Thursday, June 14, 2007

Truth #2

2 - The more you grow in the faith, the more you see Christ (and vice versa).

Yes - I do use the terminology of growing "in the faith" unabashedly (every once in a while) - and when one grows in the faith and matures - one sees Christ more and more. Look at Paul - our life is lived in Christ - indeed, it is not I who live but Christ who lives in me. As Christians our whole lives are lived in and identified in Christ.

Maturing as a Christian is simply seeing this fact. Like John the Baptist, you see that you must decrease that Christ may increase. And something that will come along with this is the fact that you see that Christ Jesus really is all in all - that the Scriptures aren't just using a pretty phrase that we ignore to go sing songs about what we do for Jesus - it really is all about Christ.

And the beauty of this is as follows: How does one grow in the faith? By the Word - by being shown Christ, by having our eyes fixed upon the author and perfector of our faith. A Pastor's job really is simply - give people Christ. You don't have to plumb the depths of their souls, you don't have to divine their innermost secrets - you give them Christ. And God does the work. This is a comforting thing for a Pastor - you don't need to struggle with what to do - just show Christ. Refine yourself, your techniques, get yourself out of the way so that people see you less and less and see only Christ - but the task, show Christ.

No comments: