GROW AND GLOW

Bro. Jijo Angamally

Bid farewell to 2008 and welcome 2009!

Waah! what excitement!

Joy and sadness flash lights and shadows when we think of

 the past year!

Curiosity and fear fills our mind when we look forward.

Troops are mounting at the borders. Credit crunch at its peek!

Future is bleak.

But our God is an unchanging God. He is the same yesterday

today and forever.

As we step in to the New Year, the message I want to leave

with you is:

• Grow in the Lord
• Glow for the Lord

This is required of every believer.

We should be a growing Christian as well as glowing Christian.

Grow in the Lord

Christian life is a life of growth. Progressive Christian life is

expected of everyone. We have to grow up to Him. Christian

 life is compared with a ‘walk’. It is a progressive term.

Every word used to compare Christian life is compared with

growth. It is a sign of living! The New Testament believers and

the church were equally growing and glowing at the same time.

Let the year 2009 be a year of exceptional growth in your

spiritual life.

The supreme purpose of God concerning each of His children is

that they would become like His Son Jesus. “Grow up in all things i

nto Him who is the head – Christ” (Eph.4:15). The goal in

spiritual growth is to become more Christ-like in our character,

conversation and conduct. When Christ fills our lives, He can

be seen through us.

We should reach a degree of maturity that pleases and glorifies

 the Lord. We should strive to attain the measure of the stature

which belongs to the fullness of Christ. We have to grow

in ‘all aspects’. That means comprehensive Christ likeness

To grow into His likeness is to be completely subject to His

 controlling power, obedient to His every thought and expression

of will. It is to personify Paul’s prayers ‘For me, to live is

Christ” and “it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me”.

We need to feed upon the sincere Word of God for our

growth. The Word of God and the Spirit of God will

enable us to grow in the Lord.

Glow for the Lord

As we grow we need to glow for the Lord, because we are

 the ‘light of the world’ and we are commanded to shine.

“Arise; shine; for your light has come! And the glory of

the LORD is risen upon you. (Isa.60:1). Light is not given

simply to have but to live by. The world is engulfed in

darkness.

"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your

good works and glorify your Father in heaven (Mt 5:16).

For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of

 darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light

of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of

Jesus Christ. (2Co 4:6) “You may become blameless and

harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of

a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you

shine as lights in the world” (Phi 2:15)

Let’s grow in stature, and in favor both with the LORD

and men, like Samuel.

Let’s burn and shine like John the Baptist.