Which Soil Are You?

One day Jesus told a story in the form of a parable to a large crowd that had gathered from many towns to hear him: “A farmer went out to plant his seed. As he scattered it across his field, some seed fell on a footpath, where it was stepped on, and the birds ate it. Other seed fell among rocks. It began to grow, but the plant soon wilted and died for lack of moisture. Other seed fell among thorns that grew up with it and choked out the tender plants. Still other seed fell on fertile soil. This seed grew and produced a crop that was a hundred times as much as had been planted!”

When he had said this, he called out, “Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.”

This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is God’s word.

The seeds that fell on the footpath represent those who hear the message, only to have the devil come and take it away from their hearts and prevent them from believing and being saved.

The seeds on the rocky soil represent those who hear the message and receive it with joy. But since they don’t have deep roots, they believe for a while, then they fall away when they face temptation.

The seeds that fell among the thorns represent those who hear the message, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the cares and riches and pleasures of this life. And so they never grow into maturity.

And the seeds that fell on the good soil represent honest, good-hearted people who hear God’s word, cling to it, and patiently produce a huge harvest.

Take time to honestly reflect on this question: Which soil best describes you? If you are not bearing fruit, sow God's word into your life as much as possible. Soon you will show yourself to be the good soil.

The Deity of Christ

For those of you who are still wondering how orthodox Christianity came to the conclusion that Jesus is God (because you were too lazy, uh I mean busy to do your own research) consider these. They are not exhaustive by any means, but not too shabby being off the top of my head. I will let you find the references if you need them.

Jesus called himself, "I am." Doesn't mean much to us, but the Jews definitely knew what he was trying to say, that's why they wanted to stone him for blasphemy.

Jesus also never refused anyone's worship. For example, when "Doubting" Thomas responded to seeing Jesus' wounds, he said, "My Lord and My God." Jesus did not correct him, which would have been normal for all servants of God.

All the other heavenly beings (the good ones, anyway) always refused when someone tried to worship them, saying stuff like, "Do not do it, I am a servant just like you."

The Father was pleased with Jesus, which he would not have been if he were truly blaspheming.

Read your Bible! Know what you believe and why. It will make a difference in your life.

What It Looked Like in My Head...

A couple of weeks ago, I asked the congregation to shout, "Jesus" in answer to some questions I had during my sermon. This is what it looked like in my head when I planned that:



Actually I knew TCCBC would be much more reserved. Still went well nonetheless.

"If I'm on the devil's hitlist, who do I have by my side?" JESUS!

Amen!

A Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On!

Right now this is the song of my heart for our church. I hope that one day we will experience together God's mighty saving power!

Of course this will never happen until we turn our hearts to Jesus and join him in his work of salvation for all.

What Would You Say to This?

Imagine talking to a Muslim person and he says that he can prove that Jesus is not God, even using the Bible as his authority. He tells you to watch this video:



After watching the video with him, how would you respond? Would you be like the vast majority of believers whose strongest response would be, "You should talk to my pastor." Or would you be able to answer these arguments on your own?

Of course it should be the latter. You need to be able to defend your own faith, knowing what you believe and why you believe it!

I found this video on YouTube last week and was thinking about how important it is for us as Christians to know what the Bible says. I should not have been surprised to find that there exists such a thing as Muslim Apologetics.

The book I mentioned in Sunday's sermon about people from different walks of life coming to faith in Christ, called The Unexpected Journey by Thom Rainer, also mentions how important it is for believers to know the Bible.

How can you be a good witness to people of other faiths or even answer their questions if they know the Bible better than you do?

True, their interpretation may be faulty, but unless you know how to explain what the fault is and why it is faulty, in the worst case scenario, instead of drawing the other closer to Jesus, you may end up losing your own faith!

Spend time in God's word. Truth matters.