“Spiritual growth is not more knowledge or increase of years. It is simply more of Him and less of me. He increases as I decrease. This is what it means to be a disciple.” – Chip Brogden
Spiritual growth and maturity is the natural result of discovering something new in Christ, reckoning it to be so, living as if it is so (despite all evidence to the contrary), and then seeing our faith rewarded with tangible evidence, spiritual fruit, and practical results.
The principle in John 3:30 is that I must decrease. As surely as Christ must increase, so I must decrease. It must be so; therefore it will be so.
If we share in His death then we will share in His life. How could it be otherwise? What is true of the Vine is true of the Branches that are part of the Vine.
However well Solomon may have started out, and however well he may have lived for most of his life, Solomon did not finish well. He did not end his life on a good note. He ended poorly. He did not just make some mistakes towards the end of his life – he utterly, completely, and totally failed.
Christians everywhere are keenly interested in how to be increased, how to be stronger, how to take authority, how to rise up, how to get more. They look for methods, formulas, and techniques for becoming bigger and better. The Lord has a different approach for us to take…
God does not lead us according to our fears. How easy it is to justify our fears under the pretext that, “This is how we feel led.” Are you really sure about that? Many times we aren’t led by God, we are led by our fears.
Scripture is filled with paradox. If you want to save your life, Jesus says you have to lose your life. And that’s one of the of the great paradoxes of the spiritual life. I think we found another one here: “The Spirituality of Imperfection…”
"Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps" (I Peter 2:21). If we were to ask a Christian, "Have you accepted the work of the Cross?" Many of them would say yes. If you ask them what the work of the Cross is, they would...
"Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert" (Isaiah 43:19). "And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the...
We talk about "one way", but there are really two ways: the broad way which many take, ending in death; and the narrow way which a few take, ending in life. There are two ways presented to us. One way is of man, seems right in man‘s opinion, and leads to death. The...
Paul’s confession and the belief did not lead to this encounter with Jesus; it was the encounter with Jesus that lead to his confession and belief! How quickly we forget – if we ever really understand it at all – that “you have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you” (Jn 15:16a).
This desire to provide people with a positive and encouraging experience creates an unrealistic expectation in the hearts and minds of the audience and congregation who have come to rely on “the ministry” to keep them properly fed.