During the Sunday worship this weekend I realized how many times we were saying “Alleluia” even when it was the season of Lent! In that moment I thanked God! Then on Monday I was talking to a friend who wanted to hear a clergy report from me. I gave her a succinct report of only a little over a half hour concerning everything The Table was doing. Hearing it all she said, this is only possible when you work with spiritually mature Christians! Well, yeah, I said!
The blessings we are experiencing are no accident. Spiritual maturity produces blessings! We still have a lot of spiritual maturing to do — there is no question about that. However, where we are today is very different from where we were four years ago. Interestingly, not all of us were together four years ago; many of you have joined in recently. What amazes me is the contagious nature of spiritual maturity. It functions almost like crowd immunity. The more we come together to live out our spiritual maturity the easier it becomes for everyone else to know what it is and to follow in spiritually mature ways.
Recently, Craig said to me, it is amazing how much each of us have had to give up in order to discover the goodness of God in different expressions of our Christian faith. That is spiritual maturity my friends! For as long as we think we know best and our way or the highway, we really have not understood the life and ministry of our savior Jesus Christ. For as long as we want church to be what pleases us and makes us feel good about ourselves and the way we believe and practice faith, we will continue to miss the calling Jesus has placed in our lives. The first step in serving is to accept that following Christ is not for my gain, it is in fact for the realization of God’s will for God’s creation. I thank God that in the way we have conducted ourselves this last year I see a clear understanding of this very first step.
But that’s just the first step and we can very easily slide back into our community being all about us. The next step is to recognize the value of God’s will for God’s people. If we do not understand the value, we will never understand why we should do all we can to see God’s will be true on earth as it is in heaven. And then there are other steps after that.
So how do we keep moving forward in our spiritual journeys? How do we gain maturity? How do we come to the point where when the bit and bridle of religious traditions, dogmas, culture, etc. are taken off, we will know how to stay close to God our father and not move further away from Him? Of course, there is no one correct way. And yet there are certain key ingredients that help us grow into spiritual maturity. On May 17, 2025, our friend and Jethro Counsel member, Dane Allphin will be here from Ohio to lead us in working through some of these key ingredients. I invite you to make attending this workshop your top priority. Please register here: https://the-table.church/registration Seats, due to the venue and the nature of this workshop, are limited so please register ASAP.
As we serve, let us not be weary of inviting people to a closer relationship with Jesus Christ. Please invite people to Jesus’ Passover meal on April 12, 2025 at 6PM.
May the Joy of Christ guide you through this time of preparation to receive Christ in your life in ever new and more meaningful ways.
Alleluia!
Amjad+
