The Bullet of Truth: The Groundwork of Growth
Several years ago I was speaking to a group of pastors on “Staying Fresh in the Ministry.” The committee evidently viewed my thirty-five years, no-quit, non-surrender ministry at one church a valid credential. Certainly, to endure, to persist, to keep playing in spite of pain is one of the most powerful attributes of living. The Greek word for endure in my view means to “stay under the weight of truth.” Don’t run from the pressure of obedience.
It is my conviction that the ability to stay fresh while enduring is totally dependent on massive doses of truth! Increasing your capacity for the knowledge of TRUTH is the first essential in the triad of growth. Authority and significance for living come only through the three essentials of growth in the expansion and discovery of the wonders of the Lord:
1) Knowledge – intake of truth or lie
2) Faith Acts – applications of and response to our level of knowledge
3) Time – reaping the consequences of choices
Of these three, knowledge is the one which primarily separates qualities of living. We all “faith-act” … respond to choices put before us in accordance with our faith (confidence, values). We all have the same amount of “time” … twenty-four hours a day. Yet we do not all possess the same “God-knowledge.” Hence, it is the source of one’s “knowledge” that differentiates the greatness or mediocrity of life. Will our most authentic source be from our own limited conscience, our culture or our Christ?
For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. Proverbs 2:6 (NIV)
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