14 Stages Of The Pilgrimage Journey Of The Christian Series

Growing up my mother’s favorite New Year’s Eve tradition was to start and finish a puzzle. The puzzles were big and difficult. We would race against the clock, trying to complete it by midnight. Even though we were all working together, the puzzle would take hours to finish.

We watched the clock turning as we fought against time to get done before midnight. The picture would slowly take form, from appearing as nothing more than a random assortment of colors, to slowly resembling something detailed and real.

As the clock approached midnight, sometimes we wouldn't get done until minutes before midnight, and we'd all celebrate, and gaze at the beautiful picture that the puzzle created. We couldn't see it at first, but we kept working diligently, and finally near midnight, we saw how it all fit together.

Similarly, we as Christians slowly study the word of God, the parables of Jesus, the Old Testament heroes, the proverbs, the psalms, the prophets, the four gospels, the I am statements of Jesus, the teachings of the Apostle Paul, Peter, John, and others, and we find ourselves with all sorts of puzzle pieces.

Over the years we begin to sort these puzzle pieces and bring them together, one by one, and more and more, we begin to see a big picture of how Christianity actually works.

Over the last three months we’ve gone through a series called "Shapes of Faith" and we’ve looked at different scriptures in a visual format. We’ve learned a lot about the journey of life for a Christian, but now we’re going to put it all together.

We’re going to piece together the different pictures we created into a depiction of the Christian life from the moment we first find salvation in Jesus, to the moment we pass into the next life.

1. The Gray Fish

We start off at the gray fish, unsaved, and headed in the wrong direction.

But at some point in our lives we came to saving faith in Jesus Christ and we repented, we changed directions and began moving in the a new direction.

2. The Blue Fish

This began life in the Spirit, which we talked about from Romans 8:9-11, “You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.”

3. Square Shape

This led us into the square shape, where we as Christians come to be taught in the truth (Ephesians 4:21). We find fellowship with other Christians in faithful churches, we’re taught the truth, and in so doing we learn to put on the new self, and put off the old self.

4. Triangle Shape

As we grow and learn we become more and more in tune with the Holy Spirit within, and we grow into the peace of Christ which guards our hearts and minds.

We change our thought life and make allowance for each other’s faults. We practice self-examination, and in all this we become ambassadors for Christ in the world, spreading the gospel for Him.

5. The Two Towers

As we continue our journey with Christ, we really learn that it’s about sowing. If we sow to the Spirit, we will reap eternal life through the Spirit, if we sow to the flesh, we will reap destruction from the flesh.

If we plant seeds that build a holy life, we’ll walk the path of life, if we plant seeds of sin, we’ll reap disaster.

6. The House Built Up in Fullness

As we grow in Christ more and more, we eventually reach a point where we come into spiritual maturity. We’ve grown into maturity. And we become more and more conformed in the likeness of Jesus Christ.

As it says in Ephesians 4:13, “…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 fullness of Christ…”

This is the way of unveiling perfect love.

7. The Heart

So, in maturity in Christ, we come to a place where we can say, "Love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast."

We’ve seen God clear away negative things from our hearts and make our hearts truly pure and full of the love of God.