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Growing in Grace

A daily Bible verse and devotional

January 2025

Friday, January 31, 2025

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Growing in Grace

“Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing” (Matthew 5:13).

We are all familiar with salt, for it is a necessary part of our diet, and is important for the health of our bodies. Salt makes many kinds of food taste better, and has played an important role in the history of this world. Wars have been won or lost based on the availability of salt, for before the invention of refrigeration, armies needed salt to preserve food, and to support their horses and cattle. The availability of salt was a factor in both the American revolutionary war and the American civil war. The ancient Romans used salt on green leafy things that they ate, and often paid their soldiers with salt. For this reason the English words “salad” and “salary” come from the root word for salt.

But salt was also used as a punishment, for salt makes the land unable to grow crops. If saltwater from the sea washes onto farmland, it is useless for one year. If conquered people rebelled against the Romans, they would sow their fields heavily with salt. This made them unable to grow food for three years, and served as a harsh reminder not to rebel again.

In the Word of God, salt speaks of holy grace. It is a preservative, and speaks of the grace and goodness of God, but always in a holy and pure way. For this reason the Lord says that believers are the salt of the earth. We are left here to show both the grace and the holiness of God. Many people may not read the Bible, but they should be able to see God’s character in you and me as Christians.

It is possible even for true Christians to lose that savor, and not to be the salt of the earth. In that case, the Lord asks, How will you season it? It is good for nothing, for you cannot season food with it, and to throw in on the land only makes the land infertile. So it is with unfaithful Christians. They do not feel comfortable with faithful Christians, and if they go out with the world, their consciences bother them there too. They do not feel comfortable anywhere. How important it is to be real salt that has an effect on others!

Thursday, January 30, 2025

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Growing in Grace

“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you” (John 14:27).

It is a wonderful thing to have peace, yet today we live in a world that is anything but peaceful. Everywhere we look there is some kind of trouble — climate change, floods, drought, wildfires, hurricanes and tornadoes, as well as man-made problems such as world poverty, internal strife in countries, the threat of war between countries, oppression of minorities, and many other things. As I write this, all of the above problems are further complicated by the Covid-19 virus, which is now threatening us with variants of different kinds. If we look for peace from our surroundings, we will not find it.

However, our verse promises us peace, and in two different ways. The Lord Jesus first of all left us peace, and this is the peace we enjoy because of His work on the cross. “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). That peace has been made “by the blood of His cross” (Colossians 1:20), and nothing can shake it. The question of our sins has been settled once and for all.

But then the Lord Jesus gives us another kind of peace, and He gives it to us as a gift, just as someone might leave us something in his will when he dies. When Jesus spoke these words, He was about to go to the cross, die, be buried, and placed in a tomb. But then He knew He would rise again, ascend up to heaven, and wait for the moment when He would come back to take us to be with Him. In the meanwhile, He gives us His peace — the peace in which He walked before God the Father during His pathway through this world. He accepted all His circumstances from His Father, and as the perfect dependent Man, took all His difficulties to His Father in prayer. This is the secret of a happy Christian pathway, and the secret to having peace.

We must first of all come to Christ as our Savior and have our sins forgiven. Then we receive a new life in Christ, and are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. After that, we can take the legacy the Lord has left to us, for He has given us His peace. There was no peace like His — a peace that was not disturbed by any circumstances, for He accepted them all as from His Father. We cannot change our circumstances, but we can react to them in the right way. Then we enjoy “His peace.”

Wednesday, January 29, 2025

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Growing in Grace

“Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” (Hebrews 13:5).

As we have seen in our meditation on January 24, our natural hearts are never satisfied, and we always want more. If this way of thinking has a hold on us as Christians, it will make us covetous, and our conversation will show it. We must learn to be content with such things as we have, for as we have seen, nothing in this world will satisfy our hearts. Only the Lord can do that, and as we read in our verse, He will never leave us nor forsake us.

In today’s world it is easy to get into debt, and to borrow money by using credit cards, easy loans, etc. in order to buy things we think we need. But the Bible warns us about debt, telling us, “Owe no man any thing, but to love one another” (Romans 13:8). While every kind of debt is not wrong, it is a bad practice to borrow money to buy things we cannot afford.

Like William Colgate’s family, the family of William Borden (who was born in 1887), had also emigrated from England to America, but much earlier. The Bordens had come over in the early 1600’s and settled in New England. They later moved to Indiana and started the Borden Milk Company. William Borden inherited a fortune when he was still in university and was a millionaire before he was twenty. Cars were just starting to become more common in the early 20th century and Borden loved cars. Once he saw a beautiful car go by and remarked to a friend, “My, would I ever like to have a car like that!” Knowing that William Borden had plenty of money, his friend replied, “Then why don’t you get one?” “I can’t afford it,” Borden said. William Borden was a Christian, and he knew that his money belonged to the Lord. While he could appreciate a nice car, he would not go out and spend the Lord’s money on something that would not help him in his service for the Lord.

A few years later, in 1913, William Borden went to Egypt as a missionary, and died that same year of meningitis (an infection in the brain). When they looked at his will, it was found that he had left all his fortune for Christian work, a sum that would be worth more than twenty-six million dollars in today’s money. He had plenty of money, and could have lived a life of luxury, ease, and pleasure. But he looked beyond it all, and gave not only his money, but his life for the Lord. Some felt that he had thrown his life away, and questioned whether it was worth it to have died so young. But his life inspired many others to give up ease and prosperity, and to use their talents, money, and lives for the Lord. Their contentment came from a sense of doing the will of God, not having more possessions.

Tuesday, January 28, 2025

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Growing in Grace

“Upon the first day of the week [the Lord’s day] let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him” (1 Corinthians 16:2).

Sometimes Christians ask the question, How much of my money should I use for the Lord? In the Old Testament the nation of Israel was commanded to give one-tenth of what they had been given. In their case it might not always have been money, but perhaps some of the produce from their farms. But in the New Testament we are not told how much to give; it simply says, “As God hath prospered him.”

When the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian assembly about Christian giving, he reminded them twice of how much the Lord Jesus had done for them. When we think of how much it cost the Lord Jesus to bear our sins on the cross, it is not hard to give our money to the Lord. We will want to be generous!

Most of you are familiar with Colgate products — things such as soap and toothpaste. The company was started by William Colgate, who emigrated from England to the United States in 1795, at the age of twelve, along with his family. By the age of twenty-three he had started the Colgate Company, which in those days made only soap. Later his younger brother joined the business, and they began to make other products.

William Colgate was an earnest Christian who lived to please the Lord. When his business got larger, he had to hire a bookkeeper. In looking through the company’s ledger books, the bookkeeper was surprised to find that right from the beginning, one-tenth of all the money the company took in had been transferred to a place in the books called “God’s column”. That money was to be used only for the Lord; never for company expenses, or for personal use. When the bookkeeper asked William Colgate about it, he explained it, and told the bookkeeper, “Make sure you always put one-tenth of all the company income in that column. See that God is never cheated!” Later, William Colgate increased this percentage, so that much more than one-tenth of his money was used for the Lord.

Even when we are young, it is good to get in the habit of using some of our money for the Lord. Sometimes giving one-tenth of our money is referred to as “tithing,” and while the New Testament does not specify this amount, yet someone has said, “Tithing is the ‘training wheels’ of giving.” We have all seen training wheels on bicycles for small children. They help them to learn to ride, yet prevent a nasty fall. Later, when they can maintain their balance, they do not need the training wheels. If we become accustomed to putting aside some of our money for the Lord, it becomes a good habit that we can carry into our adult lives. Then, when we get older, perhaps we may able to give more than one-tenth, for as we have already seen, everything we have belongs to the Lord, and we are only stewards of it.

Monday, January 27, 2025

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Growing in Grace

“They that WILL be rich fall into … many foolish and hurtful lusts” (1 Timothy 6:9).

“Charge them that ARE rich in this world, that they be not highminded (proud), nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God … That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate” (1 Timothy 6:17-18).

The Word of God recognizes that there is a difference between those who desperately want to be rich, and those who happen to be rich because the Lord has given them a lot of money. Those who set out to be rich are usually people who somehow think that more money will make them happier, and because of this they devote their time, energy, and abilities toward making money. Sometimes they are very successful, but it is often like the verse in Psalm 106:15 — “He (God) gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.” This happens even in a natural sense sometimes. We have already mentioned John D. Rockefeller, who was the wealthiest man in America in the early 1900’s. But by the time he was fifty years old, his health was poor, and he could not enjoy all his money. He could not eat properly, and most people expected him to die soon. But when he started to use his money for others, his health improved, and he lived to be a very old man. Why? He was not thinking of himself anymore. It is even more true of us who are Christians, for if we go after the things of this world, we will not enjoy our true riches.

However, the Bible recognizes that some Christians will be diligent in their business or other line of work and may well become rich. They have not set out to make money, but the Lord has allowed them to become wealthy. Then there is a much greater responsibility before God to use that money for Him.

First of all, we are not to trust in those riches, for wealth in this world is uncertain. Money can become much less through things like inflation, changes in government, and many other events. Rather, the Lord wants us to trust in Him, for He will never fail us.

Secondly, we are to use that money to help others, and not simply hoard it in a bank account or some kind of investment. If we look around, and especially in poorer countries in this world, it is not hard to find those who can use some help. Then we have the joy of giving in our hearts, for that is the character of God. God is a giving God, and when we give to others, we are being more like Him.

Perhaps you say, I am not rich. By this world’s standards, that may be true. But those of us who live in so-called western countries are all rich beyond the wildest dreams of most of this world’s population. We can well afford to use our money for the Lord.

Sunday, January 26, 2025

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Growing in Grace

“If ye have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own?” (Luke 16:12).

In yesterday’s meditation, we mentioned “our money.” It does not really belong to us, it really all belongs to the Lord. This is true of everything we have, whether it is our money, our other possessions, or our bodies, our natural abilities, and our spiritual gifts. All belong to the Lord, and we are only stewards of those things.

Most of us do not have stewards in our homes today, but in times past, wealthy homes often had a steward, who was entrusted with managing the household. Sometimes this man was called a butler. The things for which he had responsibility were not his; they belonged to his master, but he was given the job of using them in the right way, and according to his master’s instructions. He was allowed to do this because his master trusted him and counted on him to use the goods properly.

In the story in Luke 16 from which today’s verse is taken, the steward was accused of being unfaithful, and of wasting his master’s goods. Because of this his master was not going to allow him to be his steward anymore. In modern language, we would say he was going to be fired.

In the same way, the Lord has given us things like money and other possessions and expects us to use them for Him. We cannot take them with us to heaven, but we can use our money to lay up treasure in heaven. But as our verse says, if we are unfaithful with our money, which really belongs to the Lord, how shall we expect to receive “the true riches” which really belong to us?

This refers to our spiritual blessings, which are really ours. According to Ephesians 1:3, we are “blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.” God has given them to us, and every believer is equally blessed, for God has no favorites in His family. But our enjoyment of those blessings depends on our walk as Christians, and if we are unfaithful in using our money and other possessions for the Lord, we will not enjoy those spiritual blessings that are really ours.

Saturday, January 25, 2025

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Growing in Grace

“Provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth” (Luke 12:33).

In several of these meditations we have mentioned laying up treasure in heaven. What do we mean by this? In years gone by, pirates sometimes hid treasures of silver and gold in “treasure chests” which they buried in carefully hidden places. At some later date they intended to go and get it and live as rich men. But many times they never did go back and claim their treasure, and it remained buried where they had left it. Worse still, someone else found out where it was, and stole it from them. Even if they did eventually go and get it, it lasted only for this life; they could not take it with them when they died.

However, you and I as Christians have the privilege of using what we have down here in this world — our money, our various possessions, our time, and our energy, for the Lord. We do not have long in this world — only a few years, yet God tells us that we are to use that time to prepare for eternity. It is an awesome thought that the few short years we have in this world will affect us for all eternity!

People who lay up treasure in this world often spend a great deal of their time collecting it and making sure that it is secure. A man who lived across the road from us for many years once told me that he and his family had gone through a lot of effort to make very sure that they would inherit the property that surrounded their home. Yet he died before he ever got that property; now someone else has it. But if we use what we have for the Lord, He tells us that we can lay up treasure in heaven. No one will ever steal it, nor can anything spoil it. That treasure will be the reward the Lord gives us for using our time, money, and energy for Him down here. Naturally we all want the things of this world, but a Christian man by the name of Jim Elliot expressed it well when he said, “He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” Jim Elliot gave his life for the Lord as a martyr back in 1956, as he and some other young men were bringing the gospel to the Auca Indians in Ecuador. He did not try to get rich down here, but he will have treasure in heaven.

Friday, January 24, 2025

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Growing in Grace

“The love of money is the root of all evil” (1 Timothy 6:10).

Money does not motivate everyone in this world, but it certainly motivates many people. John D. Rockefeller, from the state of Ohio, U.S.A., started the Standard Oil Company. Rockefeller was at one point the world’s richest man and the first ever American billionaire. Considering he was a billionaire in the early 1900’s he is still considered as the richest person in modern history. A newspaper reporter once asked him, “How much money is enough?” He responded, “Just a little bit more.”

How much is enough money? If John Rockefeller always needed a little more, will you ever have enough? And how will you know when you have enough money to make you happy? The Word of God tells us that nothing in this world is enough to make us completely happy, for our hearts were made for eternity, not just for time. As we have already noticed several weeks ago, King Solomon, who lived about three thousand years ago, had everything he could possibly want. More than this, he was also a very wise man, for the Lord had given him a great deal of wisdom. People came from many different countries to hear his wisdom. Yet he had to admit that “all is vanity and vexation of spirit” (Ecclesiastes 1:14). (Vanity means emptiness, and vexation means troublesome or irritating.) Even his wisdom was not always a welcome thing, for he said, “In much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow” (Ecclesiastes1:18). The more we know, the more we realize how sinful this world is, and how much trouble and heartache there is around us.

Also, as our verse tells us, money often causes people to do wrong things. This verse does not mean that all the evil in this world is because of money. No, there can be evil in this world that has nothing to do with money. Rather, it means that every kind of evil can be the result of difficulties over money. Things like lying, cheating, computer fraud, gambling, and even murder can be caused by the love of money. Even Christians can get caught up in all this, and bitter feelings can result from disputes over money. The world has a saying that you never really know someone until you have to share an inheritance with them. I have known more than one Christian family that fought over an inheritance, and in some cases the angry feelings never went away.

The Bible is the only book in the world that tells us to look beyond this world, and to lay up our treasure in heaven. We can do this whether we have a lot of money, or perhaps only a little. We can use our money for ourselves, or we can use it for the Lord. It really all belongs to Him, and we are told to use it for Him. Then He will give us a reward in heaven.

Thursday, January 23, 2025

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Growing in Grace

“The god of this world [Satan] hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

Yesterday we spoke about the importance of being saved now, but how often people do not want to believe. In today’s verse we read how that Satan has blinded them so that they do not see the “gospel of the glory of Christ” (JND translation).

Satan is now the god of this world, and controls men’s minds by appealing to their lusts (their sinful desires). The world system of which Satan is the god began a long time ago with a man named Cain, who was the first son of Adam and Eve. You may remember how that when he and his brother Abel brought sacrifices to the Lord, Cain offered to God things that he had grown in his garden. God could not accept this sacrifice, but his brother Abel offered a sacrifice of a lamb that God could accept. No doubt Cain brought his very best things from his garden, but the Bible tells us, “Without shedding of blood is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22). God required a blood sacrifice, because it speaks of the Lord Jesus, whose blood is the only thing that can wash away our sins. Because God did not accept his sacrifice, Cain hated his brother and murdered him when they were out in the field together.

Later we read that when the Lord spoke to Cain about what he had done, Cain first of all lied about it, and then, when he realized that the Lord was going to punish him, tried to pretend that the Lord was being too hard on him. (God had pronounced a curse on him. From that time on, his garden would not produce as well as before, and he would be a “fugitive and a vagabond” (wanderer) in the earth. This means that he would always be afraid that someone would come after him, and that people would look upon him as a bad man.) There were four things that described Cain, and they are the same things that describe Satan’s world today. First of all, Cain never repented of his sin. Second, he complained about his punishment, instead of being sorry for what he had done. Third, “He went out from the presence of the Lord” (Genesis 4:16). He did not want anything to do with God. Fourth, he built a city, and surrounded himself with everything that might make him happy, but leaving God out. For these reasons, the Bible tells us, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15).

We must live and work in the world as it is today, but the Lord Jesus says that those who are saved are IN the world, but not OF the world. You may read this in John 17:11, 14. This means that even though we live in the world, we do not belong here. Our real home is in heaven, and we are just passing through this world. But we are to use the opportunities given to us to tell others about the Lord Jesus, so that they may be saved too.

Wednesday, January 22, 2025

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Growing in Grace

“Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2).

More than 75 years ago, a Christian man was preaching the gospel in a simple room with only a dirt floor, and quite a few had come to listen. In order to illustrate that salvation was a free gift, he held up a bag of money. In that bag were many coins, and each coin was worth as much as a man would earn for working a whole day. Then he said, “Anyone who comes up here in the next minute will get one of these coins free.” He looked at his watch, and the seconds ticked by — 10 seconds, 20 seconds, 30 seconds. But no one came up. The time went on — 40 seconds, then 50 seconds. Suddenly a boy came up from the back of the room, held out his hand, and with a smile the preacher gave him one of the coins.

He turned to go back to his seat, but an old man who was sitting at the front said to him, “Let me see it, boy.” So the boy handed it to him, and the old man took the coin and threw it against a rock that was sticking out of the floor right in front of his chair. Why did he do that? He wanted to see of the coin was real, for the old man thought it was probably just fake money. But when the coin struck the rock, it gave a metallic ring that told the old man that it was real money. He shouted out, “It’s good! It’s good!”

You can imagine what happened then. Immediately everybody in the room came to the front to get a coin too. But the preacher looked sadly at his watch, then at the crowd, and slowly said, “No, for I told you that you must come up within one minute, and now the minute is past. No one will get a coin tonight except this boy, for he believed me when I offered it.” When the preacher told me this story, he said that there were enough coins in the bag to give one to each person in the room, if they had believed him and come up to the front during that minute. Yet only one boy received one.

Most of these meditations have been written to Christian young people, but perhaps someone who has been reading them is not saved. It is important not to be like those people who did not believe that the preacher would give them real money. They did not get a coin that night because of their unbelief, but it is far more serious not to believe God, and to miss out on the salvation of your soul. God does not promise us that salvation be available tomorrow; He says, “Behold now is the accepted time.”

Tuesday, January 21, 2025

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Growing in Grace

“Take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day” (Ephesians 6:13).

Yesterday we mentioned Christian warfare, and how that it does not consist of actual physical fighting, but is rather a spiritual battle. The Word of God explains this, for it says, “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12). Words like “principalities and powers” may seem hard to understand, but in this verse they refer to Satan’s demons, who are always trying to control our minds, and lead us into the darkness of this world. The Bible tells us that Satan is the god and prince of this world, and he wants to have us under his control. If we are truly saved, he knows that he cannot take away our salvation, but he wants to drag us down to the level of this world. He has many demons, and they are always on the lookout to try and spoil our joy in the Lord. We cannot see them, for they are not visible to our eyes, but they are out there. That is why the Bible calls Satan “the prince of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:2).

So we really need the armor of God! Before the days of guns, and things like missiles, bombs, drones, and other modern weapons, soldiers who went out to battle wore armor to protect themselves from the enemy. They might get hit with an arrow, or a club, or someone might attack them with a sword or a spear. You will remember that when David went out to fight with Goliath, Goliath had armor to protect himself. But Goliath was no match for David with his sling, for David hit him right where he was not protected.

In the verses that follow the one we have before us today, we have a description of Christian armor. Read about the various parts of that armor in Ephesians 6:14-18. There are seven parts to the armor, and it is important to put them all on, for we never know where Satan will attack. If we are missing even one part of it, he will notice, and will attack us where we are not protected. But if we wear the whole armor of God, we will be fully protected.

We notice that prayer is the last part of the armor that is mentioned, for even with the whole armor of God on us, we need dependence on the Lord. The armor is very important, but we still need His help.

Monday, January 20, 2025

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Growing in Grace

“They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31).

Many people today do not have jobs that require physical strength, for much of our work today can be done with a computer at a desk. But our bodies need exercise to be kept in good physical shape. It is not unusual to see people jogging along the street, or perhaps in a park. Some run rather slowly, while others go at it very hard! Others go to the gym to run on treadmills, work out on other machines, or to lift weights. It is interesting that in the Greek language (the language in which the New Testament was originally written), the words translated “race” (Hebrews 12:1), “conflict” (Philippians 1:30), “combat” (Colossians 2:1), and “striving” (Philippians 1:27) are all the same word. They are all different forms of exercise in the Christian life. Sometimes the Christian life is like running a race, while at other times it is like combat, or fighting. There can be real warfare in our lives as Christians, for Satan does His best to take away our joy in the Lord. It is not actual physical fighting, but rather spiritual warfare.

Perhaps sometimes we feel so good that we feel almost as if we can fly, like an eagle. Eagles are not as common as they used to be, but it is amazing to watch them fly. When they fly normally, they can go about 30 miles per hour (50 kilometers per hour), but when they dive after prey, they can reach 100 miles per hour (160 kilometers per hour). But we do not always feel like this; sometimes we can only run. Yet the Lord says that if we wait on Him, we will be able to run and not get tired. We all get tired when we run naturally. Just think of how nice it would be if you could run fast as long as you wished, and you did not get tired! The Lord says that He will give us strength to be able to run as Christians, and not get tired.

But sometimes we feel only like walking. When I was younger, I used to like to run, but now, as I get older, I find that walking is a much easier way to get exercise. Sometimes I walk fast, but on other days I feel only like walking slowly. But even walking takes energy, and we need strength to do it. Walking a long distance can cause someone to faint.

I remember reading about a young man who wanted a certain piece of land, when the state of Iowa in the U.S.A. was being settled more than 170 years ago. Another young man had seen that same piece of property, and he wanted it too. The one who got to the registration office first would be able to lay claim to it. The second young man had a horse, while the first one had to walk. But the first young man walked for a full 24 hours, covering a distance of about 100 miles (160 kilometers), and got to the office first. Needless to say, he almost fainted after all that walking, but he got his grant of land!

But the Bible says, “He (the Lord) giveth power to the faint” (Isaiah 40:29). In the New Testament the word “faint” often has the thought of losing heart, or becoming discouraged. Whatever kind of exercise we may be capable of, the Lord will give us the strength for it. But we must “wait on the Lord;” that is, we must go to Him, and ask Him for His help.

Sunday, January 19, 2025

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Growing in Grace

“Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18).

When we are children, we all like to grow. I well remember that when I was growing up, we had a paper measuring line taped to a wall in our home. Every so often my brothers and I would stand with our backs to that measuring line, to see how much we had grown during the last few months. When we were being measured, we would stand up very straight, so that we would be as tall as possible. Sometimes we had grown only a little, and at other times we grew a lot. But eventually we came to a time when we did not grow any taller. We had to be content with our height then, for we had reached the height that we would have as adults. Some of us wished we were taller, but we could not do anything about it, for the Bible reminds us, “Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?” (Matthew 6:27). A cubit is about eighteen inches, or 45 centimeters, so that would be a lot of extra height! But none of us can get extra height just by wishing for it.

Here in our verse the Apostle Peter is telling us to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. There is no limit to how much we can grow in this way, for we should never stop growing spiritually as Christians. No matter how long we live, we can always continue to grow in grace.

What does it mean to grow in grace? Grace is the favor of God that we do not deserve. We were lost guilty sinners and did not deserve to have salvation offered to us through the work of our Lord Jesus Christ. But God gives it to us because of His grace. As we go on in our Christian life, we learn more of the grace of God, and appreciate it more. In this way we grow in grace and realize more the love that God has toward us. We realize more and more that everything we have is because of the grace of God. We will learn more of His grace for all eternity in heaven.

Saturday, January 18, 2025

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Growing in Grace

“Bodily exercise is profitable for a little [time], but piety [godliness] is profitable for everything, having promise of life, of the present one, and of that to come” (1 Timothy 4:8 JND).

As well as a careful diet, those who compete in the Olympics must train and exercise regularly, often for years, before competing in the games. Those who compete have a goal to win in their particular sport, and do not resent spending the time to train for it. They learn to “push themselves,” always trying to do better today than they did yesterday.

The Apostle Paul compares the Christian life to a race, and he speaks of exercise several times. He points out that bodily exercise is good, but reminds us that it does us good only during our life down here. Yes, it is good to take care of our bodies, and keep them in good shape. I had a good friend in the U.S.A., and when I visited there, he often took me to the gym with him. He said that he went there mainly because the exercise made him “feel good.” Most of us in today’s world should engage in more exercise.

But piety (godliness) is profitable, not only during our Christian life down here, but also for all eternity. The truth of God is meant to be held in exercise. What does this mean? It means that not only should we read the Word of God, but that we also should walk in it. This does take time and requires effort, just as physical exercise requires planning and effort. If we are not willing to take the time for physical exercise, when we really want to do some work, we will find that we do not have the strength. So it is with our spiritual health. We must discipline ourselves to “spiritual exercise.”

Spiritual exercise can be both positive and negative. In Acts 24:16, the Apostle Paul says, “And herein (in this) do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.” He was careful to exercise himself positively, in walking with the Lord, but he was also careful to avoid things which might spoil his spiritual state, and weaken his spiritual strength. It is important for us do the same!

Friday, January 17, 2025

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Growing in Grace

“Feed the church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood” (Acts 20:28).

As we have seen, it is very important for us as Christians to have proper spiritual food. Sometimes it takes real effort to obtain that food, but it is worth it, for it nourishes our souls and gives us strength. However, sometimes there are those who are spiritually weak, or spiritually sick, and then they may not have the energy to obtain their own food. Also, sometimes there those who are spiritually wealthy, and who have a lot of good food. In that case, it is nice for them to provide for others who may not have enough.

It would seem that this happened with the Israelites when they collected the manna in the wilderness. You will remember that they had to get up early to gather it, for if they waited too long, the hot sun would come out, and it would be gone. Probably some had the energy to gather more than others, but you could never “eat leftovers” with manna. No, if they tried to keep it until the next day, worms began to grow in it and it stank. They had to gather it every day except on the Sabbath. Older people who had some arthritis might have found it more difficult to stoop down and pick up manna! But in Exodus 16:18 it says, “He that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack.” Evidently those who had gathered more than they needed for the day shared with those who had not been able to gather enough. The Apostle Paul used this same verse in the New Testament, when he wrote to the Corinthians about Christian giving, and using their money for the Lord. You can find it in 2 Corinthians 8:15.

It is always nice to be able to share with someone else a verse or a nice thought that we have enjoyed from the Word of God. It is even more wonderful than sharing manna or money, for if we give some money to someone, then we have less money ourselves. But if we share some spiritual food, we do not lose what we give. In fact, we are fed ourselves!

Thursday, January 16, 2025

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Growing in Grace

“The slothful man roasteth not that which he took in hunting” (Proverbs 12:27).

Most of us today do not have to go out and hunt in order to have food to eat; we can simply go down to the grocery store and buy it. But in the past, it was common for people to have to go out and hunt, if they wanted food. Before Europeans came to North America, the indigenous people here were excellent hunters with bows and arrows, and spears. A large part of their diet came from hunting. Later, when the continent was being settled, many of the first pioneers got their fresh meat from hunting. You may remember too that in the Bible, when Isaac wanted his son Esau to prepare some nice meat for him, Esau had to go out hunting to get it. Even today in North America some people like to go out hunting for deer, elk, or moose in the fall, in order to have meat in their freezers for the winter.

It takes effort to go hunting, and sometimes real persistence, for it is not always easy to find something. However, according to our verse, a man might go out and get something in hunting, yet not be willing to prepare it and roast it, so that he could eat it. After all, hunting can be a bit exciting, but preparing meat and then roasting it is not nearly as much fun. But unless the man roasted the meat, it would not do him any good. It takes effort to hunt, but it also takes effort to prepare the meat and roast it, so that it is ready to eat.

In spiritual things, it takes time and effort to read the Word of God, and this is good, but it is not enough. In order to profit from what we have read, it is good to meditate on it. This means to think about it, and then to put it into practice in our lives. Simply reading the Bible, but then forgetting what we have read, will not really feed our souls in the right way. No, we must be willing to let it form our thoughts and be part of us. Then what we do in our life will be according to God’s Word, and His Word will be like food for our bodies.

Wednesday, January 15, 2025

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Growing in Grace

“I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able” (1 Corinthians 3:2).

How would you like it if, when you sat down to dinner, your mother simply put a baby’s bottle of milk in front of you? Or perhaps served you up a jar or two of baby food? You would be insulted, and would likely say, “I would like some normal food; I’m not a baby anymore!” When we were babies, we drank plenty of milk, and probably ate baby food too, but as we got older and our teeth came in, we began to eat solid food such as meat and vegetables.

If people get sick, or perhaps have trouble chewing and digesting their food, they may have to eat baby food for a while, until they feel well again. Baby food is usually already pureed, so that we do not need to chew it. All we have to do is swallow it.

The Christians in Corinth were an intelligent group of believers, and they had some nice spiritual gifts too. But in spiritual things they were immature, and the Apostle Paul had to feed them spiritually as if they were babies. They should have been more mature, for Paul had spent a long time among them, and had taught them many things about the Lord Jesus. But they were worldly people and tended to think of money and education as being more important than spiritual maturity. Also, they were fighting among themselves, each one wanting to be more important than the others. Paul wanted to feed them more than “spiritual baby food,” but he knew that they were not ready for it.

Sad to say, some Christians have this problem today. They are content with all the simple things of Christianity, but are not mature enough to enjoy things that are deeper and that will lead them on to full growth. A child that lives on baby food all its life will not grow up to be strong and healthy; nor will a Christian who lives on spiritual baby food all the time grow up to be a strong Christian. The Lord wants us to grow up as Christians, and to be able to eat a normal spiritual diet.

Tuesday, January 14, 2025

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Growing in Grace

“As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth Me, even he shall live by Me” (John 6:57).

As I write some of these meditations, the summer Olympics are going on in Tokyo, Japan in the year 2021. Many athletes from different nations are competing, but one thing is common to all of them. Over the past few years, they have been very careful about what they eat, in order to build strong bodies that can compete in their particular sport. Also, sports differ as to proper dietary requirements. Those like heavyweight boxers, wrestlers, weightlifters, etc. will tend to eat a lot of calories, much of it in the form of protein, while runners and swimmers will eat much lighter meals, especially on the day they are going to race.

Perhaps more important, they will avoid things that they know will harm their bodies, and perhaps slow them down. One girl confessed that it was very hard for her to avoid eating pizza, as it is one of her favorite foods. Yet she willingly stops eating it, in order to be able to race well. All Olympic competitors avoid foods high in simple sugars, such as doughnuts and candy, but almost all eat avocados in some form or other.

It is much the same in the Christian life. If we include in our diet such things as “spiritual junk food,” it will impair our spiritual health. Spiritual junk food can include things such as light reading, surfing the internet for spiritual help, listening constantly to the wrong kind of music on earbuds, spending hours on Facebook, etc. Even some kinds of Christian reading can be junk food because it occupies us mainly with ourselves, instead of with Christ. All this will tend to spoil our appetites for good spiritual food.

As we see in our verse above, feeding on Christ is the proper food of the Christian, and it does not require a diploma in nutrition to know how to do it. The enjoyment of Christ in our hearts comes from feeding on Him as the bread of life. It is feeding on Him that nourishes our souls properly and gives us the energy to live for His glory. That is why it is so important to read the Word of God every day, just as we eat every day.

Monday, January 13, 2025

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Growing in Grace

“What king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage (messenger), and desireth conditions of peace” (Luke 14:31-32).

The world has known times of peace, when building could be done, but has also known times of war, when someone would attack, and try to take away what they had built. As in our verses today, sometimes the armies were not equal, and then the king with the smaller army might try to arrange a peace treaty, instead of going to war.

It can be like that in our Christian life too. We may be diligent in reading, prayer, and “building ourselves up on our most holy faith,” but then Satan comes along to attack us. He is like the king with twenty thousand soldiers, and we are like the king with only ten thousand. He is stronger than we are, and we may be tempted to make peace with Him, instead of resisting Him. But if we want a peace treaty, it is always the stronger person who dictates the terms of the peace treaty, and Satan is no different. He will promise us an easier life in this world, but he will force us to give up things that are very important to us as Christians. Sad to say, too many believers are doing that today, in order to have an easier life. Then we lose spiritually, even though our life may be easier.

What then is the answer, if Satan is stronger than we are? How are we to win the battle? We must ask the Lord for help, for He has already defeated Satan at the cross, and Satan knows this. For this reason James tells us, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). If we try to fight with Satan in our own strength, he will always win, but if we go out to battle with the Lord’s strength, we will always win. We may still have difficulties in this world, for the world has rejected the Lord Jesus. But we will have the joy in our souls of walking with the Lord, and honoring Him.

Sunday, January 12, 2025

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Growing in Grace

“For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply [perhaps], after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish” (Luke 14:28-30).

In the area where I used to live, there was a man who began to build a big house. It was so large that it even had an indoor swimming pool. But he ran out of money, and was not able to finish it. Other people knew who he was, and often made fun of him, just as our verses say. He wanted that big house, but he had not calculated the cost, and eventually someone else bought it and finished it.

This is a good lesson for us in our Christian life. When we are first saved, we are often very ready to follow the Lord Jesus, and to live for Him in this world. But then we find out that there is a cost involved in having regular Bible reading, prayer, and Christian fellowship in our lives. There is also a cost involved in giving up the things of this world, in order to follow the Lord. Sometimes we are not ready to pay that cost, and then we do not finish well in our Christian life. I have known more than one Christian who started out well, and then decided that it was too hard to be a Christian in this world. They stopped pleasing the Lord, and just drifted along with the world. After a while, if you did not know that they were believers in the Lord Jesus, you would never guess from watching them, for they acted pretty much like worldly people.

In the history of this world, building has been very important. People have built homes in which to live, but have also built fortifications so that they could defend what they had built. So it is in our Christian life. Jude tells us that we must be diligent in “building up yourselves on your most holy faith” (Jude, v. 20), and this means spending time reading the Word of God, praying, and getting together with other Christians for fellowship. This will take time and energy, but we must be willing to take the time to do it. Then we will be able, with the Lord’s help, not only to begin our Christian life, but to finish it well.

Saturday, January 11, 2025

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Growing in Grace

“Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober” (1 Thessalonians 5:6).

It is important for us to have sleep, and most of us need about eight hours every night. But some people can exist with much less sleep, and I have known people who needed only about four hours sleep at night. William Van Horne, who became president of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1888, was like that. He often used to monitor the telegraph messages on the trains in the middle of the night, when some of the telegraph boys thought everybody else was asleep, and took the opportunity to send silly messages along the line. Then Mr. Van Horne would interrupt them, and when they found out who it was, they were somewhat shocked and surprised to find that the president of the railway was awake at that time, and listening to them. When someone asked him once why he did not sleep more, he replied, “Because when you are asleep, you don’t know what is going on!” He was a good president of the railway, because he usually knew just about everything that was going on.

We need a certain amount of natural sleep, but according to our verse, it is not good to be spiritually asleep. Many people in this world are spiritually asleep, and do not realize that judgment is ahead for them. They simply carry on with life, and perhaps pleasure too, yet do not think that someday they will have to meet God. Those who meet Him in their sins will have to spend an eternity in that awful place called hell.

But it is easy too for a Christian to be asleep spiritually, and Paul warns us about this in our verse. Instead of sleeping, we are to watch, and be sober. This does not mean that we need to stay awake at night, but it means that we are to be on guard in this world, and not just floating along with those who do not know the Lord Jesus. Any dead fish can float down the river with the current, but it takes an energetic, live fish to swim upstream, against the current. Perhaps you have seen pictures or videos of fish who do this, especially in the spring when they swim upstream to spawn. They can even jump up small waterfalls, they are so determined. The Lord wants us to be like those fish, and not to be spiritually asleep. The Lord wants us to be sober, or serious, about our Christian life.

Friday, January 10, 2025

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Growing in Grace

“Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21).

This is a very important verse. It is good to learn the lesson it teaches at a young age. In Romans chapter 12, Paul is giving a lot of good instruction to believers, as to how to behave in their Christian lives, whether in meeting the world, or meeting with other believers. Finally, he sums it all up in our verse for today, and we notice that the verse has two parts. We are not to be overcome of evil, but we are to overcome evil with good.

It is very easy in this world for us as Christians to be overcome of evil. Peter, one of the most valued disciples of the Lord Jesus, found this out. He was overconfident in his own ability to be faithful to the Lord, but when he got into the company of this world, he very soon denied ever knowing the Lord Jesus. When someone said, for the third time, that Peter was with the Lord Jesus, he even began to curse and to swear. If Peter had not been so confident in himself, he would have relied more on the Lord’s strength, and he would not have denied his Lord.

But the other half of the verse is important too. It is not enough merely to avoid doing what is wrong. We are also to do what is right, and then we overcome evil with good. When the Lord Jesus was being crucified, he did not complain or say anything to the soldiers who were doing it. He did not threaten them when they made fun of Him, put a crown of thorns on His head, or when they scourged Him. Rather, He said, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). He was not overcome of evil, but He overcame evil with good.

The Lord wants us to do the same thing. We do not need to be defeated by the evil in this world, for the Lord wants to help us get the victory. But He also wants us to follow His example in overcoming the evil with good.

Thursday, January 9, 2025

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Growing in Grace

“See then that ye walk circumspectly [very carefully], not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time” (Ephesians 5:15-16).

Although we were created for eternity, we live in a world of time, and our minds are bounded by time. We can talk about eternity, and understand the concept, but no matter how hard we try, we cannot “wrap our minds around it.” This is because our minds are limited by time, and we cannot understand something with no beginning or no ending.

The Lord knows this, and has given us time in our lives on earth, to use in the right way. For this reason, Paul could tell the Ephesians to “redeem the time.” To redeem means to buy something back again. Satan wants to rob us of our time, and to get us to use it for wrong things. But the Lord wants us to use our time for Him. If we wish to do anything well in this world, we will have to give up a lot of other things we might have done. This is especially true in our Christian lives. We must “buy back” our time by giving up things of this world, in order to use our time for the Lord.

It is rather serious when we think that what we do in this world will have an influence for all eternity. We have only a few years in this world. We may live to be 70, 80, or even longer, but we may also die at a younger age. In 1 Peter 4:2, Peter speaks of “the rest of his time,” referring to the time left to each one of us. None of us knows how long that will be. But we can use our time for “the will of God,” and lay up treasure in heaven, or we can waste our time on the things of this world. If we do this, we may indeed experience what the Bible calls “the pleasures of sin for a season” (Hebrews 11:25), but it will be a loss for all eternity. Of course, as a young teenager, you may be planning for a career, and this is wise and good. The Lord will help you choose something according to the will of God. Surely it is worth it to use our time for the Lord’s glory down here, and live for eternity, not only for time.

Wednesday, January 8, 2025

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Growing in Grace

“And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years” (Genesis 1:14).

Have you ever thought of the concept of time, and what it means? We live in a world where time is important, and we become so accustomed to living and working with time that perhaps we assume that it always existed. After all, doesn’t everything in this world have to happen at a certain time? But God lives and moves in eternity, and it was He who created time, as a small “blip” in eternity. No matter how far we go back, eternity went back further, and God was always there, for He existed from a past eternity. No matter how far we look forward, eternity goes further, for it will never end. As we have already noticed a few days ago, we too were made for eternity, and not merely for time. I well remember that when our first child was born, a godly older sister in Christ remarked, “Another little life that will live as long as God lives.” This is surely a solemn thought.

As we see from our verse, God did indeed create time, and created a world in which our existence is measured in periods of time, whether days, weeks, months, or years. A year on our earth is approximately 365 days, because that is how long it takes the earth to orbit around the sun once. But years on other planets are quite different. Since it is closer to the sun than our earth, Mercury’s year is only 88 days, but a year on Neptune is really long — 60,190 days. That is almost 165 of our years here on earth. But why did God create a few thousand years of time in the middle of eternity? Why did He bother?

I believe that there are two reasons for this. First of all, God wanted to honor and glorify His beloved Son, the Lord Jesus. (To glorify someone is to give them a high honor of which they are worthy.) In order to do this, He created this world by His Son, but then sent Him into this world as a man, to go to Calvary’s cross, and die for our sins. As a result of all this, God has been glorified, and in turn has glorified His Son. God has purposed that the Lord Jesus will rule over all things in a coming day.

However, there is another reason why God created time. God is love, and He needed objects to love. So God created you and me, and the Bible tells us, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). God wanted you and me to be with Him in heaven, to share all the glory of His Son, and to be His bride.

It is a wonderful thing to realize that God went to all the trouble of creating time, and this world too, in order to glorify His Son the Lord Jesus, and to have you and me in heaven with Him. What wonderful love!

Tuesday, January 7, 2025

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Growing in Grace

“Let the peace of God rule in your hearts … and be ye thankful” (Colossians 3:15).

The Bible tells us that one of the descriptions of the last days (the days in which we are living now), is that “men shall be … unthankful” (2 Timothy 3:2). Sad to say, it is very easy just to take the good things that God gives us, without being thankful for them.

More than 150 years ago, there was a paddlewheel steamer called “Lady Elgin” that often took passengers out for trips on Lake Michigan in the U.S.A. Just before midnight on the night of September 7, 1860, the ship set out from Chicago, bound for the city of Milwaukee, with 400 people on board. They had enjoyed their day’s outing in Chicago and were returning home. But that night a terrible storm came up on the lake, and the visibility was very poor. About 2:30 a.m. on September 8, the Lady Elgin was rammed by another ship, and began to sink very quickly.

When the news spread, a number of young men on the shore, who were students at the nearby Northwestern University at Evanston, Illinois, saw what was happening. They began to help rescue passengers who were in the water, but who could not get through the breakers to get to shore. Many of these young men were real heroes, but one name stands out — that of Edward Spencer, who was a student at the Garrett Biblical Institute. He was a good swimmer, and because of his persistence and courage, he was able to bring seventeen people to safety. Sad to say, fewer than 100 of the 400 passengers on the Lady Elgin were saved, as the storm was so fierce and the undertow so strong.

Although he was a good swimmer, Ed Spencer was not super-strong, and the effort of saving all these people ruined his health. He survived, married, and had children, but never regained his former health and strength. Some years later, a man taking a trip westward in the U.S.A. found out by accident that Ed Spencer was living in Phoenix, Arizona, and paid him a visit. In the course of their conversation, the visitor said to him, “Ed, that was certainly a great thing you did that night many years ago. I know it cost you a lot, as you never regained your health, but I’m sure those whom you rescued remember you, and give you some help from time to time.” Slowly, and with tears running down his cheeks, Ed replied, “Not one ever came back and even said thank you.”

Perhaps you and I are horrified at the ingratitude of those whose lives were paid for with Ed Spencer’s health, but if we know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, have we ever taken time to thank Him for what He did? Ed Spencer lost his health, but the Lord Jesus suffered more than anyone could ever suffer, and then gave His life for us, in order to pay the penalty for our sins.

When the Lord Jesus cleansed ten lepers (Luke 17:11-19), only one came back to say thank you, and the Lord Jesus felt it that only one out of ten came back. He feels it today if we accept His free gift of salvation, and do not take time to thank Him.

Monday, January 6, 2025

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Growing in Grace

“Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth” (Jeremiah 9:23-24).

Yesterday we talked about the universe, and went over some of the numbers that demonstrate the size and complexity of it. It is indeed very impressive! But while the universe displays the power and glory of God, it does not tell us about His heart. In the same way we may see a beautiful painting, or a nice piece of furniture made by a good carpenter, yet neither of these tells us anything about the character of the person who made it. He or she may be very nice, but may also have a bad personality and character. I knew a man once who was very good with his hands, but no one wanted to work for him, because he was so difficult to be around.

But God has not only revealed His power and glory in creation; He has also shown us His heart by sending His Son into this world. “God is love” (1 John 4:8), and He has shown His love by giving His Son to die for us. When man disobeyed in the Garden of Eden, he brought sin with all its misery into this world, and spoiled his relationship with God. But God wanted a relationship with the man He had created, and by sending His Son into this world, He made a way for that relationship to be restored in a more wonderful way than before. Now we know the heart of God even better than if sin had never entered this world, for we know that God loved us enough to send His Son to die for us. If Adam and Eve had never sinned, we would be enjoying the Garden of Eden today. But now we know God as our Father, and look forward to spending an eternity in heaven!

Of course, the same book that tells us “God is love,” also tells us that “God is light,” and God did not have to give up part of His holiness in order to save us. No, God is perfectly satisfied with the work our Lord Jesus did on the cross, for in the three hours of darkness, He bore the judgment for sin that God’s holy nature demanded. Now God can come out and offer a free salvation to whoever will come and take it.

Again, it is impressive to see the wonders of God’s creation, but as our verse says, it is even more wonderful to know God. We may learn things about Him when we look at the universe, but we learn His heart when we think about Calvary’s cross.

Sunday, January 5, 2025

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Growing in Grace

“God Himself [that] formed the earth and made it; He hath established it, He created it not in vain (or waste), He formed it to be inhabited” (Isaiah 45:18).

God took an interest in this earth, and when He created it, He made sure that it was suitable for man and animals to live on it. As we have already seen, this earth is not very large, compared to some of the stars and heavenly bodies in the universe. In fact, if we were to try and make a model of the universe (as we know it today) large enough so that the earth could be seen with the naked eye (say, about the size of a grain of sand), the earth itself would not be big enough to hold the model. Yet God took an interest in this world. He not only fitted it for man, animals, and plants to live on, but He is using it as part of His plan to honor and glorify His beloved Son.

Why did God not use a bigger planet on which to create man, animals, and plants? Why did he pick this earth, which is not that big, compared to some other planets? He has not told us, and we must be content to recognize that God may choose to do things the way He sees best. He has not told us why He did everything in a certain way.

However, I would suggest that perhaps there is at least one good reason why God picked this earth on which to place man. God knew that man would disobey the one command He gave him, and bring sin into this world. As a result, man would give up God, become very proud, and for many years would think that he and his earth were at the center of the universe. But the more man has learned about the universe, the more he must realize that the earth on which he lives is only a very small place in God’s universe. Yet God has put it in just the right position so that people, animals, and plants can live on it. If man is only willing to realize it, all this only points to God Himself as the One who should be glorified. It is not man who is great, but rather the God who created this vast universe.

Saturday, January 4, 2025

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Growing in Grace

“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handywork” (Psalm 19:1).

It is a marvelous sight to be able to go out on a clear night and look at the sky. If you can get some distance away from a city or town, it is even better, for then the city lights do not obscure the night sky, and the stars are easier to see. In the South Island of New Zealand, authorities have established what is called the “Dark Sky Reserve,” which is a large area of 4300 square kilometers (about 1650 square miles), reserved for viewing the night sky. In this area, any artificial lighting is very carefully controlled so that the stars can be seen at their brightest. Those who are willing to make the trip there can take special tours at night to view the stars and planets.

During the last fifty years or so, man has discovered much more about the universe than was previously known, but there is still much that we do not know. But what we do know does indeed show the glory of God. We may think our earth is large, and indeed it is, but the sun is much larger. If the sun were hollow, and you began to try and fill it up by placing one earth after another into it, the sun would hold about one million earths. This means that if you were to place one earth into the sun every second, and worked for twelve hours every day, it would take you more than 23 days to fill that sun with earths!

However, there are stars in the universe much larger than our sun that warms us. There is a star called UY Scuti that is so large that it has a volume approximately 5 billion times that of the sun! Think of how many earths that star could hold! It would take more than your lifetime to fill it! Of course these measurements are not exact, as star dust and other things floating about in space sometimes make it hard to get accurate measurements, especially of stars that are thousands of “light years” away from us. (The term “light year” is used to measure distance in space, and is the distance traveled by light in a year. Since light travels at 300,000 kilometers per second (186,000 miles per second), a light year is a long way!) But all this gives us an idea of how big the universe is.

We might ask, Why did God bother to create a universe so large? What is the purpose of it, since no other star or planet has ever been found that would be suitable for people to live on? I believe that the answer is in our verse for today. God wanted to display His glory in what He created, and so He formed a universe so large and complicated that man has not yet reached the end of it. In fact, there is good evidence today that the universe is actually getting bigger!

We can understand something of God’s power and glory when we see the stars in the heavens, and realize that He created all this, simply by calling it into existence. And not only did He create it, but He maintains it, so that it functions in an orderly way. The Bible says concerning the Lord Jesus, “All things subsist together by Him” (Colossians 1:17 JND). God intended that anyone who looked at the heavens would realize that He (God) existed, and would want to know more about Him.

Friday, January 3, 2025

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Growing in Grace

“He hath made everything beautiful in its time; also He hath set the world in their heart” (Ecclesiastes 3:11 JND).

Two days ago we were talking about how you and I were made in the “image and likeness of God,” and yesterday we saw that we were made not only for time, but for eternity. This is brought out in the verse quoted above, for the word “world” could also be translated “the infinite,” or “eternity.” Even though we are young, we can understand this, for it does not seem to matter what we have, it never seems to satisfy us for very long. If we have a new toy, we are usually very excited, and have a wonderful time playing with it. But it does not really make us happy for months and months. No, we get tired of it, and want something more, something different. Or the toy breaks, and then it does not work properly. As we get older, this desire to have more and more continues, and many people in this world spend their entire lives trying to find something more to give them pleasure. Sometimes it is getting more things like cars, boats, vacation homes, etc. Others like to travel and visit as many different places as possible in the world. These things are not sinful in themselves, but Satan can use them to take our hearts away from what is really important. For some it means trying to become famous and well-known. For others it may mean getting into a position of authority, so that they can control other people. Satan has many different ways of attracting us, for he realizes that different people want different things.

The verse quoted above was written by King Solomon, who was probably the wealthiest man that ever lived. He had everything he could want in this world, for as a king, he could use his great riches to buy anything he wanted. He had the best of food, and many servants to do for him whatever he wanted. He had beautiful gardens, fruit trees, pools of water, exotic animals and birds, and many other things. More than this, God gave him wonderful wisdom, so that people came from many different countries to hear his wisdom.

However, everyone who looks for satisfaction and pleasure down here finds out the same thing — there is nothing in this whole world that completely satisfies. Since man’s heart is made for eternity, nothing down here will fill his heart, whether we are young or old. Even King Solomon had to say, after having all these riches, “All is vanity and vexation (irritation) of spirit” (Ecclesiastes 2:17). This simply means that having all these riches only increased his desire to have something more, and the more he had, the more he became frustrated because nothing really satisfied him. Only God Himself can fill our hearts, and make us truly happy. When we accept Christ as our Savior, we not only know that our sins are forgiven, but also have the enjoyment of Christ in our hearts. He truly fills our hearts, and satisfies!

God delights to give us the things we need to live our lives down here for His glory, and we can be thankful for good food, good clothes to wear, and houses in which to take shelter. But let us remember that the Lord Jesus said that we should not try to have our treasure down here; rather we are told to lay up our treasure in heaven.

Thursday, January 2, 2025

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Growing in Grace

“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

In yesterday’s message, we noticed that the Lord Jesus is referred to in John 1:1 as “the Word.” This simply means that He represents everything that God is. We cannot understand God fully, for if we could, we would be gods ourselves. But we can realize through the Scriptures that God is a Trinity (a being made up of three persons), consisting of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The Lord Jesus is the Son of God, and when God the Father wanted to reveal Himself to you and me, He sent His only Son down into this world as a man. In this way He was “made flesh,” and had a human body, soul, and spirit, just as you and I have. He was born into this world as a baby, and grew up in a family, just as you and I do. But one thing about Him was different — very different; He did not have a sinful nature, as we all do. He never told a lie, never was disobedient to His parents, never took something that was not His, never hit His younger brothers or sisters, never used bad words, or did any of the other wrong things that all of us did as children. He was perfect, because He was the Son of God.

Because of all this, He stood out among other children, and as our verse says, “was full of grace and truth.” But even though He was a real man, He was also still the Son of God, and was the One who upheld “all things by the word of His power” (Hebrews 1:3). He could tell the storm to cease, when their boat in the Sea of Galilee was filling with water. He could heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, and act in every way according to His divine power.

Most of all, however, He could show us what God the Father was like. Before the Lord Jesus came, man could not really know God in a very personal way. But now the Lord Jesus has revealed the Father, and He could say, “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father” (John 14:9). It is a most wonderful thing to know God, and we know Him because the Lord Jesus, who is God Himself, has come into this world as a man to reveal Him.

Wednesday, January 1, 2025

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Growing in Grace

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God” (John 1:1-2).

At first glance, these might seem to be difficult verses to understand. Who is “the Word,” and what beginning are the verses speaking about? However, it is not really that hard.

We are used to measuring time by years, and now we are at the beginning of another year. God has so arranged “planet earth” that a complete year has 365 ¼ days, and this has gone on for thousands of years. But in these verses, the Spirit of God is referring to someone who had no beginning.

We do not know exactly how old this earth is, for the Bible only tells us, “Of old hast Thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of Thy hands” (Psalm 102:25). When this earth was created, the Lord Jesus was there, and was the Creator of it. We are also reminded that “before the mountains were brought forth, or ever Thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God” (Psalm 90:2). Again, this is referring to the Lord Jesus, who created this world.

In the verses in John 1, the Spirit of God is reminding us of who the Lord Jesus is — the One who is the Son of God, and thus had no beginning. In the same chapter, we read that “all things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made” (John 1:3). Anything that is made, whether it is this world, or the sun, the moon, the stars — all of it was made by Him, for He existed before anything that was made.

It is hard for us to imagine someone that had no beginning, but that is the way God is. He existed from all eternity. However, the wonderful thing is that He has made us for eternity too. We live in a world of time, where everything takes place at a certain time. But you and I were not made just for time; we were created in the image and likeness of God, and will live for all eternity! This is not only a wonderful thought, but a serious thought too. Where will we spend that eternity when we leave this world? With the Lord Jesus in heaven, or in that awful place called hell? If we know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, we can be assured that we will spend eternity with Him in heaven.