Crop

P 2947 Who are you really … ??

/ DVH

Matthew 21:33-46: “Now listen to another story. A certain landowner planted a vineyard, built a wall around it, dug a pit for pressing out the grape juice, and built a lookout tower. Then he leased the vineyard to tenant farmers and moved to another country.  At the time of the grape harvest, he sent his servants to collect his share of the crop. But the farmers grabbed his servants, beat one, killed one, and stoned another. So the landowner sent a larger group of his servants to collect for him, but the results were the same.

“Finally, the owner sent his son, thinking, ‘Surely they will respect my son.’“But when the tenant farmers saw his son coming, they said to one another, ‘Here comes the heir to this estate. Come on, let’s kill him and get the estate for ourselves!’ So they grabbed him, dragged him out of the vineyard, and murdered him. “When the owner of the vineyard returns,” Jesus asked, “what do you think he will do to those farmers?” The religious leaders replied, “He will put the wicked men to a horrible death and lease the vineyard to others who will give him his share of the crop after each harvest.”

This parable reminds me that without active, visible, accountability and supervision what are WE, you and I, actually like? As in, who are we when we are at our house? The nice people at church can’t see us there! Don’t be two different people:“Admit your faults to one another so that you may be healed…” This is a good time to ask your family if you are the same person wherever you are. If not – why not?? The bible says:“I can do all things through Christ Who gives me strength …”

This is one of the parables I like to call, ‘the very-scary-better-think-carefully-about-them” parables. Not a cheery story. Not a happy ending either! However, I love that Jesus is a realist. He understood mankind, including the best and the worst of us and He knew what we could do to each other. Some of our biggest spiritual problems can come from thinking:“Oh, I would NEVER do that!” Can anybody smell the Pharisee in the room? Like somehow we have become exempt from our own humanity. That’s called P.R.I.D.E. OK, so now there’s another 27 people who have gone right off me! Ho-hum.

None of us know what we are capable of, until we are pushed hard enough by circumstances, or maybe we see an opportunity for gain. I’ve met a lot of the “Oh, I would never do that,” type of Christians in my life. Good luck with that one! If that really IS you, then you need to thank the Lord for delivering you from temptation! Nobody knows our hearts but the Lord, and boy does HE know what’s nattily hidden away in there. Stuff that can be disguised quickly with a change of our facial expression. I’m not keen on dishonesty. I think deceit is a deadly poison, it eventually floods the body and becomes a way of life. Self-deception is the biggest thief of all!

The only thing that can actively transform every single one of us is the blood of Jesus, and the truth is, if you don’t think you need it – then you won’t see the need to apply it into your life! Really, REALLY dumb move, Basil! You can lie to me, your mother, your family, the pastor, your friends, but … when life squeezes you hard enough you never know what is going to come out. The biggest danger we face is what I call the ‘who will know?’- opportunities.

So let’s get real, and hang onto your bonnet sister, it’s about to blow off —  there can be no redemption without acknowledgment of sin. Now breathe… and listen to what the book says … you could always read it out loud: 1 John 1:9 says:“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” Hmm … maybe you need to read that again, it’s possible you missed a word in your clever speed reading. IF… if… if… if!!!! 

If’n ya don’t own your sins, you won’t see any need to confess them… and if we make excuses for our behaviour … we won’t own that either! I have heard about every excuse under the sun, from people who want to hide their real attitudes and self-centred ways from everyone. What a waste of a life! It is a waste of time letting fear and deceit run the show … we know that Jesus died to pay for all of it – but the prerequisite to qualification involves confessing our faults. We all have them. Presumption shot Peter in the foot, he was caught by a chook!

SomeBody already knows each one of us, who we really are!! He’s the Person we should all have holy fear about!We have made a god in our own image, and He’s very permissive and understanding … He understands I can’t help it, I had a hard childhood! Forget the gossip club at church, GOD knows! And our excuses just won’t hold water in front of His precious Holiness.

Forgiveness comes from His compassion, faithfulness, and that is only IN CHRIST. Our sin is no longer the problem, when we’ve given our lives to Him. However, when we try to hide from Him, and hide the things we still do from other people, then we are denying the power of the cross to cancel that sin. That’s the problem. 

Out of sight out of mind, doesn’t work in the kingdom of God. Honesty does. Confession does. Purity of heart does. The sacrifice Jesus willingly made for us does not give us permission to ignore the prompting of the Spirit of God. Just because we can’t see Him, that doesn’t mean He isn’t here, with us, right now. His Presence is all over His book … so quit skipping the bits you don’t like! The question for today is: who are we when no-one will know? Bye. 👋

P 2874 Our attitudes help define our understanding …

/ DVH

Luke 8:15 “But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.”Jesus is teaching the people who choose to follow Him around, about God’s kingdom, and how it works. First, He uses a story about a sower, and then He explains that further. However, His meaning is only clear to those passionate souls who want to truly hear about God. We, have been incredibly blessed – we get to hear both versions!

After the sower parable the bigger crowds dispersed, then the Lord took the time to expound that story to His disciples. He treated these people differently than the crowds who followed Him around, because they were the people who were going to take His place! He wanted to teach His disciples, His dedicated followers, the ways of the kingdom. He was incredibly wise and He knew that those people in the facebook crowd can have hard hearts and little application! 😶

So after the crowds had left, Jesus expounded His allegory and made it clear and applicable for their lives. The Lord wanted His disciples to see, through His loving insight, that the gospel can fall upon deaf ears, or busy ears, or hardened hearts, as well as being subject to other unforeseen things which can literally pick up our knowledge of God and carry it off! Plus the real eternal life which is in what He tells us personally, can be choked out by our own fear, doubt, carelessness and disobedience.

He is showing us the way to ensure and increase our participation in the things of God. To do that, we need to learn to take note of the dangers, and make sure we are not involved in the sort of stuff that will drag us under. Our default settings are not getting the job done – we get distracted and the birds of the air, the cares of this world, are picking off our potential. Jesus has taught us that today, right here, right now, we need to pay attention and participate in the Ways of God.

To do that we are going to need dedicated obedience and prayerful watchfulness established in our lives in order to be able produce a good crop. He explained that we have a great need for hearts that will not swing about all over the place. Add to that, the ability to listen carefully to whatever He tells us, and esteem what we’ve heard, and ACT on it. Without HIM we are nothing. We can come up with great schemes, but only God can bring us through tough times.

I strongly believe it is essential to retain the word by making it a part of ourselves, so that we are transformed by ingesting it and becoming it. Did you know if you eat too many carrots for days you can turn ORANGE? That ingestion leads to an outward change everyone can see. As we live out what the bible says, it becomes part of the way we think, and act – it stops being a theory, or even a great admirable teaching, and becomes our way of life. Who we are.

The circumstances of us living this life – on again, off again, in and then out – can conspire against us and leave us fruitless when we finally stand in front of the Master Gardener. He has given us two options in this parable. Believe it or not both are useful. The first story shows us that life can and will conspire against us, plus circumstances can occur that can harden our hearts.

The second story shows us how incredibly important it is to walk daily with Him. The people who wander off from following Jesus do not plan to wander off. The cares of this world overwhelm their devotion to Him. And His teaching becomes story-like – interesting, instead of LIFE-GIVING. That’s when we are less likely to hear what He wants to say to us, right here, right now!

And obviously this parable shows us the need to choose the right way, if we want to be fruitful. That often comes at a very inconvenient time!  We must never forget we live in enemy territory and that means we are subject to other people’s agendas, and life’s circumstances – they can steal away the reality of what Christ has said. Only by progressively allowing ourselves to be changed, will we stay available to His heartbeat. 

Christ has already provided the answer to these difficulties that haunt us every single day. His death on the cross is the single ingredient that makes our ongoing spirituality available and viable. We dare not factor Him out – otherwise we will become groupies instead of disciples. Groupies follow someone for the fun, for the excitement and notoriety.  Disciples lay down their lives. Our attitudes define what we understand, we must choose to press in and press on. Bless you 👋

P 2837 What we do with what God tells us daily, matters.

/ DVH

I know that many people, past and present, have had a great deal to say about this parable, I personally love the clarification the Lord Himself gave, which comes directly after it in Matthew 13:1-9:

“He (Jesus) taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.” Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

Almighty God gives us seed to sow from His Word – hopefully… daily!! His book is a fantastic source of life-giving seeds. We need to take those seeds He has personally given to us, and share them with others. That seed that His Spirit kisses, especially for us, has His life in it. Its power lies in the fact that God revealed His truth to us.

It may have been something someone said when they were preaching, and it struck us in the heart like an arrow finds the target. Or it may have been something that stood out as we were reading the bible. It could even be when we were talking to the Lord and suddenly a scripture fell down from our thinking and meditating —- where we had hidden it while we were renewing our minds – and it sank down deep inside us, into our heart where growth can begin. Wherever or however it happened, that fresh seed is now ripe for planting. It can produce a crop.

The seeds of His Word that we sow into our lives – as we daily read the bible and act on it — can behave exactly like this parable describes. Sadly some seed doesn’t even make it past 2 seconds of thought, because it has fallen upon a well worn pathway of previous knowledge, and so it is whisked away by the birds of the air … those thoughts and words that are constantly flying past us, because of everything we are exposed to in a single day. It is so easy to think: “I know that already.” Now we have a seed immediately stolen by pride.

Also in our daily bible readings, if we take the time to treasure His voice, we can sometimes discover “rocky places” in our hearts. They are not like the well-worn pathways that we barely notice, these are hard places that we try to skim over and ignore with thoughts like this: ‘The truth is, I don’t think I have to change, I think the other person should.’ The scorching heat of that bad attitude kills off the power of His precious seed, and it is killed off by negligence. Always remember that true forgiveness doesn’t keep accounts, be-ca-use … hallelujah!!… fortunately for us, Jesus doesn’t keep them either.

“The thorny ground” seeds are the places in our hearts we haven’t bothered to weed and keep watch over our wrong thinking. ‘Weeds of unbelief, or discontent or disappointment’ have flourished there. What we haven’t realised is that, spiritually speaking, any one rotten attitude can take over our thinking. So the possibility of a harvest from any seeds that are sown into the weed-filled patch, is negated. These spiritual seeds won’t receive their share of nourishment from any water and good soil, because the weeds of our wrong thinking are crowding them out, and soon the whole plant of His word, becomes sterile and unproductive.

Now let’s look at “good soil,” the stuff we are to cultivate and watch over in our hearts. Good soil not only gladly receives the seed of God’s Word;  as we act on it, that seed begins to flourish, and grow into a healthy plant. The increase in our seed production, is always up to the Lord, our part is to cultivate the soil of our hearts with humility and love. And take the time to prayerfully water and feed these His seeds with tears of repentance, and acts of sacrifice as the healthy plants begin to grow. Now we have seeds that will bear fruit and can be harvested.

As you can see, there are four different results from exactly the same seed. The seed does not change, but how it is received does. Even if we sometimes feel unsure about what we think the Lord is saying – it is our responsibility to watch over His seed and act on it accordingly. What we do with what God tells us daily, matters. How we receive it matters. Preparing our hearts to be open to change and transformation matters. A huge harvest can come from our dedication and our willingness to yield to His Ways, even to the death. Bye.  👋“They triumphed over him (satan) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.” Revelation 12:11.

P 2797 Faith comes by hearing …

/ DVH

… and more hearing comes when you act on what you heard! However, without my obedience I will be like a computer on standby. Nothing happening here! Obviously I don’t need His guidance to – feed my face, sleep, or go to the toilet. Jesus clarified practical things like those – read His book. 

BTW there is no advertising in His book, it is all about instructions. Even the things that put the instructions into context, are still instructions! You and I can end up wasting the life He has given us, if all we do is follow Brother-or-Sister-I-know-everything-because-I’ve-been-up-the-mountain-of-God’s-doctrine! That’s a lazy way to follow Jesus. Let’s remember that Peter had stuff to learn that John didn’t … simply because they were different people. We are not perfected yet, but that doesn’t mean we give up!

Regard what other people feed you spiritually, as supplementary feeding. It can add helpful vitamins and minerals, but the meat, rice and veggies should be dug up or pulled off the tree by us! Harvest your own crop. The way to prevent what you hear every day from going mouldy or getting worms in it, is to ACT on what you read. Obedience counts. Faith comes by hearing, and this kind of hearing is not passive – it is not about comprehending the words — it is active – it puts those words into action.

Instead of telling yourself “I’m not mad at anybody.” Ask the Lord, “WHO am I mad at?” Take a pencil, the answer will astonish you! We have been pardoned from our sin, but we are not bullet proof from other people’s jabs. So if my faith is stuck in a slump, then I remind the Lord that His strength is made perfect in my weakness and I find something to OBEY.  Then I watch out for what happens as I use my faith to move on. That’s how faith gets stretched. I believe that He hears ME, because the book says He does.

The Lord doesn’t say all this fantastic stuff in the bible just because He can turn a lovely phrase – He stands behind His Word. That’s why Jesus is called the Living Word — He’s the Word … per-son-ified. We cannot afford to excuse ourselves from our learning curves. If you can’t do what the Word says, then ask the Holy Spirit to help you AND TAKE A STEP. Our God loves people who mean what they say — He means what He says and He acts on it!

When my faith starts getting wobbly, first of all I check out my heart, to see if I am no longer using my faith to live. Faith is meant to be active. It works, it reaches toward Him, all the time. It is not an emergency activity!  It’s a form of spiritual exercise. I have had many people tell me that God gave me a brain and I am supposed to use it — yes He did. But our brains are not meant to supersede His Word. Read the book. Faith, by its very essence means I won’t always understand with my mind – my mind needs the spanner of God’s Word to adjust my thinking. Many people will give us the pip, but faith-filled confession opens the door to humility and clarity.

When He tells me to repent, then I do it – asap. I simply can’t kid myself that I can still walk in faith and be disobedient, that’s rationalising His instructions away. Many times I have obeyed, and reluctantly gone to see my brother when I had a bone to pick with him – and when I got there I had the courage to ask for his forgiveness. I got the courage on the way! Our faith grows as we obey Him. If He says “give” or “give more”— then I had better do that. I can always ask Him to help me and show me how to obey Him.

I don’t know where everything is in the bible, but I do have a secret weapon… I know the One Who wrote the book! A phrase, or one word floats up into my thinking and then I use my faith to go and look it up. I pursue Him. At the same time owning my sin is not a scary thing, because SomeBody already paid that debt for me… so I don’t need to be ashamed. I just need to be honest with myself and others. Now I let Jesus defend me. He’s good at it.

If we truly want to move mountains then it would be good if we started by moving the mountain of unbelief in our hearts and attitudes, daily! Sounding nice and sweet in church is not the same thing as transformation. To do the first thing, I must be on my guard – when I do the second, my responses will have already changed.  We are designed to be walking, talking illustrations of God’s love in action. God’s love is REAL, it is not just a theory. He doesn’t hold a grudge!! At the same time I simply can’t afford to use my mind or feelings as the umpire. Instead I need His Peace! 

Faith comes by hearing – hearing comes by listening carefully – and listening carefully directly leads into obedience – which leads to mind renewal! Pretty soon you will start to know God’s opinions about a whole lot more things than you did when you started. Bye. 👋

P 2729 Jesus believes in us … isn’t He wonderful?

/ DVH

“I continue to pray for your love to grow and increase beyond measure, bringing you into the rich revelation of spiritual insight in all things. This will enable you to choose the most excellent way of all —becoming pure and without offense until the unveiling of Christ.”AMEN!!! Philippians 1:9-10 TPT.

I think that there are places in God that Christians have yet to discover, let alone explore. We have been prevented from even seeing them, or comprehending them, by our own lack of devotion to walking in grace and love toward each other as well as the rest of the people on this planet. It is an easy thing to dismiss walking this way as something that is too hard, or unattainable for ordinary people. By believing that, we are hobbling our own spiritual lives, because we are not actively pursuing love toward Him, and others. We need to let this thought spur us into action. Otherwise we are settling for the appearance of grace and love, instead of pressing on into the real deal. The real deal is the only thing that will change this world.

And if you’re wondering why I felt bold enough to write that first paragraph it’s because at this point in our history – it seems to me that the world around us is changing US, more than we are influencing them. And that is a tragedy. The people-who-don’t-know-Him-yet living around us, should know that we have chosen to love Jesus. Today I doubt most people know what any of us believe. We’ve lost our singularity of purpose because we are presenting so many differing faces to the world.

At the same time, I wonder if we have applied the dubious ointment of compromise much too liberally, everywhere we go. I don’t see Jesus Christ talking about compromise at all in the book. It never seemed to come up! I think we are missing the mark, because we have voluntarily become so bland and invisible, our salt has lost its savour. Instead we are applying this world’s methods of dealing with difficult things.

In rare circumstances someone does stand up and object to this, or they might speak out about that. However, the Bible clearly says they will know we are Christians by our love for one another, not by our protests. Our primary question and quest today, should be – how do we love the people around us the way He would? People are leaving this life daily, falling by the millions off the cliff of death. They follow one another simply because they don’t know there is another way to live and they think they can’t avoid the inevitable. Nobody has told them that underneath us ALL are the Everlasting Arms! How can they know if nobody tells them …??

Our commitment to Christ means we are to be committed to Him, and His mission, as much as He is to us. We must remember that He died for what He believed.Thank God Jesus made it past the Garden of Gethsemane and went on to face the cross and conquer it! Let’s not make any bones about the reality – it looked like He lost but He WON. He smashed it!  … Eternally! Sometimes our lives could look like His did  – full of sacrifice and pain – but Galatians 6:9-10 it says: “So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit. Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of ALL,, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith.”

The church today, has inadvertently become all talk, and sadly, not much action!  I think the main reason this situation exists is because each one of us leaves the work of the ministry to a precious few — instead of ALL of us devoting our lives to the cause of Christ. That’s why we were saved, to lend a hand to the person next to us, who is probably  about to fall off that cliff. The thing is, we’ve been lied to, our enemy has whispered to us that ‘we can never change, it’s all too hard, it will be alright. God won’t mind, He understands we are weak  … and busy’ — and we believed him! Like Paul said better than I ever can – let’s not let Jesus have died for nothing! (Galatians 2:21.)

Jesus never intended for following Him and learning His Ways to be the only thing His disciples ever did.  Listen to His first words to the very first two disciples: “As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, He saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. Come, follow Me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed Him.” Matthew 4:18-20. Can you see it? Right after they were called to follow, they were informed of their mission. Their mission was not just to follow – it was to lovingly reach out to others. Here’s a red hot tip folks – the mission hasn’t changed.

Sadly some people get saved at the altar, but they don’t make it past sitting back down on their seat again. Please … go out the door and bring others in. Talk to them, tell them what you know about God and His Love for us. We don’t need fancy illustrations or words, we just need to tell them what we know for ourselves, what happened to us. By all means pray, but then put your feet into your prayers. Jesus believes in us, He trusted His message into our hands and that’s what grace and love looks like. Bye 👋