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Constant Growth

by Jerry Ousley  
3/13/2015 / Christian Living

Did you know that we are constantly growing? As a child we are excited when our parents can mark another inch on the wall measuring how tall we are. We long for the day when we'll be as big as Mom or Dad. Some grow slowly until their mid to late teens before hitting a growth spurt. I've seen guys like that. During school they were small and skinny (like I was). Nearly overnight they hit what's called a growth spurt and it seems they shoot up like a rocket. They might have been easy marks during high school but I wouldn't want to mess with them now!

Probably some of you are like me. I grew until my mid twenties then stopped growing in the upward direction. Around the age of thirty I suddenly began growing again; only not up but out. I suppose my notorious appetite had finally caught up with me. At twenty-seven I wore a size twenty-eight waist. Then it went to thirty, thirty-two, thirty-four, thirty-six, and finally forty-two. Folks, I refuse to go any higher! I still have a good, healthy appetite, but now I do try to watch it somewhat. I haven't lost any weight but no matter how much hang-over I may have I'm determined to not cross over into that forty-four category!

A tree is another living thing that is constantly growing. Some trees, like the giant sequoias in California, are hundreds of years old. Each year they add another layer as revealed in the inner rings of the tree.

As believers in Christ Jesus, we never reach a point that we should stop growing. The next principle marking a successful Christian life is to persevere to keep on going. A part of persevering is to never stop growing in the Lord. Although there may be many who have graduated from Bible College and Seminary, I don't know anyone has learned it all in the Lord. Regardless how much education we may receive our graduation day doesn't come until it's time to go to Heaven. A person can memorize the Bible from cover to cover but that doesn't mean that they've learned all the lessons contained in it. As long as we are on this earth we will continue to be students.

I remember a few years ago, the company I worked for had hired a guy to take care of their computer system. Up until then that had been my job. I have had only a few classes in the computer field and learned most of what I know by the old fashioned "trial and error" method. I had been fooling around with computers back when a window was something you looked out of from your house. I cut my teeth on the old DOS operating system. This new guy, who was a great guy by the way, wasn't old enough to know what DOS was. He knew a lot about windows and had a degree in computer science. So when the company decided to take the position away from me and give it to an expert because he was trained and I wasn't I silently let it go.

But the day came when he had to work on an older computer that was required to program some of the machines in the shop and it ran on the old DOS operating system. He wheeled it into his office and sort of sat there looking at it. A couple of hours later I strolled into his office and he still hadn't done anything with that computer. I asked him about it and he said, "I don't understand this thing at all!" I tried not to let the light beaming from me put his eyes out as I promptly gave him a crash course in good ole' DOS.

The point is that we are never to stop growing in Christ. None of us know it all. Each day reveals new lessons in life and in our Christian experience. Don't ever stop growing. Strive to add an inch or two every day. If you do, you'll discover that your experience with the Lord will remain fresh and new, and you'll be amazed not only at all you've learned over the years, but all that you still need to learn.

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.

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