Tag Archives: growth

Bible Gleanings, devotions

Growing in Grace | Bible Gleanings | June 15-16, 2024

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A group of tourists visiting a picturesque village walked by an old man sitting beside a fence. In a rather patronizing way, one tourist asked him, “Were any great men born in this village?” The old man replied, “Nope, only babies.” His point was that no one is born as a hero or heroine, or someone who joins the annals of renowned history. Everyone starts out at ground level as a crying infant.

And that’s how you start out as a born-again believer as well. You aren’t born as a Christian adult, but as a babe in Christ (1 Cor. 3:1). You take baby steps on the narrow road that leads to life, and you eventually start to run the race of redemption (Heb. 12:1). You drink the milk of God’s word until you can mature and feast on the meat of truth (1 Peter 2:2; Heb. 5:12).

And while we start out this way, we must not stay this way. It is God’s will that we grow in Christ as believers. We must “no longer be children,” commanded Paul in Ephesians 4, “tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine” (4:15a). We must “grow up” into salvation and give up “childish ways” (1 Peter 2:2; 1 Cor. 13:11). And we must “graduate” from the elementary school of faith, moving on from the ABCs of the Christian life to the deeper things of God (Heb. 6:1-3).

Therefore, the Lord commands all believers: “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen” (2 Peter 3:18). We are exhorted to always seek a deeper understanding of Christ and to experience His grace more fully. We should never settle with what we already know and who we are right now. Rather, we should strive for continual growth and constant progress in spiritual maturity.

And the measure of our growth in grace is fruitfulness. Growing crops produce fruit and growing Christians produce spiritual fruit. Thus, all believers should be a good tree that “bringeth forth good fruit” (cf. Matt. 7:16-18). When you abide in the True Vine, you will bear “spiritual produce” that points people to its source, which is the Lord Jesus (John 15:1-8). If you possess the Holy Spirit and let Him possess you, you will bear fruits of “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, [and] temperance” (Gal. 5:22-23, KJV).

Therefore, our daily prayer should sound like the words of Growing in Grace, a hymn penned by Edmund S. Lorenz (1854-1942) which pleads, 

“Help me Saviour, more each day,

Gladly Thy sweet will obey;

More and more Thy love display,

Oh, help me grow in grace!

Growing in grace ev’ry day,

Growing in grace ev’ry hour,

Help me Saviour, Thou hast pow’r,

To ever grow in grace.”

Brandon is the pastor of Bandana Baptist Church in Bandana, Kentucky, where he lives with his wife, Dakota, and their three dogs, Susie, Aries, and Dot. Brandon and Dakota are also foster parents through Sunrise Children’s Services of Kentucky. Brandon is also a published author and a religious columnist for the Advance Yeoman newspaper in Ballard County, Kentucky. He is also a devotional contributor for Kentucky Today, a news publication of the Kentucky Baptist Convention. His columns are also featured in the Times-Argus newspaper of Central City, Kentucky, West Kentucky News of western Kentucky, and the online blog, Reforming the Heart.

Bible Gleanings, devotions

His Workmanship | Bible Gleanings – October 22-23, 2022

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Repairing the rusting russet-colored sedan seemed like a waste of time to me. If you searched for “clunker” in Webster’s Dictionary, you’d see a picture of this car. It was in terrible shape: the tires were ashy from wear, the paint was chipped from weather, and the engine sputtered from sitting idle for so long. Despite its sorry state, it was my father’s restoration project for a few weeks. He took a hunk of junk, and burned time, broke sweat, and battered tools to make it run like new. 

Likewise, you are the heavenly Father’s “restoration project” if you have been saved by grace. The Scripture says, “For we are His workmanship” (Eph. 2:10a). The Lord bought you from sin’s junkyard, and He is always working on you to make you run like new (cf. Eph. 4:22-24; Col. 3:9-10). You are in His workshop of sanctification, but not for self-improvement. God is working on you to make you more like Christ: “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:18). 

Like any good mechanic, the Father uses many tools to fix you up. The Bible is a hammer that God uses to flatten out the dents in your theology (Jer. 23:29). The local church is the place where God gives you a weekly “engine tune up” in order to run effectively for Him throughout the week. Trials and tribulations are the buff pads God uses to polish the scuffs on your faith (James 1:2-4). And prayer is the “jump” that cranks your engine for righteous living, since it is through prayer that we receive God’s own power to obey Him (James 5:16).

God isn’t finished with you yet, but He will finish what He started. The Scripture assures us, “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6). Until then, we must humbly submit to His means and methods of making us what we ought to be. And, we may exuberantly resound the words of He’s Still Workin’ on Me, the gospel classic which says: 

“He’s still workin’ on me

To make me what I ought to be;

It took Him just a week to make the moon and stars,

The sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars.

How loving and patient He must be!

He’s still workin’ on me!”

Bible Gleanings is a widely-read weekend devotional column, written for the Murray Ledger & Times in Calloway County, Kentucky.

Brandon is the founder and main contributor to Brandon’s Desk, the blog with biblical resources from his ministry. He pastored the family of believers at Locust Grove Baptist Church in Murray, Kentucky for six years. He and his wife Dakota live there with their three dogs, Susie (Jack Russell), Aries (English Shepherd), and Dot (Bluetick Beagle).

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The Lord Blesses an Evangelistic Church

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“Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews. But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus. And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord” (Acts 11:19-21).

Any church whose members offer their hands to labor in preaching the gospel will have God’s hand of favor resting upon them. He blesses churches who “bring in the sheaves.” His blessing will come inside the church when believers go outside the church with the gospel of grace. He fills the barn with wheat when laborers work the field for a harvest.

We often experience a shortage of God’s blessing on our churches because of a shortage of gospel-laborers gleaning in the field. There is no undersupply of gospel seed. There is no lack of fields ripe for planting. What is in short measure are grace-empowered, Spirit-compelled believers sowing the gospel seed in fertile fields. That is precisely why Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few, therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Matthew 9:37-38).

The gospel harvest was abundant in the city of Antioch, according to St. Luke in the passage above. Believers fleeing persecution in Jerusalem took the gospel seed with them, scattering it in the soil of many unsaved hearts (cf. Acts 8:1, 4). As a result, multitudes came to Christ, eventually forming a large church in the city.

As the scattered saints sounded the saving message of Christ, they experienced the spectacular blessing of God, for, “the hand of the Lord was with them.” You can’t stifle the outstandingly powerful hand of God Almighty. The Scripture declares, “None can stay his hand” (Daniel 4:35b). His hand of grace can lift any sinner drowning in the mire pit of iniquity. His hand of salvation can reach the farthest wandering soul, no matter how vehemently they run hellbound on the broad road to destruction. His hand of mercy can pry open the most impenetrable prison cell to liberate even the most enslaved sinner.

By God’s hand of blessing and grace, a growing church was born without seminary training, strategic planning, or the spending of money. Believers preached. God saved souls. Membership skyrocketed. That’s it.

The hand of the Lord—that’s what it takes. Of course, offering your hands to sow the gospel seed in evangelism is essential, too. God does the saving, but no one can be saved unless they first hear the gospel—from you (cf. Romans 10:14-17). Faith comes by hearing the word of Christ.

Moreover, we would be foolish to try to channel growth into our churches any other way. Solomon warned, “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain” (Psalm 127:1a). And God’s chosen means of building His house, the church, is evangelism, where we take the gospel to the unsaved in faith that God will save them, and lay them as living stones in His ever-growing spiritual house (1 Peter 2:5). Let’s stick to it.