"The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature."What are the things which are choking us and stopping the breath of God's Spirit from bringing power and fullness into our lives??
May we have the boldness, strength and humility to let go and let God. May we encourage each other to persevere and not settle for mediocrity in this life. May we be the mothers and brothers of Jesus!
9 comments:
Last year I wrote a song and the words for the chorus are taken from 1 John 2:6 which says, "Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did."
I believe this means we are to have compassion and express love as Jesus did but there is something else which is hitting me over the head only 8 chapters into the gospel of Luke.
After Jesus has taught and calmed a storm 3 things happen:
1) He takes authority over evil spirits and cures a demon-possessed man.
2) A lady is healed from a long term debilitating disease after "touching" Jesus and connecting with the "power" of the Holy Spirit in him.
3) Jesus brings the daughter of Jairus back to life.
Deliverance, healing and even raising from the dead (once in ch7 and then again in ch8) seem to be a regular and important aspect of the way "Jesus walked".
In Mozambique people are regularly being delivered, healed and even raised from the dead...and God's kingdom is expanding!
I am believing more and more that God wants us to be walking as Jesus did in ALL areas!
So what is stopping us?? I believe a large part of this answer is the thorns. We pursue pleasure and money and find ourselves weighed down by the worries of this life.
Have mercy on us Lord! Free us from the thorns that we may start to know and experience the faith of Jairus and the bleeding woman and that we may start to see things through new eyes.
Yes - Jesus just shows total authority over everything - one thing after another. The demons - read that so often - loved the story as a child - those pigs! but see how frightening it was for people. Easier to follow someone who healed bodies than someone who dealt with things we can be wary of - derangement! Yet - why be wary - Jesus has already overcome every power! We need to grasp that truth.
What has struck me though was this warning - immediately following the light on lampstand thing (my paraphrase - "Stop hiding your belief, declare your belief openly in the way you act and speak")
V18 “So pay attention to how you hear. To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given. But for those who are not listening, even what they think they understand will be taken away from them.”
"We pursue pleasure and money and find ourselves weighed down by the worries of this life."
The key word here is 'pursue'.
As part of living in this capitalistic, dog-eat-dog society we MUST not shut ourselves off from it .... as to do so would be to alienate ourselves and live in ignorance of our culture. Then what good would we be to those who are 'stuck in pursuit amidst the thorns'?
We must 'tip-toe' through the thorns, after covering ourselves with the protection of The Spirit. (Ephesians 6)
We must be strong enough in our faith that we are NOT afraid to go amongst the thorns.
We must be strong enough in our faith to KNOW that GOD will not send us anywhere we cannot 'cope with'.
If Jesus was here in Perth .... where would HE hang out?
I beleive we would find him in the back alleyways of Northbridge and Perth. At night, he would sleep with the homeless in East Perth. He would be spotted at strip clubs, raves, the casino, the movies ..... not 'pursuing' the superficialities of these venues and past-times but instead engaging with and loving those who are.
So to your question, Andrew - What is stopping us? Fear!
Who is the 'maker' of Fear? Satan!
So I want to say is..... FEEL THE FEAR AND DO IT ANYWAY!!! (or don't you really trust GOD?!)
Hee!Hee! (Bet that last line has 'ruffled a few feathers ..GOOD!)
I know it is easy for me to say .... 'coz for those of you who don't know me I have always been 'fearless' (even in my pre-GOD days (baptised approx 3 yrs ago .... by Andrew and Anne) and I have lived amongst the thorns and actively pursued all things 'evil'.
If you lie down with dogs you get fleas ...... not if you cover yourself with flea powder first!
Have a blessed day all!
ps. Love the pic Andrew!
The thing that struck me about this Ch. is the 'inclusiveness' of the Kingdom of God. Verses 1-3 have Jesus including women in his group, not the done thing at the time ("I thank thee Lord that I am not a Gentile, a sinner, or a woman " - an Orthodox Jewish [man's]prayer). The seed is cast everywhere, not just in certain areas (vs.4-18).
But the most beautiful story for me is in v40-55. The contrast between Jairus (of the religious power elite) and the woman with haemenorrhea is amazing. The latter would have been considered CONSTANTLY ritually unclean and unable to approach God at ANY time. She would have been constantly anaemic, sick, prone to infections, etc. Basically in body and soul she was damned, and shunned by society as worthless as her condition precludes her having children. For me this lady is a metaphor for the poor of Mozambique.
Jairus on the other hand is sitting pretty - has constant access to God, goes to Temple, knows all the
right people, good job. Here read us. But he too has been brought undone and all he has counts for nothing as his daughter lies dying. He is no better off than the woman.
But faith (v48; 50) saves them both, not only in this world but in the next.
For me this story tells me how loved we rich are in the Kingdom of God, and how we have nothing in the Kingdom of God. The only riches we truly have is in out faith.
Great point about the hearing Rosaleen! Oh that we would truly listen and really see.
I agree Gemma, FEAR is a huge deterrent and probably the biggest. I think the story of Peter stepping out of the boat and on to the water is a classic in this regard. We won't overcome the fear through writing on this blog but hopefully it can play a part in motivating us to put our faith into action in small and big ways.
I also think that for many of us our time and energy are sapped through the pursuit of pleasure and money. This will take various forms and is often subtle.
jb - I totally love the "inclusiveness" you referred to and want to explore day by day what this looks like in practice for us.
Thanks also for your insights re Jairus and the woman.
I am finding this blog to be a really helpful part of my daily journey, so keep the comments flowing...and if you are reading this and haven't posted a comment yet, I invite you to share a few words :)
At times, we are like children in a toy shop (myself included) constantly distracted by the things around us, flitting from one fascination to the next.
If only we could focus on the things of greatest importance, it would be so simple. Love God above ALL else and your neighbour as yourself. Sounds easy hey?
Was just thinking. Possible "thorn" for olds in this is: most 'olds' grew up in churches where the Holy Spirit was mentioned briefly at the beginning and end of the service "in the name of the father, Son and Holy Spirit" but the teaching for many years was that all the stuff in Acts was for the startup of the church - not for today. You all know this was true. Then - the weirdos (from the olds point of view) started (aka pentecostals) with their "exhibitionism" and various disgraces - especially when high profile and on TV - and the olds simply wanted to distance themselves from all this awful stuff!
OK, there has been some pretty faithful teachings (at Concordia in any event) regards the Holy Spirit and lots of encouragement to - if not dive in - certainly get a toe in the water!
But there has been little backup at an LCA level to encourage people who may have felt their pastor was a little on the fringe.
When you read that John the Baptist made the declaration that Jesus would baptise with the Holy Spirit and with fire - there is no excuse for any theologean to sit with the 'only applies to the first pentecost' story.
I feel so sad for many olds who have been misled in the past, and are trying to hold fast to the things they have been taught [in error] for years.
Another thorn for many is fear - fear that when I step out in faith - nothing will happen and I will look a fool. We look at people who seem extraordinarily gifted - and we think - mmm - well maybe one day that will start happening for me! But until it does - I'm just going to wait (fast, pray, study, discuss....) because it is not just that I will look a fool - think how bad it will look for God when I try things he has not gifted me for...
We need the encouragement from people in the stories of their initial steps in faith... many may not have started out as faithfully and powerfully as they are now - but as they used the gifts they were given - more was given... as Jesus said it would be.
Some good comments guys.
I'm doing this journey with "The Word" bible just for a different slant. I had never noticed that rich and influential women joined the mob and provided for them.
Secondly, I have always been fascinated by the pigs - why did Jesus cast the spirits into the pigs? The demons didn't want to be cast into the eternal pit - they knew where they could be sent. The bible says that Jesus casts them out, it doesn't say that he destroys them or sends them to the pit, just gets them out. This is not that significant, just an interesting observation to me.
I was at the bank today and started to take more notice of people, wondering about their story and their struggles. I wonder how much need or pain we walk past each day?
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