Picture a person standing upright – when they are in a balanced position they are in fact going nowhere – they are stationary. But to make progress – to walk – you must actually throw yourself off balance. So you push a leg forward – and then when you are off balance you need to bring your other leg forward or you will fall over!! (watching a baby take its first steps is a wonderful example of lack of balance leading to growth and progress). But the wonderful result of being off balance is that you are making progress – you are going somewhere! And when you stop – you are balanced!

So what is happening to you that feels like it is pushing you off balance? Maybe you need to take a step in that direction and then see where the next step will take you. Don’t strive for balance – go for growth.

Growth doesn’t happen in our lives simply by being alive. It seems to me Jesus was very deliberate about calling his disciples forward into growth. He exposed them to truth or demonstrations of Kingdom activity and then called them forward into that area of experience – demonstration and proclamation.

How does God expose us to new things that require us to grow? I would suggest there are 4 main ways He invites us to grow.

1. Through exposure to truth in the Bible – given for transformation not information! As you read the Bible,  ask yourself – is there something here for me to believe? to practice?; to turn from?

2. Through power encounters and Kingdom clashes – notice what you notice as you go through your day. Our days are full of “God moments” – but we can often miss them if we are rushing

3. Through the Holy Spirit speaking to us

4. Through other people discipling us – we need people who will call us forward in our following of Jesus; and we need to be deliberately calling other people forward – one hand forward and one hand back!

We need to invite pressure in our lives to push us into growing – stagnation and boredom are the only other alternatives!

More next week!

My intention is to post a new musing each week – but don’t give up if I miss a week here or there. I want to share what I am seeing, thinking or learning that may be of help to you as you follow Jesus, and try to stay on the advancing edge of the Kingdom.

We are about to enter the season of Lent in church life – 40 days (excluding the 6 sundays) of preparing ourselves for Easter and the celebration of Jesus’ utter and complete victory on the Cross. I have not always found it personally helpful to follow the traditional ecclesiastical calendar – but increasingly churches like ours and increasing numbers of younger Christians are finding the connection to the ancient Church a great encouragement in faith. The Ancient-Future dynamic is very enriching.

Lent is used as a time for reflecting on what it means to follow Christ & reconnecting to what it means to be a follower of Jesus in the world. Often people choose something to fast to help focus. Last year I stopped drinking coffee during Lent – if you know me you know how much I love my espresso – so I was very focussed every day!

But this year instead of denying myself something, I am adding a spiritual practice to help me focus on Jesus and His mission in our world. I am adding deliberate focussed prayer 3 times a day. I am not doing it to try to “twist God’s arm” – this is a voluntary humbling of oneself to gaining more clarity. A legalistic approach will never achieve good in your life – we grow through grace as He prompts us.

So may you be led by God into what He wants you to do to grow more and more like Him.

Lloyd

We want to find out from each of you what grabbed your attention – a moment in the book you read where you went “Ah-ha!” And then, we want to find out what sort of response you had with that thought.

Head to the discussion for your book and post an answer, here’s some quick links there:

Doing Church

How To Multiply Your Church

Power Evangelism

Other

What is a quote from Doing Church that has caught your attention, and what has been your response to it?

Post your answer below.

What is a quote from How To Multiply Your Church that has caught your attention, and what has been your response to it?

Post your answer below.

What is a quote from Power Evangelism that has caught your attention, and what has been your response to it?

Post your answer below.

What is a quote from this book that has caught your attention, and what has been your response to it?

Post your answer below.

A lot of us fall into this category of the Haiti relief effort – we are unable to go ourselves, but are thankful for those who are and our support is behind them. If you too are one of these people who can not be in Haiti to lend a hand, then the best you can offer is your prayers and finances, so please do pray. If you want to offer some financial support but have no idea where to start or how to do it, Tear Fund is a terrific organisation to go to.

To close this post, I think Dan Wilt says it best with this:

“True worship, in the face of great suffering, asks for an invitation into the pain that God and the sufferers carry. Simply ask, then simply respond. It is enough. In this journey of willingness, we find real prayers rising, authentic acts of physical and spiritual generosity, and the ability to partner with God in the ways in which He is inviting us.”

Get a book and get started – stay tuned here on the Grow 2020 site for online discussion on each of the books.