Instant Disciple

Filling in role as Chaplain, this is something I have been thinking about for a few weeks and I wanted to share it with you this morning

Love Coffee

Not the instant, but the drip coffee or slow brew

Instant to me, always taste a little forced. It gets you through in a pinch, but the full flavor and richness comes from the slow roast.

Now, why am I saying all this?

As I talk to these kids, there is always an urge for me to quickly share my quick fixes to a solution. I can see them struggling, and I know in the back of my mind that there deep spiritual questions brewing.

In one of my readings I came across this scripture as I was wrestling with this idea

Hebrews 5:12–14 “Although by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the basic principles of God’s revelation again. You need milk, not solid food. Now everyone who lives on milk is inexperienced with the message about righteousness, because he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature—for those whose senses have been trained to distinguish between good and evil.”

I realized that I was wrestling with fixing the issue on my timeline, and I forget, that we don’t live by our own timeline do we?

As I kept reading, God reminded me of Regeneration Vs Sanctification

Regeneration Vs Sanctification

Regeneration is the moment the spirit fills you. Your new birth in Jesus Christ. This is the turning point and when your life reorients toward God.

Sanctification is an extended process to “make distinct from what is common.” using prayer, scripture reading, mentoring, watchfulness, and self examination.

It reminded me that even if they are believers, they might be like the Corinthians. They proclaim the word of God, they memorize verses, but they are still wordly. They are still struggling to throw off the chains of the world.

1 Corinthians 3:1–3 “For my part, brothers and sisters, I was not able to speak to you as spiritual people but as people of the flesh, as babies in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food, since you were not yet ready for it. In fact, you are still not ready, because you are still worldly. For since there is envy and strife among you, are you not worldly and behaving like mere humans?”

Just because they accepted Christ, did not mean they were removed from the desires of their past life and desires. They were just reoriented toward God. The seed was planted, but the seed is fragile. They are learning, but they don’t have the maturity to understand deep faith.

So how do we mature that faith?

Paul writes in Thessalonians

1 Thessalonians 2:11–13 “As you know, like a father with his own children, we encouraged, comforted, and implored each one of you to walk worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. This is why we constantly thank God, because when you received the word of God that you heard from us, you welcomed it not as a human message, but as it truly is, the word of God, which also works effectively in you who believe.”

Encourage, comfort and implore as a father with his own children. This was how Paul founded the church, and we find out that even though he left it after a few months the church was doing well but did need more direction. It needed to mature.

This is the line we have to walk with these new believers.

Our job is to treat these children as though they are our own. We have to nurture these students in their faith as though they were our own family.

But it is slow change and it is patient change. These kids are not going to believe in Christ and suddenly be star students. They are going to be worldly, they are going to fall. They are going to struggle with all their past desires and the world is going to try to rip them right back into the like they used to know.

Let us not allow our desire for quick change or quick sanctification to be a stumbling block for new believers or those wrestling with faith.

I did it with my own kids.

“You are saved, you know the scripture, you should know better…”

The needed milk, but I gave them pork instead.

I want to leave today with Ephesians 4:11-16. A vision of the goal for us here.

Ephesians 4:11–16 “And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness. Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit. But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head—Christ. From him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building itself up in love by the proper working of each individual part.”

This is how we can live up to our vision statement of

“Making a Difference in Lives, one Child at a Time”