The Parable of the Weeds

 On the heels of the Parable of the Sower comes the Parable of the Weeds and Jesus’ explanation of its meaning (Mt.13:24-30, 37-43). Like the article about the Sower we’ll assume you know that a man sows good seed in his field, but an enemy comes and sows weeds among the good seeds. When asked if the weeds should be pulled up, the sower says not to…

The Parable of the Sower (Mt.13:3-9, 18-23))

 The first thing we want to remember is that the parables are meant to touch the heart. What the heart is willing to receive and trust is what will motivate the spirit to put it into action. This is why the first parable of note in Matthew is the Parable of the Sower. It is a parable about the Word of God. It contains the seeds, its…

Context and Setting of Parables

 The parables of Jesus are as important as any of the rest of Scripture because they not only reveal the thinking mind of God, but they reveal His heart and Spirit as well. When Jesus tells a parable, it is to bring us into the thinking and attitude of God. It is the Holy Spirit who conveys both and stands ready to give us that inner…

The Beauty of Being Ordinary

 The ordinary man---he is an individual, unknown, not a public figure, average, no one gives him a second look, rarely memorable. However, this is the kind of person the Lord picks to do His work. Acts 3 recalls the Apostles Peter and John (common fishermen) healing a crippled man and then preaching about Jesus. The rulers in Jerusalem heard about…

Being a Disciple of Jesus

 Being a true disciple is not about evangelism, church, mission, ethics, behavior, religion or theology. It is about Jesus. It is about letting Him be our focus. It is about Him being our priority. It is about Jesus being here right now and being His disciple. He is to be our focus and our priority. Peter says it so well when he tells a crippled man to…

Psalm 18:1-3 Reassurance

 We all need reassurance, encouragement, consolation and support. There is no better place than the Psalms to feel the intensity of those words. If you take the first verses of this Davidic masterpiece, they will be a great start to any day, a comfort in any circumstance and the means to move into every next moment.

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Christmas and the Way, the Truth and the Life

 There are lots of philosophical systems to think with, lots of emotional avenues for the heart to stroll down and lots of things that promise a good life, but none are the combined balance of personal belief, heart trust and spirit action like Jesus exhibited and besides, remember this, remember that He rose from the dead and lives in our hearts.…

Christmas and the One-Track Mind

 The Lord Jesus had one attitude which He described in these words, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and your neighbor as yourself (Mt.22, Lk.10).” As we said in the last blog, He was a one attitude person while we, on the other hand, tend to be multi-attitudinal. That is, we develop attitudes as we…

Christmas and Perception

 Perception is spiritual reality at work. But what shapes our perception? If we really look at it, the heart is the source and the attitude it dresses in is the deciding factor. If I do not believe in God, my attitude is emotionally conditioned and intellectually justified based on what makes me comfortable. If I believe in God, my attitude is in the…

Christmas and Freedom

 Freedom is a multi-defined word in the secular world. It usually means you can think and do anything you want. But no one is perfect intellectually or emotionally which means there is no guarantee they will be right. If you are a disciple of Jesus, freedom is spiritual and means choosing between what God wants and what we want.…

Christmas and Spiritual Rebirth

 That Jesus was born of a virgin, counters everything a world-conditioned mind thought when He was born. It still counters the same mindset today. It is simply impossible for a physical conception to take place without the implantation of a physical seed in a physical womb. After all, how did you and I get here? It is this very reality that…

Christmas in the Biblical Context 

The event of Christmas, the Nativity, the birth of our Lord, signifies something that is cataclysmic to say the least. It marks the end of an era and the beginning of an era. It is end of the beginning and the beginning of the end. It is the start and finish of a program God had in mind before Creation. How we understand it all is beyond us but…

Spiritual Recovery and Christmas

 Christmas is the beginning of recapturing, reshaping and reorienting the mind, heart and spirit as a lifetime project. The appearance of Jesus on the world scene is the unfolding of God’s plan of recovery. In Him we see this project unfold. Jesus was conceived and born by the Holy Spirit, lived and acted by the Spirit and, when He died, was…

Christmas, Recovering the Spirit

 Of course, I’m talking about our spirits, the reshaping of the soul within us, allowing God to fill us with His Holy Spirit and restoring us to the full image of Him He intended in Creation. Jesus came to restore our wandering anxious spirit. With the mind centered in Scripture, the heart trusting in the presence of the Lord Jesus, the Lord…

Christmas and Recovering the Heart

To recover the heart, we have to recognize it starts with the mind. As Paul said, “…be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” The mind is where we believe, where we analyze on the basis of what we believe. What we believe determines how we arrange our thoughts about life, God, people and existence. The mind is a reservoir of ideas, concepts and principles we choose to…

Christmas and Recovering the Mind

“Are you out of your mind? - Where is your mind? - Keep your mind on what you’re doing. - My mind can’t handle it. - He’s playing mind games. - They’re trying to get into my head. - I can’t get my mind around that. - He’s got a screw loose somewhere. - He’s not playing with a full deck. - His elevator doesn’t go to the top…

Christmas Begins the Process 

If forgiveness is the starting point of salvation then what we do is accept the One who forgives, the Lord Jesus, and see what we do after that. When Peter preached to the crowd in Jerusalem about why Jesus was crucified they asked what they should do in response. Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit…

The Importance of Mary 

When we approach Scripture, it is important that we view it from its intended spiritual context. What is it saying to us spiritually? Then, how is to be applied to where we are as individuals physically and emotionally? So, when we look at the passages involving Mary the mother of Jesus for instance, what is the spiritual meaning of her life and her words?

 There is an obviously deep spiritual impact when Elizabeth, pregnant with John, hears Mary…

How Christmas Continues 

Jesus came “…to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins…(Lk.1:77)”

 We’ve already stated that salvation was being personally restored to God by God through the One who restores us and that is Jesus, the Son of God. People had to know that this salvation was available; that they had access to it and that there was someone who would provide it. That was the task of John the Baptist, announce it, make it…

The most important part of organic gardening is to nourish the potting soil. Your plants will take their nourishment from the soil, and will basically be as healthy as being the soil is. The healthier your plants, the fewer specialists will fall victim to garden unwanted pests. The soil, therefore, is the most important part of organic farming or…