Putting it into practice - don't stagnate GROW!!

How true this quote is....... In my own life I know this to be so true. When I was 22 I decided to get baptised and until that point I didn't really feel I had to be baptised. I was a stubborn teenager and thought that it didn't prove that I was better Christian. I remember going to a baptism and feeling very strongly that I should do it!! After being a Christian for 13 years I finally took the plunge but it was after my baptism that I really started to be convicted again about my gifts and what my purpose as a Christian was. I can remember going to a gift finding seminar and they just could not fit me into one of their boxes, which was usually the case for me at anything like that. They decided I was a 'pioneering pastor' which kind of confirmed what I felt God was saying to me when I was 15 at Spring Harvest one year. I remember a sermon on Ephesians 4 v 11 onwards hitting me like a ton of bricks, and I needed to know what my gifts were. Anyway after my baptism when I was 22 I felt really overwhelmed with the sense that I needed to know what my calling was and I just was not satisfied with the Status Quo and my everyday life in the office. It was then I went to Bible School and ended up working there. I soon found my gifts then and developed some gifts that I didn't know I had. Serving is essential to the Christian life. If we don't serve we stagnate.

It wasn't until I started to serve that I started to grow as a human being. This is my experience and I just wish it could be the experience of so many Christians. I am very passionate about seeing Christians reach their full potential. Christians were not meant to just sit in church every Sunday and pray during the week. The Great Commission says GO!!!.. into all the world. There is movement!! God's church is a movement it should never stay still it should always be moving forward, following God's vision and helping people move closer to him. I feel so sad when I see a church full of spectators, going to church on a Sunday and hearing God's word, sometimes even twice on a Sunday. They need some exercise they need to put what they have learnt from the sermon on Sunday into action on a Monday Tuesday Wednesday etc.

 Someone once said (well probably a few people said it) 'we only know as much of the Bible as we act upon!' In other words if what you read from the Bible is just head knowledge and you don't put it into practice you don't really know it!! You are not really experiencing it!! Studies have shown that we take far more in of what we learn in actions than we do by just listening to a lecture. I think we remember about 10% of what we hear 30% of what we write down and 60% of what we act out. There is no use just listening to sermons or just reading your Bible you have to act upon what you have learnt before you can grow and really say you know God's Word!! Ask God to show you what your purpose is, what your gifts are, and how he wants you to serve HIM!! You are his ambassadors. When he back to Heaven he passed the baton on to you and expects you, as a Christian to do His job for him, be his representative here on earth. He has given you gifts and everything you need to serve HIM!!