Becoming like Jesus (Part One)

Christianity played a minor role in my youth, despite spending over fifteen hundred hours in church sanctuaries. It didn’t significantly influence my goals, values, or thought life.

I was taken to church. Not going wasn’t an option. Church was something I attended, not the essence of who I was. It was like working on my uncle’s celery farm. I spent many hours doing it but didn’t particularly like it.

My beliefs were a confused mixture of God’s grace and my performance. They brought no peace to my heart. I had no confidence that I would go to heaven when I died. I wasn’t sure I did enough good things to deserve it.

God corrected my misunderstanding of the gospel one evening in my college dorm room. Several men from The Navigators (a faith ministry supported by the contributions of individuals and churches) shared the same story I had heard hundreds of times in my home church about Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection as God’s provision for my sin.

Their good news seemed old news to me. Although I heard it countless times as a youth, I only partially understood it. I didn’t understand God’s grace.

They shared 1 John 5:11-12 (KJV) with me. “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.”

God used those verses to switch on a spiritual light in my life and to give me spiritual life.  For the first time, I understood that my good behavior doesn’t earn eternal life. Jesus did everything necessary. I could not add to it. God didn’t expect me to. For the first time, I had peace in my heart.

So, I have been reflecting on the ten most significant shaping influences in my Christian life since it all began in my college dorm room. Here they are, in no particular order.

1.    Christians who modeled the faith in The Navigators, Cru, and My Seminary

Outside my family, I never saw anyone modeling the Christian life in my youth. I attended church services, but I spent little time with church people outside of church. I had no idea how their Christian beliefs affected their daily lives. I lacked Christian models.

The Navigators I met were oddly different from any Christians I knew. They lived and breathed their faith. Through their influence, I began daily devotions, small group Bible studies, attending Christian conferences, Scripture memory, and sharing my faith with others.

They pointed me in the right direction and walked with me. They didn’t tell me to do things they weren’t. It was show-and-tell Christianity every step of the way. They were the first fully committed Christians I had ever met.

Several years later, I became involved in Cru at Penn State University while working for the Pennsylvania Fish Commission. It was the same show-and-tell faith mentoring I had experienced through The Navigators, with an even greater emphasis on sharing my faith with others.

While I was part of that ministry, I responded to a challenge by Blair Cook, one of my mentors, to give my life to full-time vocational Christian service. That led to spending two years on Cru’s staff working at North Dakota State University. I learned more about following Christ and shared my faith with and discipled students during those years, but that ministry didn’t seem like the best fit for my spiritual gifts, especially the gift of teaching.

I attended seminary to prepare for a lifetime of ministry. The Trinity Evangelical Divinity School professors demonstrated how to teach God’s word and were my teaching mentors. My experience in pastoral ministry taught me that simple, practical, Bible-based teaching was most effective.

2.    Spending Daily Time in Bible Reading and Prayer

When young men from the Navigators visited me in my dorm room, I didn’t know what daily devotions were. I had never previously met Christians who spoke about spending daily time in God’s Word and prayer. These guys explained and encouraged me to begin the practice.

Initially, I didn’t. The next time I saw them, they asked how my devotions were going. I was surprised they would ask me that. I began reading the Bible and praying daily because they held me accountable.

My goal became to read through the Bible every year. I spent relatively little time praying compared to the time reading the Bible. Now, I spend more time in prayer than reading.

I read one chapter daily instead of the three chapters required to finish all 66 books in twelve months. When I worked my way through the entire Bible annually, often very little of it stuck.  I didn’t spend time thinking about what I was reading.

My goal was to read through the Bible, not to receive spiritual food for the day. I was missing the main point of spending time with God. The goal is not information but spiritual transformation to become more like Jesus.

My daily pattern changed in December 1981. I slowed down my journey through the Bible and read one chapter daily. I began to write in one to three sentences what God was saying to me through His word each day.

God’s word has been much more spiritually nourishing since I stopped, looked, and listened. I read the Life Application Bible and often consult its notes to clarify meaning or application.

My devotions have an assigned time and place in my life. I read while I am eating breakfast alone at our kitchen table. I pray on my bed about half an hour after breakfast, sometimes while I do my stretching and strengthening exercises. On Wednesdays, I pray for The Timothy Initiative ministry. See additional free spiritual growth resources for Christians. See Becoming like Jesus (Part Two)

#freediscipleshipresources #freeevangelismresources #freechristianleadershipresources 

See free spiritual growth resources for Christians at https://www.christiangrowthresources.com.

God has empowered me to write His Power for Your Weakness—260 Steps Toward Spiritual Strength. It’s a free, evangelistic, devotional, and discipleship e-book. Pastors have used it in Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia to lead more than 4,151 people to Christ and teach the basics of Christianity to 11,178 people. I invite you to examine it.   https://www.christiangrowthresources.com/his-power-for-your-weakness

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