In Defense of "Depth"
This is from my new blog. I'm slowly making the shift to all things google. This blog will shut down at some point. til then, let me know what you think.
I've been struck by a couple of things written on some other blogs and, in one instance, a job posting for a church. The job posting for a church said something to the effect of "...you must love evangelism, so big John Piper fans need not apply"- as if John Piper is anti-evangelism.
I know this one guy, and you know who you are, who routinely says things like, "I'm not spiritually 'deep' " or "I don't know theological stuff, but..." That's the idea and I'm sure this person will rip me for misquoting. But that's not the point. The point is that people who have great spiritual depth in their relationship with Christ should be admired and copied. The deeper someone goes in their personal relationship with Christ will take them to areas of effectiveness, wholeness, and satisfaction they never dreamed. Paul was a proponant of spiritual depth.
Ephesians 3:16-19
"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."
and in Philipians 3:7-12
7 I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. 8 Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ 9 and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ.[c] For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. 10 I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, 11 so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!
Pressing toward the Goal
12 I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me.
Time and time again, we are prompted by God to go deeper. The writer of Hebrews tells the jewish believers that they should be deeper than they are, but are still on Spiritual milk, when meat if for the mature. (Hebrews 5:11-14)
A life that follows Christ, but does not grow is not effective.
With that said, there is a danger for those who go deeper to avoid putting their faith into practice. I must admit that I've fallen into that trap many times. But I believe that as we become more and more like Christ...going 'deeper' in our relationship with Him..we will find that it is impossible to ignore the scriptures and we MUST put them into practice. We MUST love one another, feed the poor, clothe the naked. We must Love God with ALL our heart, soul, MIND and strength and love our neighbors as ourselves. Depth brings this. John Piper's deep. He's effective, too.
It is a lie from the enemy that tells us we're too "busy" to go deeper or that it's not important. Depth brings effectiveness. Depth brings that "it factor" that so many pastors are looking for. Wrap your life around God...go DEEP. The world around you will NEVER be the same. Too many capital letters? Response?
posted by Athan at 4:52 PM
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