There seems to be an insatiable desire in man to continually improve things. Motor vehicles and computers seem to be the very obvious.

Ford and GM-H here in Australia have been producing cars here since 1960 and 1948 respectively. Each year or so, they bring out a new model which has refinement and improvement over the last model. We now have vehicles that are very good indeed, and continue to improve. They are never satisfied.

Computers are the same. In 1996, I purchased NASCAR Racing 1.0. It was great. When I downloaded the new patch and so on, it was even better. Not satisfied with Version 1.0, papyrus created NASCAR 2. Then came the patches and so on. Over the years, we saw NASCAR Racing 3, 4, 2002 Season and the last of the line, NASCAR Racing 2003 Season. The creators opened the code in the programming to allow further development of the game with new series and mods. Why? To keep improving the game. Never satisfied.

This trend of not being satisfied is , unfortunately, not very prolific in the Body of Christ (the Church). Don’t get me wrong, there are many multitudes of believers who regularly “upgrade” from God, but the are also many who do not. They are satisfied with the basic belief. They have received Jesus as their Lord and Saviour, but tend to stop there. They go to church and love the Lord, but God has more for them. He is unlimited. Omnipotent. Infinite. No one created by Him will ever know Him fully. How sad it is when Christians put limits on God and go no further than they did when they got saved.

There are more levels to go in your relationship with Him. Beyond the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.  There are degrees of knowledge and intimacy with Him that take time and sacrifice to enter into. When a man and a woman marry, their relationship, intimacy and knowledge of each other grow forever in that marriage, normally. What tragedy if that relationship never grew from its foundations. That marriage would probably fail, and at least be very unsatisfying.

Husband and wife should grow into an ever deepening relationship. Christians should do the same with the Lord. 20 years down the track, they should not have the same depth of relationship with the Lord they had when they were saved. Those who rise in the Body of Christ into areas of leadership and ministry are those who continually press into the presence of God and seek Him. They grow in the knowledge of the word, personal relationship with the Holy Spirit and grow strong faith. These are they whom others follow and should desirer to imitate.

With those who lead, like Pastors, Elders and so on. From within these come the “super-Christians” , those who have both very public and powerful ministries and those who have very private and powerful ministries like intercessors and the like. These are they who continually update and patch there version of Christianity. They live on today’s manna. They crave the new things of God. Ever growing, ever changing.

Back to computers. My first computer was a 486 DX-2 66 with 4mb RAM. These old computers still function today, but have very limited use. Basic word processing is about it.

I later upgraded to  Pentium 2 233. Much faster than the 486, but by today’s standards, very slow and limited in its use. It would run NASCAR 1 and 2.

My next was a Celeron 466. Twice as fast as the 233 and with AGP graphics. More power and able to do much. This too was quickly supersede. NASCAR 3.0

My latest machine is a AMD XP2500, 512mb RAM, FX5600 256mb video card, CD-RW and so on. Able to leap tall building in a single bound. Very fast, very powerful. NASCAR 2003 and more.

I believe the Lord showed me how much the Body of Christ is like the above. There are still 286, 386 and 486 Christians in the Church. Still functioning, but at a much lower level than what the Lord wants for them. Our God is a God of new beginnings and increase. New manna. Not old. Those big AMD’s and Pentium 4s are those who are never satisfied. Always upgrading, downloading and improving. They seek new, greater and deeper things of God. Are you satisfied with your version of being a Christian?

God wants us to come to Him and “download” new versions regularly. We might have to learn how to operate and use the new things God has for us, but I know we will say, “Wow, I never thought it could be so good!”

                                                Yours in Christ,

                                                                        Mike Cantwell.