Life is about progress not perfection!

In the Post-Modern Age with all its technology more than any other time in history we have the attitude of, “I want it now”. We don’t want to pay the price of maturing.  When I observe the slow trades such as farming or the building of something where the process cannot be rushed there is an incredible amount of impatience with people today.  After all,  the building of a house can be done in a week on T.V. with shows like Extreme Make Over.  Our life in Christ is so often frustrated by a false belief system that we can be perfect in our behaviors because we are born again. The journey in Christ becomes a burden because of the ideal life we read about in Scripture does not line up with who we know we really are.  It is a long journey marked by ups and downs and is strengthened when our eyes are focused on the reason for the journey which is the relationship we have with God, our Father.  Our relationship with Christ is based upon love and adoration not the perfection of behaviors.  Jesus stated,  “but as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become God’s children….”(John 1:12).  When we believe in Jesus we have become sons and daughters with all the rights and privileges that come with being a child.  We too often see ourselves as hirelings performing a task that if we don’t perform the task perfectly we will be fired.  However, we are a child and God is our Father and even though we mess up we are still children and loved by our Abba!

Faith

Every stressful situation in our life gives us an opportunity to turn to God in a relational faith and free us from the false ideas that we have accepted.  God is at work within us maturing our character helping us rid ourselves of the false ideas and formulas that make us feel comfortable but hinder true growth.  The molding of faith is the process of ridding ourselves of all the ideas and formulas that religious culture has formed in us or that we have formed and come to accept as truth.  Faith will come to him who passionately yearns for ultimate meaning.  Faith is the fruit of a seed planted in the depth of a lifetime of ups and downs.  The greatest obstacle to faith is to settle for half-truths and half-realities.  The Hebrew writer stated:   “But the righteous will live by faith. If he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the saving of the soul.”-Hebrews 10:38-39  Faith walks into the future of uncertainties trusting in God for what only He can do.  A relational faith with God that is not static but moves forward healing the soul.

 

Remorse and Vain regrets

Remorse and vain regrets do nothing to help us in our pursuit of God.  Mostly they hold us in bondage to our selfish thoughts.  Remorse is anguish of mind over a sense of guilt either real or perceived which results in vain regrets.  Living in past regrets is a source of pride.  As believers we should be concerned to live in a way that brings love into the world.  However, when we continue in vain regrets pride gets in the way of God’s redemptive work within our life and the life of others. The Psalmist said, “My flesh and my heart fails, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” (Psalm 73:26)  Pride holds on to the failings of the past because we cannot understand how we could do such things.  We live it over and over again repeating it to ourselves and to others of the failed event that defined our life.  We continue to beat ourselves up instead of focusing on the redeeming work of Jesus on the cross. We can never go back and change actions in the past. We can only learn from those actions and bad choices and choose in the present to allow God to teach us.  Pride is the instrument by which learning is stifled in the believers life and the process of growing in grace is brought to a complete stand still.  Peter instructed the believer to “Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ”.  We need to set our minds on the things above where Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father interceding on behalf of the believer and not on remorse and vain regrets.  The Psalmist also said that “…my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long”.  This groaning of his past failure continued until the Psalmist placed God at the center of his life. Let go of past failures and the remorse and vain regrets that accompany failure and magnify Jesus and His redeeming work on the cross.

 

The Meaning Of Apologian

The name of my blog “Apologian” is a Greek word that means “from the word” or “speak the word”.  It is a compound word of “apo” which means “from” and “logia” which means “word”. We get our english word “apologetics” from “apologia”.  Apologetics is the defending of a premise through the logical use of information. Peter said in his First Epistle, “…sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense (apologia) to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear”.-(1 Peter 3:15)  I believe the best commentary on the Bible is the Bible itself.  If we are going to state a reason for the hope that we have in calling Jesus Lord then we need to give a defense from the Word of God or Apologia. So in choosing Apologian as the name of my blog it reminds me that we are on a sacred journey together growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord as we study His Word.