
Airfield. Our first assignment out of
flight school. We got connected to a local
church right away. Well, I was invited
to a men’s gathering .. a super bowl party. I confess that I have never been
passionate about football, but saw it as an opportunity to get to know the
men. As the evening wore on, I started
talking about faith and Jesus, to which one of the men replied “Hey we came to
watch football, not talk about Jesus!” “Out
of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” (Luke 6:45) I had misunderstood
the purpose of the gathering. It was not
because of our love for Jesus, but our love for football. Obviously I have not forgotten that
lesson. (I found another group of men,
BTW.)
(Proverbs 27:17) “As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens
another.” You cannot sharpen a steel
blade using clay. That is what I was
trying to do at that gathering. If you
don’t seek out like-hearted people … people who have put Jesus first … people who have made growing
in their faith a priority, you should
not expect to grow in your faith. A couple
more verses to cement the point. “Bad
company corrupts good character.” (1
Corinthians 15:33) People often compromise their faith to gain acceptance from
friends, family, and co-workers. “A cord
of three strands is not quickly broken.” (Ecclesiastes
4:12) You cannot grow on your own .. you need the influence of other Christians
in your life. Dr. Howard Hendricks spoke
at a Promise Keepers conference in 1993.
He said we all need a Timothy, someone into whose life we can build, a
Barnabas – someone who will keep us spiritually accountable, and a Paul –
someone who is building into our life. Do
you have those people in your life? You
need to more than you might think. Pray
about it ands then step into it when God brings those people into your life. If you really care about your faith .. you won't regret it.
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