God gave His Best; He will give the Rest

Rom 8:32

He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all — how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

I have three. I don’t care how much you are ready to offer, I’m not ready to part with any of them. But He’s got only One, and yet He gave Him up for us all. Wow! Can you beat that!

So if He has given His best, and His all, what else will He not be willing to give again?

Let nothing stop you from enjoying this season. I know so many expectations have not been met; so many desires have not been granted; so many prayers have not been answered. BUT, one thing is sure: Delay is not Denial! He has given His best; He will release the Rest. He has done the hardest, the rest are easy.

Merry Christmas.

Is Christ Formed in You Yet?

My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you. Gal 4:19

My wife had just gone through a process—a process that resulted in the birth of our boy, Enoch. As it applies to all humans, the process lasted nine months. And as it applies to all humans as well, at the end of the nine months period, when the baby is fully formed, it came out. Joy comes as the mother, whether first time or veteran, beholds the fruit of her travail. I remember the smile and joy on my wife’s face when she first saw the image of her new born.

Here is my point in this article: When the baby is fully formed, there is something to show. There is evidence. There is a fruit. Something manifests. Something comes out.

This is exactly the message Paul was trying to pass on to the Galatians: Christ needs to be formed in you, but before then, there is a process; there’s a pain. And usually, that pain is borne by the leader if a church is involved (like in Galatia) but by the individual, if it is one person. My focus in this article is on the latter option.

When someone is born again, Christ is implanted in that fellow. It is like the fertilization in human reproduction. But then, that is not the end of the matter. The zygote which is later called the foetus must grow and develop.

Spiritual Death

Cases abound where there is no growth despite fertilization. And the moment there is no growth, the automatic result is death. Isn’t it amazing that there is no middle ground in life!

Many new Christ-ians have died prematurely like that, not coming to full term. Christ was implanted in them, but Christ was never fully formed in them!
This is the big question: Is Christ fully formed in you? Maybe you are asking back: How would I know?

Christ-Likeness

Well, it is simple. Have you given birth yet? Have you delivered? Is there something to show? Can people see something different in you? Just like we have baby Enoch to show for my wife’s nine month pregnancy, do you have something to show for your years (or maybe months) of walking with the Lord?

When Christ is fully formed, there is bound to be a delivery. Christ must be delivered. Christ must be seen. Christ must be manifested. Christ must come out. And this is the main essence of Christianity—for Christ to be formed in us; in our lives, attitudes, character, action and everything. In simple term: To be like Christ.

Look at the testimony about two men:

When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. Acts 4:13-14

So allow me to rephrase the question: Has anything changed in your life since you met with Christ? What has given in your life since you traveled to Calvary? The wordings of this great song came to my mind now:

Great change since I’m born again
Great change since I’m born again
Great change since I’m born again
There’s a great change since I’m born again.

And the writer went on to list several things he used to do but which he could not do again.

Painful

Just like a woman in the process of childbirth, the process is not going to be easy.
Like Paul confessed, there are pains. To say no to what you have said yes to all your years is not going to be easy. It is going to be painful. To set fire on all you have used your money to gather all these years is going to be painful (Acts 19:18-19). And to say yes to something that is far remote from anything you could ever imagine is going to be painful. But that is the process of Christ formation. It calls for endurance. It calls for single-minded focus and determination.

The Help of the Holy Spirit

Aubrey Malphurs defined spiritual formation as “a process through which the Holy Spirit transforms us into Christ’s likeness or image.”

We are never left alone to sort things out ourselves. God has given us His Holy Spirit to help us with the task. But that requires our cooperation.

The angel told the prophet: “So he said to me, "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: 'Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the LORD Almighty.” Zech 4:6

Are you ready to pay the price? To answer no is to forfeit the life of Christ inside of you. There’s no middle ground.