Growing as Christians
Scripture: Ephesians 4:11-16 (NLT)
11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave
to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and
teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to
do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. 13 This
will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of
God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and
complete standard of Christ.
14 Then we will no longer be immature
like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new
teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever,
they sound like the truth. 15 Instead, we will speak the truth
in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his
body, the church. 16 He makes the whole body fit together
perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts
grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.
Devotion:
Those
of us fortunate to have raised children understand that it is a difficult and
demanding job. Allowing our kids to grow up to be mature men and women is a
careful balancing act between setting appropriate limits and allowing more freedom
as out kids approach adulthood. We as parents all make our share of mistakes,
but by God’s grace our kids generally turn out fine. In today’s scripture Paul
explains how Christian growth works. He explains how to avoid bad teaching.
Keeping our focus on Christ as the head of the church. Christ as the headmaster
of our Christian school.
Each
church comes equipped with Godly leaders. These are men and women who have been
gifted by the Holy Spirit to fill certain roles in the church. They go through
training and become like parents to the congregations they serve. They are
charged with building up the church according to God’s plan for their
individual communities of faith. A healthy church can be compared to a healthy
family. Each person in the church grows into the role that they fulfill for the
building of the people of the church. God gifts some people to be pastors and
teachers, but God also raises up singers and instrumentalist to provide music
for worship. There are all kinds of gifts that God uses to build a church. We
should celebrate each one for their unique contributions.
A
healthy church grows in many different ways. One way it grows is when
individual members put the gifts, they have to use in building the church from
within. Another way a church grows is the reception of new members Many
churches focus on this kind of growth to the exclusion of the other ways of
growth. Such a church will be a congregation of infants, never growing to
adulthood in Christ. Other churches focus on the growth of individual members
in their faith without reaching out into the community to bring in new members.
This leads to a stale environment where innovative ideas that come from new
members are seldom heard. The church simply grows old together and eventually
dies of old age. Both types of malformed churches can be wonderful loving
places to be, but they are missing the fullness of life God has designed for
them. Shall we pray for healthy happy churches.
Prayer:
Holy
God, we come to you today seeking your wisdom for our churches. Lord, we ask
you to correct us where we may be failing to live into the fullness of life you
have prepared for us. Help us to listen to those leaders you have raised up for
us and follow them where they lead us. Make us students of your word. Let us
hide your word in our hearts so that our actions will bear fruit that comes
from the knowledge of your word. Let us seek your face in prayer that we may be
open to hearing your word at all times. Help us all to grow in your faith so
that we can impact both the church and the world. Amen.
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