Vision, Part 5

I’m laying out my vision for our church across several posts. There are eight pieces to it. This is number five:

I envision growing believers studying the deep things of God together and living them faithfully.

“Now we do speak wisdom among the mature, but not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are perishing. Instead we speak the wisdom of God, hidden in a mystery, that God determined before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood it. If they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But just as it is written, ‘Things that no eye has seen, or ear heard, or mind imagined, are the things God has prepared for those who love him.‘ God has revealed these to us by the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the things of a man except the man’s spirit within him? So too, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things that are freely given to us by God. And we speak about these things, not with words taught us by human wisdom, but with those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people. ويليام هيل The unbeliever does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him. سر لعبة الروليت And he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The one who is spiritual discerns all things, yet he himself is understood by no one. ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to advise him? But we have the mind of Christ.‘” 1 Corinthians 2:6-16 (NET)

People like to be “in”. During our formative school years most of us, at one time or another, wanted to be with the “in” crowd. We want to be “in” on the joke. Verizon Wireless capitalized on this when they created the “IN” calling plan.

I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing. In fact, I think God has actually created a void inside us that feeds that desire. Solomon said,

“God has made everything fit beautifully in its appropriate time, but he has also placed ignorance in the human heart so that people cannot discover what God has ordained, from the beginning to the end of their lives.” Ecclesiastes 3:11 (NET)

The wording for this fifth part of my vision is that great little phrase in the passage above: the deep things of God. There are things about God that we can learn, but they are too deep to get if we are simply scratching the surface.

Think about it like a mining expedition. There are certain things that miners can get close to the surface. But the good stuff – the big ore veins – those are deep, hidden. They take hard work to find. Sometimes it takes years to find the mother lode, but when they do…!

I think learning about God is the same way. We work and pray and read and study and experience his grace and love – all the while getting closer and closer to the mother lode. And what is that? The deep things of God shown to us over time by the Spirit of God.

But you have to be “in”. سلوتس An unbeliever will never get there. A believer who refuses to grow up – to mature in his or her faith – will never find it. It takes commitment and dedication – to our personal growth and to the others in our faith community.

My vision is one of believers who will work and study hard, growing each other’s hearts and minds and spirits, to find and experience the deep things of God.

I pray that according to the wealth of his glory
he may grant you to be strengthened with power
through his Spirit in the inner person,
that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith,
so that, because you have been rooted and grounded in love,
you may be able to comprehend with all the saints
what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
and thus to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge,
so that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3:16-19 (NET)

Continue to Part 6