Pilgrimage

A couple days ago I wrote this 500some word essay for my humanities class. We were asked to sort of define what the spiritual journey is and defend it. I wanted to put it up on my blog because I feel like it fits:

The spiritual journey is a pilgrimage. It is believers in this world trying to make it through so that we can worship Christ perfectly in the next world. The problem is not everyone knows Christ as his or her Savior and in order to get into that paradise each person must. Our sins separate us from God. God hates sin and he needs to punish it. In His great mercy He sent Jesus Christ to die on the cross for all those who repent and believe on His name as their Savior.

The pilgrimage begins with a confession of your sins and repentance for them. Repentance looks like a turning away from your sin. This means that you were headed down one path and God intervened and stirred something in your heart to see your sin and confess it. You then feel remorse for your sin because it is wrong and it is against God and you turn from it and walk back towards God.

Once you have repented the journey continues. The Holy Spirit is leading you through this journey so that if you ever stumble and fall you will be picked up again. The fact that the Holy Spirit is leading you should start to show in who you are and who you become. You should begin to bear fruits of the Spirit because the Spirit is leading you and you become like those that you follow and hang around with. Fruits of the Spirit are words, actions, deeds that look like characteristics of God. God is love, so when you love others you are producing a fruit of the Spirit. In fact the commandment of the Lord that sums up all other commandments is love others just like you love yourself. Because when you love others you are sacrificing something of yourself for them, just like Christ did for us on the cross. When you have joy you are producing good fruit. The greatest joy comes from the Lord and when you find eternal joy in Him it should spill out onto other people so that they see your joy and want to join you on your pilgrimage. There are several other fruits including: peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. When your life is producing these fruits you are continuing on your spiritual journey. It is important however to understand that these fruits are not what save you. Christ is what saves you and these fruits are a result of that saving grace.

It is also important to understand that on this spiritual journey you will not stop sinning. You are not perfect. You are not God, so you will continue in sin. But it is important to understand that that does not make it okay to sin. But when you sin grace abounds and you are forgiven. When you sin you should feel guilt and remorse and you should repent. Remember these words, “My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent,” (Proverbs 1:10), “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1).

This is where it ended, but I would like to add more:

It is also important to have other people along side of you on this journey. When other people are with you, working through trials, and celebrating joys, the journey becomes more enjoyable and more worshipful. It is more enjoyable because you have someone to talk to and share problems with. Friends who are believers can sharpen you and point you to the cross when you are not looking in the right places. True believer friends will tell you when you are sinning so that you can repent and continue on the journey. True believer friends will pick you up when you are struggling because they want you to feel loved and to find the grace in each situation. True believer friends will weep with you when something is hard. True believer friends will whoop and hollar when something is good. True believer friends will you lead you to worship. They will show you the grace in their own lives and in your life. Seeing this grace should lead you to worship. They will worship with you in other ways too. Fellowship and friendship are vital to your journey as a believer.

Now, there is much more that I am leaving out, I know, but I think it is more complete. This is the more fun part anyway. I would like to give praises to God for giving me all these things and more in my life. By God’s grace I confess of my sins and He turned around to repentance. By God’s grace I see fruits in my life in many of the activities I do. By God’s grace I see the fruits that I’m strong with and the fruits that I’m weak with, and Lord willing I will get better on both and God will get the glory. By God’s grace I see my sin. I would not be able to see my sin on my own because all I would see is my good deeds and my good fruits. Each day God shows me sin in my life that I need to bring to Him. By God’s grace I have friends. Over the years I have had many friends who point me to Christ. But I had never had one that would bluntly tell me when I’m sinning and be willing to work on it with me. She does not know I’m doing this, but I would like to praise God for Annie. She is so real with me. It is like she knows when I need someone to tell me to stop saying words or thinking thoughts that are sinful. Then she is not afraid to tell me. That is awesome. I mean it in the real sense of awesome. Like I am in awe that God gave me a friend like that. The reason God gives us friends is to do just that. I praise God for Annie and the work that He has done in her life.

I pray that you will pursue friendships that will sharpen you,
Greta