Sunday Words of Encouragement May 22, 2011

We had a grand service this morning with the Spirit reminding us that God controls the time of Christ's return... no man knows the date or hour.  And God may choose to delay His coming while He calls every last soul who will respond.

Pastor gave an interesting sermon entitled "Breaking the Cycle of Immaturity." (See 1 Cor 13:11.)  Pastor gave us three steps to help keep us growing and moving toward maturity. This is just the outline and my summary (and interpretation) from Pastor's lesson. Perhaps another day I will share more of the in depth comments which were also striking to me.

We come as children to believe and accept Christ as our savior. As teenagers we act on emotion not on mature, intellectual choices. But we are told that we should be maturing so that we can be of service to God's cause and to be a witness to others of His mercy and grace.  As we grow in spiritual understanding we see more of the pieces and more of the larger of God's plan... or at least His purpose even if we still do not see His plan.

1> Change of Character - we need to become whole and complete until our behavior, which is on display, reveals the character of God and not the nature of man. Maturity will lead to security in our position and contentment with our circumstances...thus allowing God to use us as He will.
2> Change of Crowd - we need to make sure that we are not aimless and not allowing ourselves to be influenced by the wrong (sinful nature) crowd.  We should be the people influencing those around us. We should seek people and circumstances that are productive, of value and leading to peace.
3> Change of Course - we need to recognize that our lives are determined by our choices. Even if we don't always "feel" like it, as followers of Christ we should direct ourselves to a point where we choose: to pray; to tithe; to worship; to do what is right; to forgive; to study God's word to help us gain maturity.

This song came to mind -
I had to hunt it down as I kept finding a different version
and this is the one I wanted to share.

Verses for Today:

Psalm 37: 30 -31

30The mouth of the righteous man utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks what is just.

31The law of his God is in his heart; his feet do not slip. 

I prayed this morning that God would help us grow up in Him.