“Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it. And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine: For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes”(Matthew 7:24-29).
We have discussed thus far: Realtionships, Things (money, whatever) and we have even talked about that horrible, “It’s all about ME” syndrome. And it would appear that not much is happening concerning these things but the Lord is able to keep track of these things in each and every individual. HE knows what happens every time a paycheck comes around. HE knows the content of your heart, at that point in time as well.
HE knows where every single penny has gone and HE knows why. HIS data gathering is like nothing we can ever imagine! Think on this for a moment! To not only know what you make each pay day, HE knows where it will go and what you were thinking of, at that time! But we continue to do whatever pleases us. (Wisdom is freely given to the wise in the Lord.)
Every single second of every hour of every day, prayers are lifted up to the Lord and it would be of some importance to know how many are vain and worthless, as compared to a few that really are cries for help. I am not in a position to know if these prayers are good, bad, or indifferent. It is enough that the Lord knows them.
It is also important to wonder how many prayers are said for a new car, or whatever, while there are others are asking just for some food, medicine, clean water, etc,. How many are for understanding, wisdom and discernment of the Word of God, or of this life in which we live with its continual ups and downs—good and bad and indifferent?
The labels associated with all the maladies of this world are given so the bean counters have something to do, to create charts and statistics, to quantify the ills of the world into numbers. Yet never once do these individuals give Scripture reference, concerning how to alleviate these ills:
“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).
This is a very well-known passage of Scripture and yet many do not know its content, nor do they put their trust in the words from our Lord and Savior. The reason being is that they do not know the Lord. Thus, “The harvest is great, yet too few workers.” If you stop to think on this, you may come to the conclusion that the planting and harvesting process is time consuming.
First, there must be fertile soil to put seeds into. So how do we get this fertile soil? After we have the soil, we need good seeds and then we need clean water, then the sunlight and warmth. Now if you truly stop to think on this, you will see that we are not even half way through the entire process. Because it takes time for the seed to germinate and then sprout and grow, watering often, applying fertilizer and pulling opportunistic weeds. Then we have pruning of the plant for strong and productive growth, and time is always of the essence.
So now we understand why seeds are planted in the very early spring and harvested in the fall. And yet, during this entire process, we are cultivating not just for today, but for next year as well. Thus the good soil represents the Lost, and the seeds are the Word of God. And the entire time God provides all of these things and all you do is to apply them, weed them, water them, then they grow.
Did you notice the one missing stated ingredient? We have to get up and make these things happen! We can’t be lazy or we will ultimately fail. We can go out and buy the most efficient refrigerator, combine, tiller, or watering system, but if we never use them, they are just piles of junk.
Another thing too, we can use a garden fork, hoe and rake. A watering hose can be purchased but wouldn’t it be easier with the fancy stuff and faster too? So what is the problem then? Maybe we are too lazy to go out and do the work. I know it’s hard work, but as my dad used to say, “Hard work makes a strong man.” Now there is one thing we really haven’t considered here: The weeds! Nasty and opportunistic weeds that will soak up all the fertilizer and water. They will grow fast and keep the good seed from getting any light or nutrients.
If you do not pull out the weeds they will take over the good soil as well as everything else that is needed for the good plants. And again, we must get up and go out and do something about the weeds and it’s an every day chore to do so. The weeds represent Satan and his ilk and they want nothing more than to destroy you and me, no matter our stance on anything…they hate us that much becasue we are created in Gods Image.
In the books of Genesis 1, 2 Peter 3 and in Romans 5, we find we are created to tend the earth, to choose to follow Jesus Christ and to create a relationship with Jesus Christ which will follow us into heaven. It is plain and simple to understand, so why do so many—the vast majority to be sure—choose not to follow Jesus Christ? That is simple as well, we choose to do evil rather than to follow the Lord’s ways. The reason the Lord does not change this is because HE wants YOU and me to choose (freely) for ourselves. In the end, we have a life according to our choice and this will be for eternity. This is truly something each and every one of us should really consider, especially now days, with the Rapture so very close!
“I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, andcast them into the fire, and they are burned” (John 15:5-6).
Every harvest, it is always the same thing, the process never ends! Why is this so hard for some people to understand? Mostly because they do not listen well and try and understand, or they just don’t care: “Well…I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it!”
The problem here is this: By the time we get to that bridge, it is far too late! We will NOT like where we end up simply because we were too lazy or too distracted to care. So a second problem now exists. There is NO backing up to make it right. We had our chance and we disregarded it. Now we get to live with it! My other name for Satan is: Procrastination. It more than fits who he really is.
Let it be known, Satan is the father of lies. He is the one you do not want to hear from. WRONG! Many people do want to hear what he has to say. Why? For them it is more fun to be bad than good! So the saying should be, “He is the one you do not need to hear from.” His other name is: DEATH and it is in the most horrible manner to die as a human or in the “second death” when you end up in the lake of fire for eternity! It often makes me wonder how many that follow him are going to be willing to say, “Thank you” to him. Don’t think for one moment that this is a small thing.
It is more than apparent that Satan and his ilk are more powerful than you and me. That is the entire reason we need Jesus Christ. Please reread the Scripture passages above. Every single thing that is bad in this world is the direct result of our own SIN and Satan is the father of SIN. Look around and notice the efforts we make and we are NOT able to rid this world of all its problems. It is beyond our abilities; we are weak, we are failed and fallen. Jesus Christ is the only way…heaven is the only place to go!