December 21, 2022
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in our Advent readings from “The Life of Jesus”? Here’s today’s reading:
Day 21 in the Book: “The Life of Jesus“
The Year of Popularity
Read Sections 3.45 through 3.48 (pages 59-61)
This book is an account of Jesus’ life and teachings told through in chronological order from the four Gospels to create one continuous story.
*If you do not have a copy of the book please contact the church at (401)667-0775 and we can get you a copy.
Maybe it’s because of my own learning style, but I love that Jesus taught through stories. The way He could use something that we are hands on with in our daily life and use it to so perfectly explain a Kingdom principle was amazing and the power provided by Christ in our lives is amazing!
A garden. A mustard seed. Yeast. These simple but amazing things that we may not truly understand all the details of how they work they do result in growth and great things when put into action. It gives you such a confidence to know God’s power is available to us on a daily basis to face not just our greatest challenges but even the mundane giving us so many opportunities to bring Him glory in all things we do!
Advent Day 21
Day 21
3.45 – 3.48
Love these parables. Mustard seed. Smallest. But when it grows. The largest plant. That’s us! Small beginnings but hopefully many results. Wheat and the weeds. We live as wheat amount weeds. Don’t pull out the weeds. But have them Join us into wheat
The account of the mustard seed is one of my favorite nuggets of wisdom in the Bible, that the object of the faith is more important than the size. God cares more that my faith is in him, no matter how feeble at times than how intense it is..
There’s a couple of good questions in this first section. First, how much are we letting our light shine? If we know God and have benefits from that relationship, why not tell people about it? The second, is how much are we understanding what God is saying and trying to accomplish? The more we understand the more we free God to provide things for us… Because the nature of God’s kingdom is to grow. Seeds are planted and divine effect happens both with and independent of human effort. Even weeds being planted by the enemy doesn’t destroy the growth of the good seeds. There will be a sifting in the end..but God is far more concerned right now about His kingdom growing than what the enemy is doing to try and stop it. And what He is asking us for is faith…not great amounts of faith, but even small faith expressed in God’s direction will produce great things. And then it just becomes a matter of watching the way the influence of God permeates things. He is always working behind the scenes to expand His kingdom and it is ultimately unassailable. And God is gracious to allow us to participate and to condescend to tell us things in ways that we can understand, even things that have been true from the beginning. What privilege is ours to be part of the great work that God is doing in the world. We need to apply ourselves to His provisions and then let His work shine through us!
I found the parable of the weeds quite interesting. Jesus tells them exactly who the characters are in the story. For a very long time, I have been hesitant to label anyone “evil”. I guess I am always looking at the possibility that someone can accept the gospel and repent and live for Christ. It is very clear that the world is full of wheat and weeds currently growing together. Even in the church there are weed seeds sown by the enemy. We are shocked when we find out we have a “weed” amongst us, but I guess we shouldn’t be surprised. There is so much evil displaying itself in our current world, we shouldn’t be afraid to stand up and call evil what it is, evil. We have accepted many of the world’s justifications for sin and even called them “good”.