I started this blog nearly four years ago. My aim was to work through things that the Lord was showing me about walking with Him. I am on the journey from my new birth in Christ toward spiritual maturity. At the same time, I am shedding the burden of limiting ideas that I acquired from my Christian past. All of this is an ongoing experience.
In recent months I took a break to deal with some serious personal and family issues. Many of these also are ongoing. This whole time, the Lord was both faithful and good. I also noticed in myself a tendency to see the process of my transformation as a thing in itself, more mechanical or transactional rather than an organic part of living in Christ.
Real spiritual maturity follows from spiritual growth. Spiritual growth happens as I allow the life of Christ Jesus to gain more ground in my will, intellectual life and emotional life. Turning from self to focus on Christ is a practical matter. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to apply the cross to the old nature and replace it with resurrection life. It is a product of actual events that I experience, and how I respond to them. Not that I can earn anything by my own efforts. I have the ability, however, to cooperate with the divine project and keep the faith.
I look forward, this year, to whatever He sends my way. When I respond in a way that expresses the life of Christ I praise Him. When my response comes out of my old nature I turn to Him, and acknowledge my need for more of His life.
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