Today we start a new message series called “Growing In God.” Our spiritual lives are often likened to plants in the Bible. A plant needs certain essential ingredients to grow. It needs good soil, the proper nutrients, water and sun. So too, a believer or a person seeking to know more about God needs certain essential elements to grow spiritually in God. In this series, we’ll be focusing on some of these essential things that we need to understand and apply in our lives so that we can live the kind of lives God created us to live.
One of the essential things that we need in our lives is the proper guidance so that we can make good decisions. Proper guidance in necessary in many aspects of life. On April 13, 1970, the flight of Apollo 13 was bound for the moon. However, without warning, there was an onboard explosion in an oxygen tank which crippled the spacecraft. The return trajectory was altered and now the spacecraft would miss the earth. The astronauts would be doomed unless something could be done. Commander Jim Lovell could not rely on the computers to help because there wasn’t enough battery power. So he had to visually keep planet earth in the crosshairs of the spacecraft window as he corrected the trajectory with a manual burn of the engine. The procedure worked and the astronauts returned home safely. All because Lovell kept his eye on the fixed reference point of planet earth.
Our journey through life must also be lived by keeping our eye on a fixed reference point. There is only one fixed reference point and that is God’s Word the Bible. TEV Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp to guide me and a light for my path. When we keep our eyes on God’s Word, we will be guided by it in our journey through life. We will reach our destination of fulfilling God’s purpose for our lives here and in eternity with God in heaven. If you choose any other reference point, you will go off course with your life, you will be off target with God and you will be headed for destruction.
To hear more about this topic, listen to my October 30, 2005 message entitled Enjoying God’s Word