Quote from Forum Archives on March 7, 2012, 12:45 pm

Posted by: edwrather <edwrather@...>

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The Burning Bush Devotional
There are 17,000 Subscribers to the Email Devotional

03.07.12

Growing Up

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach
you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to
need milk and not solid food. - Hebrews 5:12 NKJV.

Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all
evil speaking, as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you
may grow thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. - 1
Peter 2:1-3 NKJV.

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the
form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made
Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in
the likeness of men. - Philippians 2:5-7 NKJV.

In the United States, AARP (American Association of Retired Persons) has a
TV commercial aimed at recruiting new members. You can join AARP when you
are 50-years-old, and they have been regularly sending me invitations ever
since before my fiftieth birthday. The TV commercial asks the question of
those who would be old enough to join AARP, "What do you want to be when you
grow up?" In the commercial, several responses are given, including these:
fix up old houses; run a marathon; and start a band. On the AARP website,
they have many other responses from people about what they want to be when
they grow up, including: be the oldest surfer in the world; be an architect
and build affordable housing; sail around the world; be a Radio Music Hall
Rockette dancer; college professor; travel in RV; yoga instructor; backup
singer for Tina Turner; registered nurse; diva on a soap opera; write a
romance thriller; and, be the person I was before I had to grow up. AARP
finishes their commercial by saying that they believe, "you're never done
growing."

>From the Book of Hebrews and from the epistles of the apostle Paul we know
that some early Christians had not yet grown up. The early Christians
referred to in the Book of Hebrews should have grown in the faith, and had
time to grow in the faith, to become teachers; however, they were still just
babies in the faith. Before we condemn them, we need to remember that those
were tough times to be living life as Christians. I watched a video Sunday
detailing some of the historical records of Jesus. One record from 102 A.D.
was of a Roman commander writing the Emperor to determine if Christians
should still be put to death. Their crime? They had met together and sang a
song referring to Jesus as God.

What about you? What about me? What is your excuse, what is my excuse, for
not reaching our growth potential as disciples of our Lord? The apostle
Peter indicates some of the things that slow down the growth process:
malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and evil speaking. Peter says those things
must be laid aside. The writer of the Book of Hebrews says we need to, "lay
aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us." The apostle
Paul in 1 Corinthians 3 encourages that we avoid worldly wisdom, and we are
told that, "the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God (1 Corinthians
3:19)." Of course, there are many other things which slow down our growth as
children of God. I am sure that you know very well what they are in your own
life, just as I am in mine. Whatever is slowing down our growth to our
maturity in Christ, let us lay it aside.

What do you want to be when you grow up as a child of God? Personally, I
want to be like my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ when I grow up. As we are
told in the epistle to the Philippians, "Let this mind be in you which was
also in Christ Jesus."

Copyright © 2012. Ed Wrather. The Burning Bush website has been online since
January 31, 1998. On June 8, 1998 the email version of the Burning Bush
Devotional was first sent. Ed Wrather began writing devotionals in the early
1990s. The distribution of these first devotionals was primarily through the
Burning Bush Newsletter sent to prison facilities throughout the United
States and Canada.

Please continue to pray for my wife, Jeanie, as she recovers from surgery
and ovarian cancer, and is now going through chemo. Many prayer needs are
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Bush Prayer Group (Of course, I am always in need of prayer - please pray
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