Are You Organically Growing Into Others?

The body of Christ is a wonderful thing.  I am apart of a great church were at times you feel like you are in a church that is very similar to the 1st century church.  They have such a love for one another. The preaching of God's Word is sound and it causes you to love Christ more. The pastor has a true shepherd's heart.  No church is perfect and there is always room for improvement but I really treasure my church.

Why am I telling about my church because they have really taught me how a body is to function.  I have been going to churches since I was really young so I have seen many churches.  The thing that always amazed me is when people ask, "how are you doing?" they really don't want to hear the answer.  I don't know if you have experienced that.  I always wondered if you don't want to hear then why do you ask?  If you ask them the question they always say everything is fine.  Later you will find out that they are really going through a lot.  Next, you wonder, why did they lie and say everything was fine when everything is not?  I believe it boils down to people want to look like they have everything under control and they want to appear so godly and don't want people to know they struggle.  This is a mistake.  The beauty of the body of Christ is we are to bear each others burdens, pray for each other, encourage one another, and help each other up when we fall down.  If you don't share in some degree you are hindering someone else from growing.  For instance, say you just went through a trial and God showed you so much and you really grew through it. Say if someone asks you how you are doing and you share; you never know if that person is going through something similar to what you have gone through.  What you say may really help them get through and grow as well.  I heard one of the teachers at my church say that we are to organically grow into one another's lives so that we can help and encourage each other to good works.  If we keep everything behind a mask of everything is okay so everyone will think we are righteous we also deprive someone from being able to minister to us.

I think things would be easier for people to give up the pride of trying to appear so righteous if they remembered constantly we are all sinners deserving hell.  It is only by the grace of God and Him sending His only Son, Jesus Christ, to take your place on the cross and giving you His righteousness that you will enter heaven.  When God looks at you, dear believer, He is not looking at how "righteous" you are or all your good works, He is seeing Christ's righteousness.  Think about God had to intervene in your life, open your eyes, give you faith to believe, pay your enormous debt of sin and give you His righteousness to save you.  How can you truly be prideful?  What did you do? God did everything.  Your righteousness is as filthy rags! You cannot fool God.  You may be able to fool others but God knows everything about you.   Believers need to be honest with one another.  If you are struggling, tell someone.  You don't need to go through things alone.  You are never alone because you have Christ & Christ gives you a new family with tons of brothers & sisters eager to pray with you, truly listen and give you sound counsel from the scriptures, & help you keep your eyes on Christ.

I do have to say, if you go to someone for counsel and it is either not according to scripture meaning they take scripture out of context, they are not truly listen and they are just figuring out what verse to say to you or they speak and give you worldly counsel, disregard what was said & RUN!!!!!!!   To find someone to get counsel from, look for someone whose life exemplifies Christ and you have seen them in many different situations, meaning outside of church. You need to see this to make sure they are genuine because anyone can look beautiful at church. You need to know 3 things.  They are really passionate about Christ and their greatest desire is to please Christ and they really care about you and your spiritual growth.

Once you find a few people that would be the people you look to for advice or counsel then the rest of the people you get to know them, love them, serve them and invest your life into them.  The joy you will experience is unbelievable.  If everyone were to do this every church would be closer to the 1st century church.  You will organically grow into each others lives by sharing and praying and loving each other.  It can all start with you opening up to someone else and taking the mask down. Let the love of Christ through the body in.  Begin to organically grow!

What do you measure life with?

As you go through life and you are navigating what is right and wrong or what is true and not true, what do you use to determine these things?  Do you use popular opinion? What the media says? What the celebrities say? Do you just use what you feel?  For Christians, we are to use the Bible to measure everything.  It is to be our plum line.  Any other measurement is not accurate.  It is like using a child's foot to measure a foot.  It is not truly 1 foot or 12 inch.  It is not an accurate measurement.  The same is true when young people use their parents as the measurement for Christianity. Why is this?  Because people are sinners and even believers are not perfect.  People will always disappoint and fail you. Yes, parents are to be an example of Christ-likeness, but they cannot be the measurement of what is Christianity.  I have heard and seen young people who do not have good examples at home or are in very controlling, oppressive homes say, "If that is Christianity I don't want any part of it."  They most of the time use the word "if" which is an important thing to note.  People tend to use other people as their plum line for Christianity, which is not an accurate measurement.  Christian means little Christ.  If you are going to look at Christianity then you have to only look at Jesus Christ himself.  You can look at other Christians that are truly following Christ and their life lines up with the scriptures as people to learn from but ultimately Jesus is your primary focus on how to be a Christian.  In my own life, I came from a controlling oppressive home and I didn't see a true example of Christ in the home.  A pastor told me, one time, that he was amazed I was still walking with Christ.  I told him, where would I go.  Christ is all I have.  He is my life, my hope, my Savior.  He is my everything.  I never even considered to use my parents as a plum line of Christianity because as I read and studied the scriptures the more in love with Jesus I became.  I knew my dad didn't line up to what I studied in the Bible so I knew to continued to fix my eyes on Jesus, my Lord and Savior.

The Word of God is to be our measuring stick to everything in life.  You use the scriptures to measure every kind of social issues such as gay marriages, divorce, non married people living together, cheating on a spouse, polygamy and bigamy.  Some would say, "The Bible is out dated it is not to be used the way it was in Bible time."  Well, hate to disappoint but God's standard does not change.  He is immutable or unchanging.  What he considered a sin then is still a sin now.  Man can try to make every sin accepted in a culture but it does not mean it is acceptable to God.  God is holy and He hates sin.  He is also just.  He cannot let sin be okay.   

The Scriptures are also to be used for guiding you on everyday issues.  You can look to the Bible and use the principles to guide you in areas of business, marriage, raising children, treating strangers, and how to walk closer with God.  I do have to state, be sure that when you read the Bible that you keep the verses in context.  I have stated this before in another article you cannot take scriptures out of context or have it say whatever you want it to say.  Tons of people do take verse out of context. For those who know the context of the verse they get really frustrated when they hear someone take a verse out of context because the verse doesn't mean what they are saying it means.  My point is, make sure you read the verse in the context of the passage to get the correct meaning.

Instead of being like Jiminy Cricket of letting your conscience be your guide or popular opinion be sure to let the Word of God be you guide and the plum line or measuring stick of your life.  Make Jesus Christ the focus of heart, soul and mind.