For most people, spiritual growth is not a priority. Many people say that they are Christians, but there isn’t really anything about their life that would give that away. Compared to others, they look more conservative or moral but nothing beyond. It is sad that so many want to show up and warm a chair on a Sunday morning, but don’t want God to infringe on any more of their time. A dozen or so times in the last month I’ve asked my husband, “How come people don’t care about growing spiritually?” We could talk about all the excuses that people give for giving up on growth, but when it all comes down, we do what we really want to do. Bobby said, “People just don’t care about growing spiritually.” This is a sad reality. Passivity is commonplace, lack of motivation the norm. Why is the flame of many Christian’s fires that of a match? Something is wrong.

John MacArthur said this in his Truth for Today segment a few days ago–

Our society is not conducive for people becoming like Christ. We live in what has been termed a sensate culture because most people are more concerned with pleasant emotions than with productive efforts–they’re more into comfort than accomplishment. Such a perspective has affected even the church, which suffers from an appalling apathy. We have forgotten that we are soldiers in a holy war.

MacArthur’s words reminded me of Ephesians 6:10-13, where Paul says,

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.

We easily forget that our pursuit of Christ likeness is a battle. We don’t think of our day to day life as a spiritual war. We think it’s a matter of getting that cup of coffee, making deadlines, having people be nice to us, and just in general getting what makes us happy. We get swept away by the desire for comfort and anxiety about tomorrow. We are not equipped and not prepared and we don’t care enough to do anything about that. God’s Word is not silent about this subject. We are soldiers and need to be alert and ready to resist temptation and strong in His power so that we can stand against evil.

ap·a·thy

Lack of interest or concern, indifference

Consider Webster’s definition of apathy from a spiritual standpoint. The implications are sobering. How can we have a lack of interest in the Creator of the Universe? How can we be indifferent to God’s Word? We must be crazy! We don’t need more mountain-top experiences to break down our insensitivity. We don’t need to pray for miracles or signs to shock us out of our spiritual coldness. We need to be willing to do what it takes to become like Christ. Spiritual growth is critical.  We need to care.

I like Starbucks a lot. Lately I’ve been ordering a Tall Passion Tea Lemonade unsweetened, it’s so refreshing! Starbucks has a mission statement about being the third place for people, home is #1, work is #2 and Starbucks is supposed to be #3. Now, I don’t buy in to all of that, but I like coffee and Starbucks is a place to meet high school students, which I do several times a week.

In an attempt to spark conversation Starbucks started a cup campaign for 2007 called “The Way I See It” where people–some famous philosophers, others just your average Starbucks junkies–contribute pithy thoughts and opinions to be printed on each paper coffee cup. The quotes vary in topics from love and marriage to nature and health to society and cultural woes. I’ve gotten some interesting quotes on my own coffee cups some include:

Quote #230

Heaven is totally overrated. It seems boring. Clouds, listening to people play the harp. It should be somewhere you can’t wait to go, like a luxury hotel. Maybe blue skies and soft music were enough to keep people in line in the 17th century, but Heaven has to step it up a bit. They’re basically getting by because they only have to be better than Hell.

– Joel Stein
Columnist for the Los Angeles Times.

Quote #220

Evolution as described by Charles Darwin is a scientific theory, abundantly reconfirmed, explaining physical phenomena by physical causes. Intelligent Design is a faith-based initiative in rhetorical argument. Should we teach I.D. in America’s public schools? Yes, let’s do it – not as science, but alongside other spiritual beliefs, such as Islam, Zoroastrianism and the Hindu idea that the Earth rests on Chukwa, the giant turtle.

– David Quammen
Author.

Quote #211

I believe with all my heart in the power of art to save lives.

– Bill Bartlett
Founder of the Imagine Project

These were all eye-brow raising quotes, and I could have written about each, but I didn’t even consider sharing these until I got quote #247:

Why in moments of crisis do we ask God for strength and help? As cognitive beings, why would we ask something that may well be a figment of our imaginations for guidance? Why not search inside ourselves for the power to overcome? After all, we are strong enough to cause most of the catastrophes we need to endure.

–Bill Schell
Starbucks customer from London, Ontario. He describes himself as a “modern day nobody.”

Now, I realize that this quote is Bill Schell’s opinion. In news articles about this quote many reporters conclude that customers shouldn’t be upset by the quote because after all everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I’m pretty sure that isn’t a Biblical perspective. I can say, the sky is green. And even though that is my opinion and I’m sticking with it and I’m on a soapbox about it doesn’t make it green. The sky is blue and that is a fact, opinions don’t matter, they are foolish. The sky is blue.

When someone starts speculating that there “may well be” no God, this is foolish. God is a fact. It isn’t hard to look all around us, or just in the mirror and realize that we have a Creator. People don’t like the implications of having a Creator because then they must be accountable to Him and His purpose for their life. So instead people make God a matter of opinion. They adamantly declare the sky to be green, despite all obvious facts.

The fool says in his heart,
“There is no God.”
They are corrupt, their deeds are vile;
there is no one who does good.

Psalm 14:1

This verse is a pretty pointed description about the people who deny God. There are many scary “quotes” for people like this, words from God Himself about what the consequences will be for holding this opinion.

These quotes on Starbucks coffee cups really shouldn’t be surprising. This is our world, it is lost. I don’t think this means we need to boycott Starbucks. But this whole cup campaign should be a reminder of the urgent need to be bold in the Lord. We don’t ever need to apologize for it, soften it, or be embarrassed for it. We should always be looking for opportunities to proclaim the truth.

It would be great to submit 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 to be one of the next 30 quotes to be released for June.

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance:
that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
that he was buried,
that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.

I thought–this would be awesome! So many people could see the gospel right there on their morning latte! But the description for this cup campaign is that they be notable opinions. So, then I realized that no verses would qualify to be printed because Starbucks is looking for opinion, but God’s Word is fact.

Somehow this turned out to be a tough week for me. I don’t really know why, but everywhere I turned I was being challenged and stretched. I could write about how my husband was busy or my baby was teething, but reality is: No outside influences dictate my heart. It’s hard to accept the reality that I alone choose how I respond to life. No one does it for me. No one and nothing makes me do things a certain way. I do what I do because I choose it. This is a discouraging reality on it’s own.

We would have a much more hope-filled perspective if we stopped to consider our surroundings in light of the cross. Difficulties can mold us into Christ likeness. Opposition can be faced boldly with the truth. Wrongdoings can be owned up to and changed. Can. We need to choose to do it.

This afternoon I played a song called “Clinging to the Cross” on repeat on my iTunes 20 times or so. Even if you didn’t have a difficult week I hope that the words will be an encouragement to you too…

My soul is weak
My heart is numb
I cannot see
But still my hope is found in You
I’ll hold on tightly
You will never let me go
For Jesus, You will never fail
Jesus, You will never fail

Simply to the cross I cling
Letting go of all earthly things
Clinging to the cross
Mercy’s found a way for me
Hope is here as I am free
Jesus, You are all I need
Clinging to the cross

(”Clinging to the Cross” from the album Holding Nothing Back by Tim Hughes)

Last week I finished this new book from Resources for Changing Lives–Relationships: A Mess Worth Making. Tim Lane, together with Paul Tripp (author of one of my favorite books, War of Words) tackle the deeper issues involved in relationships in the lives of believers.

Written with a gentle, we’re-right-there-with-you tone but also grounded in the authority of Scripture this proved to be a helpful read considering my relationships and the specific ways I need to embrace the power and sufficiency of God’s grace to redeem, restore and deepen the quality and purpose of relationships in my own life.

The structure of the book is a little awkward because even though it has two authors they write as one. I was somewhat distracted by this especially when they would tell a personal illustration but not say who’s story it was. I was surprised that at the beginning of each chapter they had a lengthy excerpt form a secular song. And I was concerned at the couple of quotes they positively sited from Donald Miller of the Emergent Church movement. The one other hang-up I had was due to the multiple Scripture references quoted from The Message translation. For more thoughts on this please read this post.

Overall this was a beneficial read. If I had a five-star rating system I’d give this book a three. Perhaps a better book addressing the heart of godly relationships would be Jerry Bridges book The Crisis of Caring: Recovering the Meaning of True Fellowship. However I would still recommend Relationships: A Mess Worth Making and here are some excerpts from my two favorite chapters:

Chapter 5–Agendas
p. 43

The default question we ought to bring to every area of life should be, “What is God’s purpose and design? What was his reason for creating this?” When you apply these questions to relationships you begin to see how different his agenda is from your own. We would easily settle for our own definition of personal happiness when God’s purpose is nothing short of conforming us to the image of Christ! Whether we are conscious of it or not, we all have dreams for our relationships, and we are always working to realize those dreams. How close is your dream to God’s purpose?

Chapter 9–Forgiveness
p. 95

The metaphor of debt cancellation (Matthew 18:21-35) clearly defines the nature of forgiveness. The merciful king absorbed $100, 000 debt that was owed him. When you forgive someone, you also cancel a debt. But, more specifically, you make a conscious choice to absorb the cost yourself. You choose not to make the offender pay for the offense. By forfeiting….you make at least three promises.You promise that you will not bring up the debt to use it as leverage. You promise that you will not bring up the offense to others and slander the person who sinned against you….You promise not to dwell on the offense yourself.

This weekend “change” has been on my heart. It has been one year since we moved to Orange County and came to Compass Bible Church. Friday night we had a formal year-end banquet with our high school students where we looked back on the year and realized together how God’s hand is working among us. (To see an album of pictures from this, click here!) It’s amazing to look at things in retrospect of just one year. So much can change.

Tyler is just over a year old, so looking at him, it’s easy to see the many ways that he has changed. Being a baby it makes sense that in one year Tyler grows, develops and learns many new things. But this isn’t always true of us is it? Change isn’t as noticeable or expected. We’re adults now, nobody is measuring our head circumference and telling us what percentile our height and weight are compared to everyone else our age. But I wish everyone took spiritual growth more seriously. Not just waiting for something to force them out of their “funk” but actually initiating change and working toward goals of growth.

Someone told me a few weeks ago that they had met up with an old college friend who they hadn’t seen in years. The old friend said, “Wow, you haven’t changed at all, you’re still the same old you!” This made my friend feel terrible because she maybe hadn’t really changed. But that comment inspired her to really seek out spiritual change in her life and in turn she motivated me with her passion. Every year, I want to see my disciplines strengthened, love for others intensified, convictions sharpened and boldness for the Lord increased.

Today, Bobby and I had the opportunity to spend time with my family at Medieval Times. I came away really reflecting on the change that has happened in my family. It seems like forever since my four sisters, brother and I all lived at home with my parents. We used to be arguing about who’s turn it was to do the dishes, but now we have our own homes and some of us have our own children. Change can be a strange realization and a good wake-up call.

In all these thoughts about change one keeps surfacing and it is–Is the change happening in me pleasing the Lord? I sure hope that all the change is that I’m becoming more nagging or gossipy, but I think that’s what it will be if I don’t actively seek out godly change. 2 Peter 3:18 says,

“Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
To him be the glory both now and forever! Amen.”

A few things really stood out from this verse when I read it today.

Grace. We grow, not because we have mustered up all our energy and are just going to act like a Christian should act. That’s not the kind of change we’re looking for. Grace is undeserved favor. God is showering this on us everyday. He is assisting and enabling us by His grace as we pursue change toward Christ likeness. It stood out to me because change isn’t something that we do alone, it’s something that God works in our hearts.

Knowledge. This is a spiritual growth that we’re looking for, not just personal betterment like you finally got in the habit of flossing your teeth every night or being courteous to telemarketers. The kind of growth we need is in knowing our Lord and Savior. This makes me think it will be a lot of work. Studying His Word, devoting time to pray to Him, talking with others about Him and looking for what He is doing in their lives. This isn’t going to just happen. Knowledge comes from some effort on our part.

To Him be the glory. Spiritual growth in our relationship with God isn’t so we can show off how mature we are, it is to give God the glory that He is due. He has drawn us, saved us and is providing all the means, in His divine grace, for us to grow in our knowledge of Him. We don’t deserve a pat on the back, but instead we can be shooting up praise back to Him for the works of change He is doing in us to make us more like His Son.

I am personally really convicted about pursuing this kind of godly change! I can think of some specific areas that I need to hone in on and I have hope by looking at some areas I can see progress in this year. Maybe this year we will be changed more than ever before…all for His glory!