The Plumbline

Mature:  Fully developed in body or mind; complete; perfected; ready; prepared.  Now, how many of you will say you are mature?  In society today, we often think of maturity as reaching a certain age - the age of "legality".  In other words - it is a measure of chronological years, not so much a measure of anything on the inside of the person.  The problem with this way of thinking is that we often have a whole lot of "mature-looking" individuals walking this earth, but they really lack the evidence of maturity in the emotions, mind, or their spirit.  Chronologically, they are "of age" - spiritually, emotionally, or intellectually, they are still immature. Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.   Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.   This will continue until we all come to such unity in our...

29-30 God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. After God made that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling people by name. After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself. And then, after getting them established, he stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what he had begun. (Romans 8:29-30) It is very freeing to recognize that we have an example to pattern our lives after.  When we no longer have to "figure out" what it is that we are expected to be, how we are to live our lives, it is quite liberating.  Paul reminds us that we have a pattern for our lives established well in advance of each new breath we breathe.  God decided long before you or I breathed o...