Earning a Spiritual M.A. in Cultivation

By the glory (opinion) and excellence (modesty) of Jesus, God has granted us His promises. Why? So that we may be partakers of His divine nature and are able to live a life reflective of His Person. In this we are able to escape the corruption of the world that is driven by lust. Lust is the very sin that corrupted the perfect Garden of Eden and its domino effect corrupted the rest of mankind and God’s creation for generations upon generations. The Good News: escaping this corruption is possible here on earth.

The eternal kingdom, which is our refuge from this corruption, begins at the point of repentance of sin and belief in the Lord, Jesus Christ. This means that we are able at this present to escape the corruption of the world. This escape is found in our hearts, our actions and our direction. Yes, externally, we will still be affected by the corruption of the world around us until Jesus puts all evil under His feet and throws it all in the eternal fire. Yet we can be assured that we won’t be infected by the corruption of the world if we submit our very souls, our character, heart and mind to Jesus by earning a Spiritual M.A. in Cultivation.

2 Peter 1:5-7 tells us how we can obtain this M.A. It does not come in the form of diplomas or certificates; it is also never completely finished being obtained until we move from this earth to heaven. That’s why it is called a Masters of Cultivation. Cultivation is a constant growing of crops. It’s hard work; it takes intentional time and effort. It is a spiritual art of growth.

The result: God’s reflective character in our lives.
The fruit: We become functional and fertile.
The benefit: We escape the corruption of lust.

The M.A. Curriculum includes the following crops to be cultivated along with their Greek definition:

“…by applying all diligence, in our faith…”

1. to moral excellence (modesty)…
2. knowledge (understanding the general knowledge of Christian religion)…
3. self-control (one who masters his desires and passions, esp. his sensual appetites)…
4. perseverance (his deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith and piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings)…
5. godliness (dependability on God)…
6. brotherly kindness (love in which Christians prize each other as family)…
7. love (benign benevolent compassion)

All of these in their growing state keep us fruitful in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, our Lord. (2 Peter 1:8). And ultimately, they award us the aversion of lust and corruption.

Sadly, though, when we lack the cultivation of these crops in our life, it becomes evident that we have abandoned and neglected our cleansing from our sin and we have given ourselves over to those former lusts in our lives.

When the former sins of our lives begin to surface in our attitudes, hearts and decisions, we have allowed the old nature to become the bushel that suffocates the light of Jesus that lives in us. For example, if we are not cherishing and prizing our brothers and sisters in Christ, if we are not depending on God for His provision, if we are not mastering our passions, if we are too busy to learn about our faith in Jesus and grow in the knowledge of Him, then we can be certain that our former lusts will become the driving force of our lives.

Often times, when this happens, we can follow the root of this to an immaturity found in the person: an inability to be diligent. We discover that we are still like children, thinking like a child, reasoning like a child and acting like a child. In this immaturity, a stumbling block protrudes before us, causing us to trip over the truth of God’s word instead of allowing it to complete its good work in us.

While I think this is the saddest thing to happen to an individual, even sadder is their stumbling dominoes the lives of others in their influence, just like the effect we find in the Garden of Eden.

Is it any wonder that we see marriages cease, teens walking away from their faith, leaders corrupting their flock, churches dieing, and a country morally declining? When one falls, another falls, and then another. Before you know it,many marriages are murdered, whole generations of children are lost, false prophets arise, more than one church dies, and countries collapse. Essentially what has happened is Christians have stopped farming!

The deepest pit of all: if a person continues down this path, hardening their heart they become worse than their former state of lustfulness and corruption. (2 Peter 2:20). They become as Proverbs says, "...like a dog that returns to its own vomit or a sow after washing returns to wallowing in the mire."

I like the phrase I have heard from Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Washington: “Hard words produce soft people, yet soft words produce hard people.” In this passage of 2 Peter 1:13-15, Peter considered it right to stir up the church in reminder of these things, so that when the time came when people see these crops failing to grow in their lives, they can remember the damaging effect it can have on themselves and those around them. And likewise, they can refocus on the crops they neglected and begin to grow in them again.

This blog contains hard words, but if received with humility they will be good words that produce a soft useful crop that causes us to “…grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 3:18). The question then becomes for us all, which crop is being neglected? Which crop needs intentional time and effort? Let us never return to our vomit or wallow again in the mire of our old nature. Let us not hide the Light under the bushel of sin. Let us be a city on a hill that will shine the Light of God and never go out!

Selfless Unity

One of the benefits of being a Christian is that we have an example of selfless unity that we can follow. If only we will follow. One passage that has meant a great deal to me this month has been Philippians 2:1-8. It has challenged me, encouraged me, given me hope as I pray this passage not only for myself, my family, but also my church.

"Does your life in Christ give you strength? Does his love comfort you? Do we share together in the spirit? Do you have mercy and kindness? If so, make me very happy by having the same thoughts, sharing the same love, and having one mind and purpose. When you do things, do not let selfishness or pride be your guide. Instead, be humble and give more honor to others than to yourselves. Do not be interested only in your own life, but be interested in the lives of others. In your lives you must think and act like Christ Jesus. Christ himself was like God in everything. But he did not think that being equal with God was something to be used for his own benefit. But he gave up his place with God and made himself nothing. He was born to be a man and became like a servant. And when he was living as a man, he humbled himself and was fully obedient to God, even when that caused his death -- death on a cross." (Philippians 2:1-8)

Something our Pastor said in his sermon this past Sunday was, "People watch people." This struck me as I have been meditating on this passage; it is so important that we (as Christians) reflect the same kind of humility that Christ demonstrated by His life on earth as well as His life in Heaven. This passage is not an easy thing to do, but this is God's way of life to be lived. And if God's will is not done His way than it really isn't His will. :)

One of the reasons this passage gives me hope, is because we can actually do this if we submit ourselves completely to His Spirit. Notice that this passage says that Jesus was fully obedient to God. Often times, we (as Christians) forget that we have the power of God living inside us; and that power enables us to be like Christ in our character. The unfortunate thing is that we allow our own defiled character get in the way, block His presence and His reflection through us. His power becomes muted and clouded by our own estranged will.

The best way I can think of that breaks this horrible estrangement is total surrender. Just like Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, "...yet not my will, but Thine be done." This prayer takes a faith that is not our own, and can only be increased by our Savior. I find that I am able to surrender easier, by prayer, more prayer that turns into constant prayer. I pray for my will to be crushed, to come to an end, to be withered into dust. Then I pray for God to increase my faith. I pray for Him to replace my will completely in my mind, my heart and my soul. I ask Him to replace this with His. This is a "breaking of the will" prayer. It's hard. Yet, I yearn for this faith and I thirst for this righteous faith of Abraham.

The question then comes to us all, are we willing? If we are willing, there's half the miracle!