Dead Ends and Dark Dungeons

Hello Friends!!  This blog comes on the heel of Homecoming Sunday at FBC of Mocksville (which was EXCELLENT) and a fairly eventful week at Campbell.  In the past week I have spent my time fielding frustration and swinging at all pitches.  While some may have been a homerun (like my Hebrew test) others have not proven themselves worthy to even get a base.  I remember my days of softball and the cheers of "good eye" or "way to watch".  Well, I must say that looking at this week no one can cheer those for me.  

I'm not sure what was different about this week but I do know one thing, I'm going to have to do a better job of predicting the calls and being ready to wait for the right pitch. This week in preparation for my children's sermon I was reading through the sermon text in Colossians 1:9-18.  Each week I strive to make the children's sermon relevant to the sermon topic; some weeks are easier than others.  

Anyways, in The Message (TM) version of this passage, the language used struck me...it struck me for 1) as a reminder of the people I have in my life and 2) it reminded me of the Call I have answered.  It is presumed that Paul and Timothy are writing to the Church in Colosse when we find this particular passage.  Verses 9-12 are a prayer for the Church.  Reading those first in the mindset of it being ourselves though brings about a new light.  Reading from TM the prayer is for:

• Wise minds and spirits attuned to God's will
• Rightful living for the Master so as to make him proud of our work
• Learning 
• Strength to make it through the long haul - not the grim strength but the glory strength
• and Lastly for thankfulness

How I wish this was my prayer more often!  Think about it...we ask for the things we think we need not that we are able to discern what we encounter or that we may feel the presence of God's Holy Spirit.  We pray for the deeds we must accomplish but not that they may be to Honor God the Father.  We pray for things like patience but do not want to endure the learning.  We pray for Christ to be with us in all that we do, but he already is; rather we should pray that we have his strength to carry us through.  I would also dare to say that I neglect to actually give thanks to God for all that he is done already for being blindsided by what I anticipate.

Verses 13-14 read as follows:

"God rescued us from dead-end alleys and dark dungeons. He's set us up in the kingdom of the Son he loves so much, the Son who got us out of the pit we were in, got rid of the sins we were doomed to keep repeating."

What an image that is! God rescued us! Yes, we all know it, we all preach it, and hopefully we all live it.  But do we celebrate it?

Let's see what the next inning will hold, maybe this will help me with that bad eye!

God; A Diligent Farmer

This morning as I sat in my seat at Snyder Memorial I was reminded of some simple but deep truths.  As the Rev. John Cook brought his message today he preached on the Parable of the 4 Soils which comes from the book of Matthew 13.  As a person with an agricultural background this is just one of those sermons that just simply makes sense.  Parables were written to give instruction through the form of a story.  These stories come to us like a child curled up in a Grandparents lap; listening to stories of old and searching for the moral. In reading this parable I was taken back to those fond memories, so today I curled up in Jesus' lap and listened.  

In the parable as the farmer scatters his seed he is taking a calculated risk.  In those days he would have scattered his seed as much as he could and then go back and sew or plow it in.  This risk leads to the unfruitfulness of some of the seed he scatters but he has the expectation that there will be a harvest.  The first place being the path where crows descend and eat the seed.  The next seeds fall on the rocky places where the soil is shallow and while the seed can germinate it quickly withers as no roots can develop.  Some of the seeds then fall upon the thorns where they were eventually choked out.  Lastly, some of the seed fell upon good soil producing a hundred, sixty or thirty fold.  

As I listened, these soils were applied to my life.  Along my journey I can see myself in each of these places.  You see just as the seed on the path the ground was hard and the things of the world (crows) quickly swooped in and took the seeds away.  For many, just as myself this looked like a hardened heart.  Whether it was relationships, hardships, or ignorance something kept those seeds away from penetrating my heart.  The truth of the matter is that the truth and love of Christ was suppressed by the hardness of the heart.

When our hardened hearts can be cracked the we allow the opportunity for a seed to germinate.  But quickly we become the primary of target of Satan.  You see it is not far below that we still have the remnants of our broken heart.  Our relationship with Christ or others lacks depth and it quickly fades.  

Once the seeds of our life are established it is the distractions and misdirected priorities that we must be on the lookout for.  For it is these that threaten to choke out the faith we do have.  Finally, we reach a point where our seed is established enough to begin reproducing for a new life.  In order for this to happen our hearts and minds must be open and receptive to the Word of the Lord.  For it is only the love of God that can break open our hardened hearts.  We must also be patient in our faith, as immediate growth can be exciting to see but does not last just as the seed in the rocks.  

My prayer this week is that you will allow God to be a diligent farmer and tend the soils of your heart. Breaking ground where necessary, scaring away the crows and thinning the thorns.