Maturity doesn't come with age; it comes with acceptance of responsibility. --Ed Cole
In the book Absolute Surrender by Andrew Murray, he says "Babyhood at the proper time is the most beautiful thing in the world, but babyhood that continues beyond the first few months is a burden and a sorrow, a sign of disease or disorder".
This parallels with christians in that when a believer first comes to Christ, it is an awesome thing! The believer usually just soaks in God's Word to learn more knowledge about it. This is great for the new believer, but after the first few months it is time for a change. Our role transitions from being discipled to being an apostle.
Matthew 28:19-20- Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
The Bible doesn't suggest that we make disciples. God commands us to! It is what we are made to do. When we share Jesus with others, our joy is made complete.
1 John 1:3-4- what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also so that you may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. These things we write so that our joy may be made complete.
"You have to do things you don't want to do to acheive thing you want to achieve."
Discipling believer who do not know as much as you may not sound very fun, but when we obey God, he blesses us. When we read the Bible, listen to a sermon, or read a book so that we can reproduce it in someone else, God will bless our efforts. The more God reveals to us, the more responsibility we have to share what He has revealed to us. Once we are faithful in the little things that He reveals to us, he will show us bigger and better things to share. Discipling others not only helps the person we disciple, but it also helps ourselves because God will reveal more to us.
As you can see in this picture, the Jordan River flows into the Dead Sea. The Jordan River contantly has water pouring into it, and it flow into the Dead Sea. It is being renewed and doing its job. The Dead Sea is being poured into by the Jordan River, but it doesn't pour into anything else. This affects the water tremendously. The Dead Sea is too salty and has too many chemicals in it for any fish to live. The new water just evaporates and the chemicals sit at the bottom, unmoved. Likewise, many Christians get poured into their whole christian life and never share what they learn. When they learn something new, it just evaporates instead of flowing through them. They are stuck with chemicals at their core. So ask yourself this week "Am I a Jordan River or a Dead Sea?"
What is redemption?
REDEMPTION: Deliverance upon payment of ransom; rescue.
Ephesians 1:7- In Him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace.
Colossians 1:13-14- For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Romans 3:23-24- for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
In comparison to the holiness and righteousness of God, we are nothing but filthy rags.. YET Christ sees us as His creation and loved us enough to send His only Son to die for us! This is where redemption starts.. at the cross, where Jesus shed His pure blood as the ransom for our sins. So now that He has payed the price, we are redeemed. He looks at us and sees his own righteousness! This means we can have straight access to God! No more sacrifices..
So what does it mean to be redeemed?
Once you have been redeemed, you are FREE.
Galatians 5:1- It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
1 Peter 2:16- Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God's slaves.
Romans 6:20-22- When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefiit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.
This is one of the most wonderful things about being a Christian. FREEDOM. To people who do not know much about the Word of God or being a Christian, that statement is probably confusing. Many people think that being a Christian is just a bunch of rules and regulations. Ironic.. It's the opposite. It is freedom from our sin and freedom from death! Those who are not in the Word or do not have the holy spirit living in them will not understand this. They are so caught up in their sins, that they don't even understand the concept of freedom from it. They do not realize that they are slaves of sin. God is the one who opens our eyes to how awful we really are. He does this by showing us His glory. There really is no comparison. This freedom is the freedom to have unbroken prayer to God. It is the freedom to serve God. It is the freedom from the law of the Old Testament. Can you imagine making a sacrifice every time you sinned? That would be miserable! BUT let me tell you what freedom is not..... It is not the freedom to say "Ok God. thanks from saving me from hell but I'd like to live however I want. See ya in heaven. Peace." That is so not what God has saved us for and is completely missing the point of freedom. When God saves us and we start to taste of God's goodness, it transforms us. He empowers us with His spirit and we become a bond servant to Christ. A bond servant is a servent who is not required to be in submission to his master but does it anyways just because he wants to. Paul called himself a bond servant of Christ and that he was! He preached the Word of God to thousands and got heavily persecuted, yet still chose to serve the Lord because of his deep love of the Lord. It is NOT easy to be a christian so I don't want to sell anyone a false gospel saying it's just like a joyride. In fact, it would be easier to sit back in your comfort zone and drown in your sin. But there is just something about being right with God that gives you a joy and peace that passes all understanding. It makes sense though because glorifying God is what he made us to do. He literally crafted us from the dust with His own hands to glorify Him and bring praise to His name.
Reconciliation: an element of salvation that refers to the results of atonement. The end of the estrangement, caused by sin, between God and humanity. Being in agreement.
Colossians 1:22- But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.
2 Corinthians 5:17-21- Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.
Romans 5:11- Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
God has not only reconciled us to himself, but he has also given us the ministry of reconciliation. It is now our job to minister to other and reconcile other to Him. We are to be ambassadors of Christ. We are to be a picture of Christ. We are to represent Him in EVERYTHING we do. That means in every single thing we give our time to, we should represent Christ. That can range anywhere from work, school, activities, sports, entertainment, or more. Giving our all is very important, but representing Christ goes so much further than that! It is having your mind so focused on Jesus and the kingdom of God, that in everything you do you are finding a way to make an impact. Entertainment is probably a little different when it comes to that matter though. You can't really say "I watched that movie with my full 100% attention so therefore I glorified Christ".. Sorry doesn't work that way in this field. When it comes to entertainment, it is the question of what do I use for entertainment? It is key for us to remember that we have the holy spirit in us and whatever we are putting in front of us, we are letting enter our minds. The holy spirit does not dwell where sin is! If we have a separation between our spirit and our mind, we cannot be an ambassador for Christ. Our entertainment shouldn't be feeding out flesh. It should be feeding our spirit. This can be hard sometimes, but I have found that when I'm seeking God and in the Word, then that's what my desires are for! The more you build your relationship with God, the more you enjoy the christian life and get your satisfaction in Christ. I would like to end with this quote I heard in a podcast from Donna Gaines..
"God is most glorified in me, when I am most satisfied in Him."
Well I'm not a writer at all but here I am blogging! For those who do not know me I guess it would be smart to give some information on who I am. My name is Marlene and I'm a devoted follower of Jesus Christ! That will probably be evident in my blogs considering the reason for making this blog is mainly to share what the Lord is teaching me. I'll most likely end up blogging about random things during the day too. I was born and raised in Memphis, TN and absolutely love it. Most of my mother's side of the family lives here so Memphis is definitely home to me. I'm currently living in Memphis but will be moving to Jackson, TN for college at Union University in about six weeks. In college I will be majoring in Math and minoring in Education and Spanish. I feel like God is calling me to teach middle/high school kids and wanted to minor in spanish 1. because Memphis has many hispanics who can't speak English and 2. because I LOVE mission trips and would love to be able to speak to the spanish speaking people while i'm on them. Now that you know a little about me i'll tell you my reason for blogging. As I said before, this is mainly to share what God is teaching me. I have grown up in a Christian home my whole life and got saved at a young age. I didn't truely understand what it meant for my life though until early in junior year of high school. I feel like many Christians are living defeated today and not just young teenagers or children but also adults who haven't tasted of the Lord and seen His goodness. There is no greater joy than the unbroken fellowship with the Lord. So I hope that as I share what God is teaching me, it will encourage those who haven't tasted to taste a tiny bit of what God has to offer and for those who are whole-heartedly seeking the Lord, I hope it encourages and blesses you. Enough of the introductory blog though! I'll start blogging the real stuff soon! :)
