The Farmville herald and farmer-leader. (Farmville, Va.) 1934-1957, 1954-07-02

the Lord Jesus Dr. Foreman
himself. 1t is said of him that he
increased in wisdom and stature
and in favor with God and man."
II Jesus is our Example in growth
as well as in other ways, then
we can learn much about Christian
growth from him.
A Time for Struggle
The Greek language in which
Luke wrote, has words for every
thing Many times we can see
what Luke meant by carefully
looking into the Greek words he
used, which are sometimes more
precise than our English words
usually are. In Luke 2:40 it is
written that Jesus the boy grew. "
In Luke 252 it is said that he
increased. Now those are two
different Greek words, in the orig
inal manuscript. and they do not
mean just the same thing at all
The first is the ordinary everyday
word for grow" Plants grow.
animals grow. the little boy Jesus
grows. The same word is used for
all kinds of living things. Now a
little boy. say five years ole. no
/ more tries to grow than an oyster
does. He will grow, all right
Nothing can stop him if he gets
plenty of food and sunshine When
he goes to school he does not have
TO study hard. he picks up
things as we say. But there comes
time in every boys life, and il
must have come in Jesus life
when this simple word grow
is not enough any more. The word
increase" is different word en-.
tirely. II means literally TO cut
ones way forward. is the word
which was used to describe what
road building crew did in chop
ping out a trail through the for
est. II is a word for effort. strug-
gle. hard work. The time came
for Jesus. as it does for all grow
ing persons, when he could no
longer grow without putting out
his own vigorous strength
Good Animal?
An angry woman came into
teachers room one day and com
planned about the way her poor
little boy "a rascal if ever there
was one) had been treated. i
want you TO understand, she said,
that | don't care if he is
schoiss or not All l want is for
him to be a good animal If the
teacher had not been young and
shy, he would have said TO the
woman, Madam, that's just the
trouble He is a good animal We
should like to have him develop
into something else besides. II
all you want is a good animal,
take your boy home; he has grad
uated." or course the lady was
partly right We human beings
are animals, and as such we ought
to develop physically to the best
of our capacity. We have TO work
at it. God will not send il free,
not even to Christians.
The All-Round Life
Jesus cut his way forward not
only physically, but mentally wis
DOM, spiritually lin favor with
Cod and socially flavor with
mani. There comes a time in life
when if we are going to learn
something (say the Greek Ian
guage. or the GUITAR we just have
to get down and dig. The growing
Christian will grow in mind as
we'll as in body. Ignorance is not
Christian ideal. The same is true
socially. Our Lord was popular,
in the good sense. People loved
him But Luke suggests that this
was not something that just came
10 MIN, liz udu ~ WI n d. tillS ttp.
Some persons are born more So
ciable by nature than others; but
even the shy ones. the awkward
ones. can learn the fine art Of
getting along with other persons
if they try. II they never try, this
side of their natures. OF their
lives. will be stunted. Even the
spiritual life does not grow with
out effort. We grow through those
shioned but never out-dated
ways. which Jesus used and which
we can use too: prayer. study Of
Gods word and service in His
name. We never grow spiritually
by magic. never by wishing,
only by working with God.
Based on outlines copyrighted by the
Division OF Christian Education, Ma
tionai Council of the Churches of Christ
in the L. $. A. Released by Com m unity
Press ServieeD