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| Volume 22 Number 12 December 2020 | Page 12 |
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| Volume 22 Number 12 December 2020 | Page 12 |
Ed Benesh
And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. 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. (2 Peter 1:5-8)
I love these verses for a number of different reasons, many of which stem more from the writer of the words than the words themselves. You and I know Peter fairly well. The New Testament is literally filled with his name, and quite frankly, that name is not always associated with the most appropriate behaviors. After all, it was Peter who denied Christ three times leading up to the crucifixion. It was Peter who had to be told, “Get behind me Satan.” Even after he matured in the faith, Paul had to “resist him to his face” when Peter showed partiality to the Jews.
Because of these things, we can often be a little hard on Peter, just as we can be a little hard on ourselves. Yet, in these passages, Peter might as well be writing a commentary about his own life in God’s words. He finally figured it out. Spiritual success is not an all-at-once event, but rather it is an “adding to” enterprise. Spiritual success is not found in a single flash point explosion of spiritual clarity, but spiritual maturity occurs little by little as we build each day upon our faith with the lessons learned, often through our failures.
It is so easy to get ahead of ourselves spiritually and desire an instantaneous-just-add-water kind of faith that ends up frustrating our best efforts, leaving us feeling lost and inadequate. You can’t, however, cheat Christianity from running its natural course for your life. You can’t go to the end of the book of your life without having first lived. Wisdom for living is simply not attained by reading a few chapters in the Bible but through a lifetime of reading as well as trial and error in our attempts to use the things we read every day.
If you ask folks what “Christianity is all about,” more than likely the vast majority will jump right to the end of it all and say something like “heaven” or “eternal life.” While we do not want to minimize the grandness of that reward or to urge you in any way to take your eye off the prize, it seems unreasonable to skip right over the small, daily victories that occur often and define our path to the end, which would not exist without them. You see, when you decided not to browse for porn, overcame your distractions to finish that read through the Bible program, held your tongue when it wanted desperately to unleash its fury or quit that habit that has plagued you for years and wasted your income, then, you are victorious. You have added to your faith, and in adding to it, you grew closer to the assurance of never being barren, even into eternity.
Heaven is the ultimate goal, but it is the long-term objective that is only achieved with short-term victories. Celebrate your spiritual victories as you add to your faith and grow in your understanding.
[Editor’s Note: All of one’s life and every past day lived – with its successes as well as with its failures – is who a person has become on a journey not yet finished as long as a man or a woman draws breath. Who we become ultimately and where we will spend eternity is the sum of every day of our lives. Thank you, brother Benesh, for some important principles on which to reflect as we make our Christian walk toward Heaven. ~ Louis Rushmore, Editor]
The Church Can Still Grow
Steve Snider
One cannot read the Book of Acts without being impressed with the rapid growth of the church after her establishment in Acts 2 (cf., Acts 2:41, 47; 4:4; 5:14; 6:7; 11:21; 13:49; 16:5). These passages show the church growing spiritually and numerically. Both are important! Numerous passages make it clear God wants His church to grow in faith (Philippians 1:9-11; Colossians 1:9-10; 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12), for numbers represent precious souls, and we certainly know that God “is not willing that any should perish but all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9; 1 Timothy 2:3-4). The purpose of this article is not to promote a particular method but to suggest a couple of areas on which we must focus if we want to see the church grow.
Let me suggest first that we must develop a mind to grow. I am afraid Satan has really done his work well and has convinced us that growth isn’t going to happen. I believe we have allowed ourselves to be convinced that people aren’t interested and there is little or nothing we can do to change that. If the church is going to grow, we must develop the mindset that we truly believe it can grow. We must believe that God is still able to do amazing things through His church. Do we still believe Romans 1:16? Do we still believe Matthew 11:28-30? Do we believe that Jesus is the answer to the problems of life? Do we really believe people are lost without the Gospel (Romans 3:23; 6:23; John 14:6)? We need to strive to develop the passion that Christ, the apostles and the early church had for the lost (Luke 19:10; John 4:34; 9:4; Acts 5:18-20).
Secondly, we must have the proper message. Looking at the message of the early church, we can learn these things about the message: It was a message that included the whole counsel of God. Paul made that statement to the elders of Ephesus in Acts 20:27. The message of the early church was Christ-centered, convicted men of sin, called them to repentance and then provided the solution for sin. Furthermore, it challenged false religions. Christianity confronted people with making sacrifices for the cause of Christ (Acts 2; 17; 19)
It was an uncompromising message. It did not reach out and embrace every religious view and lifestyle. There was an exclusiveness about the message that made it appear narrow minded to many who heard it (Acts 4:12).
It was a message of good news centering on Christ and especially the death, burial and resurrection of Christ (Acts 2:26; 3:14; 4:10; 5:29-31). People need the good news. They need to know that Jesus loves us, left the glories of Heaven, died a horrible death on the cross and conquered death so that we might have the good life now and eternal life in the end.
Finally, it was a proclaimed message. Early Christians went everywhere preaching the word (Acts 8:4). They had “good news,” and they wanted the world to hear it! They felt compelled to proclaim it (Acts 4:19-20; 8:4).
We live in difficult times, and reaching people with the Gospel is not easy. Yet, if we will develop the mind to grow, taking the message of Christ to all who will listen, the church can still grow! May God help us to not allow Satan to discourage us and convince us not to grow. Instead, let’s put into practice these biblical principles and allow God to work through us and His Word.
[Editor’s Note: If no one were interested in or willing to investigate the Word of God, still, it would be the Christian’s responsibility to publish it – make it available to everyone. Two notable examples come to mind where very few were interested in God’s Word, and yet, some hearkened to it. Where would we be, or would we be, if it were not for the tireless and mostly fruitless efforts of Noah to proclaim God’s Word over 120 years (Genesis 6:3; 2 Peter 2:5)? Only eight souls were spared from the universal deluge, from which the world was repopulated. Then, the apostle Paul’s preaching in Athens was not well received, but some believed the Word of God (Acts 17:15-34). We’re looking for the some who will entertain the Word of God and believe it. ~ Louis Rushmore, Editor]