Soils

This past Sunday we talked about the parable of the soils found in Matthew 13 where Jesus speaks of the kind of soil that produces fruit.

The big question from the message: Of the 4 soils discussed (hard path, rocky, thorny, and good soil) which describes you?

If you are thinking of any but the last one - the good, fruit-producing soil, what can you do? I think Jesus might counsel you to 'do the work of God' which is to believe & trust in Him (John 6:29) and obey what He commands (Acts 5:32) and the Holy Spirit produces that great and beautiful fruit of justice and mercy and care for those who have no one and the 9 listed in Galatians 5:22-24.

I'm believing that God has much fruit for us to produce - pray with me this week, "Lord, bring on the harvest of great good!"

Here are a few resources I appreciated in preparing for the message on Matthew 13:
My Strange Bible (covering the Weeds & Wheat parable) - https://bibleproject.com/podcast/matthew-p21-weeds-and-wheat/
Bridgetown Church PDX (on Jesus' rejection at Nazareth) - https://bridgetown.church/teachings/gospel-of-matthew/the-inevitability-of-rejection


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Going along with the crowd?

Image
Over the last several years I've found some helpful writings from the early church writings of the first few centuries of Christianity. Here is a quote I found interesting today (from www.commonprayer.net): Cyprian of Carthage, a third-century North African bishop, wrote, “The world is going mad in mutual extermination, and murder, considered as a crime when committed individually, becomes a virtue when it is committed by large numbers. It is the multiplication of the frenzy that assures impunity to the assassins.” It made me think of the old idea of peer pressure and going with the flow of culture rather than standing out and even swimming against the downstream flow of secular modernity.  Maybe Cyprian was correct in seeing how evil can become standard if enough people in a society or culture accept it? I guess it seems like the idea of strength in numbers and fitting in, etc. Jesus spoke of this danger during His ministry - specifically in the message on the mount He gave in Mat
Read more
Image
I sometimes get a bit down with my physical self. I'll complain inwardly about my poor eyesight, bad hearing, and desire to consume things that are bad for me. Hmmm. That reminds me of an old Alan Jackson song called "Everything I Love"... Anyway, I digress... We are told in Scripture that our bodies are special temples where God dwells - His presence in and through us is powerful. It's crazy to think about. Listen to the Apostle Paul's words in 2 Corinthians 4:7ff (NT Wright's New Testament for Everyone translation): But we have this treasure in earthenware pots, so that the extraordinary quality of the power may belong to God, not to us. 8 We are under all kinds of pressure, but we are not crushed completely; we are at a loss, but not at our wits’ end; 9 we are persecuted, but not abandoned; we are cast down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry the death of Jesus about in the body, so that the life of Jesus may be revealed in our body. AND... 16 For this
Read more
Image
In honor of the upcoming St. Patrick's Day, here's a post I originally wrote back in 2006 - thought I'd share it to kick off this new blog... I’ve always wondered why some in the Christian church are so enamored with Celtic stuff. I mean, the Celtic crosses, the artwork, the old stone church buildings, the ‘mystery’, what’s this all about anyway? I then read a short little book about Celtic Christianity called Listening for the heartbeat of God – A Celtic Christianity  by J. Philip Newell and I really connected with this whole Celtic thing for the first time.  I guess what really resonates with me is this idea that God is the heart of all creation, and, since He is, when you really dig deep in every human heart, despite human sin and evil, you will ultimately find the good placed there by God. This is counter to the notion which has its roots in the early Christian church father Augustine who taught that humanity is basically evil and unable to do anything good without God.
Read more