going on to perfection;

-2-

 

A headful,

A heartful

& a handful

 

In our last meeting, we looked at the first steps in maturing spiritually; desiring the sincere milk of The Word. But not only that. There was also the necessity of dealing with our frustrating tendencies. There is much more to our development than simply being able to retain & parrot information. The emphasis is on moving from milk to meat in the things of God, unincumbered by the flesh or our wilful & woeful ignorance. Again, I am not questioning anyone’s salvation, neither am I criticising those who are actively engaged in growth. While some develop in their walk more quickly than others, there are those who are simply content to wallow & coast along to their own detriment. This is as sad as it is unnecessary, because The Lord has gone to great lengths to supply us with all that we need. Yet countless numbers of believers are careless concerning their state. For them, ignorance is bliss. It is not a matter of how much an individual knows, but more a matter of disavowing those things which hinder our progress. Grow. Grow up. GROW! UP!

Paul prayed for The Church, pleading, ‘that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:’. (Ephesians 1:17).  There has to be a putting away, a laying aside & a putting off of certain things in order for us to put on & embrace other things that are consistent with the character of our Saviour. This is God’s will. Only then can we hope to make meaningful & necessary progress from a spiritual infancy to a biblical adulthood. Let’s look.

¹¹ And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. ¹² The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. ¹³ Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. ¹⁴ But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof (Romans 13:11-14).

I don’t know how many times I have read these verses over the years, but every time I do, I become more aware of the urgency with which Paul was writing. Even as I go over these words again, I am conscious that there is no option available except obedience for the believer who is convicted of their need to grow from milk to meat & go on to perfection. It’s quite a thing. However, those who aren’t particularly bothered will continue to sit in their relative corners & suck their thumbs.

In every instance, in whatever circumstance we find ourselves, The Lord is constantly encouraging us to mature. However, it’s unsettling to have to accept that some believers resist, ignore & actively avoid His movement in their lives, because they don’t want to be responsive or become responsible. Please don’t ask them to do anything. Please don’t ask them to read Scripture. Please don’t ask them to pray. Please don’t ask them to lead a ministry. They are content to ride the coattails of others who are diligent, while they themselves are deliberately indolent. They will say amen to the prayers of others. They will attend what others organise. They will nod & smile & clap & smile & impatiently wait for church services to end so that they can get away to do what they really want to. They have ticked the box of church attendance. Dropped their coins into the offering. Got their money’s worth of after service refreshments. But They will not engage with God or His Word. They put nothing off of the flesh. They put nothing on of the spirit. They are in a perpetual, self-imposed state of spiritual childhood. Children like entertainment. Children like excitement. Children like supervision. Children like toys. Children like games. As the natural, so also is the spiritual. How has The Church at large responded to this pandemic of lethargy?

I’m just off to make a pot of tea while you think about that…

Well? Are there any answers out there? I’m sure that I will get the usual flurry of emails in response, however, I have an observation to offer. There has been a systematic dumbing down in churches everywhere, but this is by no means anything new. Slowly but surely, there have been more & more accommodations made to suit those who do not pray, or read The Scriptures & yet, these all too often neglected disciplines will expedite growth. In this matter, little or no attention has been paid & even less care has been taken. The babes cannot handle meat & the growing are tired of baby food. Between these two groups there are those who are pandered to & pampered beyond all reasonableness. They’re numerous. They are being fed with milk, but not because they are newborn. They are being fed with milk because they are unable to deal with meat. They are unable to deal with meat because they are carnal. While they are spoilt with endless adaptations, the issue of their flesh is never addressed or consequently dealt with.

Paul said, ‘When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things’. (1^st Corinthians 13:11) & also, ‘Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men’. (1^st Corinthians 14:20).

Archibald Brown, a student of C. H. Spurgeon, once said, ‘A time will come when instead of shepherds feeding the sheep, the church will have clowns entertaining the goats’. That time has come upon us, despite the seemingly unending admonitions of The Apostles. I can imagine this group of saints writing back to Paul, complaining, crying & crabbing.

Dear Paul,

Grace & peace & whatever else you usually say.

Thanks for your prayers & stuff, but we’re really not happy with you mate. We don’t know what your problem is! You’re always banging on & on at us about small things, when in reality we’re not that bad! Afterall, doesn’t it say somewhere or other in The Torah that we’re only human & that we should just be ourselves because God loves us just the way we are? We don’t know what you mean by calling us milky. We’re mighty! We’re meaty! You’re so wrong about us not being able to bear any meat, because all of the other guys we listen to on the internet & watch on TV think we’re great. Their letters are so encouraging as we live our best, purpose driven lives now. You need to chill out. Remember the words of The Lord Jesus, Who said, ‘verily verily, don’t sweat the small stuff’. Well, we think He said that anyway.

(p.s. please bring some tea & biscuits to go with the milk, on your next visit.)

Yours sincerely.

The Churchified.

As tongue in cheek as my words are here, there is a very serious undercurrent to what I’m attempting to convey. The importance of our growth & development in the things of God cannot be understated. It can’t, believe me. Apps will not replace our life of prayer. Our Bibles will not read themselves. Watching so-called christian broadcasting is no substitute for our soul’s daily contact with The Lord. Like matadors, some sidestep what God is endeavouring to do in, to & through them, in favour of lesser pursuits.

² Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, ³ According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: ⁴ Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. ⁵ And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; ⁶ And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; ⁷ And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. ⁸ For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. (2^nd Peter 1:2-9).

Here, The Apostle Peter has given us all a headful, a heartful & a handful. The knowledge of God is not simply the accumulation of Bible verses & biblical facts that enable us to pridefully strut down the street, with Greek in our left pocket & Hebrew in our right, as if we were recreating the opening scene from the movie Saturday Night Fever! He is talking about knowing The Lord intimately. Who wouldn’t want that? I’ll tell you who. The lethargic. The lacklustre. The lazy. The listless. The lassitudinous. They show no willingness. They make no effort. They warm benches & make up numbers, but they will not participate. I encourage those of you who are babes in Christ, to drink deeply of God’s Word. I encourage those of you who have progressed beyond milk & are tackling meatier biblical issues, to press ahead. I encourage those of you who are hogging the middle lane to ‘Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?’ (2^nd Corinthians 13:5).

 

 

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