Daily Archives: June 21, 2015

The Light Of Truth

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THE LIGHT OF TRUTH

He said to them, ‘Do you bring a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead don’t you put it on its stand? For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear.’

‘Consider carefully what you hear,’ He continued. ‘With the measure you use, it will be measured to you – and even more. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.’ (Mark 4: 21-25).

Some important principles for life which Jesus wove into His teaching over and over again.

Who and what was He talking about when He used the illustration of the lamp? In context, I think He was talking about the reason for speaking in parables. God’s word is the light. Jesus brought the light to them as He taught and preached God’s word and showed them how to live in the light in their daily lives. What would be the use of coming to earth if He did not shine that light for people to see what was in their own hearts? People are afraid of the light because it exposes the darkness in their hearts. It was Jesus’ role to bring the light so that the sin in the human heart could be brought out into the light.

“It is inevitable,” said Jesus, “that everything hidden in the heart will eventually be brought into the light. No one can hide from God. He is inescapable. How much better that you respond to my word now so that your hidden sins be dealt with before Judgement Day.”

One of the reasons for speaking in parables, Jesus had explained to them, was to confirm the hardness of people’s hearts. If they had no intention of receiving His word, every time He taught them, their hearts would become harder. The sun that melts wax hardens clay. It was up to them, His disciples, therefore to listen and respond to His teaching with all their hearts because the measure of their hearing would be the measure of their receiving.

It seems harsh, doesn’t it, that those who have will receive more and those who do not have will lose the little that they have. But that is just how it works. God has offered us forgiveness for our sin and grace to live a new life. The measure of our response to His mercy to us will determine the measure of our experience of His grace to live.

God is absolutely fair. His judgment is not arbitrary. He has set the standard but He has also given us the choice to obey or not to obey. The outcome will depend on our response to His truth. He does not force us to obey but He will judge us by our response to His requirements. We will, in the end, be our own judges when we stand in the light of His revealed truth.

Imagine a bride dressed in her dazzling white bridal gown. In the centre of her bodice is a stain which does not show up in ordinary light. However, when she steps outside into the brilliant sunlight, there it is, visible to everyone and spoiling the beauty of her garment. Imagine her walking down the aisle to meet her bridegroom with the awareness that a stain spoils the purity of her gown.

It is the pure light of the Son that shows up the stains of sin on our hearts. We can either pretend they are not there, try to hide our sin from Him, or come to Him for forgiveness and cleansing so that the stains are washed clean and removed forever from us.

Why did Jesus keep on preaching to those who were hardened in their unbelief? The religious leaders and Pharisees, the very ones to whom had been entrusted the responsibility of teaching the people the word of God, were the ones who refused to receive the light. Every time they heard the word, they were given another opportunity to believe but also another reason for God’s judgment to fall on them when they rejected the word.

How important for us to heed Jesus’s warning. “Be careful how you hear. Don’t be like the footpath or the rocky or thorny soil because, if you lose the word of God, you have nothing to guide you on the path towards the Father. We are all on a journey. Our destination is determined by our response to the truth of God’s word. If we choose to ignore or reject His word, there will be consequences. We will have no one to blame but ourselves if we arrive at a destination which we did not plan.

Jesus said that His way leads to life. He is the way to the Father. Anyone who follows Him will never walk in darkness. God’s word is the light on our path. Without His light we will find ourselves off the path and lost in the wilderness.

Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light for my path (Psa. 119: 105).

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my new book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (copyright 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Check out my Blog site – www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com

 

 

Fruitful Or Unfruitful?

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FRUITFUL OR UNFRUITFUL?

Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. Others, like seed sown on good ground, hear the word, accept it and produce a crop – some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown. (Mark 4: 18-20).

One kind of soil – no growth. Another kind of soil, little growth, no plant. Another kind of soil, no fruit. Only one kind of soil produces a crop and even then the measure of the harvest varies. Why?

All four kinds of people hear the word. The word falls on their ears. Some hear it and fail to respond – the pathway kind of people. Their hearts are hardened by their own thoughts and behaviour patterns and they have no intention of accepting change. The word has no impact on them at all. They carry on living as though they had never heard it.

Some hear it and respond joyfully but it doesn’t last. When the first hint of trouble or opposition comes, they back off and their faith and commitment dies. They are in it only for what they can get out of it. If God does not come to the party, if things don’t go the way they expected, they’re out of there, back to their old way of thinking and living. They tried it but it didn’t work because their expectations were not met.

The third kind of soil receives the seed eagerly but it is already occupied by other things. Jesus identified two already-growing plants which will not give way for the seed of the word; the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of riches. These thought patterns are already entrenched and will not make way for the truth. Both ways of thinking cause a person’s mind to be split.

Worry takes two forms; “what if” and “if only”.

“What if” projects the mind into an unknown and uncertain future. Worry produces fear which obliterates faith. Faith is calling those things that are not as though they were. Fear is calling those things that have not happened as though they had. Worry so overtakes the mind that it is impossible to think rationally until the worrier makes a deliberate choice not to worry and replaces negative thoughts with the truth. Worry has no end because it has no answer.

‘If only” is just as pernicious because it overtakes the mind with regret. Just like worry, regret has no end. It churns over circumstances that belong to the past, cannot be relived and cannot be changed. Satan uses these two powerful ways of choking out the seed of God’s word so that it cannot take root in the heart.

Another powerful “weed” that takes over the mind is the desire for riches. If worry splits the mind so that I am “here” in my body but my mind is “there” where my anxiety or regret is, greed also splits the mind so that I am “now” in the present with my money and possessions but also “then” when I make more money in the future.

Both of these mind-sets leave no room for the word of God to take root in the mind, change the heart and produce the fruit of the truth in the life.

There is only one answer to these pre-occupied minds. It begins with the “want to”. If there is no desire for God, there will be no appetite for His word. Desire begins with a sense of need. We get hungry when we have not eaten for a while. How do we develop an appetite for God’s word? By reading it! Our taste and appetite for certain kinds of food is developed by what we eat. Children who live on junk food will have no appetite for meat and vegetables. If we want to live fruitful lives, we must change our diet.

Those who receive and act on God’s word begin to change. Their roots will go down into the soil of truth and soon the fruit will begin to grow. At first it will be green and immature but, given the continuing nourishment of the word, the fruit will eventually mature and be food for others.

What kind of fruit does the one bear who receives the seed into good soil? It is the fruit of character and behaviour that reflects the nature of the seed.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Gal. 5: 22-23).

How can we tell what a person thinks? Listen to the words that come out of the mouth and watch the fruit of the life. How do people respond to adversity? What comes out of their mouths when they are offended or concerned? What is inside will always come out. Squeeze a lemon and lemon juice will come out! Squeeze a person and what is inside will come out.

These are the kinds of people Jesus had to deal with. These are the kinds of people we encounter in our lives. What kind of soil are you?

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Have you read my new book, Learning to be a Son – The Way to the Father’s Heart (copyright 2015, Partridge Publishing)? You’ll love it!

Available on www.amazon.com in paperback, e-book or kindle version or order directly from the publisher at www.partridgepublishing.com.

Check out my Blog site – www.learningtobeason.wordpress.com