This Sunday at my church, New Life Community Church (Lakeview location) here in Chicago, we started a new series entitled, “Deeper: Beyond Shallow Spirituality”
Here the blurp about it on the website:
There is a desire built into our humanity; a sense that there should be more than surface living. A longing that says, “I need to go deeper.” When so much of life happens at the surface, Jesus invites you DEEPER: Beyond shallow spirituality. Deeper in knowing God, deeper in finding healing, deaper in living for what matters, deeper in soul transformation. Deeper is about a journey–its about refusing to stay put, refusing to be as we are, but instead diving fully into the life God offers.
I’m excited to see what God will teach me through this series, and how it can challenge me to grow. If you’re interested, you can find on their site all of the messages as they become available. The pastor of the location I attend is Kevin Bruursema, and you can find the messages he preaches on the DEEPER series here.
So far after the first week of this series, I’ve been challenged in a simple way. How am I going deeper in my spiritual journey with Christ? How have I been trusting him more, following him more, or being more like him?
Too often, I’m like the children of Israel. Prone to wander away from my God, forgetting his past blessings, and thinking only of the present. As I was listening to the message, I flipped forward a few chapters in Isaiah from where we were to remind myself of the context and I read this:
2 Hear, O heavens! Listen, O earth!
For the LORD has spoken:
“I reared children and brought them up,
but they have rebelled against me.3 The ox knows his master,
the donkey his owner’s manger,
but Israel does not know,
my people do not understand.”
Isaiah 1:2-3 (NIV)
I think I’ve written about it here before, but I’ll say it again. I used to look down on the children of Israel and ask how they could live such repetitive lifestyles of mistakes, failures, and turning away from God, but over the last few years, I’ve increasingly seen myself reflected in their story. Too frequently I’m dumber than the ox or donkey in Isaiah’s writing, and like Israel, I do not remember who my God is. I’m looking forward to the coming weeks and the challenge of going deeper with my God.