Cultivating Body Soul and Spirit

Luke 2:52 KJV

And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.

Several years ago now I accepted this passage as a challenge from God's Word concerning the areas I ought to grow. Using the tri part nature of man: body, soul and spirit, as identified in Luke 2:52, I began consciously cultivating my personal life in these three areas:

I. BODY

The body is that part of our being that responds to our world and its surroundings. It is the only one of the three parts of the saved man that has not been redeemed as of yet. It awaits its redemption at the resurrection. My spirit is in constant strife with my flesh. The following are those areas I have targeted for personal growth.

A. Humility

     Meekness of Moses

     Exercising contemplation when we are humbled or humiliated by someone or something. Allowing that event to be a learning opportunity in our life.

 

B. Confession

     Awareness of sin

     Acknowledge that before God

C. Discipline

     In what is eaten

     In exercise

     In work

II. SOUL

I identified this as that part of man which responds to others. Based on that assumption I put together these areas to target for personal growth.

A. Education 

  Rhetoric

     The art of communication in a convincing manner. 

  Logic

     The ability to see an event, hear a verbal communication or read a paper and come to accurate conclusions is a skill that must be developed

  Language

     Learning the rules of our language well is essential in communication. 

B. Accountability

  Manners

     This speaks to how others perceive you.

   Attitude

     This speaks to how you perceive the events of life

  Personal Growth and development

     This speaks to commitment to your relationships with others

C. Generosity

     Ministry to others

          Whether it is spiritual or by meeting a real need of another soul

     Concern for others

          Thoughtfulness. Being aware of another's place in life; their feelings, their preferences, their background, their special days such as birthdays and anniversaries, their strengths and their weaknesses

     Communication with others

          More than awareness, communication reaches out. If it is a birthday, an expression given toward them. If it is the anniversary of the passing of a loved one, a condolence. etc

III. SPIRIT

This is the part of man that communes with God. It is dead prior to salvation but is quickened at the moment of salvation. While my targets here might seem smaller than the other two, this in fact is the most critical of my personal growth plan.

A. Prayer

     Journal

     List and log of requests and answers

B. Bible comprehension and practice 

     Daily reading

     Daily study

     Daily meditation

C. Church

     Faithfulness in attendance

     Participation and interaction with the people and the flow of the services

     Service purposeful ministry within the church

     Outreach planned efforts to take the gospel message to others outside of the church through visitation, tract distribution, personal invitations, door to door ministry

While I cannot say that I have attained even a modest degree of perfection in any of these areas, I can testify to faithfully working toward these growth targets and to being blessed by the doing of it.

Marvin McKenzie

In the field

What If the Vast Majority of Christians....Aren't?

2 Timothy 4:10

"Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world"

Like every American I've always wanted to be successful. So when God called me to be a preacher I naturally wanted to be successful in the ministry. I went to college to learn doctrine and pastoring skills. Early on I began subscribing to journals, papers and other periodicals to learn what made for a successful ministry. I attended pastor's meetings, hanging on every word that was spoken, especially by those I perceived to be successful pastors. I read surveys, polls and studies on what made churches grow. I recorded plans in the flyleaf of my Bible so I would be reminded to work the plan every day. I read up on why people go to church, attempting to implement as many compelling tools to bring people in as I could.

As time went on I also read the studies about why people leave churches. If we open the front door to let them in, it makes sense we would want to close the back door to keep them from quitting. I've wanted to keep the seniors who just love the old school way of doing things. I've wanted to keep the young couples who have vision and energy and drive and I've wanted to keep the teens and young adults who are just beginning to try their own wings and tend to question things. What I have noticed now is a trend among members of churches (and not just the pollsters) to establish blame for those who leave churches upon some flaw in the church or church leadership. It's not just the church leaders who are trying to figure out how to keep people in church (and blaming themselves for not succeeding) it's the church members blaming the church and its leaders for the failure. 

To be sure there is plenty of failure and therefore plenty of room for blame. No one does ministry perfectly. No one has, no one ever will. But this blaming mentality, I think, is very much related to the victim mentality that is taking over America. We blame all of our problems on someone else: our parents, our teachers, our peers and our economy; you name it, if we have a problem, it's someone else's fault. 

I notice that when Demas forsook Paul, Paul blamed it on Demas. It wasn't Paul's leadership style. It wasn't a problem of structure in the administration of his evangelistic team. Paul did not even blame the problem on the circumstances of his being in prison and upcoming execution. Paul said Demas forsook him because Demas loved something else.

What if that is to blame for those who leave church? What if the problem is not the failure to pass on our vision, or the failure to communicate to a younger generation, or the failure to adequately anticipate and answer their questions? What if the real problem is not that we failed to plan or failed to work our plan? What if the trouble was not that we did not effectively administer a Sunday school program for all ages? What if it wasn't because we were perceived to lack compassion while they were sick? What if a better discipleship class and follow up ministry isn't the reason they quit coming? What if they quit coming because they loved something else more?

What if they just didn't believe?

I have followed Christ now for over thirty for years. I never began following because I liked the church programs. The church I began in didn't have any. I didn't begin because I thought church would help my marriage. I was single. I didn't start going to church to overcome an addiction or sin problem, though I had them. I began attending church because I believed. 

• I believed I was a sinner
• I believed all sinners would go to hell
• I believed God loved me enough that Christ died to pay for my sins
• I believed that when I called upon Him, He in fact saved me from my sins
• I believed I was, and still am a debtor to Christ for that

I believed when I made my faith public and entered into the covenant with other members in a local church, I was making a life long commitment

I believed.

I still believe. 

There is a problem with my proposition; while faith is passed from one person to the next, I cannot make anyone believe. There are no classes that can teach how to convince someone to believe. There is no conference that can show us how to so order circumstances that those involved with believe. That a person believes is a gift of God. I can present my faith to them. I can pray for them. I can urge them to come to Christ for salvation.  But I can't call them to believe.

And that doesn't sell well in the success game.

The answer as I see it is not an easy one to swallow. We must accept that the vast majority of people attending our churches are, in fact, not genuine believers. They came to church and to their "faith" for all the wrong reasons and have trusted in all the wrong things. They attend church and practice faith because of what they love:

• They love a sense of community
• They love a solid family
• They love the security of a dynamic pastor

But sometimes those things fail them. Sometimes those things are less satisfying that they originally thought they would be. Sometimes their children, their spouse, their most valued friends turn out to love others things more.

We must redefine to our congregations what we mean by faith. We must lead them to Christ and not to the supposed benefits of being saved.

Because when a person believes in Christ, he or she has nowhere else to go. Only Jesus has the words of eternal life.[1]

---

[1] John 6:66-69

Catholic Influence on the Lord's Supper

I heard it again. 

In a conversation with an independent Baptist preacher recently I heard it said, concerning the Lord's Supper, that churches have authority to practice the Lord's Supper as they believe is right. In this case the preacher said, "Because that's what happens in fact."

• I agree that a preacher ought to lead his church to worship God as he understands the scriptures to teach and not simply as a movement of churches might insist
• I understand that this makes it appear that churches observe the Lord's Supper as seems right to them

But this is not a Biblical view of why and how we observe the Lord's Supper. Each pastor ought to lead his church to observe the Lord's Supper as he understands the Scriptures to teach. The authority is in the Bible and not the church. A pastor is shirking his duty to say, "I am not a scholar enough to understand what the Bible teaches about such things so I believe how each church chooses to practice it is scriptural."

This has at least two problems:

The pastor is simply taking the road of expediency

Rather than worshiping according to the dictates of his conscience, he is just worshiping the way everyone wants to. 

This misplaces authority

It goes back to the Catholic concept of church dogma being as authoritative as the word of God. It gives the church, even if it claims to be Baptist/non Protestant church, a Protestant tie back to Catholicism. It rips the Baptist doctrine of the Bible as our sole authority out of our statement of faith and replaces it with the whim and wishes of men. 

I realize that ultimately each church is going to observe the Lord's Supper as the majority of its members understand it should be. Though the distinction may seem fine it is still imperative. We observe as we understand it to be taught in the Bible and not merely as we personally think is right. We are obligated to study the Bible and to practice it as we understand the Bible to teach. 

Marvin McKenzie

In the field