For followers of Jesus Christ, Christian growth is a necessity.
Too often we're like the little boy who fell out of bed one night with a "thud!" When his parents rushed to his room and asked him what had happened, he rubbed his head and said, "I dunno. I guess I fell asleep too close to where I got in." That's always the danger for us in our Christian lives, the danger that we will "fall asleep too close to where we got in," rather than staying awake and alive and growing in our faith. And it can be fatal.
One Autumn day, Linus and Lucy were walking through the woods. Lucy turned to Linus and said, "Do you see all these leaves on the ground. It happens every year. There’s a lesson to be learned from this Do you know what it is?” To which Linus replied, “Don’t be a leaf, be a tree!”
That’s sound advice.
Leaves appear in the spring, they serve a vital purpose as long as the weather is fair, but they cannot endure when the climate changes. In the autumn, they die - a beautiful death, but death nonetheless - and fall to the ground.
Trees, on the other hand, are rooted deeply in the soil and reach upward to the sky, and continue to live and to grow, as the annual growth rings attest. When they cease to grow, they cease to live.
And so it is with you and me. We were made to grow. To stop growing is to stop living.
But how do we grow as Christians?
In Luke's gospel, we're told that the boy Jesus grew "in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man." In other words, he grow in body, mind, and spirit. He grew as a whole person.
So, too, our growth, our development as mature Christians, as mature human beings, necessarily involves our growth in all three dimensions.
Ignoring one inevitably effects the other two.
Ignore our bodies, and it effects the way we think and feel.
Ignore our mind, thoughts, attitudes - and it adversely affects our physical health and our relationship to God.
Ignore our spirits, our relationship with God - and it will have a negative effect on what we think and what we do.
You are here, I believe, because you recognize the importance of growth. Maybe you are here because you are wondering what such growth entails. Or perhaps your are wondering how we can continue to grow in Christ. Or maybe you are here to find some of the best resources to help you to grow as a Christian.
Whatever the case, you have come to the right place. The purpose of this website is to share thoughts and insights and to recommend resources to help us as we grow in these three dimensions of our lives. And it is my prayer that God's grace will enable us put these principles into practice in our 3-D growth toward wholeness and maturity.
