Faith Firmly Rooted

Well, 2009 has come and gone and evidently, my informants ESPN alerted me a few days ago (with their "top ten plays of the decade" and whatnot) that a decade has drawn to a close.  This of course should not have been news to me, but somehow my silly brain was imagining that it would be another year (at the completion of 2010) that such a "turn-of-the-page" would come.  Seeing as how I have only lived through a couple of these decade things, and seeing as how the last one changed when I was all of 18, I am hit with the magnitude of the occasion.

Not wanting to let the moment slip by without sneaking in a quick line, I worked to squeeze in time for a post.

I have spoken before of how the Christian life---from our birth, to our spiritual birth or conversion, and throughout our entire life until our dying day---is a process.  It is a spiritual journey in which God is drawing us closer to Himself.  We may not always understand how or why or that it is even happening, but for Christians walking with God, He is perfecting us all the while and transforming us back into the image-bearers He meant for us to be...in the image of Christ. I have written about this subject (sanctification) previously.

With that spiritual and theological reality firmly in mind, let me ask you----could you adequately map your spiritual journey in words or art or music or a line graph or some medium of the sort?  What if you reflected on where God has brought you, what He has done in you, what He has transformed about you and when by the decade?  Where were you spiritually in the early 80s?  What changed about your faith by the mid 90s?  What did God do in your life by 2000 or by the time you had children, etc?  This is a spiritual journey and it is important (even very Hebrew) to walk forward through life looking backwards over your shoulder and recalling the great things that God has done.  This reflection is also healthy, deeply rewarding, and often humbling.  It also happens to be a marvelous spiritual exercise to start any new year.

Have a happy one!

-RCW

P.S. One of the astonishing things about this sort of activity is that you may at times be tempted to think that you had certain times or years when you were far from God or that you felt distant from Him.  Let me encourage you that it is often in our lowest and bleakest of states that God is doing the most refining and bringing about the most spiritual growth in our lives.  If I were to graph the spiritual "valleys" of my life, I doubt very much if God would chart them as valleys...to Him they might be mountaintops.  For it is when we are weakest---when we must lean most closely upon Him for everything---that His power is perfected in us.  To adapt some words from A.W. Tozer: "Before God can use a man greatly, He has to break a man deeply." 

P.P.S. For you theology dorks like me out there, Wayne Grudem provides a good spiritual growth graph of this sort in his Systematic Theology in the section on sanctification.   

What's with the title, huh?


I guess I have never quite explained how I selected the title for this blog exactly, have I? The concept of being "rooted" or "planted" or "having roots" are all pretty common in Biblical imagery. Certain passages should hopefully leap to your mind.

Psalm 1 may very well be my own personal favorite. Below is Psalm 1:1-4 :

How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!

But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
And in His law he meditates day and night.

He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers.

The wicked are not so,
But they are like chaff which the wind drives away.

Another example that will probably come to mind comes from Paul's prayer for the Ephesian believers in Ephesians 3:14-19

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

Another passage from Paul that comes to mind is Colossians 2:5-7, where Paul urges the Colossians:

For even though I am absent in body, nevertheless I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good discipline and the stability of your faith in Christ.
Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.

Finally, there is the parable from Jesus about the sower and the soils in Matthew 13. Jesus explains the parable of the sower for his disciples in Mt. 13:19-23:

When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom the seed was sown beside the road.

The one on whom the seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away.....

And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.

So how about it? Are you rooted in Christ? Are you un-budged by the sways of this world? Are your feet planted in the good soil? Are you anchored to the word of God? Are you hearing the word AND doing it? If not, it's time to get YOUR faith firmly rooted.


Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, I pray that you would ground me even now in your word. I repent for times I have strayed from obeying you and seeking you. I pray that there would be no room for wavering or falling away from what you have taught me. May you keep my feet planted and my faith on solid ground. Help me remain in you, Jesus. Amen.


-RCW

Hey there, everyone. I know I haven't written in a while but let me remind you that it is because I value your time...for it is one of the most simple truths of life: There are those who want to say something and then there are those who have something to say. It is my own efforts to be the latter and not the former that have kept me from writing.

So, have you ever read The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer? It is an immensely powerful book to read...it may even be a book that you should save until your heart is ready to be greatly moved. My entry comes from reminiscing about its more potent passages. Bonhoeffer goes through the Gospel of Matthew for most of the book and points out that the disciples were placed in much the same position as Abraham. There are times when we have the time to contemplate and think out the rational reasons for taking steps of faith. The disciples didn't necessarily have such a privilege. Instead, Christ simply came by the shore and said, "Follow me." There was no time to draw up pros and cons, no time to weigh the options...Follow or don't.
Likewise, Abraham was told to leave his father and mother, go to the land that God would show him. Obedience preceded the need to understand. Obedience may have even preceded trust!

Have you ever found yourself in such a situation? We don't need all the information to decide whether to follow where God leads. When Christ summons you to follow, which path will you take? Will you respond in obedience? You might not ever have the same chance again! Walk where He leads and never look back.

-RCW