All living things grow. It’s consistent and insistent. If you are alive, you are growing for better or for worse. I pray all of us are growing for the better. Recently, I’ve fallen in love with gardening. Early this year, I placed tiny seeds in growth containers. Some of the seeds were so tiny, breathing on them would accidentally cause the seeds to fly everywhere. Yet, in these tiny seeds was all the necessary information to grow and mature.
California is known for majestic redwoods. These majestic trees reach into the heavens as if praising their Maker. The tallest tree living now on Earth is a redwood, reaching up to 379 feet in height without roots and up to 26 feet in diameter at shoulder height. It started with a single seed! But not all the ingredients for growth are found within itself. Water from below and the sun from above must satiate its hunger. Roots, reaching deep and wide for their supply of nutrients from the mineral rich soil, offered by the life and death of the community of trees around it, must nurture it to full maturity!
A Psalmist often likens people with trees. Psalm 1 says those who meditate on the Word of God are like trees planted near a stream of water that blossom and produce fruit in due season. In other words, the “water” we drink and the “minerals” we gather all play an essential part in shaping our character into the likeness of Jesus. For the disciples of Jesus, those who have decided go ‘all in’ with Jesus, the only way to be truly what God had intended for us to be, is to stretch out our roots in prayer, study of His word, self-care, community life and disciple making. Personal growth is intentional; it’s a daily choice, on which the Spirit breathes!
Ephesians tells us that we ought to be always growing, pursuing the fullness of Christ [Ephesians 4:13]. It’s going to take all eternity to know that full fullness, for Christ is simply that vast and limitless. It’ll take a continual and consistent time in the Lord through prayer and reading of His word, community life...etc., to grow in intimacy with Jesus. It’s life changing... of course for the better.
Augustine’s significance in the Christian history and theology can hardly be overstated. Augustine’s emphasis on grace, God’s love and the Trinity laid a firm foundation for the western Protestant doctrines.
He was born 354 AD in Thagaste, Northern Africa. Augustine received excellent education. Augustine’s father, Patricius, was not a believer; but his mother, Monica, was a devout believer who passionately prayed for the salvation of her son! At age 17, Augustine moved to Carthage to continue his education. There he pursued a life of sexual immorality, eventually living for thirteen years with a woman who gave birth to their son, Adeodatus. All the while, Monica pleaded before the Lord for her wayward son.
After some years, Augustine began attending a cathedral in Milan to hear the great preacher Ambrose. God used Ambrose to work in Augustine’s inner life. At this point in his life, Augustine struggled with guilt and shame due to the lost life he had lived.
Augustine writes: My tears could not stop because of the remorse and pains whirling deep in my soul. My sin was so immensely heavy that I could never remove it with my own strength.
One afternoon in his garden, Augustine was again tormented by the life he lived when he suddenly heard what sounded like a little child’s voice repeating the words, “take and read, take and read.” When Augustine looked over the fence, however, no one was there. Glancing down at the Bible he had beside him, Augustine took God’s Word and began reading when it fell open on:
Romans 13:13-14 | 13 Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. 14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
Convicted of his sinful behavior and lifestyle, Augustine repented, gave himself completely to Jesus and was baptized on Easter morning by Bishop Ambrose.
In that moment of salvation, interior movement, which caused his soul to be inflamed with the love of Jesus, consequently caused him to love no created things in this world for its own sake... only in the Creator of all things... Jesus! [Foster and Smith, Devotional Classic, p.194]
Friends bring your interior world to Jesus - let the great Interior Designer design your life. Welcome Him to root and establish your identity in His love for you! As your spirit is inflamed to His love, your faith and hope will grow and mature... reaching the fullness of Christ! Let’s enjoy the journey!
Blessings,
P.Sam
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