I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. For I want you to know what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return. Philippians 1:9-10
The other day, one of my children challenged me to memorize the entire book of 1 John this summer. We were on a one-on-one and they said that they were motivated to memorize the book and asked if I would join them. I paused - looking for a good excuse. I started by saying that I had tried to memorize it 35 years ago and failed - I did end up memorizing a synopsis of the book though. I thought about the busyness of my life, all my challenges and my memory challenges (I could hide my own Easter eggs and have funfinding them!) then I said, “Yes.” I said yes because (if you are a dad) it is tough to say no to a daughter who gives you that “daddy look.” And I said yes because I knew that this was a moment - one that I needed to seize to be fully alive.
My kids have learned that overflowing-faith comes when a Christian understands that growth comes not from listening to the radio preachers or television evangelists or even the pastor of a local church.Overflowing faith is when you learn how to dive into the Word yourself, have a no-excuse prayer life and a seize-the-moment fellowship life.
Oh, how I long that you defy the shallow faith epidemic of our generation. That your theology (understanding of God) goes beyond pop-faith and the latest trend. That you learn to dive deep into the word, walk unceasingly with a conversation with your Lord and Savior and that you put that faith into practice in the adventure of your life! Do you know your spiritual gift? Have you discovered the adventure of serving others? Do you know about the law of God’s economy - that he has given you everything in the first place and the last thing you want to do in tough times is to break your partnership with him?
My grandson, Elijah, is living with us a for a couple weeks. I bid on a bunch of cars at last week’s auction and lost, but some gracious person gave the cars to my son-in-law to give to me so that I could give them to Elijah. I have never seen him enjoy a present so much (he sleeps with these cars). He alternately hordes and shares his cars. The other day I asked him if I could play with one of his green cars (a really cool, old ford pickup truck). He said, “No, No GP” and went into the mode of hording his cars. I thought, “Hey – those cars are a miracle. How can you think you own them and not want to share?” But then I thought, “Isn’t that exactly the situation of the non-overflowing life?” When I was pondering whether I really want to invest all the time to memorize 1 John with my child, I realized that even being asked such a question is a miracle!So I challenge myself (and you) to live our life, not from a faithless model of scarcity, but a faithful model of overflowing - it really makes sense!
Your friend for the rest of my life,
Pastor Tim White
My kids have learned that overflowing-faith comes when a Christian understands that growth comes not from listening to the radio preachers or television evangelists or even the pastor of a local church.Overflowing faith is when you learn how to dive into the Word yourself, have a no-excuse prayer life and a seize-the-moment fellowship life.
Oh, how I long that you defy the shallow faith epidemic of our generation. That your theology (understanding of God) goes beyond pop-faith and the latest trend. That you learn to dive deep into the word, walk unceasingly with a conversation with your Lord and Savior and that you put that faith into practice in the adventure of your life! Do you know your spiritual gift? Have you discovered the adventure of serving others? Do you know about the law of God’s economy - that he has given you everything in the first place and the last thing you want to do in tough times is to break your partnership with him?
My grandson, Elijah, is living with us a for a couple weeks. I bid on a bunch of cars at last week’s auction and lost, but some gracious person gave the cars to my son-in-law to give to me so that I could give them to Elijah. I have never seen him enjoy a present so much (he sleeps with these cars). He alternately hordes and shares his cars. The other day I asked him if I could play with one of his green cars (a really cool, old ford pickup truck). He said, “No, No GP” and went into the mode of hording his cars. I thought, “Hey – those cars are a miracle. How can you think you own them and not want to share?” But then I thought, “Isn’t that exactly the situation of the non-overflowing life?” When I was pondering whether I really want to invest all the time to memorize 1 John with my child, I realized that even being asked such a question is a miracle!So I challenge myself (and you) to live our life, not from a faithless model of scarcity, but a faithful model of overflowing - it really makes sense!
Your friend for the rest of my life,
Pastor Tim White
No comments:
Post a Comment