Friday, June 1, 2007

Room to grow...

The first few weeks here at Mt. Zion Wesleyan Church have been really amazing! One of the key goals for the summer is simply growing in my relationship with the Lord. One of the first things my mentor said has stuck with me… in fact, I read these words every morning before I start my day.

“Until the burden for others is greater than the burden for yourself, you will never fully know the Power of Christ.”


These words just resonate in my heart and remind me that there is always room growth! Is Holiness what you long for? I’ve recently read that Holiness is like a bird… It must have two wings to fly… One wing is personal holiness, the other is social holiness. Without one or the other the bird is grounded.

Is your pursuit of Holiness soaring or grounded?

How are you seeing growth in your life?

Philippians 3:10-11 10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

2 comments:

rynofo said...

Personally I feel that I am struggling with the concept of holiness and what it really means. When you hear words your entire life they tend to lose their sting. Holiness is one of those words for me. Until I am able to take a step back from my cultural Christianity and truly be "rebirthed" into a genuine Christianity I do not know that I can answer the question. It was great to read your post, I hope to get on here soon with something thought provoking...and well maybe I will just strive to not sound ignorant. See yall later Ryno

The J's Simmons said...

Ryan, I think that I have experienced a bit of what you are talking about. There is a numbness that can creep in especially when we hear words over and over again without seeing the fruit of them. I really feel like I came to seminary with some of that. I don't think we are alone though. I think there are a great deal of "Church People" in the U.S. that hear the Word time and time again, week in and week out, but it does not change or even affect who they are other than they have a weekly appointment on Sunday morning. I think Jesus had a parable about this; The sower and the seed. Has the church become the dry hard ground?

I think for me, I just want more. I don't want to be a cultural Christian anymore. Holiness for me is a word that is my longing (this was not a word that I heard much in my UMC up-bringing). It sums up for me what Christians are called to and just like the idea of the bird, there is both an inward and outward transformation that takes place in order to learn to fly.

I'm definitely at a learning stage where I'm bumping my tail on the ground as I try to fly. I believe we are called to soar so I'm going to keep on trying!