On Sunday, I preached from Colossians 3 on the theme of "How to Grow Spiritually." If you think of spiritual growth as a puzzle, these are the pieces of the puzzle that will enable you to grow spiritually.

In my opinion, if you do these things, you will grow spiritually. Obviously, I am not taking away from the work of God. This is about creating space for God to work. We need to both cooperate with God and build basic foundations for God to work with.

Look over this list. How many of them are you doing? Which are you not doing? How good or consistent are you with them? Is anything missing? What do you think?

1. Attend worship every Sunday.
2. Attend at least one class each week for teaching and fellowship and to model good behavior for others.
3. Read at least one chapter of the Bible each day, reading through books.
4. Record the main idea of each chapter in a notebook and compile, over time, a base of information you can use in your own teaching and understanding.
5. Look for ways to apply the main idea you took from your daily reading.
6. Pray every day over your main idea, for yourself and for others.
7. Always be working on training and teaching one other believer to do these same things.
8. Always be working on mentoring an unbeliever in faith, doing these same things, and teaching by example.
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Questions are from Proverbs 4:20-5:6 and Colossians 3:1-17. The focus is on spiritual growth: what is it, and how do we do it.

As usual, please share this with others if you find it useful.
Devotional Guide: September 4-10, 2011
File Size: 78 kb
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In carpentry, the phrase "measure twice, cut once" is used to encourage people to slow down, focus on what's important, and be careful. Our faith is the same: instead of getting caught up in division and other people's power-plays, we need to "measure twice" by focusing on our own spiritual growth and then the spiritual growth of others.
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I've been reading a few pages each day from a positive attitude book for the last couple weeks. My Dad recommended this book awhile back, so I picked it up, read it, didn't apply it, and stuck it on the shelf. We had an email conversation a couple weeks back where we were discussing the author, Jeffrey Gitomer, so I pulled the book back off the shelf and began reading it again. As usual (at least with me), the second time through is providing gem after gem.

Today in my reading Gitomer was discussing the need to take action and apply the things we know. Rather than saying "I know that!" and feeling confirmed in what we think we know, we should ask "How good am I at that?" By moving from a declaration of achievement to a question of improvement, we will be able to continually grow in different areas of our lives.

This has a direct spiritual application as well. When we read the Bible (or other spiritual books), we are often confirmed in what we believe. But we need to challenge ourselves to go deeper. For example, when we read something in the Bible about forgiving others, rather than feeling justified that we know what we ought to do, we need to challenge ourselves in the area of forgiveness--who do we need to forgive and how will we accomplish this? In other words, "How good am I at forgiveness?"

By making this simple transition--from understanding and knowledge to action and application--we will find the growth in our lives that we want.
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Do you find bible reading difficult and challenging? In this 6 minute audio, I offer a few simple suggestions that will help you read the bible to grow spiritually.
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You don't grow spiritually merely by thinking about it; you must take action on biblical principles to grow spiritually.
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Start your morning out right by reading or listening to something encouraging and uplifting. Then, act upon what you learned.
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Spiritual maturity is not achieved when you put your own needs first. Spiritual maturity is achieved when you serve others in faith.
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To grow spiritually, we need to regularly engage in four different areas of relationship: with God, with believers, with neighbors, and with strangers. This graphic describes these four areas by focusing on a core thought, a key scripture, a leading action, and several examples of each.

My personal view is that we should always be focused in our relationship with God and at least one other significant relationship in one of the other three areas. We can supplement this with ongoing activity in the other two relationship areas.

By taking action, we'll grow.

What do you think?
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How do you read the bible?

Ron Martoia, in his new book, The Bible as Improv, points out (accurately) that all bible reading is interpretation. To understand is to interpret. Otherwise, we bog down in details about what is timeless and what is cultural. In other words, what can we ignore and what are we obligated to do.

Here's an example: In 1 Timothy 2:8-15 Paul says both that women are to be silent in worship (women are not permitted to teach and/or assume authority over a man) and that women are not to have elaborate hairstyles and wear "gold or pearls or expensive clothes." In conservative churches, we uphold the former teaching as essential and required but not the latter teaching. I personally know of no church that bars their women from doing their hair however they'd like and wearing gold or pearl jewelry. I also personally know several churches that prevent their women from teaching men.

How do we hold these things together? How do we look at one passage, and in that passage find things that are universal and timeless on one hand, but on the other hand, find things that are cultural and time-bound? This way of reading seems very arbitrary and open to abuse of interpretation by the one reading.

Martoia proposes a different way--that of seeing the bible as a classic. He argues that, while the bible may be or is much more than a classic, it is at least a classic in that it forms and shapes our worldview according to the spiritual categories represented in it. We ought to read it as we read other classics of literature (Shakespeare, Homer, etc.) by reading entire books in one sitting, or by reading larger sequential chunks. Reading the bible verse-by-verse, in a piecemeal way, is not how it was intended to be read.

Martoia, building off the work of N.T. Wright, proposes that we see the bible as a script. This script is made of up of five acts of which we are missing the fifth (because the work of the church is the fifth act). The first four acts are 1) creation; 2) the fall; 3) the life and ministry of Israel; and 4) the life and ministry of Jesus. The fifth act, from which we take our cue, is missing. But we have clues about how it will end (Romans 8; 1 Corinthians 15) and how we are to "fill in the gaps" (the New Testament). It is up to us, as "actors," to understand the first four acts so we can live out the fifth act and complete the script.

Since we don't have the script in front of us, we cooperate with the Spirit to improv our way forward, much like jazz musicians improv during their play. We improv based on the themes and tones we pick up from the other four acts. As we read the bible in large chunks (and read books sequentially and straight through), we begin to understand the themes and tones and how they play out through the script-ure. We read the bible for this larger story, God's story, and discover the importance of the smaller details in this larger context.

Martoia offers some ways churches and groups might approach bible reading as an improvisation of the first four acts of a five-act script:
  • Read a large portion of scripture (say, 9 chapters) and discuss both the themes that arise from this section and how those themes connect to previous themes from earlier readings. Which act of the script are you in and how does this act connect with earlier and later acts?
  • Articulate answers to questions about plot, story-lines, characters, and the actions of key characters.
  • Teachers should act as master story connectors who understand the sweep of the biblical story, facilitate conversation around that story, and help people connect their stories to God's story and imagine the future of their stories.
This is a really good book about bible reading and interpretation. Martoia popularizes the work of N.T. Wright, Walter Brueggemann, and James Fowler to discuss how to read the bible for spiritual growth and for faithfulness to God's story. It is very readable and even contains a study guide for groups to work through as they read it. Highly recommended.
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