Monday, June 27, 2005

Christians are like Balloons

Christians are like balloons. We come in many colors, shapes, and sizes. Like balloons that have not been blown up, we do not reach anything close to our potential unless we are filled from without—by God’s Holy Spirit. And also like balloons, we must be stretched in order to be all we are intended to be.



(Images about conforming/yielding to God were posted September 12a, 18a, 18b, 18d, and 23; October 3 and 3a, November 6; and 21, December 8, 12, and 15, 2004 and January 10d, February 18, May 11, June 18 and 27; August 21 and 27; and October 3, 2005.
Images about God providing things we need, but can’t provide for ourselves, were posted September 12a, 17a, and 18c, October 3a, 3b November 6, 10, 21 and 27, 2004 and January 2, 10b, and 10c, June 13 and 27, 2005.)

Friday, June 24, 2005

Unexpected Fruit from Long Dormant Seeds

Seeds can lay dormant for long periods and still germinate into fruitful plants. They get covered up with too much soil and remain inactive, but something brings them to the surface, they sprout and produce, sometimes decades after they fell to the ground.

I recently experienced something that illustrates the same dynamic with God's work. In the mid-1800's an illustrator made etchings of Bible scenes that were collected in a book published after his death. I stumbled upon a copy, but it sat in my basement for months until I showed it to my three year old daughter. The illustration of Jesus raising Jairus' daughter from the dead (Matt. 9:18-19, 23-26; Mark 5:22-24, 35-43; Luke 8:41-42, 49-56) caught her attention and I was able to use it to tell her about Jesus' power and love. That stuck her and now when we look at her children's Bible she wants to go right to the part where "Jesus made that little girl feel better."

That shows how God can produce fruit in ways beyond our understanding. He used a seed sown in the mid-nineteenth century to produce fruit early in the twenty-first century. All that occurred long after the etching was made, the artist was gone, and the world had changed in ways the artist couldn’t have possibly imagined. And that etching only had that effect because of the actions of others he had no control over (the editor and publisher of the posthumous book, its distributors, whoever owned the book before me, and me).

The point is that God is able to use our good works to far more effect than we can possibly imagine—if we use what he gives us in the first place.



(Images about gardening or soil related themes were posted October 3c, November 21, December 8, 2004 and February 28, June 11, 13 and 24, 2005.
Images about patience/waiting on God were posted October 1, November 21, December 8, 2004 and June 11, 18, and 24, 2005.)

Saturday, June 18, 2005

Sailing Before God's Wind: John 3:8


Fruitful Christians are like sail boats. God provides the wind and we are most effective when we align ourselves with Him, taking the course and making the tacks that keep us before His wind. We do best when we let Him keep his hand over ours on the tiller and when we keep ourselves clean of barnacles (sin and distractions) that can slow us down.

That doesn’t come easy or all at once. Strong wind blows over rough water and barnacles constantly try to attach themselves to us. But we get better at it dealing with those things the more we do so and, if we stay on course, we know the final destination will be well worth the effort.



(Images about conforming/yielding to God were posted September 12a, 18a, 18b, 18d, and 23; October 3 and 3a, November 6; and 21, December 8, 12, and 15, 2004 and January 10d, February 18, May 11, June 18 and 27; August 21 and 27; and October 3, 2005.
Images about patience/waiting on God were posted October 1, November 21, December 8, 2004 and June 11, 18, and 24, 2005.
Images about diligence/perseverance in doing God’s will were posted on October 1, 3a, 8, and 17 and November 7, 2004 and January 10c, June 11, 13, and 18; July 15 and August 27, 2005.
Images about the process of growing/maturing in our walk with God were posted October 3a and 17, 2004; May 11, June 11 and 18; July 20, August 21 and 27; and October 3 2005.)

Monday, June 13, 2005

More on Making “Good Soil”—Matt. 13:8; Mark 4:8; Luke 8:8

Two other principles are illustrated by the process for improving garden soil, as described in the post of June 11, 2005.

Enrichment Must Come From God
The first is that the soil could not improve without help from beyond itself. It wouldn’t have gotten better, and in fact would have become increasingly depleted, without the amendments added over the years.

The same is true of us. We can only become more fruitful if God “amends” us by adding the things that we need, but do not possess. Sure, some of us are blessed with native talent that allows us to produce impressive results on our own, but we can’t sustain that without God’s active blessing. Instead we, like soil, will inevitably become depleted without the Holy Spirit’s infusions.

We Must Act on What God Gives Us

The second is that enrichment couldn’t happen if the original soil did not affirmatively act on the amendments. New organic materials must be broken down into particular nutrients before they enrich the soil they are added to. That only happens if microbes in that soil go to work digesting those amendments. Without that, the amendments don't become part of the soil; they do no good.

The same is true of our interactions with God. Although we can’t become truly fruitful without His spiritual “amendments,” they don’t do any good unless we act on them, incorporating them into our day-to-day lives. Otherwise, they are just abstract principles without impact.



(Images about gardening or soil related themes were posted October 3c, November 21, December 8, 2004 and February 28, June 11, 13 and 24, 2005.
Images about God providing things we need, but can’t provide for ourselves, were posted September 12a, 17a, and 18c, October 3a, 3b November 6, 10, 21 and 27, 2004 and January 2, 10b, and 10c, June 13 and 27, 2005.
Images about diligence/perseverance in doing God’s will were posted on October 1, 3a, 8, and 17 and November 7, 2004 and January 10c, June 11, 13, and 18; July 15 and August 27, 2005.)

Saturday, June 11, 2005

Making “Good Soil”—Matt. 13:8; Mark 4:8; Luke 8:8

Several years ago I started a garden and resolved to make the soil as rich as possible. It didn’t happen overnight or through a fixed program, but took years of adding different types of organic materials, known as “amendments” by serious gardeners, to the soil at different times in different ways.

Sometimes that occurred in big steps. One year I tilled in six or eight inches of finely ground leaves. Other years, I added truckloads of raw manure when I put my garden “to bed” in the fall. Some springs I supplemented those autumnal additions with bags and bags of pre-composted manure.

But most amendments were more gradual and less direct. One winter I added a bucket of grounds from a coffee shop each week as I waited for spring. Several years I transplanted earthworms because their excrement adds additional nutrients. All year every year, I put used tea bags, other kitchen scraps, and yard waste into my compost pile to create rich humus for later addition to the garden.

The combined result was a gradual improvement of the soil—and the garden’s productivity. Although no step yielded instant results, each crop was noticeably better than the one before it and, as time went on, the garden became exponentially more fruitful than it was at the outset.

God works that way to make us into “good soil” producing “crop[s] multiplying thirty, sixty or even a hundred times.” Mark 4:8. Sometimes He adds His goodness in big doses, but mostly He enriches us a little every day, and a little more each Sunday, to give us what we need to produce what he wants. Scripture describes it well: "accumulation little by little is the way to wealth." Proverbs 13:8 (New Jerusalem Bible)

Those amendments come in various forms, from unpleasant circumstances that, like manure, really stink but produce tremendous enrichment, to more agreeable things that make different contributions.

Like the process for enriching physical soil, no one thing gets us all the way to where we need to be, but each addition works together with the others to enable us produce more and more over time. And when we look back at where we’ve come from, we're amazed at how much He’s multiplied our fruitfulness.



(Images about gardening or soil related themes were posted October 3c, November 21, December 8, 2004 and February 28, June 11, 13 and 24, 2005.
Images about diligence/perseverance in doing God’s will were posted on October 1, 3a, 8, and 17 and November 7, 2004 and January 10c, June 11, 13, and 18; July 15 and August 27, 2005.
Images about the process of growing/maturing in our walk with God were posted October 3a and 17, 2004; May 11, June 11 and 18; July 20, August 21 and 27; and October 3 2005.
Images about patience/waiting on God were posted October 1, November 21, December 8, 2004 and June 11, 18, and 24, 2005.)