Growing in Christ

Sermon the Confidence Game.

Ladies Remember May 14th, 2010 @6:30 p.m. is the next Book Club Meeting.

Growing in Christ

¹ Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. ² And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.

(Ephesians 5:1-2, New King James Version)
Make Yourself Friendly
Some years ago we went to a conference that really began a healing in my heart concerning friendships. My husband and I had made some changes that resulted in the loss of fellowship with some dear friends. The readjustment left me wondering if the work and possible hurtful side effects of friendships were worth putting forth any effort into establishing new friendships. Sis. Fox preached a wonderful sermon at the conference explaining that to have friends you must make yourself friendly. You had to take risk and put aside old baggage that would keep you from allowing God to place people in your life. Little did I know that God was preparing me for dear friendships that I might have missed or that I might have not put time and energy into if I hadn't taken in a right now message from Sis. Fox.

Friendships help us imitate Christ and inspire us to grow in our love walk.

It is interesting that Paul relates imitating Christ with the love walk. Whether it be friendships or those who are not your typical "lovely" people....the love walk is connected with your growth process. A person cannot really imitate or be like Jesus if they don't learn to walk in love towards people. How we treat others counts. Love is not always a gooey feeling...sometimes it takes work and the expressing of honest feelings. Those years ago because of past hurts I almost stalled my spiritual growth because I was trying to imitate Christ without really investing in the work of friendship. In an effort to protect my emotions I steered away from getting too close to anyone new. As I sat there listening to Sis.F Fox I began to realize that God had brought me to a divine appointment that would open my heart to God given friendships if I would allow Him to heal my heart and take the risk of making new friendships. I know now that this was vital to my spiritual health.

Two very sweet friends