God’s Word Won’t Fail

Today’s reading is Hebrews 6.

If a farmer cultivates and works land upon which rain has fallen and that land produces a useful crop, it is a blessed land. However, if instead it yields thorns and thistles, what is the farmer going to do? The farmer will burn it to the ground. The author of Hebrews is explaining what will happen to those who have experienced the blessings in Jesus but decided to abandon Him.

Our author is calling Isaiah 5:1-7 to mind. In that passage, God cleared a field and planted it with choice vines. But instead of producing good grapes, it produced wild grapes. God removed its protective hedge and broke down its wall. He quit cultivating it, pruning it, hoeing it. He allowed the briers and thorns to take it over. He stopped the rain from falling on it. Instead of blessing it with more rain and more growth, He cursed it.

It also calls to mind Isaiah 55:10-13. The Word of God going forth from the mouth of God does not return empty. It accomplishes what it was sent out to accomplish. Of course, in the context of Isaiah 55, the restoration of those who believed was in view. However, in Hebrews 6 we learn sometimes the purpose of the Word is to leave those who refuse to believe without excuse. For those who reject the Word, the Word accomplishes what it was sent to do. It will judge those who reject it.

This is the side of God’s Word many today miss. The Word says those who reject it will be judged and punished. The ground that drinks in God’s rain but produces thorns, thistles, and briers instead of a useful crop will be cursed and burned up. We must not think we can abandon the Word of God without consequence.

If we drink the Word in with faith and submission, God will grow fruit in us. We will produce a useful crop. Some of us thirtyfold, some sixty, some a hundred. God’s Word is just that powerful. It will do what God has sent it out to do. However, if we reject God’s Word, we will be judged by God’s Word. We will not avoid that. God’s Word is just that powerful. It will do what God has sent it out to do.

God’s Word won’t fail. So hang on to it and submit to it. You’ll be glad you did. I promise.

Tomorrow’s reading is Hebrews 6.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

Discuss the Following Questions with Your Family

1. What are your initial reactions to the chapter and the written devo above?
2. Does this story about the ground’s output remind you of Jesus’s parable of the sower? How?
3. How many options does the author of Hebrews demonstrate we have in our response to God’s Word? What are they?
4. How can we help each other accept and be cultivated by God’s Word so that we can receive God’s blessing?
5. What do you think we should pray for and about in light of this chapter and today’s post?

The Radical Farmer King

Today’s reading is Matthew 13.

The Parable of the Sower is one of the most well known teachings of Jesus. Most of us know about the pathway soil, rocky soil, weedy soil, and good soil. Most of us have heard sermons on this story, been in classes on this story, talked about this story. However, what we usually do is take this story out of its context in each gospel and study it in a vacuum. When we do that, we miss that each gospel writer uses this story in a slightly different fashion.

Matthew’s great concern is “the kingdom of heaven” (a phrase found 31 times in Matthew and not even once in the other gospels). Matthew employs the Parable of the Sower to carry on that theme. For Matthew, the seed is not described simply as “the word” as in Mark or “the word of God” as in Luke. Here it is “the word of the kingdom.”

What does the Farmer do with the word of the kingdom? He throws it everywhere. He throws it on soil packed like the sidewalk. He throws it where He knows the soil is just a shallow layer above bedrock. He throws it where the weeds and thorns are siphoning off the soils nutrients. Do not be deceived by commentators who have mistakenly tried to make sense out of what this Farmer is doing. This Farmer is radical. Perhaps a more appropriate term is “crazy.” He is doing what no sane farmer would do. He seems to be wasting the seed on ground that will never produce fruit.

Yet, He ends up having a bumper crop. It is amazing. How can such a reckless, radical, crazy farmer end up with such a crop? The key is in that seed. The Farmer knows what kind of seed He is broadcasting. Isaiah 55 explains that the “word” or “seed” God sends forth will always accomplish what it is intended to accomplish. When the Farmer is tossing out the Word of God’s Kingdom, He can afford to be reckless and radical. After all, God’s thoughts and ways are not ours. They are above ours. They are higher than ours. We can’t expect God’s Farmer to act like a normal farmer. He is a radical Farmer because He is sowing a radical seed that will produce a radical kingdom.

This is our radical King. It is no surprise these parables start after Jesus has been accused of being demon-possessed. He has been accused of being crazy. He tells a story about a crazy farmer, but a crazy farmer who produces an insane crop. It’s as if Jesus is saying, “Maybe I am crazy, but watch these crazy results.”

Let’s not expect our King to behave like everyone thinks. He won’t play by our rules or anyone else’s. He’s a radical Farmer. He’s a radical King. He has planted a radical kingdom. He will play by God’s rules and produce the kind of results only God can produce. If we want to be part of it, we better hang on to Him.

Tomorrow’s reading is Matthew 13.

PODCAST!!!

Click here to take about 15 minutes to listen to the Text Talk conversation between Andrew Roberts and Edwin Crozier sparked by this post.

Discuss the Following Questions with Your Family

1. What are your initial reactions to the chapter and the written devo above?
2. How crazy is it to farm the way the farmer in Jesus’s story does?
3. Why, when the parable seems to be more about the soils, do you think Jesus calls it the “Parable of the Sower”?
4. Having heard this parable and Jesus’s explanation, why would we want to be part of His “farm,” His kingdom?
5. What do you think we should pray for and about in light of this chapter and today’s post?

The Family of Jesus

Today’s reading is Luke 8.

“My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.”

“How quaint?” we think. But this is not quaint at all, it is revolutionary. Today, family is important, but it is not what it was in Jesus’s day. In Jesus’s day, family was your security net, your conscience, your identity, your belonging, your protection, your obligation, your public face, your reputation, your community, your everything. And Jesus says, “Who is my family? Not the woman who bore me. Not the siblings who grew up with me. The good soil is my family.” The phrase “Word of God” is used three times in Luke. Two of them are in this week’s chapter. It is the good seed and it is the charter that determines Jesus’s family. Jesus’s family is the good soil. Jesus’s security net is the Word of God. His conscience is the Word of God. His identity is the Word of God. His community, His public face, His obligation, His reputation is the community of those who let the seed of God’s Word dig deep in their heart and bear fruit some thirty, some sixty, some a hundredfold. You don’t have to be born of Mary to be part of Jesus’s family. You do, however, have to be born of the imperishable seed, the Word of God (cf. I Peter 1:22-25). And you can be. Keep reading. Keep studying. Keep following.

Tomorrow’s reading is Luke 8.

Someone Has Plans for You

Today’s reading is Luke 8.

The parable of the sower explains that someone has plans for you. First, there is Satan with his plans for you demonstrated by the first three soils. Satan’s Plan A is to get you to stay out. Like birds picking seed off of pathway soil, he will do all he can to keep the Word from sinking into your heart and mind. But if it does, he isn’t finished. His Plan B is to get you to drop out. He will introduce difficulty to you in hopes to get you to quit. But if you don’t, he isn’t finished. His Plan C is to get you to fizzle out. He will distract you with the cares of the world like eating and clothes and other daily worries and concerns. This is perhaps the hardest of all to detect, because those who are fizzled are still planted in the Lord’s field, but simply aren’t bearing fruit. However, God also has plans for you as demonstrated by the final soil. God’s plans for you are to come in, stay in, and grow up. The real difference between the two is how you will respond to His Word. I’m glad you are here reading with us, that shows promise. Keep it up. Let it sink it. Let it grow up within. Let it bear fruit. Those are God’s plans for you.

Tomorrow’s reading is Luke 8.