The first step:PREPARING THE SOIL FOR PLANTING
Greetings in the name of Jesus:
I want to send both the love and thanks to all of those of you who have been praying for me, and for my health as of late. I have had a very difficult time over the past three weeks even to be up and around let alone to be able to work on the very needed spiritual lessons that we need to get to in our current blog discussions.
As I look over this very daunting task spiritually I can only think of one way to approach the need to simplify the very deep spiritual truths that we need to know as the church before we can take positive steps to change both attitudes and directions about what God really wants from us. One of the first things that we need to realize is that for us to prepare to receive God's truth in our lives we must simplify the way that we look at God's message to us. Jesus never taught us God's truth by looking at the many Commandments from God that men have always had controversy over. Instead Jesus looked closely at the things that were all around us that we could easily relate to and understand to teach us the most difficult spiritual lessons that we needed to learn.
One of those main spiritual lessons was in how we prepare our hearts and minds to receive God's word, and his spirit with in us. Jesus gave us the most basic concepts of what we use to grow the food that sustains us each day. He started with what we already knew about preparing the ground to receive seeds that we plant to grow food. In order for us to prepare the soil in a garden to grow food properly certain things must take place. First we must dig into the soil and disrupt the surface of things to see what quality there is under the surface. The same thing is very true when it comes to understanding the most simple of God's teachings to us. We must first of all disturb the surface of our lives, and allow God to dig somewhat deeply within us to see what lies there. It is only then that we will no what the next steps are that we need to take in preparing ourselves to face whatever truth may be hidden away. I think it is the case for many people within the church today that we have not dared to scratch deeply enough within us to uncover what has been hidden beneath the surface. In most cases I believe that we are fearful of being judged, or ridiculed for what we do not know about God after we say we believe in Jesus. Some of the very core parts of what God is looking for in the church is to be found below the surface in people's lives. We need to realize that as we uncover the bits and pieces of who we are right now it can be very uncomfortable. Some of us may not even know what they will find when they start digging in the soil of their lives. They may find hidden treasures there that God can use to immediately begin to build their lives with, and on the other hand they may find a need to allow both God and others around them to add to the soil of their lives to enrich who they are and create within them a greater ability to trust, love, and find loyalty within one another's lives.
This becomes a first step in finding out who we are as people, as well is finding out who it is we can trust as brothers and sisters in Christ. You see the truth is we all need to be able to discern the truth in one another as well as the truth that lies within God's word. Jesus tells us that one of the best ways for us to learn who we are and who God is can be found in testing our words to one another. Much of the soil of our lives is made up of the character that we have within us. What that means is that what we say and do in our lives with our relationships with others has a great deal to do with the way we think in our relationship with God. If we have a tendency to be untruthful, un-loyal, or deceitful we will find that although the world may link at our indiscretions; the world will also treat us with the kind of respect that behavior deserves, and as God's word says "be not deceived, God is not mocked"; in other words don't think for a minute that God does not see through you. As we begin to look at this concept of preparing ourselves as though we are preparing soil to be used for growth of crops we need to first look at what's already there. May you richly bless God through your life in him.
YHE UNWORTHY SERVANT
I want to send both the love and thanks to all of those of you who have been praying for me, and for my health as of late. I have had a very difficult time over the past three weeks even to be up and around let alone to be able to work on the very needed spiritual lessons that we need to get to in our current blog discussions.
As I look over this very daunting task spiritually I can only think of one way to approach the need to simplify the very deep spiritual truths that we need to know as the church before we can take positive steps to change both attitudes and directions about what God really wants from us. One of the first things that we need to realize is that for us to prepare to receive God's truth in our lives we must simplify the way that we look at God's message to us. Jesus never taught us God's truth by looking at the many Commandments from God that men have always had controversy over. Instead Jesus looked closely at the things that were all around us that we could easily relate to and understand to teach us the most difficult spiritual lessons that we needed to learn.
One of those main spiritual lessons was in how we prepare our hearts and minds to receive God's word, and his spirit with in us. Jesus gave us the most basic concepts of what we use to grow the food that sustains us each day. He started with what we already knew about preparing the ground to receive seeds that we plant to grow food. In order for us to prepare the soil in a garden to grow food properly certain things must take place. First we must dig into the soil and disrupt the surface of things to see what quality there is under the surface. The same thing is very true when it comes to understanding the most simple of God's teachings to us. We must first of all disturb the surface of our lives, and allow God to dig somewhat deeply within us to see what lies there. It is only then that we will no what the next steps are that we need to take in preparing ourselves to face whatever truth may be hidden away. I think it is the case for many people within the church today that we have not dared to scratch deeply enough within us to uncover what has been hidden beneath the surface. In most cases I believe that we are fearful of being judged, or ridiculed for what we do not know about God after we say we believe in Jesus. Some of the very core parts of what God is looking for in the church is to be found below the surface in people's lives. We need to realize that as we uncover the bits and pieces of who we are right now it can be very uncomfortable. Some of us may not even know what they will find when they start digging in the soil of their lives. They may find hidden treasures there that God can use to immediately begin to build their lives with, and on the other hand they may find a need to allow both God and others around them to add to the soil of their lives to enrich who they are and create within them a greater ability to trust, love, and find loyalty within one another's lives.
This becomes a first step in finding out who we are as people, as well is finding out who it is we can trust as brothers and sisters in Christ. You see the truth is we all need to be able to discern the truth in one another as well as the truth that lies within God's word. Jesus tells us that one of the best ways for us to learn who we are and who God is can be found in testing our words to one another. Much of the soil of our lives is made up of the character that we have within us. What that means is that what we say and do in our lives with our relationships with others has a great deal to do with the way we think in our relationship with God. If we have a tendency to be untruthful, un-loyal, or deceitful we will find that although the world may link at our indiscretions; the world will also treat us with the kind of respect that behavior deserves, and as God's word says "be not deceived, God is not mocked"; in other words don't think for a minute that God does not see through you. As we begin to look at this concept of preparing ourselves as though we are preparing soil to be used for growth of crops we need to first look at what's already there. May you richly bless God through your life in him.
YHE UNWORTHY SERVANT
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