Aug 11, 2020
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-2).
Growth is the natural process of all living things. We have a beginning and we have an end. A good man named Job suffered multiple calamities and losses, in a short period of time, including the loss of all of his children. Still he revered the Lord and refused to curse God. He worshiped him saying, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21)… Solomon wrote, “a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to pluck up what is planted.”
The time between our conception and demise, as long as blood cells can reproduce, is a time for growth, physically and mentally. Natural life is like plant life and animal life. But there is a growth of life that occurs in another sphere, spiritually, when the second birth of the Spirit breaks out within us. Peter describes it this way; “since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God” (1 Peter 1:23); so “… grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18). Paul describes it in his letters to Timothy and Titus (2 Timothy 3:15; Titus 3:4-7).
The life of the Holy Spirit is different from natural human life. It is a life of growth given by God, and decided by Jesus Christ, for everyone who hears the word of God, believes and confesses HIM as Lord and Savior (Mark 16:16; Romans 10:8-10). Baptism was instituted by the Lord as means of regeneration at the beginning of this new life of growth in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, infants included. As soon as children begin to say ‘mom-ma’ and ‘dad-da’ they are taught to say the wonderful name of Jesus, name above every name, in order to grow up in him, to know him and to confess him.
God has given us a precious gift – life. We have so many days to grow and experience it. But what happens after we die? The spirit returns to God who gave it. It is appointed unto man once to die, then comes the judgement. God is love, and we believe he loves the world still. We confess that we are saved by grace through faith alone in his Son, our Savior, who died for our sins and rose from the dead to present us accepted before the Father in Heaven. So come and be growing in God’s love (Aug.11, 2020 A.D. Anno Domini).
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