{"id":3411,"date":"2012-07-13T08:25:48","date_gmt":"2012-07-13T12:25:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/?p=3411"},"modified":"2014-07-21T10:12:30","modified_gmt":"2014-07-21T14:12:30","slug":"grow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/grow\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cGROW\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Children grow.\u00a0 Flowers grow. Gardens grow. \u00a0Trees grow.\u00a0 Dreams grow.<\/p>\n<p>We like, and usually expect, positive natural growth in life.\u00a0\u00a0 When we see an infant years later, we act somewhat surprised at how much they\u2019ve grown, but nonetheless we expect growth and development.\u00a0 We don\u2019t think much about it, but imagine the shock that would occur if there was no growth in that infant? Parents and doctors of infants that are not growing quickly become concerned and begin to strategize ways to determine what is hindering the growth.\u00a0 A plan is made and steps are taken.\u00a0\u00a0 Growth is vital to life and living.<\/p>\n<p>So what about believers in Jesus Christ?\u00a0 Do we expect growth in the life of a believer, in ourselves and others who claim to know Christ?\u00a0 Is there shock, resulting in action, on the part of the body of Christ when a young believer (or any believer) is not growing?\u00a0 Do we carefully determine what is hindering the growth, and strategize action steps to ensure the spiritual growth of this believer?<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The New Testament writers of Scripture, inspired by the Holy Spirit, talk about growth:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>but God who causes the <strong>growth \u2013 <\/strong>1 Corinthians 3:7<\/li>\n<li>to <strong>grow<\/strong> up in all <em>aspects<\/em> into Him \u2013 Ephesians 4:15<\/li>\n<li>grows with a <strong>growth<\/strong> which is from God \u2013 Colossian 2:19<\/li>\n<li>but <strong>grow<\/strong> in the grace and knowledge \u2013 2 Peter 3:18<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Let me get right at it, are YOU growing in your walk with Christ?\u00a0 In my short thirteen years as a youth pastor and biblical counselor, I have noticed some common hindrances to spiritual growth, as well as some common characteristics of those who are growing.\u00a0 Interestingly enough, the hindrances are simply a lack of the characteristics of the growing believer.\u00a0 Test them out.\u00a0 Search the Scriptures yourself.<\/p>\n<p>Common characteristics I have noticed about believers that are growing in their personal walk with Christ.\u00a0 <strong>They\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>have a personal relationship with Christ<\/strong>, one that has a clear point when forgiveness was sought for personal sin; a lifelong commitment is made to trust and follow God.\u00a0 This person pursues Christ and continues to improve at putting Christ first.<\/li>\n<li><strong>take in wholesome daily nourishment and process it &#8211;<\/strong> like a growing, healthy human being eats healthy food, a growing believer receives nourishment from regular, meaningful, planned, personal time in God\u2019s word.\u00a0 This goes from receiving help initially to being independent and disciplined. They hide God\u2019s word in their heart.<\/li>\n<li><strong>talk to God<\/strong> \u2013 Growing believers understand that they are in a growing relationship with God and He wants to hear from them.\u00a0 The humble child of God that longs to learn and grow Adores God, Confesses sin, Thanks Him, and gives their requests (or Supplications), to the Lord (A.C.T.S.).<\/li>\n<li><strong>faithfully participate and serve in a local church<\/strong>.\u00a0 They are not bench warmers, but they are doers.\u00a0 They aren\u2019t talkers, but they use their words to influence others toward greater love and service for Christ.\u00a0 Those growing are using their God given gift\/skills for God\u2019s work.<\/li>\n<li><strong>love others.\u00a0 <\/strong>People are first, \u201cthings\u201d are second.\u00a0 Growing believers develop strong personal relationships with other believers and actively demonstrate God\u2019s love to the unsaved \u201cneighbor\u201d he encounters along his life\u2019s journey, especially to the person in need.<\/li>\n<li><strong>proclaims the truth.<\/strong>\u00a0 This person stands up for the truth.\u00a0 This believer continues to naturally share the \u201cGood News\u201d with others and sees his role as an ambassador for Christ and an alien in this world.<\/li>\n<li><strong>understand stewardship<\/strong>.\u00a0 Believers understand that their body, their family, everything they have belongs to God and it\u2019s on loan with the purpose of being used to bring God glory.<\/li>\n<li><strong>view trial and suffering as God\u2019s divine tool <\/strong>of refinement and growth.\u00a0 Though hard, the unexpected sickness, disease, tragedy, and even death of family, friends, or self, is viewed as part of His plan for personal growth, gospel growth, and giving Him glory.<\/li>\n<li><strong>say \u201cno\u201d to things that can potentially harm their relationship with Christ,<\/strong> and they say it even when it\u2019s hard and when necessary.\u00a0 There is confidence in saying \u201cno\u201d and enforcing \u201cno\u201d when God\u2019s word clearly teaches against something, when conscience is in doubt, or when wisdom deems it best.<\/li>\n<li><strong>give regularly and sacrificially<\/strong>.\u00a0 They give from the heart to meet a need and honor God\u2026even when times are tough.\u00a0 They look for ways to give instead of looking for reasons why not to give.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>This is not a complete list, but I believe it\u2019s a good guide according to the New Testament.\u00a0 Now, first quiz question is, can you put Scripture with each of these?\u00a0 If not, that\u2019s one indicator you have some room to grow.\u00a0 Second quiz question, would those who know you the best say you have each of these characteristics?\u00a0 And, would they say you are getting stronger?<\/p>\n<p>What needs to happen now?\u00a0 You need to GROW.\u00a0 Pick one of these areas to focus on this month.\u00a0 Pray, study, get the help of others who are more spiritually mature.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Children grow.\u00a0 Flowers grow. Gardens grow. \u00a0Trees grow.\u00a0 Dreams grow. We like, and usually expect, positive natural growth in life.\u00a0\u00a0 When we see an infant years later, we act somewhat surprised at how much they\u2019ve grown, but nonetheless we expect growth and development.\u00a0 We don\u2019t think much about it, but imagine the shock that would&#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/grow\/\">read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":3412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4242],"tags":[133],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.14 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>\u201cGROW\u201d - Faith Church Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/grow\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201cGROW\u201d - Faith Church Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Children grow.\u00a0 Flowers grow. Gardens grow. \u00a0Trees grow.\u00a0 Dreams grow. We like, and usually expect, positive natural growth in life.\u00a0\u00a0 When we see an infant years later, we act somewhat surprised at how much they\u2019ve grown, but nonetheless we expect growth and development.\u00a0 We don\u2019t think much about it, but imagine the shock that would... read more\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/grow\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Faith Church Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"-0001-11-30T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-07-21T14:12:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/faith-blog-assets.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/20170523133626\/shutterstock_44267338.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"683\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Andy Woodall\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Andy Woodall\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/grow\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/grow\/\",\"name\":\"\u201cGROW\u201d - Faith Church Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"-0001-11-30T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-07-21T14:12:30+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/#\/schema\/person\/934f220fcc7b6a9f8a564375a78be9e4\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/grow\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/grow\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/grow\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"\u201cGROW\u201d\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/\",\"name\":\"Faith Church Blog\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/#\/schema\/person\/934f220fcc7b6a9f8a564375a78be9e4\",\"name\":\"Andy Woodall\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/faith-blog-assets.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/20180131122329\/avatar1517419407.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/faith-blog-assets.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/20180131122329\/avatar1517419407.png\",\"caption\":\"Andy Woodall\"},\"description\":\"Andy Woodall served as the Pastor of Student Ministries at Faith from 1999-2012.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/askandy.fbclafayette.org\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/author\/awoodall\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\u201cGROW\u201d - Faith Church Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blogs.faithlafayette.org\/church\/grow\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\u201cGROW\u201d - Faith Church Blog","og_description":"Children grow.\u00a0 Flowers grow. 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