◄ No Hunger - No Growth ►

Let us go on and get past the elementary stage. . . advancing steadily toward the completeness. . . that belongs to spiritual maturity" (Heb. 6:1, Amp.).

The birth truths of Romans 1:5 are not meant for our spiritual growth. The growth truths of Romans 6:8 are presented for our spiritual development and maturity. The Reformation brought back the birth truths, but the Cross and the Life truths are necessary for our growth.

"So many rest content with the thought that their sins are pardoned, and that they are in the path of life, but know nothing of a personal attachment to the risen Lord Jesus Christ as their life, or of faith that lives in the invisible and walks with the Father.

"With many this is the consequence of the hopelessness that came from the failure of their utmost efforts to live as they desired. They struggled in their own strength; they lost heart, they went back. The profession of faith is not cast away; religious habits are kept up; but there is nothing to show that they have entered or are seeking to enter the Holiest to dwell there.

"The power of the world, the spirit of its literature, and temptations of business and pleasure, all unite to make up a religion in which it is sought to combine a comfortable hope for the future with the least possible amount of sacrifice in the present." -A.M.

"Struggle and effort in themselves will never secure blessing, but by leading to despair and complete self-disgust they serve a divine purpose in the experience of the soul. I would rather see a soul in honest exercise, however legal he was, than see the light and careless acceptance of divine truth. I do not think God gives anything without preparing us for it by making us feel the need and value of it. It is a divine principle that He satisfieth the longing soul' (Ps. 107:9)." -C.A.C.

"He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger" (Deut. 8:3).