So what am I trying to achieve with my ministry, both the writing I’m doing and with BIZG? I keep drilling down and thinking I have hit bedrock, only to discover that there’s something else beneath.
Every night for the past two weeks, I have gone to sleep with the prayer, “Lord, show me what we’re trying to achieve. Give me a better grasp of the outcomes we want to see realized in the Croatian churches.”
It hasn’t come all at once; I make no claim to having great clarity or spiritual insight. But as I have been preparing to preach on Ephesians 4.7-16 tomorrow, I have seen a picture of spiritual maturity developing from these verses.
Based on Ephesians 4, what does God want to produce in the Croatian churches?
- Christians who are equipped and empowered to serve in the ways God has gifted them. (Ephesians 4.11-12)
- Because we are all serving by using the gifts God has given us, the body of Christ is strengthened and unified, gracious, moving with the same purpose. (4.12-13)
- We (the members of the body of Christ) are becoming mature, “fully alive” like Jesus, in character and action (internal & external, “within and without”). (4.13)
- We are all striving to grow, no longer spiritual infants. (4.14)
- We are growing in strength, confident in and convinced of the true gospel of Jesus Christ. (4.14)
- This means that we will NOT be easily swayed or deceived by spiritual fads, or impressed by the empty promises of flashy teachers. (4.14)
- We will know the whole truth, and live and speak it to the unchurched world around us with love and grace. (4.15)
- We will follow Jesus in everything, him “who is the source of everything we do,” who “keeps us in step with each other.” (4.15)
[Quotations are from MSG]
Circleslide 