Hindrances to the Word.

Mark 4:18  Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word;
Mark 4:19  but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.

I believe that the parable of the sower (Mark 4:3-20) was meant to teach the general effect of the teaching of the word of God in the world.  The three “fields” (the roadside, by the rocks and by the thorns) describe people of the world, where no matter what kind of initial effect the Word of God may have upon them, eventually it bears no fruit.  It is the last soil, the fertile soil, where the Word of God grows a hundredfold, that describes a true Christian.

The heart of a Christian is meant to be fruitful when the Word of God is planted.  But why is it that there are many Christians who fail to show the fruitfulness that God’s Word is supposed to be bringing?  I believe that the descriptions of the first three “soils” also show us circumstances that some Christians unknowingly put themselves in, therefore hindering the work of the Word of God in our hearts.

Mark 4:15  Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.
     How many of us sit through a sermon, and yet go home with nothing in our hearts?  Or spend time reading the Bible, but actually not comprehending anything?  How many of us memorize Scripture, but don’t really believe it, or act on it?  Have we allowed Satan, or the world, to quickly steal what the Word could have done in us?  Or is it just a lack of discipline on our part?

Mark 4:16  Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy.
Mark 4:17  But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.
Though true Christians may not fall away during times of trouble and persecution, yet how many of us still fall deep enough to question God, or doubt His Word and His faithfulness in our life?  Many trials and hardships, most of them actually, catch us by surprise.  How important it is for Christians to always be ready, strong in the Lord and His Word.

Mark 4:18  Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word;
Mark 4:19 but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.
     Oh, how many of us fall prey to these “thorns” of life!  How many Christians do we know who, because of these thorns, have sacrificed their Sundays, their daily prayer lives, their reading and meditating on God’s Word?

The worries of this life – Christians today are worried about so many things, except our walk with God.  We are worried about the food we will put on the table, or the “baon” of our kids, or of their future.  We are worried about our position at work, or about the profits of our business.  We are worried about our bodies, our health, our physique.  We are worried about our significance – about how important we are to people, about how many will “like” what we post in our facebook wall.

But we don’t worry about our intimacy with the Lord, about His will and desire for us, about the importance of His Word, obedience to His commands, and the priorities that He wants us to have.

The deceitfulness of wealth – having money, having more money, making money, investing money, multiplying money – these are taking the throne of many Christian hearts today.  How many Christians, I wonder, are really giving the “tithe”, or love offering, that God is asking from us.  It’s a wonder (and we’re thankful to God for it) that God does not treat us like Ananias and Sapphira!  We live for wealth, and wealth holds us, rather than we holding our wealth and using it for God’s glory.

1 Tim 6:10  For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

The desires for other things – other things except the Lord.  Anything, and anyone, can take over our utmost desire and devotion to the Lord.  Whoever or whatever it is, if we are not willing to let it go, to live without it, to sacrifice it for our Lord, then it has taken it’s place in our hearts as a god. 

I am concerned about how many Christians are more concerned with our desire to live better lives, our desires to have boyfriends/girlfriends, or husbands/wives, to be promoted at work or have more profitable businesses, to have the latest gadgets and things this world has to offer.  We have forgotten the cry of the psalmist:  “Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you.” Psalm 73:25

Should we be wondering why we have lots of Sunday attendees, but no disciples?  Are we surprised that we have members, but no workers?  We may have workers serving in the church, but they live “Dr Jeckyl and Mr Hide” lives – but they fill their lungs with smoke after they sing, or have extra-marital affairs, or are having pre-marital sex with their “life time partners”, or steal money from their companies, lie to get a sale.

Psa 138:2  I will bow down toward your holy temple and will praise your name for your love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word.

God has exalted above all things His name and His Word.  Let us humble ourselves, and bow down in worship and total submission to who He is and to His Word.

If we allow our hearts to be the fertile soil that we are meant to be, we shall bear the fruit that God desires – the fruit of the Word of God in our lives.  Righteousness, holiness, and the understanding of who our God is, and what His will and His desires are for us in this life.

Hiding from God

Genesis 3:7-13

7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. 8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, "Where are you?" 10 He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."  11 And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"  12 The man said, "The woman you put here with me — she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it."  13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?"  The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."

What happened after Adam and Eve ate of the fruit that God commanded them not to eat?  “The eyes of both of them were opened…”.  First, take note that they did not die.  This was what God had told them.

Gen 2:17  but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."

But they did not die – physically.  They died spiritually.  Anyone who is in sin is spiritually dead in the eyes of the Lord.  And, when sin came into the picture physical death did come, but not right away.  Man, who was supposed to live eternally with God, was now meted the death sentence because of his disobedience to God.

Going back to what happened right after they bit of the fruit… their eyes were opened, and they realized they were naked.  In contrast to when they were first created - Gen 2:25  The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame – this time they realized they were naked and were ashamed of it.  In their shame they covered themselves with

This is what sin does – it perverts, destroys, what God had created beautiful.  What is meant to be enjoyed in a husband-wife relationship is now perverted to be used for sexual immorality.

8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

Another effect of sin – hiding from the Lord.  When man was created he had fellowship with the Lord.  They talked, he took care of His garden, and He received blessings.  Now, with sin in his heart, he hides.

The presence of a holy God always moves a person to hide.  This is why many people hide behind religion, religious rites – because it takes the place of God.  But it doesn’t work.  This is also why when a Christian talks about God his non-believing friends will cringe, or walk away, because God and His truth expose their sinfulness.

Even Christians are not exempted.  When we worship, and are in the presence of our holy God, we naturally hide our hearts, knowing how sinful we are.  The only reason we are able to stand before the Father is because of what His Son, our Lord, has done.

Now, notice how God approaches Adam:  9 But the Lord God called to the man, "Where are you?"

For sure God knew that they had sinned.  But He did not come with fire and lightning.  He called out to them.  The grace of God in action.  As Psalm 103 says “He does not treat us as our sins deserve”.

Up to today God approaches the world by grace, and not in judgment.  Not yet anyway.

10 He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid." 11 And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"

After the man says he is naked, God asks “who told you that you were naked?”.  His next question – “did you disobey My command”?  Again, if God knew they had sinned, why did He have to ask.

Although God knows that we have sinned, it is important that we confess our sin.  In other words we acknowledge, admit, that we have sinned.  And God doesn’t want us giving a “generic” confession – He wants us to be specific about it.  God asked “did you eat from the tree I COMMANDED YOU NOT TO EAT FROM?”.

Confession is specific.  We know specifically what we did.

Confession is clear.  We disobeyed God’s command.  We have sinned against Him.

Psalm 51:3-4  For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.  4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.

Look at another effect of sin upon Adam and Eve:

12 The man said, "The woman you put here with me — she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it."  13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."

When God confronted Adam with his sin, he quickly points to “the woman”.  Eve, who formerly was “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” was now “the woman you gave me”.  He was passing the blame.

When we sin we have no one else to blame but ourselves.  Other people may have been the instrument of temptation, but when we sinned it was all our fault.

Look who else was blamed:  13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."

The serpent.  “The devil made me do it”.  Yes, Satan may be behind every temptation, but he also cannot be blamed.

James 1:13-14 When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.

James 4:7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

The devil can be resisted. It’s the desire inside that we have to deal with.  With the same power of the Lord’s resurrection, we, too, can have new life by putting to death our sinful desires.  We must stop passing blame and fight the battles in our hearts.

Facing Opposition

Acts 4:29  Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.
Acts 4:30  Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus."
Acts 4:31  After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

The apostles, through the power of Jesus Christ, had just healed a crippled man in the temple.  And as people gathered to see this wonder that the Lord had done the apostles preached the good news of Jesus Christ to them.  Because of this the priests and temple guards put them in jail, and had them stand before the Sanhedrin.  Eventually they were set free.

You would think that an experience like this would have weakened their drive and excitement to preach and share the gospel.  But, no – the opposite happened.  “Lord, consider their threats…”.  Some of us would continue this prayer and say “protect us Lord”, or “take away the threats”.  What did the apostles pray?

”Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness.”  Despite all the threats to their mission they did not back out, or back up.  Instead they prayed that God enable them to speak God’s word with great boldness!  Of course they knew the power was not from them.  Which is why they prayed for enablement from the Lord.  They also prayed that God would stretch out His hand to bring signs and wonders, to make His power known. 

It was not about them, it was about the Lord.  This was why they did not back out when opposition came.  When hindrances and opposition come the reason we back out is because we want to protect ourselves.  But a Christian’s life, our mission, is not about our selves – it’s about the Lord.  That is why when opposition comes we ask the Lord to enable us, to stretch out His hand to move in His power.

What opposition are we facing today?  Is it persecution from family, friends or officemates?  Is it the fear of being ridiculed?  Is the opposition we face ourselves?  Maybe some of us are just simply afraid to share, afraid to stand up as Christians.

Follow the footsteps of the apostles – when faced with opposition pray that God enables you with the boldness to share.  Ask Him to stretch out His hand.  For it’s not about us, who we are, or how strong we are – it’s about the Lord.  Let us trust in Him to enable us to accomplish the mission that He has called us to do.

A Straight Path

Proverbs 3:5-6  Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;  in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

He will make your paths straight…that’s the promise of this proverb of Solomon.  A common mistake that many people commit, Christians included, is that we set our our desires or goals, but neglect to make sure that the path we are taking to meet them are straight .  Of course our desires must be godly, and rightly discerned.  But our goal must not just be to meet our desires – it must also be about how we reach them.  That’s what the straight path is…it’s the path we take to reach our desired goal.  They must be straight.  No wrong turns, following the signs.  In other words the straight path is the righteous path, the right path, the path that God wants us to be following.

Many today take the crooked path to get what they want.  In the world we live in the crooked path is sometimes seen as the right path.  It doesn’t matter how you get it, just get it!  Today people cheat, bribe, lie, deceive, hurt…just to get what they want.  Many Christians are likewise tempted to do the same, just to get the same success, reach the same goal as those in the world.  But we need to be strong.

This is the encouragement of Proverbs 3:5-6, encouraging us to keep our paths straight.  How do we do that?

Trust in the Lord with all your heart.  Our tendency is to trust in ourselves, in our actions, to get what we desire.  But our trust must be in the Lord.  And if we claim we trust God, that means we are willing to walk in His ways, in righteousness, to get what we desire.  Our trust in the Lord must be with all our heart, and not just a part of it.  In other words, we have no other plan, we are considering no other path except that which is of God.

Lean not on your own understanding.  The saying “God works in mysterious ways” is true.  We mustn’t trust in our own understanding of the situation we are in, or what we must do.  We need to believe our God will get things done for us in His way.  His ways are not our ways, and most of the time our finite minds do not understand His ways.  The usual understanding in the world is that righteous ways, or God’s ways, will never work for us to be successful  But we must not lean on our own understanding.

In all our ways acknowledge Him.  To acknowledge is “to know”.  In all our ways know God is with us.  He is present, watching and guiding us to walk in His ways.  We also have the assurance of His protection and blessing. 

The straight path.  May all of us walk in it.

An Intercessor in times of trial

Luke 22:31-32  31 "Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. 32 But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers."
NIV

When Jesus warned Peter about his upcoming temptation to deny Him He used a figure of speech that would play around with his, and our, imagination – “Satan has asked to sift you as wheat”.

Take a look at this picture of a crude way of sifting wheat:

This was what Satan had planned for Peter.  This is what Satan plans for each one of us actually.  Imagine yourself going through those small holes, being scraped, scratched, stripped and refined.  Ouch.

Many of us are going through this right now.  You have a trial, hardship in life, a sickness, or maybe you are being tempted everyday and it is slowly eating you up to the point that you are about to fall.  Who is going to help us through these times?

Most Christians, if not all, during times of being sifted, look to heaven for help.  The question is – who is there in heaven who will help us?  Automatically we answer “God”.  And yet many Christians are not sure of what God can really do, or promises to do, which is why we tend to look for other help, either from heaven or earth.

But look at what the Lord reveals to us in His short encounter with Peter:

“Simon, Simon…”.  Mentioning Simon’s name twice showed that our Lord was concerned for Simon, which is why He was giving him a forewarning of what was going to happen.  If we read God’s word carefully He does warn us about what this world has to offer us, and He lovingly warns us to prepare for it in our hearts.

“Satan has asked to sift you as wheat”.  This should bring assurance to a Christian’s heart.  Before Satan could begin sifting Simon as wheat he had to ask permission first!  Satan is not freely running around the world tormenting Christians.  Our God is still Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords…and even if Satan is a ruler of evil, he still has to bow down before our God!  So, the evil or hardship that he brings to our life is not apart from God’s permission.  (Job 1 and 2)

But why does God permit those things to happen?  Well, they are tests.  The words “trial” and “temptation” come from one Greek word which means “test”.  Yes, we may love God, have faith in Him, and desire to walk in righteousness, but there will be times these will be tested.  Hey, even our Lord went through temptation, so we should not expect to experience less in our life.  But we have assurance:

1 Corinthians 10:13
13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.
NIV
God makes sure that we will pass the test!

And then look at what our Lord assures Simon:

32 But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers."

What a blessed assurance Peter had, that his Lord, his Master, would PRAY FOR HIM!  I wonder how many of us have this assurance, this knowledge, that our Savior, our Lord, intercedes for us during our hard times!  Most of us depend on our own prayer, our own intercession, during times of hardship, which many times fails because we are downhearted and weak.  But we have assurance in our hearts that we have a Lord in heaven who prays for us!

Romans 8:34
34 Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died — more than that, who was raised to life — is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.
NIV

Notice what our Lord prayed for Simon – “that your faith may not fail”.  Yes, there will be times we may stumble and fall.  And Satan will be there to try to condemn us, accuse us to our face.  But we have a Lord who intercedes for us, raises us up, renews our faith, and strengthens us to keep walking and experience victory over every trial, hardship and temptation in life.

Many do not realize the assurance of the intercession of our Lord, and the strength that this supplies us during times of hardship and trials.  This is the grace that allows us to go through each day in  a world that bombards us with trials and temptations left and right.  May we proclaim, as the psalmist did, in Psalm 73:

Psalms 73:25-26
25 Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.
NIV

We need no one else, we have no other source of strength, and we should have no other desire except God, during times of testing.