Tag Archives: maturity

Learning To Be A Son – Chapter Eight – Reconnecting The Umbilical Cord

Book Reviews, , ,

CHAPTER EIGHT

Reconnecting the Umbilical Cord

Babies have an attachment to their mothers in the womb without which they cannot survive of grow. It’s called an umbilical cord. At birth the cord is cut because the baby has to learn to live an independent life from its mother.

The parents’ role is to raise that child to mature self-reliant and independent adulthood. No parent would like to have an adult offspring around their necks into old age.

In the spiritual realm God has reversed the process of “growing up”. As children of God we have to learn to live in union with Him. It takes Him a lifetime to teach us to live in dependence on Him because our natural bent is towards self-reliance and independence.

Like the umbilical cord which provides the growing foetus with oxygen and nutrients and removes the waste products from its body, so the Holy Spirit is the link between us and the Father, applying the truth about Jesus to our hearts to nourish our spirits and the blood of Jesus to cleanse us from all sin.

Once again, Jesus is our model. As a perfect son He lived in union with the Father and in submission and obedience to Him. He understood Satan’s tactic and modus operandi to disturb His union with the Father so that He would act independently from Him. Jesus never fell for his deception because He was committed to His submission to the Father. He spent much time in fellowship with the Father and could claim that He always pleased the Father.

Jesus also lived in intimate fellowship with the Holy Spirit who was with Him throughout His human life from His conception to His resurrection.

The same Spirit who was with Jesus is in us, leading us into truth, teaching us about Jesus and applying the word to our hearts that we may mature in holiness. He is like a spiritual “umbilical cord”, joining us to Jesus and enabling us to live in union with Him.

Jesus called a little child and used him to teach His disciples about helpless and dependence.  Like a branch in the vine, we can only bear fruit if we are intimately connected to Him. Sever the branch and we die. The more dependent we are, the more we mature and the more like the Son we become.

Part of our learning process as sons and daughters of God is to reconnect with Jesus through the Holy Spirit so that we can be nourished and cleansed, and so that we can take as much delight in doing God’s will as Jesus did (Psa. 40: 6-8)

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my first book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

ISBN: Softcover – 978-1-4828-0512-3,                                                                              eBook 978-4828-0511-6

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version, on www.takealot.com  or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

My second book, Learning to be a Disciple – The Way of the Master (Copyright © 2015, Partridge Publishing), companion volume to Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart, has been released in paperback and digital format on www.amazon.com.

For more details, check my website:

http://luellaannettecampbell.com/

 

 

Foundation Truths

Bible Study, , ,

FOUNDATION TRUTHS

Therefore let us move beyond the elementary teachings about Christ and be taken forward to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and faith in God, instruction about cleansing rites, the laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And God permitting, we will do so (Heb, 6: 1-3).

Is it possible that there are teachings about our faith from which we must move on? Apparently there are!

What are these teachings? This writers calls them “foundations” – the fundamentals of our faith. What are they and why must we move on beyond these things?

When someone lays a foundation for a new building, he doesn’t remove the foundation – he builds on it because it is there to secure the building. When this writer says, ‘Move on’, he is not saying, ‘Abandon the foundation,’ he is saying, ‘Build on it.’ It forms the basis of what you believe.

The foundation of what he writes here is made up of three pairs of complementary truths.

1. The first is repentance from acts that lead to death and faith in God.

Of course this is a part of our foundation. To “repent” means to return to the path. God has shown us the path that leads us to our desired destination in life. Our destination is to be like God Himself – mirrored for us in His Son, Jesus. He created us in Him image, but that image was shattered at the fall. He did everything to remove the barrier between us and Him so that we can return to the way that leads us into oneness with Him again, becoming like Jesus who is our older brother (Heb. 10, 11).

Faith in God, very simply means, according to Hebrew thought, anchoring ourselves to God so that we do not blow away in the wind. On their migration from Egypt to the Promised Land, God’s people had to face the howling winds in the wilderness. The only way to secure their tents was to drive pegs into the ground to which they tied their tents.

This vivid picture enables us to understand what it meant for them, and for us spiritually, to make it through the desert and arrive where they were supposed to go. This is foundational, as you can see. Our lives are a journey. We must keep on the path if we are to arrive at our destination, and we must ensure that we are anchored to God so that we are not blown away by ‘every wind of teaching’ (Eph. 4:13, 14).

This is a once-off experience and does not have to be repeated – a part of our foundation.

2. The second pair is ‘instruction about cleansing rites’ and ‘the laying on of hands’. This has to do with initiation into, and identification with Jesus, the leader of “The Way”, (which is what His movement was originally called Acts 9: 2).

This is the second step after returning to God’s way from the path of sin. Cleansing rituals or “baptisms” were a regular feature of Jewish life. Ritual purification by being immersed in running or “living” water was practised many times as a person came back to, or entered a new phase of life.

Baptism into Jesus is a sign of death to the old way, initiation into “the Way” and identification with Jesus as the rabbi we have chosen to follow. This also a once-off part of our foundation.

3. ‘Resurrection of the dead’ and ‘eternal judgment’ are the third part of our foundation. This is not talking about our physical resurrection but our spiritual resurrection – out of our death to sin and into our new life in Christ.

But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions . . . (Eph. 2: 4-5a).

God has forever judged sin at the cross. Our sins, past, present and future, and the sins of the whole world have been judged and punished once and for all. ‘It is finished.’ God has made us alive, raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms, fully accepted once and for all.

These are foundation truths, always there and never to be repeated. It is now up to us to build upon what has been laid down, relying on the truth that Jesus completed everything on the cross. ‘It is finished,’ were some of His last words. Now we can rest on His finished work and live in the reality of what He has done for us.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

 

 

Steep Yourself in God

Christian Life, , ,

STEEP YOURSELF IN GOD

”What I’m trying to do here is to get you to relax, not to be so preoccupied with getting so that you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way He works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how He works. Steep yourself in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Don’t be afraid of missing out. You’re my dearest friends! The Father wants to give you the very kingdom itself.” Luke 12:29-32 (The Message).

There is fervour in these words of Jesus. What He is talking about here is the very foundation of life. Until we get this right, our experience of God will always yo-yo between doubting and trusting. Our worries and cares come from our being so us-aware and so close to the circumstances that we cannot step back, as Jesus always did, and look at the big picture.

The first thing to settle in our hearts is the non-negotiable truth that God loves us. Since He has taken the trouble to come Himself to redeem us at the cost of His own life, our physical needs and wants are miniscule by comparison. He did this for one reason, to restore us to His family as His sons and daughters. Settle that one too! Everything God has promised and does for us fits into that context – family.

Jesus urged us to approach the Father as little children, not teenagers who always think they know better but as little children who are helpless without their father. This is the amazing thing about life in God’s family. He is not training us for independence as human parents do their children. God is training us for complete dependence; in fact, in His scheme of things, the more dependent we are on Him, the more mature we are in the faith!

Jesus insisted, “Without me you can do nothing.” John 15:6 (NIV). To God, maturity means going back to infancy! Why has He built such a contradictory principle into our relationship with Him? It takes us right back to His dream – to create beings who would be one with Him (ECHAD) because oneness in the Godhead is who He is. “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” Deuteronomy 6:4 (NIV), Israel’s creed.

Although He gave us the gift of choice, He knows very well where it takes us when we use it to enforce our independence. That same capacity to choose becomes a powerful tool when we recognise our dependence on Him and align ourselves with Him as helpless infants.

The benefits of this attitude are ‘out of this world’ – access to the limitless supply of God’s resources, a carefree life in the care of God, and the inexpressible joy of being responsible partners in His kingdom, bringing His rule of love and truth into the mess we humans have made because of our independence.

If we insist on viewing God as a blown-up version of our human fathers, we will forfeit the most unpredictably exciting life. Instead we will spend our lives chewing our fingernails, chasing ‘things’ as though this life were all that mattered, and missing the journey that takes us deeper and deeper into the heart of the Father.

If we are to be the disciples of Jesus we claim to be, then we have to learn to think like He did. Jesus was joined to His Father at the hip. He was a mature Son who depended on His Father like a new-born infant. That’s the paradox of the Christian life. Growing up means becoming more and more like little children. In this way, Jesus said, the kingdom is ours.