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The Master's Grip: In His Grip

Multi-Dimensional Christian Life
Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Hey, all...I had an interesting conversation with Amy that led into a discussion about the dimensions of Christian life and relationships. Often I think the Christian world puts such a heavy focus on the point of conversion that our outlook on relationships become quite one-dimensional. Amy made a comment last night that sort of describes what I mean:
I struggle with the things I learn in class because I feel that I know everything I need to lead someone to Christ (share the Gospel) and that the information I am learning in class is sort of pointless.

The conversation continued as we discussed timelines of life, the multi-dimensional makeup of people, and how that plays into relationships. What I mean is this...If you look at the timeline of someone's life with the "salvation/conversion" experience as the key point:

Often times in our focus on the conversion experience we filter our relationships with people in the Spiritual sense around that point so much that once we have the amazing opportunity to lead someone to the Lord we are not sure what to do after that so instead of a continuing timeline of discipleship like above we have something like below:

Which leads back to a conversation I was having earlier about knowledge and continuing to learn. If everything we learn and work on is with the goal of leading others to Christ (which is not in and of itself bad) then after a while our lives will feel shallow or empty. We hear people say,
How many times have you shared the Gospel this week?

I guess my question for you would be,
Is your life an easel upon which God can work as he would will, are you allowing the master craftsman to work his art, are you displaying his glory--his multidimensional glory?

God is not one dimensional but multi-dimensional. He has imprinted his human creation with his image,

Genesis 1:26-27 26Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness..."

27So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

Our Christian walk should be multi-dimensional both internally and relationally. As we seek to conform and become more like Christ:
Ephesians 4:14-16 14Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

Those who we meet and develop relationships with truly desire real relationship...that is multi-dimensional, that which meets them on multiple levels (my point is not to argue about dichotomy, trichotomy, or other groups)...
Praise God for conversions, but that is not the end, only the beginning...
Regeneration: 1. transitive and intransitive verb recover from decline: to return from a state of decline to a revitalized state, or cause something to do this; 2. transitive verb religion restore somebody spiritually: to restore and renew somebody morally or spiritually

We desire to be regenerated...that is a process not an event, but a series of events.
Relationship: 1. connection: a significant connection or similarity between two or more things, or the state of being related to something else; 2. behavior or feelings toward somebody else: the connection between two or more people or groups and their involvement with one another, especially as regards the way they behave toward and feel about one another

Relationship continues to and through the salvation/conversion point...relationship is a significant connection/similarity...I would say that being a Christian is significant...even more so if you played a part in the conversion. You do not enter into a true, lasting relationship with the goal of just "getting something out of it" so why do we do that in our "evangelistic relationships?"

In His Grip,

James

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posted by James Dasher @ 7:05 PM,




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