Category Archives: Spiritual growth

Please God or suffer the consequences

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My wife is coming back today from a mission trip to Costa Rica. Knowing that she’s coming back, I tried to do a bit of straightening up around the house. I’m laundering not only my clothes but the sheets and towels as well. And I’ve got a brisket in the crock pot, so she won’t have to worry about cooking for a couple of days.

I do all of that, of course, because I’m afraid she’ll divorce me if I don’t. That’s the only reason people in a loving relationship think about pleasing the other, right? When she gets home, she’ll take care of many of the chores around the house, knowing that I’ll toss her out on the street if she doesn’t.

Hopefully by now you realize that I write in jest. Yet this reflects the way many talk about our relationship with God. Those who believe in salvation by works often say that if you take out that element of fear of condemnation, people won’t want to do good things. Some who are assured of their salvation will mock any attempts to discuss what is pleasing to God, saying that the only thing that matters is that we have eternal life.

For many, that’s the bottom line: am I going to an eternal reward or eternal punishment?

Just as the relationship I described in the first two paragraphs is far from healthy, so such an attitude toward God is sick. Back in January, I wrote:

Neither do I believe in a mere transactional relationship with God. That is, I think that my relationship with God isn’t just about getting what I want from Him (in this case, salvation). In a relationship of love, you seek to please the other, not because of what you might get by doing so, but because you love the other.

And I fully agree with myself. :-)

I seek to know God’s will, to know what pleases Him, not because I’m afraid He’ll toss me in the lake of fire when this life is over. I do it because I love Him and want to do what He wants. I want to be like Him, more so every day.

Am I misguided in this view?

Wish list

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Some web sites let you create wish lists, items that you would like to have from that site. I’m thinking in particular of Amazon.com, but I know there are others that do the same. They encourage you to publish these on your site so that friends and benefactors can know what to purchase for you.

I never really felt good about that, but I decided to give into the pressure. Here’s a list of things that I want and need:

  1. Humility — I guess most of us who write and teach struggle with this. We have to have some degree of self-confidence to expose our ideas in public, yet we also fight with the desire to be seen as the smartest guy in the room. Probably some of that comes from insecurity more than security, still, as I present ideas, I want to learn to do so in a humble manner.
  2. Anger control — One of the quick ways for me to see when I’m following me rather than following the leading of the Spirit is when anger becomes common in my life. I don’t go around yelling at people or hitting things, but I find myself getting angry. Sadly, I find flashes of fleshly emotion when dealing with people on the Internet. I end up deleting a lot of the sarcastic replies I write, but some of them still get out there.
  3. Organizational skills — Some people have poor organizational skills; other of us have none at all. My dad is extremely organized, almost compulsively so. In traditional generational rebellion, I am the opposite. I like the concept of organization, but can’t seem to pull it off. The one area where I am semi-organized is my computer, but even then, I haven’t really pulled things together. (Yes, I do have thousands of messages in my Inbox)
  4. Promptness — I can’t really find the right word here; it’s the opposite of procrastination. This goes along with the organizational skills. I tend to be good at doing things at the last minute, yet there comes a time when there can be too many things to get them all done well. Plus, procrastination produces stress.

The list could be much longer, but that’s enough for now. If you put off getting me a Valentine’s gift, maybe these items will give you an idea.

What can I get for you?

Pet peeve

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I’ll admit it. There are certain phrases that just rub me the wrong way. I try not to show it in most cases, but I can’t help but react on the inside when I hear them.

One of those phrases is, “I’m just not getting fed.” It’s typically said in reference to what goes on at church. The person is almost always wanting to put the blame on others.

Let me clue you in to something: anyone capable of articulating that statement is capable of feeding themselves. We’ve got to get past this idea that others are responsible for our spiritual growth.

We go to assemblies looking to encourage one another, looking for ways to spur one another on to love and good works. If we go with the attitude “I wonder what I’ll get out of it today,” we probably won’t come away edified. If we go with the attitude “I wonder what I can do to encourage others today,” we’ll probably leave the assembly with a feeling of having been edified ourselves.

I’ve said that it’s like putting 3-year-olds in charge of making sure everyone gets a Christmas present. Their only concern is whether or not they get one. When everyone is sitting around waiting to see what they’re going to get, no one gets anything. When everyone is focused on what they can give, everyone will be taken care of.

As for the feeding, well, the vast majority of us are more than capable of finding ways to be fed. We don’t need to sit back and wait for others to do it.

“We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” (Hebrews 5:11-14)

Photo by RaveDave