Growing in the Lord

Hello Fellow Crazy Lovers of Jesus!

I know it’s been awhile since my last blog: forgiveness! Nevertheless, Christ is still the Lord and He has risen from the dead indeed! I look to Him to continue to bless this blog unto the building up of His Body 😀

In our small group meeting tonight, we considered what it means to “grow in the Lord.” Well, often it is said that when someone receives Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior they are “born again”. This is because to be a Christian is not a matter of turning over a new leaf, or trying to be a better person. Rather, to be a Christian is to receive the life of Christ into your human spirit as a seed, and help it to grow until Christ is fully formed within (Romans 8:16; Galatians 4:19). To be born again is only the beginning of the joy with the Christian experience. The real enjoyment comes as this life grows!

Just as in our human life, after we are born we must grow. A novel concept, I know, but is quite profound in relation to our Christian experience. When a baby is born, it is not expected to feed, clothe, and take itself to school, right? Of course not; in fact, such a thought is even crazy! Why? Though it has the life of a human being, it does not have the maturity of a human being nor the full expression of what a human being is. Although it can never be any more or less human than it is at birth, the full expression of what it means to be a human has not yet been manifested because of the lack of maturity. Therefore, this baby must grow!

At this point, many reading may be nodding their heads in complete agreement, but have not yet seen that this is a picture of our Christian life. As mentioned before, Christians often have the view that after becoming Christians, they need to try hard to be like Christ, as if it were only a matter if doing outward activities. However, we must see that to be a Christian is a life-matter, not a religion! As such, we must grow in life in a normal, healthy way. Our growth in life is intimately related to our eating of the Lord by reading the Word, praying to the Lord, calling on His name, and meeting with other believers. This is the equivalent of a baby eating food, drinking milk, and sleeping. Such actions do not seem so glorious, but are vitally important to the normal growth of the child. Often times, we are just like children who want to be “grown-ups”. Even if we try, we are unable because to be a “grown-up” is matter of growth, not just behavior. In the same way, we must grow in the Lord by taking care of these vital practices. If we take care of these matters, eventually the Christ within us will grow to maturity, bringing with it the full expression of all that God is and the total reproduction of the life that He lived on the earth! Thus, it is not a matter of trying, but of eating 😀

As a side note, our Ultimate Frisbee time has been moved to tomorrow at 2:30pm at North Field on UC Berkeley Campus, so if you’re around come and join us! Pray that in our “young vs. old” game, the Lord would grant us the victory (not really…unless He leads you to do so :D). Also, there will be an outing to Las Trampas on Sunday (which is why the Ultimate Frisbee got moved to Saturday) from 1-5pm. If you’re in the area and interested, just let me know!

Grace be with you from Christians on Campus at UC Berkeley!