Friday, November 30, 2007

He who is forgiven much loves much....

It's late. I'm tired, I have a headache, and I'm sick of Biology notes.

On the flip side! I read this really really good article today---it's well worth the 5 minutes it would take to read it.
---------------------------------
Gauging Spiritual Growth

I just stopped by Miltons Blog and he referred me to a short questionnaire to help determine one’s spiritual growth. I agree with Milton in his general wariness of stuff like that. At the same time, I’m very interested in the topic: shepherding well involves a lot of judgment calls as to how people are growing spiritually, because if you care for them and want to help them grow you have to see if they’re growing in the first place.

When I think about quantifying spiritual growth in the Bible, I vacillate towards 1 John. While it talks predominantly about assurance, this assurance tends to be grounded in the overarching pattern of spiritual growth in the believer (1 John 2:28; also 2:4-6, 24-27, 3:10, 18-19; 5:13). We preached through this book a year and a half ago when we first planted Shoreline, and I remember constantly telling people that to have confidence in their salvation they need to look back and see how God has molded them more into the image of Christ over the long haul. Most people would get bogged down in a bad week, or even a bad day they had, and would start to lose confidence. But John kept pointing us to the larger pattern of our lives to show that God was indeed at work within us, even though the journey had hills and valleys.

This was good for everyone—me especially—but as we went I realized that this approach is very general and works with a lot of externals. And after we wrapped up the book, I started to wonder what spiritual growth looked like from an autobiographical point of view. While the pattern of my life did give me assurance that the Spirit was at work, how was I to view that? How would I know I was maturing spiritually from the inside, on a more daily and internal basis?

I found my answer in the experiences of Paul. It’s kind of funny how intensely personal he gets in his epistles, especially given that they ended up as scripture. The guy wore his heart on his sleeve, and God put that in scripture for us to follow. That’s a whole other post. But as you watch Paul grow you see a distinct pattern emerge: In 1 Corinthians 15:9, he refers to himself as the “least of the apostles.” Later, in Ephesians 3:8, he calls himself the “least of all the saints.” Finally, as an older man, Paul calls himself the foremost of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15).

It seems as though, from the inside, the way you quantify your spiritual growth is by how aware you are of your sin.

This tends to run counter to the way evangelicals like to run things: everything is always great, everyone is always growing, everyone is sinning less and less every day, or so we tell ourselves and each other. But if Paul is any indicator, your growth in Christ is measured not by how you feel less and less sinful, but how you feel more and more sinful. A growing awareness and despair over your sin marks true growth in the believer. And I don’t think it’s too far to say that using any other standard to judge our internal growth is a step towards legalism. That isn’t to say that the questionnaire above is unbiblical, or that taking stock of the way you live out your faith isn’t important - the Bible is clear that it is (James 2:14-17). But it is to say that, from inside our own heads, we shouldn’t be proud that we feel more holy every day. We should repent of our pride and lack of growth. We know we’re on the right track if, every day, we wake up and find more sin when we thought we’d already exhausted our capacity for itwhich will force us to our knees in humble repentance and to our feet in joyful reception of the grace to be found in the blood of Christ. As we grow in awareness of sin, so too we will grow in joy for the gospel: he who is forgiven little loves little (Luke 7:47). And so, at the end of the day, God gets more glory as our only hope for salvation and joy in a sin-stained world, created by sin-stained hearts like our own.

---------------------------
You can't read that without praising and thanking God. =)

I knew all of this but it really, really struck me this time.

It was so encouraging for me to read.

To easily do I get discouraged when I am made aware of a new sin or in some way it's brought to my attention that a current sin issues goes deeper than I ever thought possible.

But the fact is that-- I'm going to be sinful until the day I die and reach heaven. Now that doesn't mean that I don't fight it vehemently or shouldn't feel any remorse when I do sin. Yet I need to realize maybe feeling holy isn't what I should be striving for...I put way to much stock in what I'm feeling--just because I sinful doesn't mean I'm far from God and just because I feel holy doesn't mean I'm close with Him...in fact if anything it's probably the opposite...

And when I'm made more acutely aware of how sinful I am-- it should drive me towards God, not away from him. It should drive me towards the ONLY One who can save me. It should drive me to more genuine prayer and sweeter worship....

He is my only hope.

I love Him.

And guys don't think it's a big deal on my part that I love Him, please don't....the only reason I love much is because I was forgiven much, the reason I love is because I was loved. Much more than I could ever love...

Anyways I can't write well at all and for that I'm sorry. But I hope you guys know that I really mean this....

Alright it's late -- love you all. Goodnight.

2 comments:

Tyler said...

Woah, layout change!

Justin said...

haha wow I was just thinking about this. and then I read that. You're right, just because I'm sinful doesn't mean I'm far from God and just because I feel holy doesn't mean I'm close with Him.