One thing for sure about the Apostle Paul, he was never satisfied with the spiritual condition of the saints. Nowhere is this more evident than in his words to the church at Thessalonica:

“But as touching brotherly love ye need not that I write unto you…indeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia: but we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and more” (I Thes. 4:9,10).

Did you catch that? After acknowledging that the brotherly love of the Thessalonians was so great that it had spilled over into the surrounding regions of Macedonia, rather than congratulate them, the apostle begged them to “increase more and more.” When it came to wanting God’s people to grow in the Lord, there was no end to the Apostle Paul! In this he reminds me of my father, who was never satisfied with the level of success that he had attained at any point in his life.

Years ago, my brother (who was Dad’s partner in his tool and die business) was telling me about the tremendous growth that their machine shop had experienced after I left to work for Pastor Stam at Berean Bible Society. It was no coincidence, by the way, that the shop really took off after I left, for I was never a very good toolmaker! But after hearing of the exponential growth that my father’s business had experienced, I remarked to my brother, “Dad must be very happy about all this.” Shaking his head, my brother replied with words that I will never forget, saying, “There is no end to Dad. He wants to buy more machines, hire more people.”

That was certainly my father. When the state lottery began in Illinois, he mentioned to an old friend who worked at his shop that he had bought a ticket. This friend, who had known my dad for years, just laughed at him, and asked, “What would you do if you won the lottery? You wouldn’t retire like most people, you’d just buy more machines!”

Beloved, that’s the way to achieve greatness in any field of endeavor. Never be satisfied! Paul wasn’t satisfied with the surpassing love of the saints at Thessalonica. Don’t you want to be like Paul? Are you satisfied with the level of your spiritual growth? Are you begging God to help you attain pinnacles of spirituality that would make an angel gasp? No matter what area of your spiritual life needs to flourish, are you willing to pray about it right now?

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

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