Perspectives

Just going for a walk along Main Street in the city of Steinbach is to a certain extent a great experience. I cannot help but marvel at all the beauty of nature and the human activities. So many different sounds; I can hear cars zooming pass me, I hear young folks in cars spinning tires, and I am thinking, why would they do that to their cars? Then I remember what we did when we were that young, and so I say to myself, “I know why they make their tires scream like that.” Do you think we are lucky to enjoy all this stuff? Now I do not know if you are like me, but when I get into this mood my mind takes me into uncharted waters. I wonder about this and about that; like I wonder why it is so difficult at times for me to understand some of the deeper spiritual things of life.

Look at Hebrews 5:11 … We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. Here I am confronted with a challenging thought. Is it possible for me to understand totally the full mystery of the Christian faith in my life-time? Will I ever grasp all that it teaches? However, I do take some comfort in the fact that the writer of Hebrews shows that the Hebrew people were slow to learn as well. It seems they also had the great difficulty understanding what was being taught.

Do you think that the learning process has anything to do with my attitude? I know that if I do not attend church for any length of time, I develop a cool spirit towards Biblical thought. My thinker tells me that the Sunday school teacher is dull! That the preacher, mmmm, you could smack his toe with a hammer to wake him up, man is he ever boring! It doesn’t take long to make me think that everything spiritual is boring. Now if I really give it some serious thought, I soon realize it is not the pastor, not the Sunday school teacher, and not the worship leader; but me. The preachers and teachers: their message comes through loud and clear, in fact it has something to say to all of us whose business it is to think. That means it has something to say to me, because I have the capacity to think.

Hebrews 5:12-13 … 12) In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13) Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. As a preacher I have often avoided teaching truths that were rather difficult. My thinking was that my hearers would never grasp what I was trying to teach. Perhaps that has been one of my weakest points in ministry. The responsibility of every pastor/preacher is to share spiritual truths with others, as well as new knowledge and new thought. Modern day problems of moral values just will not go away. We have to face them and we have to talk about them. Maybe I should not refer to this as a modern day problem, because when we look back in church history we find that the church has struggled with this issue for an awful long time … that of a Christian who refuses to grow up!

I am aware that there are those who refuse to grow in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are those who are rather guilty of what one might call the wilful ignorance of what the Bible teaches. There are many folks world wide that have no growth in their faith during their whole life time. They deliberately refuse to try to understand any theological thought, new or old. Yes! They are grown adults, and somehow they insist on remaining content with the religious development of a child.

A closing thought: Hebrew 5:14 … But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. As you and I grow in our understanding of what the Bible teaches, and we take the next step by learning to live our faith in our daily walk with Christ, we are in point of fact exercising our spiritual senses, which, by the way, cultivate our spiritual discernment. It is characteristic of little children that they lack keen judgment regarding spiritual matters. We all know that a baby will put anything in its mouth. An immature believer will listen to any preacher on the radio or television and not be able to identify whether or not they are true to Scripture. The ability to discern good and evil is a vital part of Christian maturity. It is impossible for Christians to stand still in their Christian walk; we either both grow in Christ and claim God’s blessing, or we do go backward and wander about aimlessly …  that decision rests with us.

Would you pray this prayer with me …“Lord Jesus, come into my heart. Forgive my sins. I want my life to change. My thoughts and my attitude need to change. I do not have the peace in my heart that I yearn for. I really want that Peace, joy and happiness that will fulfill my heart’s desire. Please let the Holy Spirit help me be the kind of Christian that will honour Your Name.” Amen.