Good morning…
“God speaks through repetition,” said the subject in her email following yesterday’s post Living The Dream.
“What is it God is telling me about seed-planting???” she asked rhetorically. “When I finished reading your words from today, this was my devotion in my bible reading plan. Love it.”
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Matthew 13:18-35 in “The Bible in One Year with Nicky Gumble” from YouVersion
Keep telling people about Jesus
Every time you have told someone about Jesus and the gospel, you have ‘planted’ a seed in their heart. Not every seed you plant will bear fruit, as we see in the parable of the sower. Some seed never takes root (v.19). Other seed produces only temporary results. We can be drawn away from God by ‘trouble’ or ‘the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth’ (vv.21–22).
Yet if the seed grows well, each of these parables shows us that you can have a huge impact. ‘The seed cast on good earth is the person who hears and takes in the News, and then produces a harvest beyond his wildest dreams’ (v.23, MSG).
When I look at the lives of some of those who did Alpha (our church’s program for children) five, ten or fifteen years ago, they have had a massive impact. Some have even started ministries that have had a global influence.
Jesus tells many parables about the kingdom of God (the ‘kingdom of heaven’ is Matthew’s preferred form, following the regular Jewish practice of reverentially saying ‘heaven’ rather than ‘God’).
The kingdom is both ‘now’ and ‘not yet’. Jesus’ parable about the weeds tells us that there is a future aspect of the kingdom. At the moment, the wheat and the weeds grow together. One day there will be a harvest and a judgment. When Jesus returns the kingdom of God will come in all its fullness (vv.24–30).
Jesus goes on to say: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in a field. Although it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree so that the birds come and perch in its branches’ (vv.31–32).
The image of birds in branches appears quite a few times in the Old Testament, where it symbolizes people from all nations becoming part of God’s family (see Ezekiel 17:22–24; 31:3–14; Daniel 4:9–23). Jesus was reminding his listeners that the kingdom of heaven was not just for one nation but for the whole world…
Jesus goes on to talk about the kingdom of heaven being like yeast that works its way all through the dough (v.33). Your influence can be enormous – in your home, family, school, university, factory or office. This is how the transformation of society takes place.
Lord, help me to plant as many seeds as possible as I seek to bring the good news of Jesus to our world. May your kingdom come in my city, nation and throughout the world.
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It is essential for us to remember today: our influence can be enormous – in our home, family, school, university, factory and office. Person by person, seed by seed, loving act by loving act, this is how God is transforming society.
As one three year old sage says in the photo above, “If you can’t think of something to say, just say I love you.” In our showing and telling of contagious love, we will grow to understand: Jesus loves us all.
Beloved children, our love can’t be an abstract theory we only talk about, but a way of life demonstrated through our loving deeds (1 John 3:18, TLT).
…Sue…
