Still Other Seeds Fell On Fertile Soil

 June 24, 2019

Still Other Seeds Fell On Fertile Soil

“Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they sprouted, grew, and produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted!”

Mark 4:8 (Parable of the Sower Mark 4:1-9)

Many years ago, I was in restaurant that was adjacent to the runways of the Ft. Lauderdale airport. Included in each booth was a set of headphones which allowed the patrons to listen to the airport Control Tower. My two friends each took turns listening, and then handed the headphones to me saying, “You will be disappointed because they aren’t working. Everything is garbled and we can’t understand anything.” I put on the earphones and heard, “Cesena two four tango cleared for takeoff runway 9, maintain runway heading. Air Canada three eight six taxi in position and hold runway 9.”

Why did I hear clearly and my friends only heard gibberish? I have a private pilot’s license with training and experience in airport communications. I knew how to listen to this particular form of communication.

Parables are a particular form of communication that Jesus used. His stories included symbols, and at times he used an ‘insiders’ vocabulary. Why? The truth was too revolutionary. The people of Israel wanted a Messiah who would deliver the whole country, all at once, from the oppression of Rome. If Jesus was that kind of Messiah, the Roman government would do all they could to stop him. If he wasn’t that kind of Messiah, the people would rebel against him.

The parable of the sower reveals that the Messiah wasn’t going to set the nation of Israel free. The parable reveals the sower (God) is setting individuals free, one at a time. In this story Jesus tells, some seeds don’t sprout, some sprout a little, others sprout more and then fade away. But some seeds take root and produce an exceedingly abundant harvest. However, in this story that Jesus tells, all eyes are on the sower, not the harvest. The sower is extravagant, so incredibly extravagant, sowing seeds here, there and everywhere. Such is the extraordinary nature of God’s grace.

The Gospels give us ample illustrations of the seeds that failed to produce fruit. They also give us many examples where the seeds found good soil. There was the Gentile Centurion, the woman who worshipped at Jesus’ feet while the Pharisee scoffed at Jesus, and eleven of the twelve disciples. All these received Jesus words and produced an abundant harvest.

There was also the group of women who traveled with Jesus. There was a high cost to their discipleship. Not only did they support his ministry with their financial means, they did so with a willingness to go against many of the social customs of their day. These women were the first disciples to truly get out of their comfort zone and dare to live a new way in response to the life-giving words of Jesus.

My Takeaway: These courageous women, as well as the others who received Jesus’ words, challenge me to examine my own life by asking two questions:

How much fruit are Jesus’ words producing in my life?

Is my love, my grace that I extend to others, as extravagant as my Abba’s grace for me?

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Copyright © 2019 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Taking the High Road

June 21, 2019

Taking the High Road

Don’t repay evil for evil. Don’t retaliate with insults when people insult you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing. That is what God has called you to do, and he will grant you his blessing.

1 Peter 3:9

The disharmony between denominations and blatant disrespect and lack of unity within some denominations is heartbreaking to Jesus, and should be to his followers as well. Perhaps the best evidence of sin’s total corruption of humanity is how Christians sing praise to God, all the while refusing to edify their brothers and sisters in Christ in other churches. Could John have been any clearer when he warned the church, “If anyone claims, “I am living in the light,” but hates a Christian brother or sister, that person is still living in darkness” (1John 2:9)?

Booker T. Washington died before he was sixty, yet he accomplished so much in his life. Of all his many accomplishments, the greatest was his commitment to make this statement his core value: “I will permit no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate them.” This is not a virtue we see emulated in our secular culture, and regrettably we are seeing less of this virtue in our churches.

My Takeaway: Thinking about today’s passage helps me understand a scripture verse that has been a bit of a mystery to me. It is bookended between Paul’s unsurpassed prose describing Christ’s sacrifice for our salvation, Philippians 2:5-11, and a verse that affirms God’s continuing work within me, Philippians 2:13. In the middle of such glory, Paul calls us to “to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. (Philippians 2:12). When we consider how completely counter-cultural is Jesus’ call on our life, I can well understand Paul’s choice of words.

Sē’lah

<><  <><  <><  <><

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Copyright © 2019 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Teetering On The Edge

June 20, 2019

Teetering On The Edge

First pride, then the crash—

    the bigger the ego, the harder the fall.

Proverbs 16:18 (MSG)

There is a huge temptation in our American culture to transfer what works in the economic systems of the world to the spiritual life. Surely the success of the self-made person, operating in the market places of the world, will find similar success applying the same standards to their spiritual life. Certainly their attributes of self-discipline, SMART goals, and hard work will transfer well to the spiritual realm.  Actually you can build a good life through spiritual self-effort, for a while. Eventually though, the reality of Proverbs 16:18, “Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall,” will come crashing down on the self-made person.

The challenge for the followers of Jesus is to find the balance between being an active, engaging doer of the Word and resting in the incomprehensible love of God. Martha’s sister Mary discovered this balance sitting at the feet of Jesus and she heard Jesus affirm her choice: “There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:42a).

The Apostle Paul, reflecting on his life as a religious leader and Pharisee, made the same discovery as Mary: “I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ” (Philippians 3:7-9).

My Takeaway: I made this same discovery and when I knelt to be ordained, I opened my Bible to this passage in Philippians. I have also discovered something else. Because the temptations of the American culture are so insidious, I must rediscover Mary and Paul’s discovery with regularity, lest I find myself teetering on the edge of a great fall.

Sē’lah

<><  <><  <><  <><

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Copyright © 2019 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Fix Your Attention On God

June 19, 2019

Fix Your Attention On God

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.

Romans 12:2a

I believe one of the benchmark days in the life of a Christian is when we grasp the truth that the world's culture has told us a pack of lies about who God is, who we are and who our neighbor is, and that God in Christ Jesus is telling us the truth. When we come to this place, we can affirm Paul’s truth quoted above. In the second part to this verse, Paul asserted that when we let God transform the way we think, we will learn to know God’s will for us, which is good and pleasing and perfect. This language is very similar to how Paul expressed God continually working in our lives in his letter to the Philippians: “For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him” (Philippians 2:13).

Paul is affirming that Christians are the new people of God who are called to be a light unto the world. How do we let our light shine? By not copying the behavior and customs of this world, and allowing God to work within us to give us a new vision of what it means to live as the beloved people of God. Whether our go-to news channel is Fox or CNN, we all need to pause and ask, “What is God’s perspective?” I’m certain we will find the Biblical witness to be different, sometimes substantially different, than that of today’s pundits and political commentators.

My Takeaway: I believe Eugene Peterson beautifully expresses Paul’s teaching in Romans 12:1-2.

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. (The Message)

Sē’lah

<><  <><  <><  <><

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Copyright © 2019 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.