Christian, are you growing?

by Patte Smith on Monday, August 13, 2012 at 1:25pm ·

There is a generation of Christians in this age
who grieve me to the heart.
They make my blood run cold.
I cannot understand them.
For anything that man's eye can see,
they make no progress.
They never seem to get on.
Years roll on, and they are just the same —
the same besetting sins,
the same infirmities of disposition,
the same weakness in trial,
the same chilliness of heart,
the same apathy,
the same faint resemblance to Christ;
but no new knowledge,
no increased interest in the kingdom,
no freshness,
no new strength,
no new fruits...
Are they not forgetting that growth is the proof of life —
that even the tree grows, and the snail and the sloth MOVE?
Are they not forgetting how awfully far a man may go,
and yet not be a true Christian?
He may be like a wax figure,
the very image of a believer,
and yet not have within him
the breath of God...
and be dead after all.

~ JC Ryle