Plowing

 

Plowing

“Break up your unplowed ground and do not sow among thorns.”

—Jeremiah 4:3

I remember how my father loved to prepare the ground and plant his fields in the spring. He was probably the happiest doing these tasks from the seat of his tractor than doing just about anything else. All farmers, whether using oxen, or horses, or air conditioned tractors know the process well that leads to growth and production from this annual task.

The Bible contains many illustrations from the themes of sowing and reaping. We often hear quoted Galatians 6:7: “A man reaps what he sows.” Jesus told a whole parable on the process of growing seeds into healthy plants. In Mark 4:1-20, He likened people to one of four types of soil—two of which Jeremiah references in the verse at the beginning of this blog post.

One type of soil develops over time and through the repeated trampling of feet and wagons over a footpath. The soil becomes so hard that anyone trying to plant there would have to “break up” that soil in order to grow anything. The other type of soil needs the uprooting of thorns, in order not to choke the seed the farmer intends to plant.

In these days when we have more time than usual to meditate on God’s ways with us, His methods, His desires, I believe we should consider how He wants to prepare us for the days ahead. He wants to make us and our churches more productive than they have been. The footpaths have become like stone with the habitual trampling, often unthinkingly, of His good grace.

The thorns God warns us of must illustrate the sins that grow with a mind of their own and take over our patterns of life, and even our Christian duties. In self-will and self-righteousness and pride, we easily allow our thoughts and actions to choke out the life of the written Word of God, the calling of God’s Holy Spirit, our prayer lives, and any godly desires we may have once held.

If our lives and our churches emerge from this current COVID-19 pandemic more fruitful than they have been, we must take our Lord’s admonishment: “Break up the unplowed ground.” Dig below the surface and renew a fertile life of faith and practice. “Do not sow among thorns.” Get rid of the sin into which we so easily fall. In the future, do not continue trying to live with one foot in sin and one foot in the Kingdom of God.

In the Mark 4 parable, Jesus speaks of the soil He desires. He wants us to plant in “good soil”—soil in which we hear the written Word, accept it, and produce a large crop.

Crops, once planted, need sunlight and water. Often, the truest brokenness of heart soil and adequate preparation for a plenteous crop comes by way of tears and a humble heart. I like the way Psalm 126:4-6 states it:

Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. He who goes out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy carrying sheaves with him.

—Posted: Monday, April 27, 2020

 

 

Scaling a Wall

 

“With your help I can advance against a troop [or run through a barricade]; with my God I can scale a wall.”

—Psalm 18:29

David was a warrior king. Much of the imagery of his Psalms reveals battle terminology. Even the Psalm from which the verse is quoted at the beginning of this blog post uses the terms “fortress,” “shield,” “stronghold,” “arrows,” “enemies,” “attacks,” and “victories.” In verse 39, David writes:

He [God] trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze.

However, verse 29, at the beginning of this blog post, has somewhat stymied me. And, I have yet to find any reference to this verse among my ample commentaries.

Yet, when we read the stories of Jesus, after He victoriously defeated the enemy death in His resurrection, we come upon John 20:26, which states:

His disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”

Jesus didn’t run through a barricade, or scale a wall. But, He did something equally as miraculous. He seemed to have walked through a shut and locked door. Why did John record that information? Perhaps to show us that nothing in our physical world can stop Jesus’ power from penetrating and reaching us.

Does Jesus still do this kind of miracle today? I believe that He does. We can relate to this verse in the Psalms in relation to what God can do in answer to our prayers. We can’t walk through doors, or barricades, nor scale walls. But, we can see Him do this for us through the power of prayer.

In the Bible, prayer is often compared to a battle. Genesis 32:24 relates the story of Jacob who, alone in the wilderness and in danger from the fury of Esau, “wrestled with ‘a man’ until daybreak.” Jacob later learned that this was the angel of God. In Ephesians 6:10-18, Paul likens our struggle to a wrestling match with rulers, authorities, principalities, and dark forces of evil.

I believe that when we plead for others in prayer, God can reach through barricades and over walls in order to move those forces put up by man and by the Evil One to ruin us and our brothers and sisters in Christ. Can God reach into a prison cell in Turkey, or Iran, or Kenya to rescue His children caught there? We have certainly heard witness to these kinds of divine liberations.

Christians who have prayed in faith for people caught in these kinds of situations, and who have seen God release them in miraculous ways, can give testimony to the power of God to break into places too difficult for any of us to penetrate. This Easter season—as we sing with those around the world: “Thine be the glory, risen, conquering Son!”—may we truly believe and use the weapons of prayer to do impossible things in Christ’s name.

 

 

Resurrection Power

 

“You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead.”

—Acts 3:15

The victim has become the Victor! The condemned has become the Conqueror! The meek has become the Strong! Let all the world see our powerful God: Vanquisher, Hero, King of Kings! We use this kind of language when we celebrate the resurrection of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And, well we should. Even our language fails in its attempt to exclaim the magnificence of the One who acts as the Death of Death!

How often in Scripture, from the beginning in the Book of Genesis all the way to the Book of Revelation, do we witness the Sovereign Power of our Living God?

• With His power He spoke the world into being when the elements heard the thundering voice, “Let there be light!” (Genesis 1:3)
  
  
• Sarah and Abraham saw the impossible happen with the birth of Isaac. (Genesis 21)
  
  
• The story of Joseph in the dark prison, (Genesis 41-47) whom God had chosen to rescue His people, was brought out in ignorance of God’s overruling plan by a pharaoh of Egypt.
  
  
• Another pharaoh, regarding his own power, (Exodus 5-13 and Exodus 14) refused to let the people of God escape His clutches. But, God’s almighty power brought them through the Red Sea in an impossible rescue.
  
  
• King Nebuchadnezzar thought he had killed the insolent Hebrew children in his fire by heating it seven times hotter, and binding them in ropes (Daniel 3). God showed up and did the impossible for them, rescuing them from the flames without so much the smell of smoke on their clothing.
  
  
• Peter, in the New Testament (Acts 12), tied with double chains, escaped because God’s servant came and touched him with the words, “Quick, get up!”
  
  
• Paul and Silas likewise, (Acts 16:16-40) in the innermost cell bound hands and feet, escaped by means of an earthquake suddenly sent by Almighty God.

The Resurrection story of Jesus should not have surprised His followers. His God, the God of Abraham; the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; the God of all those for whom Jesus performed miracles; and so many more, acted on that first Easter morning, as He had throughout history. He has always acted to rescue His chosen people, even from our fiercest enemy, Death.

When we pray according to His will, we should believe this One of whom we ask favors. He, the God of the impossible, waits to do wonderful things for us, even using a world-wide pandemic to accomplish His mysterious and powerful will.

This Season of Eastertide, when recounting the powerful story of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, let us remember that He has given us that power to use for His purposes through prayer. What a privilege to share His power to bring about His holy will in our world. He wants to overrule the powers of death in our lives and bring about new life! He wants all people everywhere to know Him. The Apostle Paul, writing in Philippians 2:8-11, admonishes us to exalt Jesus:

He humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

 

 

Passion Week

 

As Jesus and his disciples were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed him. Two blind men were sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was going by, they shouted, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us.”… Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes. Immediately they received their sight and followed Him.

—Matthew 20:29-30, 34.

As we begin this Passion Week, may we experience a deep gratitude for all that Jesus has done for us. The entirety of His death on the cross was motivated by his “com-passion” (with passion). He saw the darkness of people’s minds and their refusal to see and hear the message he shared with them. As He approached Jerusalem on Palm Sunday morning, He wept over Jerusalem. Scripture records this striking event in Luke 19:41-42:

As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes.”

Then again, as the Scripture verses at the beginning of this blog post state, even while on His way that Palm Sunday, amidst the large crowd, He listened to the cries for mercy from two blind men. Hearing their requests, Jesus had compassion on them, and healed them.

In the Old Testament, “compassion” was symbolized by the Mercy Seat within the Holy of Holies of the Tabernacle. Once a year, the High Priest entered this sacred place to offer a sacrifice for the sins of the Jewish people.

The Mercy Seat—the “hilasterion”—indicated to the people of God that He fully sympathized with their sin, their pain, and their sorrows. An English translation of the New Testament Greek text found in Romans 3:25 reads as follows:¹

[Jesus Christ] Whom God set forth to be a propitiation [mercy seat] through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;

The moment Jesus took His last breath, Scripture records that the veil in the Temple was torn in two. That which had previously been available only to the priests—and only under special ceremonial rules—was now available to all people.

Because of Jesus’ death, we all now have access to the Mercy Seat. The mercy and love of God, through Christ, is now available to all those whom God calls to Himself. He means for all those He calls to enter His divine Presence and cry out for His mercy to be poured out on us.

In these days of the COVID-19 (Coronavirus), if you will, imagine that we, His people, crowd around Him as He enters the city this Palm Sunday. What should we cry for, if not for His mercy?

In reading an on-line devotional, I came upon this prayer and thought it fitting for us to pray during this time. I urge each of us to pray this prayer, over and often, during the days of this “Com-Passion Week.”²

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on all those who are suffering with the Coronavirus.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on those who are mourning the loss of loved ones who have died as a result of the Coronavirus.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on all those who are caring with love and sacrifice for the sick wherever they are found, whether they are at home or in hospitals, and keep them by Your grace.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, defend and protect those who are suffering financial hardship as a result of this pandemic.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, grant wisdom to our leaders as they struggle to meet the daily demands of this disease.

Lord Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, have mercy upon your world at this difficult time. For to You, our God, belong all praise and honor and glory forever and ever!

Amen.

______________________

1 Quoted by Beth Moore in Moore, Beth. A Woman’s Heart. Nashville, TN: LifeWay Press, 1995. p. 181.

2 Krammes, Barry. Biola University On-line Lenten Devotional. La Mirada, CA: Biola University Center for Christianity Culture and the Arts, 2020.