Category: Food For Growth

Hebrews 5:12-14 ESV

[12] For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, [13] for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. [14] But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

Christianity is many things but it’s not about easing your conscience. So, what’s it about then? It’s all about growing and maturing in the things of God, making disciples, and equipping the saints for good works.

We have the greatest heritage ever, because we have the LORD Jesus, and He has given us His Holy Spirit. And has endued us with power from on high!

We are Spirit-filled! Water baptized and running for our lives!

That is what gave Jesus the confidence to say, “…All things are possible for one who believes (Mark 9:23b). Therefore, don’t continue on milk. Strive to grow. Seek out the meat of the Word.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Mature. 

Exodus 2:5-10 NIV

[5] Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. [6] She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said. [7] Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?” [8] “Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. [9] Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. [10] When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.”

I feel like there’s one mother in the Bible that really doesn’t get a lot of credit, and that is Moses’ mother. No, not his biological mother but his adopted mother. Pharaoh, the man who sent out the command to kill all the Hebrew male babies born during the time of Moses, was her father.

Now, Pharaoh could have easily looked at the Hebrew male child, sentenced him and his daughter to death, then called it a day. Even though this was a high possibility, Pharaoh’s daughter still took the Hebrew baby as her own and named him Moses.

There are so many children out there seeking a mother figure in their lives. You don’t even necessarily need to adopt them, that may not be in your cards, but just loving another as you would love your own child is sometimes all it takes to make a positive difference in the life of another.

Dear LORD, please help me to be the mother my children need and a mother to any other child that may need a mother’s love. Show me how to love and care for someone in need so that they might not be alone but might see You through me. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

⁶ So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as LORD, continue to live your lives in Him, ⁷ rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. ⁸ See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. ⁹ For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, ¹⁰ and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. ¹¹ In Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, ¹² having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised with Him through your faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. ~ Colossians 2:6-12

In this passage, Paul urges all believers to stay firmly rooted in their faith in Christ, encouraging them to grow in Him and overflow with gratitude, while cautioning against deceptive philosophies grounded in human traditions rather than in Christ’s truth. Like preaching that Jesus was out of order 85% of the time. Or preaching a message of racism and bigotry.

He highlights that Christ embodies the fullness of deity in human form, meaning that all the attributes, power, and essence of God—His wisdom, authority, and divine nature—are perfectly and completely present in Jesus, even as He walked the earth as a man, bridging the divine and human in a way that reveals God fully to us.

We reject any religion that displaces Jesus from His rightful place as the second member of the Godhead. Likewise, we do not embrace any belief system—even one professing to be Christian—that diminishes Jesus’ divine role as Creator God to merely a human figure, or that elevates His earthly mother or His followers to the status of deity.

We keep our religion pure by not being polluted by the philosophies of this world, as James advised us to do (James 1:27). Paul goes on to use vivid imagery like spiritual circumcision and baptism to show how faith in Christ transforms believers, stripping away our sinful nature and uniting us with His death and resurrection, securing victory over sin and death through His supreme authority over all powers.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Keep The Faith Pure.

³ And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. ⁴ Whoever says “I know Him” but does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, ⁵ but whoever keeps His word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in Him: ⁶ whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which He walked. ~ 1 John 2:3-6

Paul explained to Titus that people can claim to know Jesus, but yet deny Him with their works, or with their actions. Actions do indeed speak louder than words. Just like you witness with more than just words, you deny God with more than just words.

Paul had some choice words for those kinds of Christians. He called them insubordinate, empty talkers, deceivers, liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons, detestable, disobedient, and unfit for any good work. In verse 11, he writes plainly that these kinds of lying teachers must be silenced, because they were upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach.

That was Paul’s own words. And you know what? We still have the same kind of preachers doing the same things today. They preach for shameful gain. Others… preach to spread a false narrative, throwing whole communities… not just families, but whole communities into confusion by preaching a lie, and thus, leading countless many astray.

They preach a lifestyle that is contrary to the Word of God. And the work that they were called to do, they won’t do. That is to keep His commandments and make disciples, teaching them to obey all that He taught us to obey (Matthew 28:20). There is no alternative lifestyle for the Christian. We will be judged on what is in the Bible, and not on what man deems is right or wrong.

Look, real love does not deceive, but rather, real love tells you the truth even if it hurts. I know that you’ve been taught that if someone does not confirm your actions, or your lifestyle, they obviously hate you, or at the least, they do not like you. And that person, or persons who tell you the truth, are judged to have a phobia. But nothing can be further from the truth.

True love corrects with love, respect, patience, and hope. True love will never watch as another soul walks towards destruction and never once open their mouth to point them to Christ. As Christians, our testimony isn’t just what we say. Our testimony is how we live our lives. Therefore, live your life in a way that when you tell others about Jesus or correct them in their sin, they will know it is from a true place of love and not one of hatred or hostility.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Live A Strong Testimony.

By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another. ~ John 13:35

Our love for one another is a sign to the unbeliever. Why? Where hate divides… love unites. Where hate wounds… love heals. Where hate destroys… love restores. And know this: while hate may last a long time in the hearts of the broken, God’s love is eternal. It lasts forever. So, let us love one another and be as one, just as Jesus and the Father are One.

LORD, please help us to love one another and be an example to the world. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

Isaiah 53:3-12

[3]  He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. [4]  Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. [5]  But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. [6]  All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. [7] He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. [8] By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? [9] And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. [10] Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. [11] Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. [12]  Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

Jesus has now been betrayed, condemned by the chief priests, turned over to Pilate, flogged mercilessly, and forced to carry His own cross up to Golgotha. On His way the cross becomes too much for Him and He is physically unable to carry it any further, so they get Simon the Cyrene to carry Jesus’ cross for Him. As if that wasn’t enough, they then strip Him of His clothes and nail Him to a tree.

Everyone around Him is mocking Him and reviling Him. Even those on the cross next to Him are mocking Him. People passing by are ridiculing and spewing hatred His way. It’s not until after Jesus drinks the sour wine and is almost ready to die that one thief on the cross realizes He is in fact the Messiah and changes His attitude before Him.

His body is raw from being flogged. His strength is gone from within Him and He is slowly and painfully suffocating to death. In order to get any ounce of breath into His lungs He has to push against the nails in His feet and His raw back against a wooden cross. He did this fully knowing that those around Him, the majority, would never repent. They’d never accept His sacrifice, but it didn’t matter. He did it willingly out of love, even go as far as to pray on their behalf for the Father to forgive them. From 9 am to 3 pm He hung on that cross in agony, never once taking the easy way out and giving into pride and showing them who He is by coming down off of that cross. Still, He turned the other cheek and showed them and the world love.

It’s easy to overlook what Christ did for us. It’s easy to just take it for granted. This is the importance of truly understanding what Christ did for us. I’ve watched the Passion of  the Christ ever since it first came out. I flinch at each whip that hits His body so viciously and every nail that pierces His flesh so mercilessly. I have loved ones who refuse to watch it because it’s too gruesome. I used to believe that this portrayal was what Christ would’ve looked like on the cross, but after reading Isaiah, I realized it wasn’t gruesome and painful enough.

¹⁴ Just as there were many who were appalled at Him— His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and His form marred beyond human likeness—

Isaiah 52:14^NIV

Isaiah says He was beaten beyond recognition so much so you couldn’t even tell He was human. Let that sink in. While Mel Gibson’s depiction was gruesome and is by far the best depiction we have of Christ’s crucifixion today, it doesn’t even come close to what Christ actually went through on the cross.

Christ’s sacrifice was so much more than what we feel and think it was. How can we refuse to look at something that doesn’t even come close to the true sacrifice of Christ Jesus because it’s too gruesome, but we want to accept the benefits of that sacrifice?

When we water down the message of salvation and all that Christ did for us, we begin to be take the sacrifice for granted. His sacrifice wasn’t nothing. It was a great sacrifice. At burden so henry Isaiah rightfully calls Him a Man of Sorrows.

Dear LORD, I’m sorry for every time I have taken Your sacrifice for granted. Please forgive me, LORD. Thank You for Your sacrifice. Thank You for Your love. Thank You for Your grace. Thank You, LORD, for giving Yourself without reservation. Help me to proclaim Your death until You return or call me to You. Help me to live a life worthy of being called Your servant. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.