Category Archives: Spiritual Growth

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What Are the 4 Stages of Faith Development for Students?

How Worldviews Develop in the Context of Biblical Discipleship

How do we help kids build a lasting faith? What does spiritual growth look like?

To better understand that process, we need to look at the stages of faith development that Christian students go through. After working with, training, and observing students for a long time, I think there are four general stages.

Knowing where the student you are trying to disciple is at spiritually or where your child is as you parent them, will help you focus on the right things in the right order.

In a post-Christian culture with confusion, distraction, and outright attack at every turn, it is more important than ever to aim at the right things. And awareness is the first step.

The Four Stages of Faith Development

Beginning.

The first stage is beginning. The key question here is do you have a personal relationship with Jesus?

This describes when a student receives Jesus by putting his or her faith in Jesus. This is the beginning of the journey. This can be at an early age like 5 or 6 or as a teenager like for me at 17, but the point is there is their entry into a relationship with God through Jesus (John 1:12; John 14:6). New life begins.

 

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#28: Why Read the Bible?

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Why Read the Bible?

The short answer is the Bible brings life to our souls.

Let these words wash over your mind and paint a picture of what the Bible does for us…

7The law of the Lord is perfect,
refreshing the soul.
The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.
8 The precepts of the Lord are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.
9 The fear of the Lord is pure,
enduring forever.
The decrees of the Lord are firm,
and all of them are righteous.

10 They are more precious than gold,
than much pure gold;
they are sweeter than honey,
than honey from the honeycomb.
11 By them your servant is warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.

Here are 8 Reasons to Read God’s Word from Psalm 19:7-11. The Bible… (more…)

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#23: What Are Spiritual Disciplines?

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What Are Spiritual Disciplines?

Right off the bat, we need to acknowledge that Paul commands us to discipline ourselves “for the purpose of godliness; for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” (1 Timothy 4:7 – 8 NASB; cf. 2 Peter 1:5 – 10).

They are essential for our growth and not optional when it comes to the Christian life.

A discipline is “any activity I can do by direct effort that will help me do what I cannot now do by direct effort.”

For example, we practice scales on a piano to learn to play music — not to get really good at playing scales.

I don’t practice grammar to get really good at grammar. I study vocabulary and grammar so that I can learn to speak a new language and experience the whole new world that language opens up.

The eternal kind of life is (more…)

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#21: How Do We Overcome Hurry Sickness?

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How do we overcome hurry sickness?

Dr. Richard Swenson is a futurist who writes about the social and personal factors that afflict America. Swenson has diagnosed the problem of our day as “overload.”

If you were to take an MRI of our lives, here is what you would see:

“We have too many choices and decisions, too many activities and commitments, too much change creating too much stress. We have too much speed and hurry. We have too much technology, complexity, traffic, information, possessions, debt, expectations, advertisements, and media. We even have too much work.”

And all God’s people said — “Amen!”

When There Is No Margin

When we no longer have any margin in our lives, no space between our load and our limits, then we are in a constant state of overload. And that is not a healthy place to be.

There is perhaps no greater barrier to spiritual transformation and cultural engagement today than lack of time. If we are to be who God calls us to be, we must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from our lives. God’s word instructs us “to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12 ESV).

Paul admonishes us to “look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15–16 ESV).

We can have (more…)

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#18: What is the Role of the Holy Spirit in Interpreting the Bible?

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What is the Role of the Holy Spirit in Interpreting the Bible?

Can a non-Christian grasp the content of the Bible? Yes and no.

Yes, if we mean the text can be understood by employing a sound approach to literature—to the basic grammar, context, and content of a passage.

But an unbeliever cannot fully appreciate and take to heart the truth of the Bible. God’s Spirit helps Christians discern the spiritual realities of the text and then apply them to their lives (see 1 Cor. 2:14).

Scott Duvall and Daniel Hays offer helpful insight here:

When it comes to biblical interpretation, having the Holy Spirit does not mean that the Spirit is all we need, since he will not make biblical interpretation automatic. He expects us to use our minds, valid interpretive methods, and good study helps. The Spirit does not create new meaning or provide new information, but he does enable us to accept the Bible as God’s Word and grasp its meaning. The Spirit will not change the Bible to suit our purposes or match our circumstances, but he will work in our lives as interpreters. He restores us to our senses and helps us grow up spiritually so we can hear his voice in the Scriptures more clearly.

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