SPIRITUAL MATURITY
~ Rev. B. Chinkhengoupau
Rev. B. Chinkhengoupau, Child Co-ordinator and speaker of BCD Bible Camp, greets the congregants in the name of Jesus Christ and expresses his gratitude on being invited as the speaker for the BCD Bible camp which has just concluded. The Reverend speaks on the topic ‘Spiritual Maturity’ and reads a portion from Romans Chapter 8 of the Scripture on the love of God and that nothing can obstruct us from His love.
Apostle Paul was earlier a persecutor of God’s children. He used to persecute early believers and stood as a witnessed during the stoning of Stephen. Apostle Paul was chosen to experience God’s love and he became a new creation in Christ. If God is on our side, nothing like trouble or calamity, or persecution, or hunger, or danger can separate us from His love. However, believers often got carried away in our daily lives. We very often ignore the love of God.
God loves us and never forsakes us. We should come back to Him. We often profess to love Him, but conduct ourselves unbecoming of His followers and led our lives as we please. We may even dare to stand in the midst of persecution for Him but live in the ways of this sinful world. In our daily lives we use to stray from God’s word. We get easily fall for the love of money and material things.
The Scripture is perfect. We lack to live by the Holy Bible. A husband is commanded to love his wife and she in turn is commanded to submit herself before his husband. We often doubt what the Scripture instructs us to do. We should not question or doubt the Holy Bible. We must follow what it tells us to. Christ is the head of the Church and it submits to Him. As children of God, we must love one another. Sometimes our ego, pride and materialism hinder us from obeying God’s will.
We do not cling to God because of our own goodness, but the abundance of God’s love is what binds us to Him. What sins have you committed? Whatsoever might be the degree of our sins, God’s grace is sufficient to forgive us. How fortunate we are! God never turn His back on us. Even if we consider ourselves going astray too far from God’s reach, His love still reaches us.
The Reverend then went on and read chapter 1 of the book of James. He teaches the right approach of studying the Holy Bible. He emphasizes the importance of the Holy Spirit for having the right interpretation of the Holy Bible. When one reads the Holy Bible, one must try to know the author, for whom it is written, what the passage is all about and how one can benefit from it. The beauty of the Holy Bible is that even a layman can interpret the Scripture in the correct sense like those who are in the Bible Seminaries if they were guided by the Holy Spirit.
The author of the book of James is a half-brother of our Lord Jesus. The book of James is written for scattered Jews. It talks about their spiritual immaturity and guidance for maturity in Christ. To examine our Christian lives, we must ask ourselves whether we are born again, honest in our lives, obey God’s word and prepare ourselves for trials and temptations which we are bound to face. Mature Christians are patient when tested, practice truth/faith; control one’s tongue, peacemakers and prayerful while in trouble.
Believers’ temptations and trials are prerequisite for maturity and we must consider as pure joy when we are facing them. Endurance leads to maturity. We must never fret on God. We must hold on to God’s hands however frustrated we may have been in a situation. Endurance/patience is a sign of maturity. However, one must know that the lives of believers are not full of trials and temptations. True believers should embrace/consider temptations and trials as pure joy. God has lifted us up to be His children. We must not give up in times of sufferings, poverty and trying times.
Not all desires are evil. Satisfying desire outside God’s will makes it evil. We must be a good listener and help others as much as we can. Everything we do must be for the glory of God.
