Blessed Are The Meek – Weekly Words Of Encouragement

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth” (Mt. 5:5 ESV). A meek person is someone who is gentle and not argumentative or aggressive. Jesus is our model. When Jesus came into Jerusalem on a donkey he described his coming by saying, “your king is coming to you, [meek] and mounted on a donkey” (Mt. 21:5 ESV). When Paul was trying to persuade the Corinthian believers to more obedience to Christ, he appealed to them “by the meekness and gentleness of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:1, ESV). If we have a meek heart then we will not be prone to embrace angry attitudes when we are wronged or when others speak falsehoods. We will learn to be merciful and not give in to our desire to strike back, even in passive ways. The irony is that the one who is not warlike is the one who will inherit leadership over Continue Reading →

What Spiritual Life Stage Are You In?

In the last post we looked at the benefits of understanding stages of spiritual growth as well as two repeating patterns of growth. In this post we look at two popular models of progressive growth. The second one is an expansion of the first. These models are non-repeating models of growth. This means they cover the entire lifetime of a believer and do not repeat; they will help you identify your spiritual life stage. These models are part of spiritual theology, or the theology of maturity. They are based on what the writers saw in Scripture and in their experience so they are attempts to do biblical spiritual theology. As you read through this it will help to ask yourself how it applies to your life. What spiritual life stage do you most identify with? Do you see a flow to your spiritual growth that is reflected in one of these models? Continue Reading →