So, I got too busy this week to catch up on the weekend, but I’m back, I had my test yesterday and it went OK, and the rest of the week is much more tame so I should be actually keeping up and maybe even catching up from this weekend.
Q: What is God inviting you to take off? What is he calling you to put on? When the New Testament speaks of spiritual growth, it usually talks about our relationships with other believers just as it does in this passage (vs. 12-16). At this point in your life, do you have relationships with other Christians where you can “teach and counsel each other” (vs. 16)? If not, what is the next step for you to enter more deeply into genuine Christian community?
A: I think that I really have found a spiritual community at the Vineyard. It has a been a great place to meet people who actually care about other people, and want to see them grow. I like the people that are around me at church and in my small group, and I like learning and growing with those people. I like meeting in accountability groups because it is a great way to seriously accept and give counseling. I think that it is important to be in good Christian relationships with people around you. I think good relationships are important in general, but to grow as a Christian you must have people around you who are also trying to grow as Christians. I think to have good relationships God calls us to give up a lot of our “old self” by stopping the things that Paul talks about in vs. 5-9 (lying, anger, rage, malice, slander, and greed). It sounds simple, but in practice it isn’t’ as easy to rid yourself of all these things, but it is good to try because the harder you try the more likely you are to succeed someday. Anyway, I think God is asking me to get rid of some of these things Paul is talking about. I think it is about time I started paying a little more attention to some of these things, also I think God wants me to listen more. I feel like sometimes I’m just ignoring what he is saying, and that is not good. So I am going to try to listen better and actually act on what he is telling me. So anyway, I am done with this because I’m tired of writing now.
Later.