Tag Archives: the Gospel

The Parable of the Sower

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Mark 4:1-32

I’ve started doing a study using the book entitled The Parables of Jesus (Douglas Sean O’Donnell; Crossway Pub; Wheaton, IL 2023). And I am doing something I don’t often do… I’m actually filling in the answers to the questions the author throws out there. So far, the questions have challenged me to stop and really consider what Jesus is teaching under the surface. I think I’m going to like it, and I pray God will grow me as I look at some of Jesus’ parables through this study, with an open mind and teachable spirit. And I pray for discernment as I read the opinions of the author.

I think it’s an example of the brilliance of God and His beautiful plan for Jesus’ life on earth, that Jesus taught using parables. He spoke truth boldly, yet on the surface the parables seemed like good, if not confusing stories. Underneath there was and is a life-changing message that can be understood at just the right time.

If the people during Jesus’ lifetime on earth would have believed too soon that He was the Messiah they were waiting for, they would probably have prevented Him from going to the cross. Jesus’ teaching would all make sense after the cross, but until then He veiled the truth with word pictures that had most of them scratching their heads.

As I have considered the Parable of the Sower, I realize that in the past I have spent a lot of time considering the seeds and soil. But these last few days I’ve realized I might have been missing the point. As a believer, the seed has already taken root in the good soil of my repentant heart. Now, according to this parable, it’s my turn to sow.

The study guide challenged me to look at the Parable of the Mustard Seed in light of the sower. I went ahead and looked at all the verses in this section, the Parable of the Lamp, and the scatterer of seed. This whole section is about sharing God’s Word consistently, boldly, visibly, and without worrying about something over which I have no control – how it is received, or what kind of “soil” it’s landing on.

I may think that, well I’m not a preacher or gifted teacher so this doesn’t apply to me. WRONG! If you are a Christian, you are to be a sower.

Your’s might be the mustard seed, that takes the shape of an encouraging Scripture said to a hurting friend, or a personal testimony over coffee, or reading Bible stories to you kids. Your friendship might open the door for the chance to share the Gospel with just one person whose heart is ready to receive the seed you sow. Jesus is talking about A mustard seed in verse 31. ONE mustard seed that takes root and grows into a solid Christian who is used by God to minister to others.

Isaiah 55:11 assures us that God’s Word doesn’t come back void. Sow it. Let God handle the rest.

Goodness

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Romans 7:14-25

When the rich young ruler in Luke 18 called Jesus “Good,” Jesus asked him why he addressed Him like that. Was the young man acknowledging Jesus was God? There is no goodness apart from God.

This world is corrupt – not because God isn’t a good God – but because our hearts are desperately evil. Those who question the goodness of God ought first to look in the mirror, then look at the cross. While we were still sinners Jesus died to save us. It doesn’t get much more gooder than that!

Look at this amazing creation. The warmth of the sun, the air we breathe, love and laughter, hearts that beat, and the ability to enjoy it all. It all points to a good God.

God’s good Spirit in us produces attitudes and actions that are good. I love how Paul explains it because I relate. No matter how hard I try to be good, I end up failing. I desire to do better, but the harder I try, the harder I fall. If I can be as honest as Paul is in these verses, I will admit that there really isn’t a whole lot of good in me.

So who can save me from this body of death, this pitiful excuse for goodness?

Jesus! When I accept His grace and submit to His will, He is free to live His goodness through me. What an awesome privilege. May God’s goodness, not a poor imitation of my own doing, be seen in me today.

I’m Free!

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Galatians 3:27-4:11

A little boy was standing in his front yard when a man, just freed from prison, ran past him, hands waving in the air, and shouting, “I’m free! I’m free!” The little boy watched the spectacle a bit confused, not understanding the man’s excitement. “So what?” he shouted after the man. “I’m four!”

I wonder if we are ever underwhelmed by the freedom we have in Christ because we don’t really understand it. The little boy in my story certainly didn’t understand what “free” meant. Do we?

We do this or that. Or we don’t do this or that. We say the right things. We smile, lend a hand, and all the while we hope it’s enough. We struggle with sin, we are paralyzed by guilt, we doubt, and we hold back. We stand in a prison God has freed us from by the blood of Jesus.

Satan loves to convince us that God’s grace is not enough. But he is a liar. What he doesn’t want you to believe is that if you repent of sin and accept Jesus as your Savior… YOU ARE FREE!

You’re free from the punishment of sin, you are free from the power of sin over your life. In Jesus, there is victory, cleansing, joy. Satan cannot confine you with the chains God has already broken.

So don’t let him. Yes, there will be struggles. Surrender them to God. There will be failures. Ask God to forgive. There will be doubts and fears, but God wants to free you from those and replace them with the assurance of His presence and strength.

Dear one, if you have accepted the free gift of God’s grace, don’t live like you haven’t. Don’t stay a prisoner when the prison walls have already been destroyed and your chains have already been broken. My prayer is that you, and I, will surrender today to the One who has freed us, that we will allow Him to be our strength. We will be reminded that Jesus has set us free from the bondage of sin and death. His death is enough.

I’m free to love Him! I’m free to receive Him! I’m free to call Him Father! I’m free to go to Him boldly in prayer! I’m free to rest in Him! I’m free to obey Him, not out of duty or out of hope He will accept me. I’m free to show Him how much I love Him by the things I do so that others can find Him, too.

I’m free! I’m free!

Wonder No More

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Gal 2:11-21

To anyone who wonders if, or hopes they’ve done enough good to go to heaven – READ THESE VERSES! Paul answers your questions clearly:

You are not good enough!

No amount of law-abiding behavior, no matter how loving or compassionate you are, no matter how many times you go to church, or how well you are thought of at work – you aren’t good enough to earn your way to heaven. Good people go to hell the same as bad people.

The fact is, Jesus died on the cross to pay the death penalty for sinners. We all have sinned. Even you. What Jesus did there on the cross is the difference between heaven and hell. You can’t come close to equalling that.

If we could somehow pay the death penalty for our sin then live again, or if we could do enough good to erase the sins we’ve committed, Jesus should have just stayed in heaven. His painful death would be worthless.

Paul tells us he was crucified with Christ. We know he wasn’t put on that cross with Jesus. But Paul often talks about the surrender he made to Jesus that changed his life. He calls it dying to self. Paul doesn’t live on his own anymore. It’s Jesus living in him! I hope you can say the same.

Do you wonder if you’re going to heaven? Answer this: have you repented of your sin and accepted the work of Christ on the cross as the payment for your sin? Have you surrendered to God and is Christ living in you in the person of the Holy Spirit? Are you, like Paul, allowing God to live through you?

If you can’t say yes to those questions then Scripture tells us you aren’t going to heaven. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and no one goes to the Father except through Jesus. There is no room for, “well he’s such a good person. Certainly God will accept him.”

My prayer is that you can honestly say yes to those questions. I pray that Jesus is your Savior, that you have surrendered to Him and accepted His grace, the forgiveness of your sins. Heaven awaits you.

If you wonder if you are going to heaven, wonder no more. The answer is as plain as day.

Find Us Faithful

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Genesis 50

G. Campbell Morgan once said that a believer’s work in the world is not finished when they put him in the ground. Think about that for a minute.

Joseph was a faithful and productive servant of God during his 110 years on this earth, and continued to be used by God for the next 400 years after his death. He was probably embalmed and placed in a sarcophagus since he was an Egyptian ruler. But the Israelites held onto the remains even after they were forced into slavery.

What did that coffin represent to the generations after Joseph? Salvation!

Joseph’s last words to his family was when – not if – God comes to your aid and takes you back to Canaan, take my bones with you and bury me there. Joseph’s remains were a constant reminder of God’s promises to Israel, and the hope of His salvation.

Years ago Steve Green wrote a song entitled “Find Us Faithful.” It is my prayer. The chorus says:

Oh, may all who come behind us find us faithful.
May the fire of our devotion light their way.
May the footprints that we leave lead them to believe,
And the lives we live inspire them to obey.
Oh, may all who come behind us find us faithful.

Google the lyrics, or better yet go to You Tube and hear Steve Green sing it. It will make you stop and think.

What is it you want the memory of you to inspire? When your children think of you after you’re gone, what do you hope comes to mind? Your money will be spent, your belongings will be discarded. But your influence will live on.

Understanding that truth, there might be some changes you (and I) might want to make while we still have a chance. The footprints we leave will lead somewhere. Do you care where? Will they lead our loved ones to God, or away from Him?

May all who come behind us find us faithful.

When I Die

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Genesis 47:28-48:22

I suppose the older you get the more you think about dying. In truth, our bodies begin to fail, reminding us that we won’t live forever. So we tend to sit more and have more time to consider what’s ahead. We write our wills to assure our children are cared for when we’re gone. Jacob did that.

Jacob didn’t write down his wishes and have it notarized. His word was as binding as any contract as he spelled out what he intended for each of his and Joseph’s sons. Warren Wiersbe in his study on the Psalms entitled Be Authentic (David C Cook publisher) points out that Jacob went a step further than merely planning ahead for his children. He even planned his own funeral.

Jacob did not want to give the wrong impression by being buried like an Egyptian in Egypt. Even though he most likely would have had an impressive send-off, Jacob did not want anyone to question where his heart was. He insisted on being buried with his family like a believer in Holy God. Make no mistake, Jacob was saying he rejected the gods of Egypt, and wanted that to be a plain message even after he died.

I’ve told my family I really don’t care if they have a public funeral service for me or not. I won’t be there, so whatever they need is fine with me. But if there is a service at all, I do want it to glorify God. I want the Gospel clearly and powerfully proclaimed. I want hymns sung – especially “And Can It Be” (all the verses) and the song “Find Us Faithful.” I want my send-off to be less about me and more about the God I love, the God I serve, the God who loved me and loves everyone who would attend my funeral enough to die for us. I want it made known that with my final act, I invite them to give their lives to Jesus so that my funeral will not be, “Good-bye,” but “See you later.”

Maybe I should write this down.

Every Single One

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Genesis 36

This chapter lists the descendants of Esau, the Edomites who were life-long enemies of Israel. I’m sitting here wondering why God included this genealogy in His Word. What can we learn of Jesus here, or of God’s plan of redemption? Since the Bible doesn’t explain the reason, I am left to form an opinion. So here it is:

I am reminded of the name of God spoken by Hagar – El Roi – the God who sees me. We often divide the world into two camps – believers and non- believers, or friends and enemies.

We talk about the “them,” and as a result the “they” lose their individuality, maybe their humanity in our minds.

What I see here in Genesis 36 is the God who sees every individual, that He died for every person, that He knows them by name.

God, forgive me when I lump all non-believers into a group I am separate from, a group I can keep at arm’s length because “they” are not like me. May I see them as moms and dads, sons, daughters, boys, girls for whom Jesus died…

Every single one of them.

Happily Ever After

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Genesis 24:61-67

What must she have thought when Isaac lifted her veil, and she looked into his eyes for the very first time? The anticipation must have been crazy. Was Rebekah filled with joy the moment she was actually in his presence, knowing her life would never be the same, that this was a precious forever relationship she had entered?

I anticipate the moment Jesus lifts my veil and I am able to gaze into HIs eyes for the very first time. I can hardly wait to know as I am known, to see and feel His love in a way I’ve never experienced before. I am His. He is mine. Forever.

Isaac and Rebekah have a sweet, cute-meet. But their happily ever after didn’t happen. I, on the other hand, the Church, the Bride of Christ will have our happily ever after: no sin to separate us, no sorrow to put a strain on our relationship, no distractions, no temptation, no guilt or doubt.

…and they lived happily ever after.

Righteousness

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Genesis 6

Warren Wiersbe (Be Basic; David C Cook publisher; 2010; p 105ff) challenges us to be men and women who have the same attributes as Noah. Genesis 6:9 gives us four traits to emulate. Noah was righteous, blameless, and he walked with God. Verse 22 tells us Noah was obedient.

I’m going to consider each characteristic separately for the next four days. So today the question is: what is righteousness?

Is righteousness the same as religious? Is it something I can aspire to achieve? The Apostle Paul has quite a bit to say about that.

In Galatians 2:21 he says that if we could be righteous through the law, meaning being good and following the rules, then Christ died for nothing. So, no, we can’t be good enough to call ourselves righteous. If we could, Jesus sure went through a lot of grief for nothing. And we know He didn’t die for nothing.

Religion doesn’t save, nor does God accept our good deeds as a trade-off for sin.

Again in Titus 3:5 Paul says:

He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.

Righteousness comes from God, from his own mercy, and not from anything we do. Righteousness, or being right before God, isn’t something to be bartered.

And in 2 Corinthians 5:21 Paul explains:

For our sake he (God the Father) made him (Jesus) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might becomes the righteousness of God.

Did you catch that? In Jesus we BECOME the righteousness of God. We don’t earn it. We become it through faith in the risen Savior. Paul emphasizes our need of God’s righteousness when he quotes an Old Testament passage:

There is none righteous, no, not one. (Romans 3:10)

The precious truth is that even though we can’t hope to be right in God’s eyes because of our sin, Jesus – who IS righteous – places His own righteousness on anyone who believes. We become the righteousness of God Himself!

Proverbs 21:21 says:

Whoever pursues righteousness and kindness will find life, righteousness, and honor.

Pursuing righteousness doesn’t mean trying harder to be good or acceptable to God. It has nothing to do with how “good” we are. Pursuing righteousness means pursuing Jesus.

Commit your way to the Lord, trust him, and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday. (Proverbs 14:34)

The Lord’s righteousness, His perfect standing before God, becomes mine and He who IS light will shine through me as bright as broad daylight.

When you consider Noah, God’s light shown through him all those years he was hammering on that big boat and preaching the need for repentance. He stood out like a sore thumb in a world of sin and rejection of God. So should we.

Are you pursuing Jesus? Have you submitted to Him and allowed Him to dress you in His righteousness for all the world to see? This is my prayer for us all.

Quit Trying So Hard

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Ephesians 1-5

I don’t know how anyone, after reading Paul’s words, wouldn’t want what God has to offer:

Grace, mercy, love, acceptance, strength, purpose, family, identity, redemption, wisdom, enlightenment, peace, being rooted and established in love, goodness, righteousness, and truth.

Who doesn’t want those things? People try so hard to find them in so many places and in so many ways. Yet here they are, offered as gifts to anyone who believes in Jesus as the Christ, the Savior of souls.

If you are one who is searching, search no more! Quit trying so hard to find what is right in front of you. Surrender to Jesus and I know all these things will be yours.

Then, when Christ dwells in your heart through faith, “…I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have the power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know the love that surpasses knowledge -then you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” (3:17-19)

I’m praying for you.