I'm sitting here looking at my bookshelf...
I have a lot of books. Like, thousands in fact. And I've also got quite a hefty collection of bibles as well. I traded in my secular career (and bookshelves) for basically...Everything theological!
I love reading about the bible. About God. About Christ. About history. About the church. All of it. But what if it's all useless?
I'm going to talk today about one of the core doctrines of my church which is called 'Growing in Christ'.
You see, the bible shows us that there is a journey that Christians. are to make. It's laid out like this:
Justification - What God did for us! (Galatians 2:16)
Sanctification - What we do because of it! (John 17:17)
Glorification - Eternity with our Creator. (Read the bible from Genesis to Revelation ;))
Obviously there is deeper theological studies you can do on each of those, you know, justification by faith and all...But for growth in Christ or grow in my faith, I want to circle in on sanctification.
Now this is not a 'saved by works' argument, not at all. But you shall know them by their fruits. And the fruits are how the world will see us. If we bear good fruits, we are living and growing in Christ.
Sanctification is a life long journey. It's how we progress through the sin filled world, to see our Lord and Savior when He returns.
And if I'm reading all these books and bibles...Without actually living my faith. It's all for not!
This i why I'm such a huge fan of the doctrine of 'Growing in Christ'.
Here's the promise! God never starts something in you that He won't finish. That's the promise to keep growing. And I do compare this a lot to the 'personal success and growth' stuff I used to live breathe and die for in my secular life.
Only today I'm not trying to grow to earn a better income....I'm trying to grow, to bear good fruits.
This is the real test for anyone that claims Christianity. I truly believe this. There's lots of people that claim His name, but are we really showing the world that we are new creatures?
Growing in Christ is the life long journey of sanctification that I'm on right now. And all those books, all these blog posts, all the bible verses I read, are all for His glory. And the side benefit, is that it helps me become a better human being in the process.
If you want to check out the doctrines of my church, you can always see them on the official website!