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Growing in Maturity
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Because of God’s Faithful Love
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Living Sacrifice
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Book Review: In His Image
5
Ending Disputes

Growing in Maturity

To me, one of my favorite aspects of volunteering with the youth students at church is watching them mature.

When the sixth graders start in our class, they seem so…well…there’s really not another way to put it…immature.

But as they grow and develop, usually by the time they are in high school, they seem different somehow. The initiate more serious conversations. And it just hits me all of a sudden – this student has really matured.

I’m not sure we ever fully “mature” on this earth. I may be able to “adult” with the best of them, but I still have some really immature attitudes and actions pop up.

James 1:2-4 says Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.”

Look at those verses in reverse order. Our end goal is to become mature. Maturity comes through endurance. Okay – that makes sense. But endurance comes from trials – and that’s something we all do our best to avoid!

Since we live in a sinful, fallen world, difficult situations and days are certain to come. But how we face them directly determines how we mature. As you face your next trial, do your best to shift your way of thinking about it to match James – view it as an opportunity to rely on God in a new way and grow in maturity.

Because of God’s Faithful Love

In Psalm 6, David cries out to God for mercy. Actually, he’s begging for mercy. He’s crying out that he is weak, his bones are shaking, and his whole being is shaken with terror.

In verse four, he begs, “Turn, Lord! Rescue me; save me because of your faithful love.”

This cry is a strong reminder of David’s understanding of the Lord’s faithfulness. He doesn’t ask the Lord to rescue him so that he, David, could escape his pain and fear. He doesn’t ask for rescue because of how many tremendous battles victories he had won.

He asks for rescuing based solely on the fact that God’s love is faithful.

David knows that God would keep His promise. He also knows that he, David, is unworthy. There’s nothing that he had done or could promise to do that would change God’s plan.

We should approach God in prayer the same way. When we are in distress, we should turn to God – not to worldly comforts like food, entertainment, or relationships.

Don’t be afraid to cry out to God. Tell Him exactly how you feel. And say out loud that you trust that He will be true to His faithful love.

Living Sacrifice

Romans 12:1 tells us to present our bodies as a “living sacrifice.” Now that’s a great example of an oxymoron! An oxymoron is a grammar term where two completely opposite terms are brought together in one phrase.

My favorite example of an oxymoron is “jumbo shrimp.” Some other great examples are “deafening silence,” “alone together,” and “found missing.”

Enough of that grammar rabbit trail. Back to “living sacrifice.” A sacrifice requires a killing. So how do we have a “living sacrifice?”

An excerpt from Elisabeth Eliott’s book, Through the Gates of Splendor gives us some thoughts on the subject. She tells us that Jim “limited his extracurricular activities, fearing that he might become occupied in nonessentials and miss the essentials of life…he did, however, go out for wrestling…[explaining] … I wrestle solely for the strength and co-ordination of muscle tone that the body receives while working out, with the ultimate end that of presenting a more useful body as a living sacrifice.”

As Christians, we are to have this same radical mindset. No matter what we do – even if it’s wrestling – we do it to glorify God.

We use our bodies to better serve Him. We take care of it so that it will be ready to obey whatever He calls us to do.

Being a “living sacrifice” is a difficult way to live life. It’s completely against the selfish culture that we live in. But it’s the life that God has called us to live. We can know with confidence that He will equip and guide us along the way.

Book Review: In His Image

If you’ve spent much time around me, you’ll know that I’ve been gradually becoming more and more a fan of every Bible resource that Jen Wikin has put out in the past couple years.

I was first introduced to her book None Like Him: 10 Ways God is Different from Us (And Why That’s a Good Thing) in which she brilliantly explained our human limitations when it comes to characteristics such as omnipotence, sovereignty, and self-sufficiency. This book encouraged us to repent of all the ways that we’ve tried to become God in these areas of our lives.

So when our church did her podcast-based study on 1, 2, and 3 John called Abide, I was excited to hear her Bible teaching in conjunction with my personal Bible study. And it didn’t disappoint.

Jen Wilkin has something I have been wanting to see for a while in “popular” Christian, women authors – a deep love for Scripture and a dedication to teach women how to understand it on their own. In a Precepts-like method, Jen asks us to seek God’s wisdom and teaching first. She points us to Scripture continually. It’s beautiful.

When I received a Barnes & Noble gift card for Christmas, only one book got me truly excited to spend it – her follow up to  None Like Him. All I knew was that it was called In His Image and would follow the same pattern as the first book. Except this time she would examine 10 characteristics that we share with God.

I pre-ordered the book. It arrived last week. I spent this weekend reading it. I’ll tell you on the front end, this book is every bit as hard of a hitter as the first. The questions after each chapter are extremely challenging – in a good way. They ask you to truly examine your heart and motives. I did not spend this weekend answering all the questions. I’ll go back and do that in my own personal studies. I simply read through the book in order to turn around and tell you as quickly as possible – GO BUY THIS BOOK FOR YOURSELF AND EVERYONE YOU KNOW!!!

Actually, if you haven’t read None Like Him,  start there. This really isn’t a sequel. But you won’t appreciate the impact that we share characteristics with God until you understand how much we don’t have in common (ughh…sin…)

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Ending Disputes

I don’t often find myself in quarrels. That’s not because I’m some incredibly selfless, patient, understanding person. Rather, it’s because, at my core, I’m a people pleaser. I want everyone to be happy – and not just happy – but happy with ME at all times.

So Proverbs 20:3 makes me chuckle when I read it:

Honor belongs to the person who ends a dispute, but any fool can get himself into a quarrel.

How true! There just seem to be some people who go looking for arguments. They get angry over the smallest matters. Rather than explain themselves or make a kind request, they jump straight to the attack.

Just like last Friday. I was trying to accomplish a task for a local nonprofit when someone began to yell at me when I asked for help. When I say “yell,” I mean all-out-angry-you’re-not-better-than-me type words. I was completely caught off guard. Without going into details, I can confidently say that they were being the foolish one. But at the same time, I can’t say that I was gaining honor.

Because even in that situation, I didn’t seek to end the dispute. Honestly, I just waited in stunned silence until the phone call was over. I didn’t provoke the situation and yet I didn’t seek reconciliation either.

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