Still on the Bunny Hill of Catholicism?

Are you on the spiritual “bunny hill?” Have you practiced your faith enough to be able to handle harder challenges, or are you still operating in the faith of your childhood? In this episode, Jeff encourages you to commit to your faith in a serious way and mature in it every day.

Shownotes

What is a Bunny Hill?

• In skiing it is the beginning level.
• We should strive to grow past the “bunny hill.”

Growing Spiritually

• I remember underneath the stairs in my childhood house, we had an exposed 2X4 that we would mark our growth and put the date there. From year to year, it was fun to see how much we had grown.
  • What if I stopped growing? What’s wrong?
  • We also cannot stop growing in our relationship with God.
• Hebrews 5:11-14 – “¹¹ About this we have much to say which is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. ¹² For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need some one to teach you again the first principles of God’s word. You need milk, not solid food; ¹³ for every one who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a child. ¹⁴ But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their faculties trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.”
  • Practicing, doing the word of God is the key to spiritual growth.
  • People who do not grow spiritually have many many excuses. They don’t typically read scripture regularly, they don’t spend time with God in prayer, they leave mass early…
    • When there is an opportunity to read scripture or pray, we say, “No, I’m going to watch tv.”
  • 1 Corinthians 3:1-2 – “¹ But I, brethren, could not address you as spiritual men, but as men of the flesh, as babes in Christ. ² I fed you with milk, not solid food; for you were not ready for it; and even yet you are not ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh, and behaving like ordinary men?”
  • 1 Corinthians 13:11 – “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
  • 2 Timothy 3:14 – “¹⁴ But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it.”
  • 2 Timothy 3:15 – “¹⁵ and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”
  • Luke 8:1-18 – “Take heed then how you hear; for to him who has will more be given, and from him who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away.”
    • The Parable of the Sower
      • To be stagnant is to not grow but go backwards.
      • You are either growing or shrinking right now. Which is it?
  • Ephesians 4:11-16 – “¹¹ And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, ¹² for the equipment of the saints, for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, ¹³ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ; ¹⁴ so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles. ¹⁵ Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, ¹⁶ from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every joint with which it is supplied, when each part is working properly, makes bodily growth and upbuilds itself in love.”
  • Being Spiritually mature is being like Christ in every area of your life.
  • Luke 2:52 – “And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and man.”

The Plan

Spiritual growth starts with a foundation.

1. Scripture (TGA)
2. Repentance from dead works & walk in faith.
   • Hebrews 6:1 – “Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God.”
3. Catechism of the Catholic Church
4. Prayer
5. Consciously doing his word in your life. Not cruise control.
   • 1 Timothy 4:7 – “Have nothing to do with godless and silly myths. Train yourself in godliness.”
6. Know yourself.
   • What are your Vices?
   • What are your Virtues?

Conclusion

When I was young I started skiing on the Bunny hill, then after much practice and a coat filled with ski lift tags, I could slalom on the king hill. Since my late teens I have not been skiing. If I went out this week I would be back on the bunny hill. Are you like that spiritually?

More Great Resources from Jeff                                                                   

Find free blogs, videos, and resources about Scripture and the Catholic faith at http://biblestudyforcatholics.com/.

Learn more about The Great Adventure Bible Timeline and preview any study for free.

For an easy way to transform your approach to reading Scripture, check out Jeff’s Bible Timeline Chart.

For an illustrated resource introducing God’s love story to children while helping them to understand how the Catholic Church is the body of Christ on Earth try The Great Adventure Storybook.

We’d Love to Hear from You

Do you have comments or questions for Jeff? Use the comment box below, or email Jeff at thejeffcavinsshow@ascensionpress.com. You may hear your question or comment in an upcoming podcast episode!

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