AS promised, we are returning to our study in Principles of Spiritual Growth, taking up the next in Chapter 14, The Process of Discipleship. As I muse on this I’m thinking we’ve been at this a long time and touched many topics and aspects of a complex matter. Solomon wrote that of “making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh.” …I look off to my right and see a stack of many unread books I intend to plow through, not to mention those I’ve spent time with already that are collecting dust on the bookshelves, many marked out to reread. I recently finished an excellent book titled The Road to Character by David Brooks that challenged my thinking, gave me all kinds of fresh quotes and ideas, new food for thought for when I talk to the students at CCA Bible class and chapel. Yet, bottom line Solomon states what we all know to be the simple truth in Eccl. 12:12-13:
“….the conclusion of the whole matter [is]: fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all.”
But as easy as this may be to say and comprehended, it is not easily done. There is much opposition and contradiction within and without that obstructs the disciple’s road to personal maturity and obedience to Christ.
YOU probably recall, as I do from my youth, hearing someone say to you in frustrating anger why don’t you grow-up, act your age, or quit being so immature. I often think of this when I consider CCA students or empathize with my own grandchildren watching them go through what they must on their path to maturity. Even Jesus said we cannot add one cubit to our own stature by our own efforts (Matt 6:27). There are no short cuts to “growing-up,” no way to avoid the struggles and difficulties of learning. These things must be so if the lessons to be learned are to be internalized, transferred from the mere abstract into a personal, concrete reality. Think of anything of worth that you have learned or mastered that has not taken time, practice, patience, and repetition. Why do we think the Christian life, the most important aspect of our being, should be some sort of “cake walk?” As I tell students at CCA, “gardens just don’t happen.” And with that comment and thought, I’m going to stop here and resume next time with what I mean by “gardens just don’t happen.” For now, let us get to our consideration for the moment.
With regards in Christ,
Joe
Neh. 8:10, Isa 30:15; Jas 1:2
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Chapter 14—Process of Discipleship
In the parable of the sower the seed sown “on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience” (Luke 8:15). The principle of growth is always “first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear” (Mark 4:28). Therefore, “the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it” (James 5:7). As this clearly exemplifies, “he that believeth shall not make haste” (Isa. 28:16).
For most of us it has been a long season of growth from the tiny green blade up to the “full corn in the ear.” So many seek to settle for this stage: saved, with heaven assured—plus a pacifying measure of Christian respectability, at least in church circles. Here we have the believer as a normal grain of wheat containing life inside a more or less shiny golden covering, in fellowship high up on the stalk with similar kernels of wheat. This is but a stage, not the goal. And, like middle age, this can be a dangerous stage—one of seeking a “much deserved” rest, of basking aimlessly in the fellowship of meetings, classes, etc., of ignoring or forgetting the struggles and growing pains of the tiny green blades down at one’s feet and expecting and exhorting them to shape up and mature without delay.
This is all very cozy but costly, snug but sterile. “The seed corn may be beautiful, but it is hard. The germ of life is locked up within its shell and cannot get out. Therefore it produces nothing. Here is the reason why so many Christians, even preachers, are so unfruitful. Only one here and there is a soul winner. When the grain of corn is buried it dies, and that hard exterior surface softens and decays, in order to give nutriment to the young sprout, which would otherwise die and thus cause a crop failure. One must reckon himself dead to the hard, cold, selfish ‘I’ before the softening influence of the Holy Spirit can operate, qualifying the believer in the service of God. Many want to do God’s work but are unable, because of the ‘flesh’ in their lives.”
Our Father understands all this, and it is He who takes the initiative in the matter. …to be continued
