Keep Moving Forward

I write to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of His name. I write to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you dear children, because you have known the Father. I write to you fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one." 1 John 2:12-14

The USA Today Ad Meter ranked the Betty White Snickers commercial as #1 out of 60 or more Super Bowl commercials. As one of the Ad Meter panelists said, "Betty White is iconic". By this statement we refer to the definition of 'icon' as "an important and enduring symbol". Yes, Betty White is certainly that.

I confess that seeing Betty White in that commercial not only made me laugh, but also made me think of all the places I have seen her on television through the years. It made me realize, once more, that I am getting older and that causes me to stop and reflect.

The question we must ask is this: In spending all this time here on earth have we grown at all? We often hear the expression regarding men, "Oh he is just a big kid!" There is truth in that for most of us, but have we matured along the way? In this most fascinating passage of Scripture we quickly find that John deals with three classes of people. There are many thoughts as to what he meant, but the one thing we can be sure of is that he was writing to different levels of maturity.

As a 'child' we know that our sins are forgiven. As a young 'man' ('woman') we know that we can overcome the world. And as a 'father' ('mother') we know that deep knowledge of God is the greatest joy. These are levels of maturity not actual ages. John is letting us know that there is expected growth in the Christian life. One cannot just rest on the knowledge that Christ died for our sins. We must keep moving forward. We must beat back the evil one and we must come to the place where knowing God is more important than anything this crazy world has to offer, including a Super Bowl trophy.

I have always been challenged by John's use of the word 'know' because it means more than simply head knowledge. John uses that word frequently in this letter and in his Gospel. The word means to know something by experience! That is so convicting to me. There is no knowing of God without doing something, without taking action, without disciplines.

A while back I bought a prayer guide called, 'The Liturgy of the Hours'. I had heard of it for some time but never really knew much about it. I knew that many of the 'high church' denominations such as the Lutherans, Episcopalians, Anglicans, and Orthodox use it, but it was unfamiliar in my world. I noticed as I sat down to read it that it was based on the Jewish times of prayer for each day; there were morning, noon, afternoon, evening, and nightly prayers. I soon realized that my level of discipline was not going to allow me to start by doing all of it initially, so I started with two and then quickly moved on to three.

It was the discipline of that prayer guide that I needed. I needed help. I needed to be able to hold on to something in prayer. I needed to be able to see where I had been. Yes, I needed the discipline but there was something else calling to me. It was the knowledge that I needed to move forward in the area of prayer in my own life. Jesus is my Savior and I know that by walking in the Spirit, I can defeat the devil and the world as John wrote; but I sensed the need to get better acquainted with the Father.

A.W. Tozer (yes, he is one of my favorite 20th century people) grabbed my attention with these words on spiritual growth:

"How tragic that we in this dark day have had our seeking done for us by our teachers. Everything is made to center upon the initial act of 'accepting' Christ (a term, incidentally, which is not found in the Bible) and we are not expected thereafter to crave any further revelation of God to our souls. We have been snared in the coils of spurious logic which insists that if we have found Him we need to no more seek Him. The experiential heart-theology of a grand army of fragrant saints is rejected in favor of a smug interpretation of Scripture which would certainly have sounded strange to an Augustine, a Rutherford or a Brainard."

To follow up these words of Tozer, let's see what St. Augustine wrote concerning growth and maturity some 1400 years earlier than Tozer's writings:

"If you are pleased with what you are, you have stopped already. If you say, 'It is enough', you are lost. Keep on walking, moving forward, trying for the goal. Don't try to stop on the way, or to go back, or to deviate from it."

The Apostle John, along with these two giants, reminds us that just as we mature in age, we must continue to mature in Christ. We must move from childhood through adolescence to become grown men and women who know God experientially. We cannot stand still or we will begin to slide backwards. As John Henry Newman wrote in the 1800's: "Growth is the only evidence of life".

Your hair may be turning grayer and the wrinkles are more pronounced, but are you growing more comfortable with the reality that to know God is more important than anything else this side of eternity?

Moving ahead,

Dan

Copyright 2010 Eternity Minded Ministries