11-3-2013 Mining for God's Truth

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We had a profound and Christ-centered worship service this week. We honored our King even as we were processing news that left us pained and deeply saddened about Jim Irwin’s health battle taking a serious turn for the worse. We also lifted up young Caroline, and many others, in prayer as we learned that she had been admitted to hospital with significant abdominal pain of an unknown origin.

The Hymn of St. Patrick was offered up by Vanessa, Sarah W, and Mark A. as some of our teenage youth passed the collection plates.  It’s great again to see people filling in, and serving new opportunities. We also grow in anticipation of the joy of embracing Pastor Kevin and his family again in four weeks.

We were blessed to have Sara Stewart, our Youth Director, step into the worship teaching role for Jim, who was originally scheduled for today. Her background as a candid communicator, artist, college art instructor, and person who has persevered adversity, informed and added to her presentation of God’s perspective on Mining for God’s Truth.

She drew from sources including:

We all need to be deepening our relationship with God, by pursuing Him and maturing in Him. We are prone to distraction and passivity.  We can find ourselves relying on circus tricks with God, wading in shallow watered-down doctrines, and striving hard to remain inoffensive to others. We shouldn’t be offensive, but the message of God’s Truth (to us and through us) is powerful and can certainly be offensive.

Absorbing and applying truth isn’t always something we excel at. We have a predisposition to get caught up in the miraculous wow factors in the stories God gives us, and at times completely miss the point of God’s truth that we need to incorporate. 

Have you become satisfied in an infantile state of development as a Christ-follower? If so, know that among other things, you are vulnerable to spiritual attack and being devastated by things in this world. The world carries a message of hopelessness, which can discourage…even to the point of non-belief.  

What does your heart and your actions illustrate about where you are at? Are you spending your life wisely mining what is truly valuable? It’s paramount to drink deeply of God and growing in relationship with Him. God directs us to: Know, Seek, Explore, Find, Ask, Wrestle, Digest, and Open the door.  The obedience of Action is required.

Growing in Him will at times undoubtedly be a struggle, but it’s always worth it. Going beyond milk and digesting meat, will bear much fruit including:

  • Giving us discernment on how to live
  • Preparing us for when this world brings us to our knees
  • Strengthening us individually, as families, and collectively as the Body of Christ

Amen