Christian Growth Questions

Leader's Evaluation

The object isn't for a grade. The person answering will become more aware as to how much he's pursuing God. If he has been fooling himself, he can't mistake the results. The aim is to get people down to real business with God.

Level 0

The answers given by the unbeliever easily indicate the presence of any interest in God, any attitues towards repentance or any care about his or her future. Depending on the answers, the unbeliever is hopefully made aware of exactly how he or she stands before God. The attitude to disinterest won't stand before The Judge in the Day of Judgement. They won't be able to claim real ignorance, in other words.

Level 1

The answers given by the new believer will help to show a state of developing health or of developing disease.

Think exactly how little five minutes really is. TV commercials sometimes run longer than this, and many spend more time than this in just doing their hair for the day.

To give you an example of how great lukewarmness and coldness is in the church today, I saw a survey of a large group of Christians on the Focus On The Family website from 1999. This is the survey and its results:

Aside from saying grace at meals, our family prays or reads the Bible together:

rarely 25.22% (819)

on occasion 17.09% (555)

weekly 14.54 (472)

daily 43.15% (1401)

Total Votes (3247)

If you don't pray at least this much, you can't claim to find more delight in God than in the world. The Bible tells us to pray continuously (1 Thess. 5:17).
Being an ingrate is a sickly sign.
Whitnessing is good and is included is this, but it also includes daily talking around the table with your family or friends. This daily conversation meets the command of Deut. 6:4-9 as well as is only natural for someone who loves God.
For a wife who is married to a pagan, family devotions must still be carried on with the children, even if the husband forbids. God's law is greater. For a person who loves God, as the head of the household, this would be natural. As a lover of God, we want our family to know and love God as we do, and want them to live valiantly for Him. This can only come by continuously seeking Him out. Family devotions include all things surrounding God such as reading out loud a food sermon, watching a Christ uplifting program, reading a Christian fiction that challenges in the Christian walk, as well as including the obvious prayer and Bible reading.
This should help pinpoint a possible source of problems. If the new believer doesn't answer positively to the previous questions, then if he answers he doesn't feel like it, we have a reason for the failure. Feeling like it or not is really non-issue in and of itself. We should continue to do what is right whether or not we feel like it.
The answer likely indicates one's true God. If the answer is something like "worry", this indicates a lack of abiding in Christ.
The answers to the above questions act as a witness to the testimony of 9.
They have to be asked because kknowing the answer doesn't necessarily mean action.
Same as 10.
This is for examining our true motives.
If a person is not willing, there can be no hope.
This is asked to make the questioned examine if laziness is present, as well as zealousness and a hunger and thirst for righteousness.
If the answer is NO, you can't really say God is Lord of your life. Youcan only call Him Lord if He has rulership of your entire life.
If the honest answer is NO, there's obviously a wall between you and God that cuts you off from more blessing. If God brings to your attention something unsurrendered in your life, and you remain unbuding, you can't expect further Christion progress until it's surrendered. Hence, no progress, no blessing.
For the lover of God, anything that brings you closer to God would be the greatest blessing.

Level 2

Level 2 mainly covers attitudes. Attitudes show the heart's longing for God or the world.
In abiding in the presence of God and coming closer to Him, there's great joy, therefore you would enjoy things oriented on God.
The tings of the world loose their glamour because you see there's no life in them, and they'll eventually perish.
If this isn't your concern, Jesus isn't your Lord.
Philippians 3:8-15 shows us Christians should always be striving.
A healthy Christian lives in an ongoing attitude of praise and thanksgiving, even in the midst of trial.
This craving must be the undying desire of your heart. If you don't care a whole lot, you don't have a repentant heart and your light would be a worthless one.
Most people go to church for social reasons and to make their consciences quiet down, not because of the organic unity of the body or for worship of God. A healthy Christian longs for gathering for worship, for studying God's Word and for that delightful time together with the others who truly rejoice in God.
If the issue of holiness isn't critical, you're definitely Level 1 material and very probably Level 0. The spirit of repentance demands this issue by critical to you.

Level 3

Matthew 5:6. Those who hunger and thirst will have their cravings met by a wonderful God.
This is a most difficult tack, for it only comes about by waiting on God first, instead of reacting in a situation.
Love of self and of our own ideas. The more mature Christian is always bending to cater to the less mature, to help them up. For the leader to be selfish can be a major stumbling block for the younger.
Again, the more mature must have learned the lesson of running to God first when maligned, or else failure is certain.
Too many seek peace at the expense of standing up for what's right. This is called sompromise. On colors for the curtains that's fine, but not on issues of sin.
2 Timothy 2:24-26