We have been blessed with all we need to build the life God dreams for us!
– His Word (the Bible)
– Invitation to worship and to petition for our needs
– The church, other Christians, mentors
– Discipleship, a new Growth Track, tools
“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience.
We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”
– Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
Own Your Growth!
2 Peter 1:5-7
Faith
Hebrews 11:6
Romans 10:9-10
Moral excellence, goodness, virtue.
The energy with which we pursue Christian graces!
Knowledge, proper understanding of God, His will, His plan for salvation, etc.
Hebrews 5:14
Self-control, temperance, keeping our passions in check, curbing those inappropriate appetites
There is false teaching that says knowledge leads to liberty from self-control. Self-control is not the opposite of liberty but is the essence of liberty! When you are at liberty to choose, you are in control!
In other words, your discerning between good and evil
must lead to avoiding the evil and choosing the good.
– Charles Ellicott
Indulgence “weakens the mind.” Self control “banishes weakness and adds strength.” Johann Albrecht Bengel
Patient endurance, perseverance, Luke 21:19
Patience to the world is to accept loss and suffering;
to the Christian it is to win the best of prizes.
– Charles Ellicott
Godliness, a piety that naturally flows from patient endurance and trust in God
Brotherly affection, natural Christian love for one another
John 13:35
Love, to all people, not just followers of Jesus
Faith begins the journey and love is the fulfillment of the Christian graces!
In reverse order,
he who has love already exercises brotherly kindness;
he who has brotherly kindness is already pursuing godliness;
the godly will compete/battle patiently;
to the patient, self-control is easy;
the self-controlled ponders things deeply and so has knowledge;
and knowledge guards against sudden impulse carrying away its virtue.
Johann Albrecht Bengel, adapted
“If you were to examine a chrysalis,
you would see just outside the goo,
pressed against the sides,
those body parts hanging out,
awaiting the future self that is emerging.
It’s not just what we carry forward
from our past into the future.
It’s the idea, what of my
future self is in me right now?”
– Molly Webster
Church 29:11 