The Process of Time
The most common question I hear from people in spiritual growth is: Why is this taking so long? They will often enter the growth process with great hope and excitement and then, somewhere along the way, become discouraged that they aren’t achieving results as soon as they would like. Someone is still struggling in a […]
Sin and the Growth Process
Back in the 1980s, I remember listening to a minister give his opinion on the recovery movement, which was becoming popular in the church. He was angry. People were getting off to lightly he thought and he was not going to stand for it. I can almost still hear his words today: “What’s all this […]
Obedience
Obedience sounds so simple. You may hear people say, “Just trust and obey,” “Just follow Jesus,” or “Just obey the Bible.” However, most people who have been into growth for any length of time know that these statements are more accurate when you remove the word just. This is because, although God helps us to […]
Spiritual Poverty
One day when John Townsend and I were meeting with a large Christian organization, the topic of small groups in the church came up. We strongly support and see much value in small groups. We were discussing the needs that groups meet, how they operate, and so on. One of the executives in the organization […]
Suffering and Grief
Suffering Suffering can be good. It can take us to places where one more season of “comfort” cannot. But suffering can also be terrible. Destructive suffering inflicts evil on a person’s heart and soul and is totally outside God’s desire. Although God can bring good out of the experience, the experience itself is no good […]
Guilt and Forgiveness
Is what you know in your head about forgiveness different from what you feel in your soul? Do you still feel guilty about something you have done even though you know you are forgiven? You are not alone. I have talked to many people who ask God for his forgiveness, receive it, and then find […]
The Holy Spirit
What if Jesus came to your house today for a visit, and you told him you wanted to grow. What would you expect him to do? Heal you? Teach you? Challenge you? Give you new talents? Think about it. I can come up with many things I would want him to do, and I can […]
The God of Grace
One of the biggest obstacles of growth is our view of God. If we are going to grow in relation to God, then we must know who God is and what he is really like. I have been amazed—in my own life as well as in the lives of others, at how unnatural it is […]
The Big Picture – Act Three: Redemption
God in Christ is “reconciling” all things. He was and is bringing it all back to the way it is supposed to be. He redeemed, or got back, his creation and is putting it all back in place. How did he do this? God paid the price to gain it all back. The holy God […]
The Big Picture – Act Two: The Fall
Spiritual growth is not only about coming back into a relationship with God and each other, and about pursuing a pure life, but it is also about coming back to life—the life God created for people to live. This life of deep relationship, fulfilling work, celebration and more, gives us the life we desire and […]