The Right to Sow

Didn't Jesus hang out with the strangest sort of people?! I know He came to minister life to the lost, but He went beyond just ministering to them, He hung out with them! He ate with them, visited their homes and sat around the campfire with them! What was that all about?! Relationship, that's what it was all about.
I believe Jesus was showing us that you have to have a person's permission to sow into their life. You wouldn't just go next door into your neighbor's garden and start planting seeds would you? Well, you shouldn'! You don't have that right! You need permission from your neighbor to do that!
The Bible teaches that we are sowers sowing seed. The seed is the Word of God. Somehow we are under the impression that because we are sowing something we feel is good for a person, we should be able to sow into that person's life without their permission. Wrong! If you want to sow into someone's life, you need to build a relationship with that person and they will give you permission to sow. Then your seed will grow and produce. Relationships take time and some Christians don't want to take time. They want to blow in, preach a sermon and blow out again, on to the next field!
Jesus took time to build a relationship. He understood that people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care! He let people know that He loved them and cared about them, then He sowed the seed. Then He had the right to!
We'll all find our sowing more productive if we'll follow Jesus' lead. Build the relationship and then you'll have the right to sow in that field!

What's in a Name?

The Jewish people call Him Yahweh, the Christian people call Him Jehovah and the Muslim people call Him Allah. Some people say it doesn't matter what you call Him because there's only one God and He's the same for everyone. I agree that there is one God and no matter what you call Him, He's still the same and the name you choose to call Him doesn't change who He is. So what's the big difference in the religions? Is it just in the name they give to God? If so, aren't all the religions the same? Aren't they just different paths to the same destination?
It is true there's only one God. But it is also true that there's only one mediator between God and man - Jesus. Jesus said in the Bible that "no one comes to the Father except by me." He said that anyone who tries to come any other way is "a thief and a robber". Yes, there's only one God, regardless of the name you may call Him by. But He has determined a way to come to Himself and the Bible says that Jesus is that way. There are no alternate routes, no shortcuts and no bypasses. Jesus is the way!
If you choose to believe good works will get you to God, that's up to you. You have the right to choose for yourself. If you choose to believe that God will accept everyone into His presence after they die (He's too good to send anyone to Hell!), that's up to you too! It's your life and your free choice! I won't love you any less or treat you any differently because of it. But if you choose to go contrary to the Bible, remeber that you are turning your back on the very One who will judge you at the end of your life!
Jesus wasn't just a "great prophet" or a "good teacher". He either is the only way to the Father or He is a liar and a blasphemer! He either told the truth or He lied! It's that simple.

The Number One Thing

I had to be gone all day one Saturday, so I left instructions with my kids to get X,Y and Z done before I returned. Since X was the most important of the three I specifically told them to make sure it got done, even if the other things didn't. X was important and had to, had to, had to be done! I returned home to find Y done, Z partially done and no X. Apparently X was not only the most important thing, but also the hardest thing and so it was left for last and remained undone. Kids; I think they're the same all over the world!
Jesus talked to His disciples before He left them and told them some things they needed to do. Number one on the list was that they should love each other as He had loved them. This was first on the list because it was the most important. It had to be done before any of the other things would work right! He said the world would know that they were His because they loved each other. That would be their identifying mark.
But, apparently, we have decided that loving each other as He loves us is too hard. We've decided to skip ahead and do some of the other things and maybe get back to that later! Guess what?! Those other things are dependent upon that first thing. They won't work so well if the first thing is left out! Maybe that's why things are so messed up these days! We don't know how to follow instructions!
Christians of every denomination are running around like crazy doing all kinds of things "for the Kingdom", but we still fuss and fight about the simplest of differences. We don't love each other as He loves us. We don't carry that identifying mark for the world to see.The world sees a bunch of religious folks that can't even get along with each other, let alone save the lost!
Let's go back and work on that first thing so that all those other things will be effective.

His Hands

There's an old story I heard once about a farmer who always won first prize for his corn at the County Fair. It was always the biggest and juiciest and best-tasting corn year after year. After the County Fair the old farmer would always share his seed corn with all the other farmers in the area. A reporter who was covering the Fair one year for the newspapers noticed the farmer sharing his seed and thought it strange that he would share the prize winning seed with the very people he would be competing against the next year. He asked the farmer why he did this and the old farmer replied, " All these folks have farms that border mine. Because of cross-pollination, whatever corn they plant will always have an effect on the corn I plant. The winds and the bees will carry from their crops to mine and vice-versa. If their corn is inferior, it will cause mine to be less than it could be. By helping them have better corn, I'm only helping myself have better corn."
What a lesson! If we want to prosper, maybe we should help those around us prosper. My Pastor always says "Help thy brothers boat to the shore, and behold, thy boat will be there too!" I don't know where that originated, but it sure is true. Helping others is ultimately helping ourselves. If we want to have good corn, we need to make sure our neighbors have good corn. No man is an island and whatever we do affects others; either in a good way, or in a bad way.
Jesus said that we should love our neighbors as ourselves. I guess that's because when we love our neighbor, we're also loving ourselves! And it always puts us in the perfect place where God can bless us!

Where's Mine?

One of the most misunderstood things the Bible teaches us about God, our Father, is that He is "no respecter of persons". Most people seem to think that whatever God does for one person, He will do for the next person. People either go around mad at God because they think He did something for someone else and didn't do it for them, or their faith is shaken because they've been waiting for years for God to do something for them because He did it for someone else.
God certainly is no respecter of persons. He doesn't love one more than another, nor does He show favoritism to anyone. He is, however, a discerner of persons! In other words, He knows us intimately and judges us each on our own merits. I can't claim the blessings someone else gets if I'm not doing what that person is doing. Am I faithful, forgiving, merciful and generous? Am I faithful in prayer and Bible study? If that other person is and I'm not, how can I expect God to do for me what He does for them?
I know that the same blood of Jesus saves us all and His righteousness belongs to us all the same. I know that we are not saved by our works, but by faith. But I also know that God won't bless us if we are sinning and being unfaithful to Him. We can, through our actions or inaction, cut off the flow of God's favor! If one person is faithful and one is not, the unfaithful person can't expect the same blessings that the faithful person is receiving even if they quote "God is no respecter of persons" all day long!
I know that sometimes we have to be patient and wait upon the Lord and the things we ask for don't always appear immediately. But shouldn't we take a good close look at ourselves every now and then to make sure that what's holding up our blessing isn't us?!

I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up!

Remember that old TV commercial where the sweet old lady falls down and can't get up again so she calls for help on her little electronic device (or whatever it was they were hawking). She just sounded so pitiful saying "Help! I've fallen and I can't get up!" She was just lying there helpless waiting for someone to come along and help her up. The gist of the commercial was that she would have been in very dire straights had she not had that little device with her that allowed her to call for help. She could have laid there for many days crying out for help and no one outside her house would have been able to hear her. Thank goodness for that little device!
There have been times in my Christian life when I felt like I had fallen and couldn't get up. Ever been there? Lying there in the floor crawling around helplessly wondering if anyone could hear your cries for help? Wondering if anyone would care even if they did hear! I've been there! There's an old Merle Haggard tune called "I'm Always on a Mountain When I Fall" and that seems to be the way with me. When I fall, I fall far! It never seems to be the little stumble and spill that others take; It's from the rim of the Grand Canyon to the floor below!
The Bible warns us "Let Him that thinketh He standeth, take heed lest He fall." I Cor. 10:12. Sometimes we start thinking that we've made it, that we've got it all figured out. The next thing we hear is our faces hitting the floor. The good news is that we do possess a device much like that little old lady had. It enables our cries for help to be heard far beyond our own doorway; far, far beyond! It's called prayer. And it always finds the ear of someone who cares. Sometimes, whether out of shame and embarrassment or out of stubborness, we are relunctant to push the button and cry out. But, hey, it's either repent and ask for help or lie there in the floor forever! I've cried out so many times now that it's not even funny anymore. But never has God, my father, ever once chided me for falling or failed to rush to my rescue. He's so wonderful!
Maybe this all seems like I'm rambling, but I just feel like there's someone out there right now who's fallen and can't get up. I want you to know that you're not the Lone Ranger and you don't hold the record for falling down.

Convenient Excuses

Jesus said "These things I do, you will do.". Jesus said "They will lay their hands on the sick and they will recover.". Jesus said "Whatever you ask in my name, believing, you will have it.". These statements of Jesus are simple and to the point. They are not shrouded in mystery; they are plainly spoken and easily understood. And yet we come up with all kinds of excuses why we can't do what He said we could do! We say that this person remains sick because God is working out something in their life. We say that God doesn't heal anymore, that miracles were just to prove that Jesus was God. We say that we don't know everything that God is doing and it may be His will that this person be sick for awhile to teach them something.
I say, BALONEY!!! Let's be honest! We make excuses because we don't really believe what Jesus said. We make excuses because we think it's just too good to be true. We make excuses because we're afraid we'll try it and it won't happen and then we'll look foolish.
The simple truth is that we can do what Jesus said we can do (actually, we must do what Jesus said we can do!). We have many "religious" leaders who have conned us into believing that we need to let them explain the scriptures to us because they are "more knowledgeable" about the things of God than we are and they say we can't do those things that Jesus said we could do. (Sounds like the same trick the priests pulled on people during the Dark Ages to me!) We believe them because we think they are smarter than us (just because someone "sounds" smart doesn't mean they are smart). When will the people of God quit listening to these excuse-makers and believe Jesus?! Don't expect me to believe your human reasoning instead of Jesus' plainly spoken words! When Jesus says I can, all your reasons why I can't don't matter!

Pardoned or Paroled?

Some people think that God pardoned their sins when He saved them. They seem to think that God just said "I understand that you can't pay for your sins and since I'm a loving, merciful God, I'll let it all slide this time. You're sins are pardoned." No fuss, no muss, no need for shed blood or a Saviour. No need to be faithful or holy or righteous. God signed the pardon and they can live any old way they want.
Some people think that God paroled them when He saved them. They feel like they have to watch every little step they take lest they sin again and thereby violate parole. God is watching very closely to catch them so He can ship them off to Hell.
What extremes! And neither one is right! The Bible doesn't say we were pardoned or paroled. It says we were bought with a price! God didn't just "let sin slide"; Someone had to pay. Jesus shed His blood for us; He paid the debt we couldn't pay! And God isn't looking over our shoulders just waiting for us to "violate parole" either. He said He doesn't want us to sin, but if we do, we have an advocate with the Father - Jesus Christ! If we repent and ask to be forgiven, Jesus is faithful and just to forgive us!
We need to stop getting off into extremes. There's a ditch on both sides of the road, you know! Stay with the word of God, not someone's opinion of the word of God. It really is a simple gospel, but it's not a cheap gospel!

Have Your Cake and Eat It Too

There's an old gospel song that says "Everybody wants to go to Heaven, but nobody wants to die." Ain't it the truth! Let me add to that: Everybody wants a Saviour, but nobody wants a Lord; Everybody wants to be in authority, but nobody wants to be under authority; Everybody wants their sin debt paid, but nobody wants to hear about the blood; Everybody wants God's covenant blessings, but nobody wants to keep the covenant. I say everybody, but actually there are a few who want what God wants. But the great majority (Christians and non-Christians) want to have their cake and eat it too. They want what they want, but they're not willing to do anything for it. "Paying the piper" is so politically incorrect! The government owes them a living and God owes them a blessing.
Well, guess what?; The government may give them a living and ask nothing in return, but God will not. Salvation is the only thing that's free and even that requires that a person repent and have faith to believe! Jesus said that anyone who follows Him must deny themselves and take up their cross daily. God the Father said that He would bless those who keep his commandments and walk upright before Him.

Back to the Garden

When Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden of Eden, they had a choice: will I depend on God and trust Him to take care of me or would I rather be my own boss and make my own way? We all know what decision they made. We have all criticized them for doing what they did and "making it hard on the rest of us".
When Jesus died and offered His blood on the mercy seat in Heaven, God accepted that sacrifice as the payment for the sin of the whole world. Anyone who accepts Jesus as their Lord and Saviour is forgiven of sin because of Jesus' sacrifice. We are given the free-will decision to accept Jesus' sacrifice or reject it. Do we not then have the same decision to make that Adam and Eve had to make in the Garden? Sure we do! Do we trust in God and let Him be our master or do we live our lives dependent upon ourselves?
Christians have made the decision to trust in God and let Him be Lord of their lives, but guess what? Christians have to make that same decision every day! Not that Jesus is their Saviour, but that we will trust in Him and let Him be Lord of our lives! We are tempted every day to take matters into our own hands instead of letting God handle everything. Paul tells us to offer ourselves as living sacrifices every day unto God!
We can't blame everything on Adam and Eve. We can stay in the garden of God's love and blessings if we decide every day to let Jesus be both Saviour and Lord!