Knowing and growing

This morning, I read Jesus's parable of the sower, seed, and four soil types in Mark, Matthew, and Luke.  as a teacher, it is interesting to me that in Matthew's record of Jesus's explanation of the parable, a critical factor is explaining the Gospel message clearly so that people can understand it and receive it:

Matthew 13:19 NIV
When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path.

Every time I read this parable, I feel a challenge to produce fruit.  Of course, it is a collaboration with the Lord.  This morning, I am thinking about the original planted seed (the Word of God) being reproduced in my life and planted in others' lives.

Mark 4:20 NIV
Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown."

As a farm boy, I think about how the seed is in the fruit.  As the fruit of the Spirit is produced in my life, the Gospel message is there with it.

Heavenly Father, please grow your Word in me.  Produce fruit and seed in my life, and plant it in others.  And may I be a disciple maker who leads them to produce a hundred fold increase, as well.  Holy Spirit, grow me and use me.  I love you, and I pray in the name of Jesus.

Jesus's mission included setting people free and healing people

What was Jesus's mission?  What was He doing here?

Luke 4:16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, 17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

18 "The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

    because he has anointed me

    to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

    and recovery of sight for the blind,

to set the oppressed free,

19     to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

20 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 He began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."

I love this passage because Jesus quoted a Messianic prophecy from Isaiah 61 which gives a strategic framework to Christ's ministry and work.  It is like goals and objectives, which then allows us to evaluate His performance.  Did He accomplish what He set out to do?  From my perspective, Jesus did exactly that.  He traveled around (1) healing people and then (2) preaching the good news of the Kingdom OR (1) preaching the good news of the Kingdom and then (2) healing people.

What struck me in the reading this morning was that Matthew connected Christ's work with another one of my favorite Messianic prophecies in Isaiah:

Matt. 8:16 When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:

"He took up our infirmities

    and bore our diseases."

From a New Testament perspective, we can read Isaiah 53 and see that Messiah was the Suffering Servant who bore the righteous wrath of God for the sin of all people in the world.  But that is not all: Jesus came to heal, physically.  God does not only care about our spiritual condition; He also cares about our physical condition.

Later, Jesus sent out His disciples to do His work.  And we continue this same mission and work.

Heavenly Father, thank you for sending the Messiah.  Lord Jesus, thank you for suffering wrath and death on my behalf.  And thank you for your example of a man empowered by the Holy Spirit to collaborate in accomplishing the work of God.  Holy Spirit, please anoint me and empower me to continue the mission and work of Christ.  I want to join you in preaching the good news of the Kingdom and demonstrating your love and power through healing people and setting them free in Christ.  If the Son sets you free, then you are free, indeed.  Lord, please use my life to bring freedom, peace, and love to people around me.  I love you, and I pray in the name of Jesus.

Thirsty?

As I read the account of Jesus talking to the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4), I was impressed with the physical reality of Jesus's thirst.  He was tired and thirsty, and it was midday.  I think about how thirsty I would be if I had been walking all morning in El Paso during the summer.

The Samaritan woman was shocked that Jesus spoke to her.  In her mind, Jesus broke ethnic and gender taboos by speaking to her.  I don't imagine that Jesus was concerned with the cultural expectations; I think He was really thirsty.  But then He changed the subject:

10 Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."

I used to think that Him asking for a drink of water and then changing the subject was a bait and switch.  And, depending on how you read it, it might even sound a little arrogant.  But Jesus is not tricky or arrogant.  I think He genuinely started the conversation because He was physically thirsty.  And I think, when He looked at the woman, He was spiritually sensitive to notice her spiritual condition, and He addressed her need out of compassion.  The Holy Spirit gave Him insight to see her spiritual need.  In spite of His strong biological impulse for a drink of water, Jesus was still able to perceive the spiritual situation and respond in love:

13 Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

Heavenly Father, I am thirsty for more of you.  Lord Jesus, fill me up and overflow me with a spring of living water.  Holy Spirit, help me be attentive and perceptive to spiritual needs around me, even amidst normal daily routine activities.  I want to worship you in spirit and in truth.  Please teach me what that means.  I love you, and I pray in the name of Jesus.

Baptism of the Holy Spirit

I think it is interesting that when he was asked if he was the Messiah, John the Baptist contrasted his baptism of water with Jesus's baptism of the Holy Spirit:

Matt. 3:11

"I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

Mark 1:8

I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit."

Luke 3:16

John answered them all, "I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

And then after John baptized Jesus, John said:

John 1:33

And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, 'The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.'

As I was reviewing these passages, I noticed that Jesus himself said something very similar before He ascended:

Acts 1:5

For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."

I have previously thought that the water baptism and baptism of the Holy Spirit were coincident/simultaneous, but it seems to me that John the Baptist and Jesus differentiated the two.  

Heavenly Father, please give me wisdom and understanding regarding water baptism and baptism of the Holy Spirit. I feel like I don't understand this, but I want to know you and walk with you, and you promise to give wisdom to those who ask.  I love you, and I pray in the name of Jesus, who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.

His faithfulness and grace (sometimes "delayed")

This morning, I started the New Testament!  Hooray!

I am especially impressed by how God directly fulfilled the final prophecy of Malachi through the life of John the Baptist:

Malachi 4:5‭-‬6 NIV
"See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction."

Luke 1:16‭-‬17 NIV
"He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."

There are several "delays" in this story that I think are significant. 

First, the record of God speaking to his people is silent between Malachi and the time of Jesus and John the Baptist.  The angel, Gabriel, appeared to Zechariah after over four hundred years of silence, approximately the same duration that the Jews were slaves in Egypt.  Of course, to a people struggling with corporate moral purity and subjugation by pagan nations (not unlike their time in Egypt), they needed a savior, the Messiah.  To me, four hundred years seems like a significant delay. I wonder, why did God wait so long to send the Messiah?  Of course, I can't answer that question, but I do believe that God was intentional, not capricious, in his timing:

Romans 5:6 NIV
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.

As I think about Advent season in a few months, I see a parallel.  As the Israelites were waiting for the Messiah for over four hundred years, so we have waited two thousand years for his return, but we do not grow weary in expecting Him to appear any day.

Second, I think there was a significant "delay" in the the lives of Zechariah and Elizabeth.  I can imagine that they prayed and fasted fervently for a child when they were young.  I imagine that they begged God every day for years, maybe more than a decade, to bless them with a child.  And maybe at some point, Zechariah gave up hope and didn't believe that God would grant them a child.  Maybe he stopped asking God for a child decades before Gabriel visited him in the temple. 

Luke 1:13 NIV
But the angel said to him: "Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John.

My paraphrase of Zechariah's response in Luke 1:18:
"What do you mean, 'my prayer has been heard'?  I stopped praying that prayer decades ago.  Now my wife and I are too old.  You are too late.  God waited too long to answer that prayer."

Sometimes God answers a recurring prayer with "not yet" for so long that we assume the answer is "no.  But God even answers the prayers that we have given up on and stopped praying, and He is intentional in his timing in answering our prayers:

Luke 1:19‭-‬20 NIV
The angel said to him, "I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time."

Third, Zechariah was "delayed" in offering incense in the temple. I wonder what some of the people waiting outside were thinking (v. 21):

"Zechariah has been in there a while.  Do you think he is OK?  You don't think that maybe... I mean... What if, you know... What if he wasn't holy enough to go in there? ... You know, they never did have a child.  What if it was his fault? What if he had some hidden sin?"

It is easy for us to slip into speculation and judgement, similar to Job's "friends".  I want to be a friend who believes in people and hopes with them.

Heavenly Father, thank you for your faithfulness and grace in accomplishing your good purpose in the world, our lives, and the lives of our friends.  You are good, and what we perceive as "delays" by you, you use to grow our faith and mature us.  May I be a man of faith and hope that you do fulfill your promises, and you are compassionately aware of the details of our lives.  I love you, and I pray in the name of Jesus.

No resource limitations in the Kingdom

A few nights ago, Beau was reading Jesus's parable of the enemy planting weeds in the field.  When the workers discovered the weeds growing up with the wheat, they asked the owner if they should pull up the weeds.  The owner told them not to pull up the weeds because they might damage the wheat and that the weeds would be sorted and burned when they harvested the wheat.

I don't know why I haven't thought about this before, but growing up on a farm, you learn to pull/hoe weeds whenever and wherever you see them for a couple of important reasons: (1) weeds steal water, nutrients, and possibly sunlight from the crop, which decreases production, and (2) if you let the weeds produce seed, you could have 100 times more weeds next year.

I think the Lord pointed out to me that there are no resource limitations in the Kingdom.  He is not worried about weeds stealing resources from the wheat.  His focus is on growing wheat, and He has unlimited resources to grow the wheat.  It is not a competition between wheat and weeds.  He is fully capable of providing all of the water, nutrients, and sunlight that the wheat needs to grow and produce a harvest of 100 times the original (to mix parables).

Heavenly Father, thank you for taking care of us, and thank you for the promise that you will always be with us and work for our good.  Thank you for your kindness and abundant favor to us.  I love you, and I pray in the name of Jesus.

Seeking His face, rest

Katelyn is teaching me what it looks like to rest in the Father's presence.  When I hold her, she sets her chin on my shoulder and is content.  Sometimes I think she went to sleep, but her eyes are open, and she is content to be with me.  She doesn't have to do anything.  As Brandi pointed out yesterday, she doesn't even have to hold on because she is held.

I feel like I am a hyperactive little boy with the Father: always running around in circles trying to do stuff, asking Him to fix something, or asking questions and studying something.  I need to learn how to be still with Him.

I have read the Scriptures about seeking His face and heart, but I think it is more about being still with Him than running around exhausted trying to accomplish more for Him.  I think it is like Jesus withdrawing to pray and spend time being with His Father.  Christ's miraculous works of the Holy Spirit were in balance with significant time spent in quiet stillness with the Father.

Heavenly Father, thank you for giving me a picture of being still with you.  Help me grow in daily time spent with you in stilling my soul with you and being content in your presence.  I want to seek your face and know your heart.  I want to rest in your love.  Jesus, thank you for your example.  Holy Spirit, guide me into a deeper relationship with you, Jesus, and the Father.  I love you, and I pray in the name of Jesus.