I have been a Christian for 37 years now.  In that time, I have been to a lot of services and heard more sermons than I can count.  In my 37 years of listening to sermons, there are some aspects of our message that leave me quite perplexed and even aggravated.

I grew up in the Pentecostal stream of Christianity.  Later, I moved on into the Charismatic stream.  Both are very similar but with a few slight differences.  I no longer consider myself any label (Pentecostal or Charismatic) as I simply refer to myself as a Christian, a follower of Jesus the Christ.  But I wouldn’t change my upbringing as it is part of my journey and I have many cherished memories from all those years in those style of churches.

In my years of hearing sermons, one thought inevitable always comes up (and unfortunately, I have used this myself in years past). That thought is:  you are not really a good Christian if you don’t attend church every time the doors are open.  

The thought process usually goes something like this (sound with lots of shouting, Bible raised up and fist-pumping): “It’s time to get serious with God.  It’s time to stop playing games with God.  The church is looking more and more like the world.  We have got to stop preaching feel-good messages.  I can tell how spiritual and how hungry you are by who shows up on Wednesday nights.”

This usually gets hearty Amen’s from the faithful crowd that is always there.  But usually, these are also the ones that feel the sermon isn’t towards them.  It’s either for someone else in the congregation and it’s especially for those that are not at this particular service.

My Aggravation

Here’s my aggravation:  when did the epitome of our Christianity become our church attendance?  When did Jesus ever say, “they will know you are my followers by how often you attend a service?”  He didn’t.

While I believe that meeting together with fellow Christians is very important and vital in our spiritual journey, attending a “church” every time the doors are open is not the highlight of your spiritual walk with Jesus.

I am tired of hearing Christians talk of how we are saved, sanctified and filled with the Holy Spirit (often heard in Pentecostal sermons).  We should be hearing things like “I love people, all people, people that use me, people that abuse me, people that I struggle with.  I love people that think differently than me. I love people who oppose my political ideas.  I love people that want to kill me.” 

What if preachers would say things like that?  What if church members gauged their spirituality, not by how many times they attended a service, but by how well they loved people that week?

Love is the Benchmark

Love is the benchmark of my walk with Jesus.  If I scream loudly that I am saved, sanctified, and filled with the Holy Spirit but I don’t love EVERYONE around me then I would question just how saved, sanctified, and filled with the Spirit you really are.

I hope that you can get a feel for my true heart’s intention.  Our call as Christians is to love people.  I should not have to tell anyone that I am saved, sanctified, and filled with the Spirit.  My actions should ALWAYS speak louder than my words.  If people can’t tell I am a Christian by the way I treat people, then something is definitely wrong.

If I was to preach this message in a church, it would not get me a lot of Amen’s but it’s what needs to be said.  I love going to church services.  I love being around other Christians.  I love to sing and worship the Lord.  I love a good sermon.  But, when I leave that service, I don’t want to feel like I’ve been beaten up.  I want to be encouraged, motivated to be a better human, and I want to hear about Jesus and how amazing he is.

Too many preachers are saying a lot without saying anything at all. 

Getting people to shout and holler is not the way to tell if you had a good service.  It’s emotionalism at best.  I am all for shouting and hollering if that is your thing, but don’t gauge the moving of the Spirit simply by how loud the crowd is.

We are answering questions that the world isn’t asking. 

We are shooting ourselves in the foot. 

And we are losing credibility in this nation. 

All these types of sermons do is to further alienate us from the world, and it creates a higher wall of division between us and the very people that God has asked us to reach.

Good News

The word gospel means good news.  If we are truly preaching the gospel, shouldn’t people actually feel good?  I mean when I get good news, I am happy, and it makes me feel good.  When I am having a bad day, and someone shares good news my mood changes.  If we are preaching the good news, then it should be a feel-good message.

My job as a Teacher/Pastor is not to guilt you into behaving better, giving more, or coming to more services.  My job is to imitate Christ.  My job is to help you discover your true identity in Christ.  It is to empower and equip you for acts of service to those around you in your everyday life.  My job is not to change you!  Let me say that once again, “my job is not to change you.”

I can’t change you or anyone else. Most days I struggle to change myself.  My job is to point you in the direction of the One that can change you.  My job isn’t even to tell you what you should believe or know about him.  I am simply here to help you learn to relate to him in the way that he wants to be related to.  He takes care of the rest.

When going to church becomes the epitome of my spirituality then it’s no wonder the church has lost ground in America.

In a future post, I want to tackle this whole idea of “going to church” and help us realize that it is time to correct our definitions.  I am all for going to a service to sing songs and listen to a message.  But, if the first thing the preacher is going to say from the pulpit is, “I am probably going to make you mad today….” then you have lost me and a bunch of other people from the start.  Yes, I’ve heard preachers say that and I am sure I’ve said that in my early days of ministry.

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It’s so easy to get caught up in the issues of life that we forget to stop and just be grateful. The issues of life have us some days just trying to catch our breath and stay on our feet.  It’s also so easy to get trapped in the game of comparison where we look longingly, and enviously, at what others have that we don’t.  Very often we forgot to just be thankful for what we do have.

 We teach our children to say “thank you” when someone gives them something, but sometimes as adults, we forget to do the same.  Oh, we still say it when someone gives us a gift but it’s all the other things that we fail to be grateful for.

Just being thankful

As my alarm went off this morning I wanted to roll back over and sleep some more.  But, I hit the dismiss button on my phone and I laid there silently praying to the Lord.  I didn’t ask for anything, I was just being thankful.  I began to thank him for everything I could think of.

I thanked him for being so good to me, for loving me as he does.  I thanked him for every can of food I had, for running water, for indoor plumbing, and for toilet paper.

I thanked him for friends that have loved me through the years, that have been there for me, that have made my life better.

I thanked him for every person that has ever prayed for me. And, if you are one of those people . . . thank you!

I thanked him for him my family, for my wife and my children.  I thanked him for being good to them and for putting them in my life.

I thanked him for every answered prayer, every time he listened to me.

I thanked him for always being with me, never leaving me, never letting go.

I thanked him that I had clothes to wear, a nice warm house and a comfortable bed.

I thanked him for all the people I’ve met along my journey.

I thanked him for the opportunities that he has given me along my life’s journey.

I also thanked him for every trial and test I have been through because it’s made me stronger.  It’s made me who I am today. 

I even thanked him for one particular person that has caused me so much grief and heartache, that mistreated me and was not very kind to me. I thanked him for this person because even though they had abused me, there had also been good moments, times that this person had been a big blessing to me.  This person helped shape me into who I am today.

Take A Moment

The point of my sharing this with you is that we need to be grateful.  Sometimes, we just need to stop for a moment to say thanks.  We are more blessed than we realize.  I live in America where I am richer than most of the world.  Even though by American standards, I am not rich, in light of the rest of the world, I am rich with material things.  I don’t worry about food, water or clothing.

I am thankful for the stuff I have in my junk drawer because a lot of people in the world don’t even have junk.  They have just enough to get by and I have to find places to keep stuff I either don’t use or use very little.

I am thankful for you, my readers.  While this blog doesn’t have a huge following and I don’t currently have a large platform I am thankful for just one person reading my thoughts.

As I laid there in the dark, just thanking the Lord for all the things mentioned above, it felt good to not ask Him for anything.  It felt good as I was being grateful to see how blessed I am. I take that for granted too often. 

In America, we set aside one day a year to be thankful.  It’s called Thanksgiving.  We eat turkey and all the trimmings.  It’s a day set aside to be with family and friends, feasting and being thankful.  I don’t know if we really take enough adequate time that day to reflect on our gratitude.  We shouldn’t just do it one day a year but every day.

Some people keep a gratitude journal, where at the end of every day they write down what they were grateful for that day.  That sounds like a good idea.  Whether you write it down, or just pause long enough to reflect, take some time to be thankful.

What are you thankful for?  Try taking some time in prayer to just thank God for your current and past blessings.  Don’t ask for anything, just be grateful.

The post Take Time To Be Grateful appeared first on Michael Wilson.

Never underestimate the power of your story.  You never know how it might impact someone’s life.  Recently, I was at Transitions of Dyer County for their annual celebration day.  Transitions is a nine-month residential discipleship program for women struggling with addictions.  I sat there and listened as several women shared their stories of how God is bringing them out of addiction.

It was both moving and powerful to listen to these stories.

One lady shared how she had gotten off of drugs but later relapsed and went back into drug addiction.  She is currently drug-free.  Some might call this a failure.  I call this part of her journey.

Stories Are Powerful

Stories are powerful because they remind us that we are all human.  Listening to someone else’s story enables us to empathize with them.  It allows us to bond with someone.  Stories create connections.

Many times, we are judgmental against someone until we hear their story.  Have you ever judged or criticized someone’s actions but upon hearing why they did what they did, you changed your opinion?  It happens a lot.

I heard one preacher say it this way, “An enemy is someone whose story you haven’t heard.”  That’s a pretty powerful statement.  Once we hear someone’s story, we gain greater understanding and insight.  We can even sympathize with their actions even if we don’t agree with them.

The problem today is that we don’t really take the time to listen to someone’s story.  It’s sad really because our story can change outcomes and situations.  Our story can encourage someone else.  Our story can help them understand things from a different perspective.

Jesus and a Woman’s Story

Jesus had an encounter with a woman in John 4.  This was a Samaritan woman, so from a Jewish perspective (Jesus was Jewish) she had two strikes against her.  One, she was a Samaritan and Jews hated Samaritans.  Second, she was a woman. Women at this time were considered second class citizens.  They were merely property.

This woman had one more final strike against her.  We find out that she has been married five times and is now living with a guy she is not married to.  Living together unmarried was a very shameful thing to do in first-century Bible times.  She came to the well to draw water when no one else was there.  Most likely to avoid the gossip and the idle chatter about her life.

We are not told anything about her situation as to why she had married five times.  We don’t even know her name.  Much speculation has been given as to why she has had five husbands, but we just don’t know.  What we do know is that she had a story. 

The townspeople of her village knew her story.  Small communities usually do know everyone else’s business.  I would imagine she was shunned by most given the cultural landscape at the time of her existence.

Jesus didn’t seem to be too bothered by her situation.  I believe that he stopped at this well, at this particular time of day, to purposefully engage this woman.

What an encounter!  She was taken aback that a Jewish man would even talk to her but here Jesus was talking to her about God, worship and even revealing himself as the Messiah.

A Story Impacts a Town

She runs back into town and tells everyone that would listen, “Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?” They went out of the city and were coming to Him.” (John 4:29-30)

Come see a man that knows my story.

Come see a man that knows my story and didn’t judge me.

Come see a man that knows my story and didn’t condemn me.

Come see a man that knows my story and didn’t preach at me or lecture me.

Come see a man that knows my story.

What’s interesting is that she goes and tells the men of the city what had taken place and invites them to come hear Jesus.  These are quite possibly the very men who had shunned or shamed her in the past. We don’t know for sure.

What’s even more interesting to me is that they listened to her.

Their response, after listening to Jesus, is quite amazing.

Many more believed because of His word; and they were saying to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world.” (John 4:41-42)

Her story brought them to Jesus.  They believed in Jesus after what they heard for themselves, but they would have never heard if she hadn’t shared her story.

From that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all the things that I have done.” (John 4:39)

Jesus knew this woman’s story and it didn’t faze him a bit.  I don’t believe that he was shocked or offended by her story.  He simply saw a woman that he loved and cared about, a woman that he would soon give his life for.  He saw in her a redeemable soul, even if she couldn’t see that in herself.

What About Your Story

What about your story?  It seems that many of us are ashamed of our stories.  We are ashamed at things we’ve done, places we’ve been or people we’ve hurt along the way.  We beat ourselves up over things we’ve done in the past, things we wish we could go back and undo but can’t.

Your story is powerful because someone else needs to hear it.  Your story may be the very key that unlocks someone’s prison door.  Yes, your story has that potential.

Your mistakes may keep someone else from committing those same mistakes. Your mistakes might give someone else hope that they can overcome them as you have.

Your story may give someone the hope they need to face another day.  It may give them the courage to face their own obstacles with renewed vigor.

I was asked to say the closing prayer at that Celebration Day I mentioned at the beginning of this post.  As I thought about what to say, I thought about all the stories I had heard that day.  Stories of successes but also failures. Stories of costly redemption.  Redemption is never free. Redemption always costs someone something.

Before I prayed, I encouraged the ladies there to never underestimate the power of their story.  I also encouraged them to never be ashamed of their story because it’s part of who they are, and it’s got them to where they are. 

We can’t change our past.  All we can do is own it, accept responsibility for it and know that God will use it to our good somehow.

We can’t rewrite our story.  All we can do is make today the best part of our story.  If we do that every day then our story can end up with a happy ending.

Maybe, just maybe, someone will come to know Jesus because of your story.  It happened in a Samaritan village. It can happen in your town too.

The post The Power of Your Story appeared first on Michael Wilson.

One of my favorite stories in the Bible is in John chapter 8 concerning the woman caught in adultery (v. 1-11). Even though there is evidence that it is not in the original manuscripts, I believe that it epitomizes the very nature of Jesus and God’s grace.

In this story, a woman is caught in the very act of adultery.  The Pharisees and the scribes (both religious leaders of Jesus’ day) brought this woman to Jesus as he was teaching in the temple.  The passage is very clear that this was a trap to indict Jesus.  The woman was simply a pawn in this strategic ploy that the religious leaders had concocted against Jesus.  However, Jesus turned the tables on these religious leaders and gives us a very valuable lesson in grace.

Religion was about to have a head-on collision with grace.

According to the Law of Moses, persons caught in the act of adultery were to be stoned.  It was a capital crime.  Everyone there knew the Law, including Jesus and the woman. 

What’s interesting about this story is that there was a man involved in the adulterous act as well, but he’s not thrown into the center of this event.  Somehow, he manages to escape.  It’s very possible that the man was paid off by the religious leaders to entrap the woman.  We don’t know so we can only speculate.

Adultery today doesn’t seem to be much of an issue, although it is still a very damaging thing to do.  However, it’s become very commonplace.  It used to be against the law in the United States but it’s not any longer. In Jesus’ day, it brought the death penalty. 

This was a very serious thing facing Jesus.  If Jesus were to agree to stone her, then his teachings on enemy love, compassion and mercy would have been nullified.  If Jesus were to disregard the issue, then he would have been accused of not obeying the Law.

Grace wholeheartedly acknowledges the truth of our situation. It never denies it, covers it up nor excuses it.

Jesus is silent when asked what to do with the woman.  He doesn’t deny the situation, he doesn’t even ask her about it.  It’s very clear what she’s been doing.  Since she was caught in the act, she was most likely not given the opportunity to grab her clothes.

He simply stoops down and writes in the dirt.  I believe that he knew she was guilty of the accusation.

Grace challenges the self-righteous, religiosity of our lives.

The religious leaders had a Biblical right to stone the woman. 

You can be Biblical and not be Christ-like.  As a Christian, I should be more concerned with being Christlike than Biblical.

These religious leaders wanted justice according to their religion.  They had “right and might” on their side.  She was caught in the very act and deserved death, according to their religious law.  They were looking for Jesus to agree with them, to prove them right.

Religion will always leave people damaged in it’s never-ending struggle to be right.

These leaders were being self-righteous.  They were condemning her and even willing for her to be put to death in order to prove Jesus to be a false messiah, a false prophet.  Religion does that to people.  Religion is always pointing to “it’s rightness”.  It doesn’t care about saving a life.

The Law of Moses was based upon obeying the Law in order to be blessed.  If you did right you were blessed, if you did wrong you were cursed.  The problem is that there isn’t really a place for grace in a law-based system. 

Knowing the rules and obeying the rules can be the easy part. But Jesus came full of grace and truth (John 1:17). 

Grace and truth are both necessary components if we ever hope to understand the nature of God.

We have to understand that the Bible points us to Jesus, who is the ultimate Word of God. 

These religious leaders had “the Bible” on their side but they didn’t have the heart of God.

Anytime we use the Bible to condemn others, we are acting in the same role as the satan, ha-satan in the Hebrew, (the accuser).  Our job is not to accuse people of anything.  Our job is to show them Jesus.

It’s hypocritical for sinners to want to harm other sinners because of sin.  It’s even worse when Christians do it.

When we are more interested in being right than in saving someone’s life, we’ve totally missed the heart of God.

Grace forgives what we’ve done with no condemnation.

Jesus didn’t come into the world to condemn the world (John 3:17), why is the church then so condemning?  Why is it that we are looking for the wrongs in other people rather than showing them the love that Jesus has for them?  Jesus came to give life.  Religion snuffs out life when one breaks the rules.

The apostle Paul writes to the Church at Corinth, “The letter {law/religion} kills but the Spirit gives life.” (2 Corinthians 3:6)

It’s interesting to me that the woman never repents.  She never says that she is sorry, nor does she ask for forgiveness.  Yet, Jesus still doesn’t condemn her even though she is guilty of the crime that deserves death. He doesn’t require her to go make an offering for her sin.

We’ve been so conditioned by a Western, legal mindset that says, “sin has to be punished.”  If you break a rule or law, then you must pay.  Yet, throughout the Bible we see God forgiving people without their asking for it.

Notice the times that Jesus says “your sins are forgiven,” to people who didn’t ask for it (Matt. 9:5; Luke 7:48-50)  Notice that Adam and Eve never told God they were sorry for eating from the forbidden tree, yet God clothes them and protects them from the Tree of Life (as a way to keep them from living in sin forever).

Notice how we are never told that Peter once told Jesus he was sorry.  Yet, Jesus offers forgiveness.  We are told that love keeps no records of wrong and are instructed to forgive even when others won’t repent to us.

I am not saying that you shouldn’t ask for forgiveness.  I am simply stating that Jesus reveals God’s heart of forgiveness and that God can choose to forgive if he wants to even if someone doesn’t ask for it.

According to Jesus’ instructions, the woman couldn’t even stone herself.

This is a very important point in the area of self-condemnation.  If I cannot throw a stone at someone else because I have sinned myself, and people cannot throw stones at me because they have sinned how can I condemn myself?  I know that we do it all the time, but we shouldn’t.

Grace not only takes away the right for others to condemn us, it also takes away our right to condemn ourselves.

Grace empowers us to change.

Christians will agree that Jesus didn’t condemn her, but they put more emphasis on the “Go and sin no more.” To me, this is Jesus giving her a better way.  This is Jesus saying, “you don’t have to live like that.  You are more than that.”  It’s an empowerment to be better.

Let’s think for a minute about what it might have looked like if this woman were caught again, say in a month or so, and brought back to Jesus.  Would he condemn her then?  Does he condemn us over our struggles with the same sins and mistakes we so often make?

As stated earlier, adultery back then was a capital crime.  What if that story were to be told today?  Who might be used as the woman?  What if the person brought before Jesus were

• A drug addict
• A child molester
• A lesbian
• A transgender
• Hitler
• Jeffery Dahmer
• Your enemy
• Your son or daughter
• You

In using the above examples, I am not condemning anyone. I am simply using people that the Church has had issues with. 

Think through each of those different people carefully.  Would Jesus treat them all the same?  Would he have not condemned a person like Hitler?  Would he still say, “you who are without sin, cast the first stone.”? 

These are questions we have to wrestle with. The Church today has many that we condemn but would Jesus?

When religion collides with grace, I hope that grace always wins.  If this story teaches us anything, I believe it teaches us that grace should win!

Related Posts:

• What if the Woman was Transgender?
• I Murdered Someone This Week

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The song Amazing Grace is one of the most beloved songs within the Christian faith.  Written by an ex-slave trader, it speaks of how amazing God’s grace is towards humanity.  That amazing grace came through an amazing man . . . Jesus. 

When I think about Jesus and the way he deals with humanity I see amazing attributes.

HIS LOVE FOR US IS AMAZING

His amazing love is unconditional.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

This is such a great verse.  Before we were ever born, before we ever made one mistake, Jesus extended forgiveness towards us.  His love for us is larger than any sin that we can commit.  His love goes beyond conditions.  His love goes beyond our sins.  His love goes beyond any rebellion.

His amazing love is accepting.

He accepts us where we are.  He invites us to come to Him just as we are.  He is patient with us through our struggles, fears, and doubts.  He is accepting of humanity where humanity is at.  But He loves us enough to not leave us where we are at in our journey. 

His amazing love gives us value.

I hear so many Christians talk about how worthless they are.  They feel they have no value.  How can we say that we have no value when Jesus died for us?  Now I realize that there are some Christians who preach about how angry God is at the world because of sin. Their image of God is that he can barely tolerate us because of our sin (just read Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God by Jonathan Edwards).  But our God loves us so much that he would rather have died for us than to live without us.  That gives us value.  Love gives us value.  When I love someone or something I am giving that object or person value.

HIS TREATMENT OF US IS AMAZING

He treats us without condemnation (John 3:16-17).

I love the story in John 8 that talks about the adulterous woman brought to Jesus.  His treatment of this woman is so amazing.  He tells all the people who are ready to stone her to cast the first stone IF they had no sin.  They all leave, and he asks her where her condemners are.  She replies that she doesn’t know and then he offers one of my favorite statements, “neither do I condemn you.”  Wow, what a statement from a God that supposedly can’t look upon sin (this idea comes Hab. 1:13, which is a verse most often taken out of context).  Yet, here we find this God not condemning a woman clearly guilty.  If God didn’t condemn this woman, He is not going to condemn you and me.

A lot of people will quote John 3:16, which is a great verse.  But they stop short and don’t continue with verse 17.

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.

He treats us equally (Matt. 9:9-13).

Jesus had both a tax collector (which was a Roman sympathizer) and a zealot (which was a revolutionary trying to overthrow Rome’s occupation of Israel) on his disciple team.  Can you imagine the dinner discussions among these two?  Yet, Jesus had them both on his team.  God is not a respecter of persons.  He loves us all the same and gives us the same opportunity to come to Him.

If Jesus had such a diverse leadership team, don’t you think He still wants diversity among his people?

HIS HELP TO US IS AMAZING

He’s for us, not against us (Romans 8:31).

So many people live life like God is against them.  God is not against us.  He wants everyone to be reconciled to Himself.  He wants to bring people into the love of the triune God.  He wants to give us abundant life.  He is kind to both the good man and the evil man.  He sends rain upon the just and the unjust.  He is for us.

 He wants us to succeed, not fail.

Peter is a great example of this point.  Peter denied Jesus three times after he swore he would die with Jesus.  Jesus didn’t turn away from Peter. He restored him.  He will do the same for us.

Jesus restores us when we fail.  He understands what it’s like to be human.  Because of his understanding of our humanity, He is able to sympathize with our weaknesses.  He makes it possible for us to come boldly to God’s throne of grace to receive grace and mercy when we need it (Heb. 4:16).

He heals us when our hearts are broken.

Jesus is not looking to snuff people out or kick them while they are down.  He is near to the brokenhearted.  He understands our pain, our loss, our grief, and our sorrows.  He wants to heal our broken hearts.  He wants to help us when life has been cruel.  He is there to comfort us when our lives have been shattered.

Are you amazed by Jesus?  I know that I am.

Here is a great song by Philips, Craig, & Dean on being amazed by Jesus.

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Peter Pan is a children’s story where the main character, Peter Pan, is a boy that lives in Neverland and he never grows up.  He is the perpetual boy.  He fights off pirates, particularly Captain James Hook.  He leads a group of boys called the Lost Boys because they have all lost their parents and somehow ended up in Neverland.

The worse thing for the Lost Boys and Peter Pan is to grow up.

I know many Christians who are just like Peter Pan.  They refuse to grow up spiritually.

Our relationship with Jesus and the Father is to be one of spiritual growth.  We may start out as spiritual babes, but God’s intention for our lives is for us to grow to maturity.  This is not an automatic process and one that requires diligence and effort on our part.

I love the subject of personal development.  I do what I can to grow personally in many different areas of my life.  I have a growth plan because I realize that my personal growth is not automatic.

Growing older is automatic.  You cannot stop it.  Personal and spiritual growth is not automatic.  You have to plan for it, work the plan and be intentional about growth.

What does spiritual maturity look like?

I believe that spiritual maturity is going to look a little different for each stage of life that we are in.  The simplest definition I would give for spiritual maturity is that people can see Jesus in my life.

Spiritual maturity is really a subjective concept. As in the natural, I would say that sixteen-year-old is more (or should be more) mature than a five-year-old, so it is in the spiritual.  Someone who has been following the Lord for many years should be more spiritually mature than someone just starting out their relationship with Jesus.  Sadly, this isn’t always the case. Each can be spiritually mature based upon their “spiritual age”.

One can be a Peter Pan Christian by refusing to grow up spiritually.

How Do We Grow?

Growing up I was always taught that to grow spiritually I should pray, read my Bible daily, and have a “quiet time” with the Lord every single day.  While this is good advice, I know a lot of people that do this but are not growing.  I have had seasons in my life where I did this but was not bearing the fruit of growth.

Why is that?  Because knowledge of the Bible does not equal spiritual maturity.  The Pharisees knew their scriptures better than most of us today.  They studied, memorized and continually learned the Torah and the Prophets.  They could quote vast amounts of it from memory.

Yet, Jesus told them that they searched the scriptures trying to find life, but the scriptures pointed to Jesus.  And, they missed him despite their deep knowledge of the sacred texts.

I believe we do the same today.  There are a lot of Christians in the body of Christ today that can quote scripture, know doctrine inside and out, can explain different aspects of the Christian faith . . . and still miss Jesus.

Spiritual growth means that I am looking more like Jesus every single day.

I remember a time about 10 or so years ago when the Lord Jesus spoke into my spirit and told me that I knew the concepts about him, I knew what the Bible said about him, and I could teach those things to other people.  The problem was I didn’t know him as a person.  I saw him and even related to him, as an object, not a person.

There is a big difference in relating to Jesus objectively and relating to him personally. 

I began a quest of knowing him as a person, not a subject to be studied, a deity to be appeased, or a theory to be explained but a living, breathing Person who wanted to know me as well.

I began to grow that day.  Not that I had not grown prior, but I had grown in book knowledge, theoretical knowledge, even religious knowledge but according to Jesus I had not been growing in experiential, relational knowledge.

I was not growing as God intended.  His growth cycles in our lives are set for us to look and act more like Jesus every single day.

Some Christians refuse to grow!

Peter Pan refused to grow up because to grow up means being responsible.  It was easier to stay in Neverland and just play. 

I think that Peter Pan Christians refuse to grow up because to do so means to become responsible in our thinking and our actions.  Too many Christians have the attitude that what they believe is right because they believe the Bible says so.  Anyone who disagrees with them is disagreeing with the Bible and ultimately God.

I know because this is how I was for much of my young adulthood.  I had the answers.  I was right because I could back it up with scripture.  It was my way or the highway (and usually the highway led to hell!).

It doesn’t take a lot of maturity to argue your case with others. It doesn’t take a lot of maturity to defend what you believe.  It doesn’t take a lot of maturity to judge others.

It takes maturity to allow your beliefs to be challenged.  It takes maturity to have a critical look at your beliefs to see if they really are true.

If what you believe is truly true, then it can stand up against scrutiny.

It takes maturity to allow others to disagree with you, even argue with you without you getting upset that they don’t agree or see things your way.

It takes maturity to be open to discussion about areas that you feel you are right on, but you are willing to listen to opposing viewpoints with an open mind.

It takes maturity to be willing to even lay down your beliefs at the feet of Jesus and allow him to sort through them taking away what is not right.

It takes maturity to be willing to change your thinking when you realize your thinking is wrong.

It takes maturity to admit that you have been wrong.

Our goal is to grow up.

God’s goals for us as his children is that we would learn to grow up in the things he has for us.  Far too many Christians are still debating and fighting over elementary issues and doctrines when all around us the world is dealing with major issues.

Far too many Christians are arguing over questions that the world isn’t even asking.  Because of that, we have removed ourselves to Neverland, refusing to grow up, playing our little theological games and we have become irrelevant to the world.

We have focused too much of our time on making sure that people believe everything just right and we have missed out on the bigger picture.

These days, as I continually get older, I care more about people feeling loved and having a sense of belonging than I do about their current belief system.  Do I want them to believe in Jesus?  Of course, I do!  But my focal point is being Jesus to them first before I ask them to believe in him.

If I can let people see the true Jesus in me, the One that loves them unconditionally and gave his life for them because they have infinite worth to Him, then I believe they won’t have trouble believing in him.

I think that our problem has been that we want people to believe in him before they even know what he is about. Our other problem is that we have misrepresented him so badly that people have the wrong concept of who he really is.

We have played around in Neverland, refusing to grow up spiritually, and we have lost the right to speak into the lives of those around us.  Those around us don’t want to listen to a bunch of immature children playing games.  They want to hear from mature people with real answers to real-life issues.

Let’s pray that we will stop being Peter Pan Christians and accept the responsibility that the Father has given us to be His ambassadors to the world.  Children are not chosen as ambassadors.  Mature thinking, mature feeling, mature acting adults are given this role.

Related Article: Spiritual Stretch Marks

The post Peter Pan Christianity appeared first on Michael Wilson.

For many years of my life, I have suffered from Destination Addiction.  Simply put, it’s when you believe that happiness is in the destination or can be found somewhere else rather than in the present.  In other words, you are always waiting for the next blessing or the next place to bring you happiness.

Living this way has caused me to miss out on so many opportunities and blessings because I was too focused on a destination instead of living in the moment.  I am learning how to live in the now and see what is right in front of me.

The Next Level????

As a Christian, I was always looking for “the next level”, whatever that was.  It’s amazing that we always talk about the next level but it’s never defined. How will we know that we have arrived if we don’t really know what it is?  As a young pastor, I was always exhorting my congregation to attain the next level but I never did define it for them. I must have caused them a lot of confusion.  Thankfully they loved me anyway.

I was always looking for that next conference, that next prophetic word, that next prayer line, that next anointed preacher.

When you live looking for the next, you miss the here and now.

I believe that God has great and wonderful plans for our lives.  I believe that with all my heart. I have focused most of my life on those plans and purposes.  But, the older I get I don’t want to focus on those great plans and purposes. The reason I say that is because it’s the journey that I believe he is more interested in.

Now What????

Since I was 13 years old I have wanted to be a pastor.  All throughout my 20’s I couldn’t wait to get my own church to pastor.  I always felt like a wild horse in a cage that just wanted to break out.  When I was 33 years old I finally got my chance as I took over a church as their new Senior Pastor.

My first week in the office I remember sitting around thinking, “Wow, I’ve finally arrived.  I’ve made it. This is what I was born to do.”  

Then, the thought hit me, “Now what?”  I had arrived at my destination but I knew this wasn’t it, there was more.  This was simply the starting line.

As I look back on that time in my life, I realize that I missed so many moments of God’s blessings because I was too focused on the future.  My focus on the future caused me to miss my present. Not to mention all the frustration I felt because I just knew that I hadn’t arrived.

The idea that happiness is just around the corner is a false notion.  Happiness is what we make it. Paul the apostle said that he learned how to be content in whatever situation he was in (Phil 4:11-13).  I am learning that process, not because I have to but I’ve come to a place in my life that I want to learn how to be content in the now.

The idea that another blessing is just ahead will cause us to miss the blessing of today.

Don’t Miss the Moment

When we think that God is at the next conference, the next ministry assignment, or the next level we will miss God in the here and now, the ever-present moment.  He said that he would never leave us nor forsake us so he is with us in this present moment.

My goal is to learn how to be present to his presence in the here and now.  The problem most of us have is that we don’t see God in the ordinary. We don’t see him in the mundane.  I have always been looking for God in “spiritual” places (like church, conferences, worship songs, etc) but God is in all things.  We have to learn to see him in those things.

God is in the smell of a flower, the dance of a butterfly, the song of a bird.  

God is in a baby’s smile, the touch of a loved one, the scenic beauty of a sunset.

God is also in the messiness of our life’s situations, the breakup of a marriage, the rebellion of a child. Not in that he causes those things, but he is in the midst of our messiness right along with us.

We just have to look for him in the midst of our lives.  He’s there, He’s always there. We need to learn to look.

That’s been my struggle.  I want to see him in the big moments.  I want to feel a new anointing, a fresh touch, a never before felt goosebump!  Those moments are not that common. But, God in the little things is an everyday event . . . if we will learn to see them.

It’s my Destination Addiction.

At the moment I am not a Senior Pastor, although it’s still my deepest desire.  My wife and I are planning a major move back to West Tennessee (where we moved from to Oklahoma) to plant a church.  The struggle is not to allow my destination addiction to affect me in the move. In other words, God will be with me in the move back and in planting the church.  But if it doesn’t turn out like I want it to, or even how I think things will work, I don’t want to miss God in the journey.  

At this stage of my life, I am more interested in the journey he is leading me on more so than the destination. 

What about you? Do you suffer from Destination Addiction? 

The post Overcoming Destination Addiction appeared first on Michael Wilson.