Lack of fruit in a believers life indicates a need to return to foundational basics. There are certain lifestyle choices which cause the Word to not produce in one’s life. You hear it, you read it but it doesn’t produce. It’s when you align your life with what God said in this parable that the door opens for the rest of the sayings of Jesus to bring forth a harvest of fruit in your life. Fruitfulness is what we are talking about in this series on the Parable of the Sower and understanding is a key.
Sometimes people try to avoid the complexities of life. As the story goes, an American businessman named Wilson, tired of the Great depression, rising taxes and increasing crime, sold his home and business in 1940 and moved to an island in the Pacific. Balmy and ringed with beautiful beaches, the island seemed like paradise. Its name? Iwo Jima 1. Inadvertently, we try to live out our Christianity the same way. We try to play it safe. Reduce every possible risk. But, following Jesus is not the place to skimp when it comes to risk. That’s the nature of faith.
Here we are again, another Thanksgiving season – this is my 58th year celebrating this holiday. Every year, at this season, I like to address the topic of thankfulness. No need to break the string now! The character trait of thankfulness is right to have because it strikes at one of the key elements necessary for success in the human person, attitude.
Many only think about thankfulness around this time of the year. We are often admonished to be thankful, to count our blessings, to look back over the year and be grateful for what we have. According, to the Bible, being thankful is not a holiday. In the Old Testament, God commanded the children of Israel to keep certain feasts unto the Lord. By these feasts, they and their children were supposed to be reminded of all that the Lord did (Ex. 13:5-10). These feasts were supposed to be points where children were instructed in the things of God. Most of all, they were supposed to be occasions of rejoicing.
Jesus was first and foremost a teacher anointed by the Spirit of God. One of Jesus teaching methods was the use of parables. In this new series, we will look at one of these parables, The Parable of the Sower. Does this parable apply to us in the church? If it does what powerful truths can we glean from it and how can we apply these truths in our everyday life.
Following God, reading His Word and hearing His voice, will keep your life on a razors edge. He will keep you trusting Him. He will keep you leaning on Him. He is going to give you assignments that require you to give up your security blanket and come out of your comfort zone. The faith lifestyle requires a full commitment. It requires a giving of everything to Jesus.
The gospel of Mark is the action gospel of the New Testament. It is fast moving gospel filled with the doings of Jesus. Four key ideas permeate this gospel. The ideas are housed in the words, Ministry, Miracles, Opposition and Passion. The following is an outline of the gospel using these four words.
Josh McDowell told this great story. An executive hirer, a “headhunter” who goes out and hires corporation executives for other firms, once told me, “When I get an executive that I’m trying to hire for someone else, I like to disarm him. I offer him a drink, take my coat off, then my vest, undo my tie, throw up my feet and talk about baseball, football, family, whatever, until he’s all relaxed. Then, when I think I’ve got him relaxed, I lean over, look him square in the eye and say, “What’s your purpose in life?” It’s amazing how top executives fall apart at that question. “Well, I was interviewing this fellow the other day, had him all disarmed, with my feet up on his desk, talking about football. Then I leaned up and said, ‘What’s your purpose in life, Bob?’ And he said, without blinking an eye, ‘To go to heaven and take as many people with me as I can.’ For the first time in my career I was speechless.” What about you? Do you know what your place is in God? Do you know how to find it?
People identify with the noise of inferiority, with the noise of insecurity, with the noise of a lack of self-esteem. But, you don’t have to have that identity because God has carved one out especially for you. You have a choice about the voice in your head. You can choose to go with what God’s Word says about you.
Dreams played an important part in the lives of God’s people. Of the 116 references to dreams listed in Young’s Concordance, 52 come in Genesis during the early patriarchal period and 29 in the Book of Daniel 1. Are you open to the Lord speaking to you in this way?