I just finished reading the Parable of the Sower from Mark 4 and got some really cool thoughts about it so I had to blog and expand on them before they went out of my head. So anyway, while I was reading I was thinking about how even though I know the "Good News," I still don't know a fraction of what God wants to teach me so not all of my heart is 'good soil.' That made me think about how to make good soil and I think it's really cool.
When you want to plant a garden you make sure the soil is good first. This consists of three main steps: water, weed, fertilize.
Weed, consists of finding the sin in you heart and rooting it out (read this post for a more detailed, whimsical description.) Obviously it is necessary to do this before you fertilize.
Fertilizing is like like vitamins for the ground, it helps the soil become rich or able to produce good crops. There are many different ways we can fertilize are heart, but the ones that come to mind immediately are reading the Bible, praying, and fellowship. However, there is another way to fertilize that doesn't come in the usual package, compost. Compost is pretty much recycling gross garbage that is actually full of nutrients for your soil. You put certain kinds of trash in a bin and mix it up and it gets super hot and you have to stir it around with a shovel for weeks but when it's done, you never could never tell it was the garbage for a bit ago. For us, we can compost bad relationships, experiences, choices, ect. For a while it gets really tough, burning hot and shifting emotions, but in the end, the lessons He teaches us are so amazing it's hard to believe they came from the bad parts of your life!
Water isn't really a step that Has an order. You just make sure you water before and after you do anything else. You water before you weed so the ground is soft and the weeds will come up easier so since Jesus is the Living Water, you invite Him in before you 'weed' so it's less painful and ask Him to stay afterwards to give the new, weed free soil a good start! But in the end, if you don't continually water, all the good you've grown will die. In the same way, when we don't spend time in the presence of JC, our relationship dies and becomes religion. Ick!
So, now concludes my new realization about the parable of the sower. Thanks for reading! :)
Lately I've been wondering what exactly Lord of Hosts means. I realize it's a name of God but I haven't really understood why He is the Lord of Hosts. A guy I met recently explained this way, "Because Jesus lives in us, we are the host. God lives in each of His followers therefore He's the Lord of hosts." (that is obviously not verbatim but whatever :)) But my study Bible told me that the Lord of Hosts meant that God was the ruler over many, as in Lord=God and Hosts=Angels (like in a Heavenly Host). Because of these different explanations that both seemed to make sense, I did some research.
The name 'Lord of Hosts' is translated from 'Jehovah Sabaoth.' Jehovah means God and Sabaoth means armies/hosts therefore when we simply take the words and literally translate, Lord of Hosts means ruler over many armies or fighting forces. However we can also take a look at the name in context.
When we see 'Lord of Hosts' in the Bible (and it is used 250+ times), we see it used mainly in 2 different ways.
1) A person is crying out to the Lord of Hosts. When this happens, the crier is calling for a defender, calling for God to come fight a battle they couldn't win alone.
2) As a name for God after He shows His incredible power.
So, in context, we can see that it shows God a powerful defender. (For specific in text examples go here: http://donotdepart.com/jehovah-sabaoth-the-lord-of-hosts)
In conclusion, the Lord of Hosts is a name of God that highlights His supreme power over all of His creation. While His Hosts may include angels, they are truly all of creation. (So, that guy's explanation isn't Biblically true about the Lord of Hosts because host isn't translated into that meaning but we can use it that way because He is the Living God of the Living Word.)
When I look around me I often think I'm really not that bad. Yeah I mess up but, relatively speaking, I'm much better than the majority of earth's population. I'm am certainly not a despicable person of base character. In fact, I've been told exactly the opposite. And I love hearing that kind of praise!
Unfortunately, all those compliments I receive are not turned into praise to God. I don't immediately thank Him for turning me around and helping me live like JC. Instead, I glow with pride, taking all God's credit. The truth of the matter is that the more God works in my life, the less I feel like I need Him and the more I push Him away. In fact, the moments where I am completely sold out for Jesus are quite fleeting and I often wind up feeling fake. But, I can comfort myself with the fact that I'm not (as I mentioned earlier) a despicable person of base character, though if I truly believe that fact, then I'm a liar.
A popular hymn, Amazing Grace, goes like this, "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me." I've sung this countless times and, in doing so, called myself a wretch. The definition for wretch is a despicable person of base character. As a liar falls into this category, there is no alternative for me, I am or was despicable. And right now I'd go with am.
As fine as I think I am, if I were to go to heaven uncured of sin, it would reveal who I truly am. After all, good and bad are relative terms but perfect is perfect wherever you are, whomever you with.
So, if you ever feel the need to renew your relationship with Jesus, don't rush it but prioritize it so that when it gets tough, your relationship remains #1. I'm trying to take my own advice right now and now know that the best way to start is to say you're sorry.
Lately I've been pushing aside my God time way too much. Because I'm not on my normal schedule there is an endless supply of excuses I can use but mostly I say, "How can I get anything out of this if I don't even want to do it?" Then say a quick prayer asking God to make me want to and push aside the knowledge that what I'm doing is wrong. The other night I was telling my iron sister how sometimes God gives me a certain determination to do something but without I can't do anything. She kinda looked at me funny and a little while later brought the subject up again and simply told me that she didn't think I needed that determination to do stuff. This wasn't what I wanted to hear and unsettled me a little because deep down I was well aware she was right.
I had recognized that my heart wasn't where it should be but didn't want to make any effort to move it so I asked God to do all the work. But, the thing about God is that He never forces us to do anything. He always lets us take the first step and then helps us from there. It's kind of like those pictures where Jesus has His hand out and we just need to reach up about an inch and grab it before He pulls us up. While my heart was in the wrong place, the small movement towards God was able to shift it just a little back to where it belongs!
So, if you are ever acting like me and making excuses to push away your time with God, know that the feeling when you truly go back to Him is so gratifying that you can't fully understand why you were making excuses in the first place!
p.s. This is an awesome example of why it is so great to have an accountability partner to always point you in the right direction!
