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3 Ways to “Take Care” in the Most Important Thing

10 Jul

“Take care, then, how you hear.”

Jesus offered this comment after he explained the Parable of the Sower, a lesson about how the Word of God does or does not bear fruit in an individual’s life. Take care, then, how you hear.

So, it’s not enough to hear. We must hear carefully.

Here then, are 3 lessons from this parable to help us to take care to hear the Word well.

1. Pray against the enemy when reading for yourself or sharing the Word of God with another.

“…the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts…” Luke 8:12 (ESV)

There is a reason that Jesus taught us to pray, “Deliver us from the evil one.” As the Lord’s prayer suggests (“our daily bread”), every day we should pray this prayer against the enemy of our souls. Lucifer is the one who comes and takes away the seed that otherwise can bear fruit, 30, 60 or 100 fold.

2. Beware of affliction…and affluence.

“…choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life…” Luke 8:14 (ESV)

I believe, as many have said before me, that affluence is the real problem, though affliction will choke the word also. But for every 10 men who can survive trials and trouble, only one can survive a fat bank account. Either way, when either of these come your way, hold fast to the Word.

3. Cultivate patience.

“…they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.” (emphasis mine) Luke 8:15 (ESV)

When it comes to the Word, patience is paramount. The person who reads God’s book for a week and says, “It hasn’t done anything for me,” will never taste the sweetest fruit that comes from years in the Scriptures. When it comes to sowing the Word in my own heart or the heart of my children or friends, time and persistence wins the day. Keep on keeping on. Stay in the word. There is a special blessing that comes to the man or woman who faithfully spends day after day, year after year…in the Book of books.

 

Here’s something from the archives along these lines for your encouragement: A Highly Motivating and Not-Often Considered Reason to Read and Meditate on Scripture Regularly

 

For Monday, July 13th: Luke 9

 

 
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Posted by on July 10, 2015 in Uncategorized

 

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The Field is the World

19 Jan

Operation WorldIt’s pretty easy to get focused on those close to us when we think about reaching out to the lost.  If your child doesn’t know Christ, or your mom or dad, or your spouse, it’s fairly easy to forget about what’s going anywhere else, and focus only on them. It’s also easy for us pastors and church leaders to think that what is really important is what is going on in our locale, our city, our neck of the woods.  Believe me, I personally have narrowed my focus too many times.

But our call is to more than our Jerusalem.  It is also to all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest parts of the earth (Acts 1:8). To this end, I had a Navigator leader who once told me that he thought Matthew 13:38 was the key verse of the BibIe. I think that was overstating it, as it is hard to get the gospel from this verse, but there is no doubt that it contains an important truth:

The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one,

Matthew 13:38 (ESV)

That man was thinking of the first five words of this verse in particular: The field is the world.

Not my backyard, not my town or city, not even my county or state.  The field…is the world. And yet how easy it is for us to forget the great needs of the world.

But Christ calls His people to be World-Christians.  I’ll never forget George Verwer, the founder and leader of Operation Mobilization talking about this – I think it was at the 1984 Urbana missionary conference where he spoke of holding a globe up during his morning prayer time, and crying out, “Lord, I love the world!!!”

And we should.  We should love the world because God loves the world.  Yes, of course, our heavenly Father loves the ones we hold dear. But he also loves the journalists of Charlie Hebdo in France, and the Ebola victims of Africa, and the persecuted Chinese.

Our Heavenly Father loves the world, and it is the field to which all of us have been called.

Short of going overseas longterm, my application for this has been to try to pray for the world semi-regularly.  I get a daily email from Operation World which has helped. Now, I confess, I have a ways to go – I too often skip over this part of my daily prayer time, but I do get to praying for the world more than I used to.

And that’s good, because my field, just like yours…is the world.

Our reading for Tuesday, January 19: Matthew 14

 

 
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Posted by on January 19, 2015 in Uncategorized

 

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