Faith as it points to my family and day to day life is more and more vague as my relationship with God matures. Why is that?
It was at first very simplistic - trust Jesus, that He died for my sins, and live to be like Him. As we mature though, God begins to invade every crevice of our heart and call out to us to release it and let Him reign there.
As we start that process at salvation, those areas are usually large and obvious - that sinful sexual relationship, drug abuse, deceitfulness. Not that we overcome those sins and are never tempted in them again, but we are now held accountable for the knowledge that they are not in line with the kingdom life - the way that Jesus works in the kingdom that he rules in. And that is new knowledge.
Maybe I'm way off here, but as I grow closer to Christ (as a side note, I really despise the word "mature" here. We are to grow to be more like Him but many Christians have used "mature" as a benchmark that they set for themselves to look down on all who aren't there yet. So... despisementness) I find that there is less and less "stopping" the sinful and more and more "calling" to the radical. We are burdened for the homeless and "poor in spirit". We are impassioned about the injustice we see and brokenhearted for God. We are more and more Jesus and less and less Tucker. It's like god says "You know what is in line with my kingdom now. We've walked through that already. Now expand it with me."
I think that's the way it should be. There should be this joyous vagueness to my life and faith as the boundaries are erased between what I want to call "me", even though I am not my own (1 Cor. 6:19 - You do not belong to yourself), and faith. Thoughts?
It was at first very simplistic - trust Jesus, that He died for my sins, and live to be like Him. As we mature though, God begins to invade every crevice of our heart and call out to us to release it and let Him reign there.
As we start that process at salvation, those areas are usually large and obvious - that sinful sexual relationship, drug abuse, deceitfulness. Not that we overcome those sins and are never tempted in them again, but we are now held accountable for the knowledge that they are not in line with the kingdom life - the way that Jesus works in the kingdom that he rules in. And that is new knowledge.
Maybe I'm way off here, but as I grow closer to Christ (as a side note, I really despise the word "mature" here. We are to grow to be more like Him but many Christians have used "mature" as a benchmark that they set for themselves to look down on all who aren't there yet. So... despisementness) I find that there is less and less "stopping" the sinful and more and more "calling" to the radical. We are burdened for the homeless and "poor in spirit". We are impassioned about the injustice we see and brokenhearted for God. We are more and more Jesus and less and less Tucker. It's like god says "You know what is in line with my kingdom now. We've walked through that already. Now expand it with me."
I think that's the way it should be. There should be this joyous vagueness to my life and faith as the boundaries are erased between what I want to call "me", even though I am not my own (1 Cor. 6:19 - You do not belong to yourself), and faith. Thoughts?
