Change is Inevitable, But Growth?

I heard a message the other day where the preacher began with the statement, “Change is inevitable, but growth is intentional.” I had to write it down – it is one of those “truths’ packaged so concisely that I know I needed to put it in my memory bank. If there is one thing you can count on, things will not stay the same. But change does not predicate growth except in babies.

The body of Christ has always suffered from believers, who although sincere about wanting to be identified with Christ, will not engage in the process of growing in Christ. Consider what the Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3: 1-4 (MSG)

1-4But for right now, friends, I’m completely frustrated by your unspiritual dealings with each other and with God. You’re acting like infants in relation to Christ, capable of nothing much more than nursing at the breast. Well, then, I’ll nurse you since you don’t seem capable of anything more. As long as you grab for what makes you feel good or makes you look important, are you really much different than a babe at the breast, content only when everything’s going your way? When one of you says, “I’m on Paul’s side,” and another says, “I’m for Apollos,” aren’t you being totally infantile?

Paul was admonishing the Corinthian church for their constant behavior of “majoring in the minors” and failing to grasp the essence of what they needed to be doing. Paul goes on by saying:

9-15Or, to put it another way, you are God’s house. Using the gift God gave me as a good architect, I designed blueprints; Apollos is putting up the walls. Let each carpenter who comes on the job take care to build on the foundation! Remember, there is only one foundation, the one already laid: Jesus Christ. Take particular care in picking out your building materials. Eventually there is going to be an inspection. If you use cheap or inferior materials, you’ll be found out. The inspection will be thorough and rigorous. You won’t get by with a thing. If your work passes inspection, fine; if it doesn’t, your part of the building will be torn out and started over. But you won’t be torn out; you’ll survive—but just barely.

As believers, as long as we abide in Christ our foundation is secure, but what kind of building are we putting on that foundation? In this age we live in, most of us are not satisfied with just having a kitchen with storage space, a stove, and a refrigerator – no, we want real wood cabinets, granite countertops, stainless steel appliances, ceramic floors – we look into every detail to ensure that our kitchen represents what we believe we represent. How many of us take that much care with our life as a Christian? Let’s see how Paul closes his thought::

18-20Don’t fool yourself. Don’t think that you can be wise merely by being up-to-date with the times. Be God’s fool—that’s the path to true wisdom. What the world calls smart, God calls stupid. It’s written in Scripture,

He exposes the chicanery of the chic.
The Master sees through the smoke screens
of the know-it-alls.

21-23I don’t want to hear any of you bragging about yourself or anyone else. Everything is already yours as a gift—Paul, Apollos, Peter, the world, life, death, the present, the future—all of it is yours, and you are privileged to be in union with Christ, who is in union with God.

God Bless You,
Maria