IN the previous post we started the 17th chapter in The Complete Green Letters, Principles of Spiritual Growth, titled Cultivation. I opened with comments about the importance of keeping things in balance from the authors opening statement. As we come to today’s consideration, there is a sentence that jumped off the page as I read it, reminding me again of another first thing, and the importance of preparation, …yes, proper cultivation.
OVER the years in my various responsibilities, I’ve always been involved in training of some sort; whether it was simply showing someone how to perform a certain task, or learning how to do a major job or process. I have learned over time that there are two sides to the educating process, the “what” and the “how.” In any task there is the “hard skill,” the “what” that needs to be done and the steps to the process of doing it. And then there is the “soft skill,” the “how” – the craft and artistry to the task. I’ve heard it said correctly that whereas the “hard skills” are that which can be taught, it is the “soft skills” that must be caught in the process, learned from the mentor/teacher with patience and practice.
YOU can always tell the difference between someone who is learning to play a musical instrument and one who has mastered it. Both the technical side and artistry are learned skills. It is said that, “An amateur is a person who does a thing until he gets it right; a professional is one who does it until he can’t get it wrong.” (Any guesses as to who said that?)
MY point is that it is not only important “what” you do, but “how” you do a thing as well. The older I get the more I believe that the “how” is more important than the “what.” (But that’s for another time) …Anyway, the underline sentence in today’s consideration is this:
So it is not merely that a man does certain things or speaks certain words, but that he is a certain kind of man.
THOSE of you associated with CCA might recognize that statement stated a little differently from an oft repeated Tuesday Bulletin, Character Comment, when I frequently inserted the words: “…it is to the end towards which a [student] uses their intellectual training that is our principle concern; that is, we care most of all what kind of person a student is in the final analysis.” …F. Washington Jarvis (With Love and Prayers).
THERE are two sides of the Christian Walk Coin: The “What” that we believe, and the “How” that we express in real life every day. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14. Also see 1Pet 3:18, and notice what Peter insert first there as well, “grace.”
I’VE gone long again, so let’s get to today’s reading from Cultivation – Part 2.
In the inexorable riches of Christ,
Joe
Neh. 8:10, Isa 30:15, Jas. 1:2
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Chapter 17—Cultivation – Part 2
Each of us must be thoroughly cultivated before He can effectively cultivate others through us. It is not that there will be no service for us until we are spiritually mature but that most of our service on the way to maturity is for our own development, not so much that of others. At first the growing believer thinks, would have others feel, that all his service is effective; but in time he comes to realize that the Lord is not doing so much through him as He is in him. Our Lord always concentrates on the greater need.
“Since the work of God is essentially spiritual, it demands spiritual people for its doing; and the measure of their spirituality will determine the measure of their value to the Lord. Because this is so, in God’s mind the servant is more than the work. If we are going to come truly into the hands of God for His purpose, then we shall be dealt with by Him in such a way as to continually increase our spiritual measure. Not our interest in Christian work; our energies, enthusiasm, ambitions, or abilities; not our academic qualification, or anything that we are in ourselves, but simply our spiritual life is the basis of the beginning and growth of our service to God. Even the work, when we are in it, is used by Him to increase our spiritual measure” (anon.).
It is a mistake to measure spiritual maturity merely by the presence of gifts. By themselves they are an inadequate basis for a man’s lasting influence to God. They may be present and they may be valuable, but the Spirit’s object is something far greater—to form Christ in us through the working of the cross. His goal is to see Christ inwrought in believers. So it is not merely that a man does certain things or speaks certain words, but that he is a certain kind of man. He himself is what he preaches. Too many want to preach without being the thing themselves, but in the long run it is what we are, and not simply what we do or say, that matters with God; and the difference lies in the formation of Christ within.
We are not saved to serve, we are matured to serve. Only to the extent that cultivation reveals self for what it is are we in the position to assist others in their cultivation. ….to be continued
