Reflection on Matthew 13:34-43

Scripture

“And the angels will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s Kingdom.”

Observation

The disciples ask Jesus to explain the parable of the wheat and the weeds. He tells them that the seed is the people of the Kingdom and the weeds are the people who belong to satan.

Just as the weeds are sorted and burnt in the fire, so it will be at the end of the world. Those who are servants of sin will be removed and thrown into the fiery furnace. But those who belong to Jesus will shine in the glory of the Father.

Application

Many people recoil from the idea that Jesus judges people. We like the Jesus who loves us, but we are not so keen on the Jesus who literally sends unrighteous people to hell.

Jesus taught more about the end time judgement than almost any other topic. He literally did not want anyone to miss heaven on the basis of ignorance.

The christian assurance is that we will go to heaven. Our future life is guaranteed by the promise of God.

Because God is righteous, He is determined to stamp out sin for eternity. Can we imagine heaven as a place where people fight, murder, and steal?

Sin must be conquered and unrepentant sinners must be separated and judged.

It is not loving to let cancer destroy a body when it could be removed by surgery and save a person’s life. God would not be loving if He allowed sin to continue into eternity.

Prayer

Thank you Father for your love and your righteousness. I confess my sin to you now and ask for your forgiveness in Jesus name. Amen.

Quote for the Day

In other words, my job was strictly that of being obedient to the impressions or urgings I felt within me. The Scripture says that He could do far more than we dare ask or imagine. Obviously, there was no way I could anticipate or know what God wanted to do. Merlin Carothers

Reflection on Matthew 13: 24-33

Scripture

Jesus also used this illustration:“The Kingdom of Heaven is like the yeast a woman used in making bread. Even though she put only a little yeast in three measures of flour, it permeated every part of the dough.”

Observation

Jesus tells some more parables.

A farmer finds his wheat crop has been contaminated with darnell by an enemy. The workers ask him what they should do. He tells him to leave the weeds alone until harvest, when they can be separated and burned.

The kingdom is like a mustard seed that is tiny, and yet it grows to become a tree. It is like a tiny amount of yeast that permeates a much larger quantity of dough .

Application

The Kingdom of God is like yeast in that it spreads through the world imperceptibly.

It only takes a teaspoon of yeast to make a whole loaf of bread rise. That is the miracle that living organisms create. The yeast multiplies and breathes, causing the bubbles in the dough which make bread lighter and more palatable .

The Kingdom of God is a living organism, and as the people who make it up spread through a town or a nation, they change the culture .

Sometimes it is acts of kindness and love that impact lives. Sometimes it is the words that we use which encourage a person to become a follower of Christ.

Nations such as Australia are deeply affected by 200 years of faithfulness of Christians.

We don’t have to make a big name for ourselves. We don’t have to be heroic. We just spread through the dough, affecting people with the love of God.

Prayer

Thank you Lord for the Kingdom of God which permeates every corner of our society. Please help me to be that yeast in my corner. Amen.

Reflection on Matthew 13: 14-23

Scripture

“The seed that fell on good soil represents those who truly hear and understand God’s word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty or even a hundred times as much as had been planted.”

Observation

People’s failure to understand Jesus is a fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy. Their hearts are hard, their ears cannot hear, nor their eyes see.

Jesus goes on to explain that the seeds in the parable represent people and their response to the gospel. Some have hard hearts and so the seed is quickly stolen by the devil. Some hear the message, but their acceptance of it lasts only a short time until problems come. Others are choked off by the cares of the world.

The seed that falls in good soil produces a great harvest of thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was planted.

Application

Jesus expects us to be fruitful in the Kingdom.

If we read this parable with a legalistic or religious mindset, we might get discouraged. I haven’t knowingly led thirty people to the Lord, let alone a hundred. Most devout, committed christians haven’t either.

The point is that God call us to be productive in the Kingdom. Our faith in him produces a heart that is inclined to serve the Kingdom of God rather than just being self-centred.

Again, this is not about counting returns on God’s investment. We don’t have to worry about not making the grade because this is not about producing results that we can measure.

This parable is about walking faithfully and obediently with God, letting Him produce a harvest in our lives.

Prayer

Thank you Lord that you love me enough to die for me. May I show my faith by dedicating all of my life to you. Amen.

Amazing Dreams About Jesus

From Faithwire.com

Missionaries Report Muslims Meeting Jesus in Dreams ‘in Levels We Have Never Seen in 1,400 Years!’

Photo by Tom Barrett/Unsplash
Photo by Tom Barrett/Unsplash

Two Assembly of God missionaries are sharing multiple first-hand testimonies of Muslims coming to the Christian faith after encountering Jesus Christ in their dreams.

James Bradford, the lead pastor at Central Assembly in Springfield, Missouri, and missionary Dick Brogden told Assemblies of God News that God is answering the prayers of Christians who are praying for Muslims.

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They admit any Islamic country is a dangerous place for a Christian and there are few opportunities for open evangelism. But they report Muslims are meeting Jesus in their dreams and converting to Christianity at an alarming rate. 

“I would even say it’s the normal experience,” Brogden said. “It would be accurate to say that Muslims are responding to Jesus in levels we have never seen, not in 1,400 years!”

“Dreams are contributing to revelation (as in assurance), the process of evangelism, and conversion,” he continued. “So many Muslims reject Islam but know that to follow Jesus will cost them everything. Dreams of Jesus encourage them along the way and give them the comfort that Jesus will be with them — though it cost them everything to follow Him.”

Bradford shared that he was in a Muslim country meeting with church leaders from several Muslim nations. One of the leaders shared a testimony of a woman who had a dream where she saw Jesus. 

“A woman had left the Muslim faith, but she was full of hatred and suspicion of Christians. She didn’t know what to do — she asked God for help,” he explained. “One night she had a dream where she saw a shepherd, walking about an empty tomb with a staff. The shepherd walked around it a few times, and then He headed directly toward the woman. He had a loaf of bread in His hands, which He broke and offered to her and as He did, He said, ‘Take, eat, this is my body.’”

He went on the share that the woman, who knew nothing about the Bible, woke up and contacted a person who she knew was a Christian. 

“He showed her in the Bible where Jesus had said those very words. The woman accepted Jesus as her Savior — and continues to serve him to this day,” Bradford said. 

Brogden recounted a story that illustrated the lengths to which God will go to show His love to people. He shared that a Saudi Arabian woman had a dream about going to Heaven, but feared it was the devil tricking her. 

“She prayed: ‘Jesus, if you are the real God, I want to see you,’” Brogden recounted. 

“Later, tending her sheep in the desert, she came across a pool of water. Bending down to drink she looked into the water and saw in the reflection a massive man standing behind her. He held a shepherd’s staff and He was smiling. She whipped around, but there was no one there. She looked again in the water, and there was this massive Shepherd.”

Brogden said the woman was terrified and ran home to her sister, who was a believer, and told her that Jesus was “proving He is God.”

The AG global worker continued, “Still doubting, this Saudi woman asked the Lord for one more proof. Her mother was a cripple, bound to her chair, unable to walk. She prayed: ‘Jesus, if you are real and truly God, heal my mother and let her stand and walk!’ Immediately her mother stood up and began to walk around. The sister threw up her hands in surrender and shouted: ‘Jesus, I believe, I believe!’”

Bradford and Brogden encourage believers to continue praying because many Muslims still need to encounter Christ.

“There are more unreached people now than in the history of the world,” Brogden said. “In 1982, there were 2.5 billion people in the world classified as ‘lost’ with 1.5 billion being classified as unreached. In 2022, the global population reached 8 billion, with 6 billion classified as ‘lost’ and 3.15 billion being classified as unreached.”

Amish man burdened by rules, discovered grace | God Reports

From God Reports

By Alexia Hess –

When a Kentucky-born Amish leader dared to listen to a gospel preacher on the radio (in violation of Amish rules), he was astounded by the simple message of grace and forgiveness by faith that conflicted with his ideas that “God love you, but he loved you so much he would punish you.”

“I never knew that you could know that you are going to Heaven,” Vern Yoder says on a 700 Club video. “I couldn’t wrap my head around a warm, hug-type love.”

Vern was born to a well-respected deacon of the Amish, an American East Coast religious group that have strict rules for dress and behavior, which includes not using automobiles. The Amish are considered Christian, but their application of scriptures can be seen as legalistic.

Vern struggled through his teen years to maintain the standards of his church.

His constant thought: What can I do to be a better person? What can I do to have a better shot to make it into Heaven? “It would drive me down into this pit of despair.”

The overemphasis on rules and laws weighed on his soul.

“I was so miserable,” Vern says. “I didn’t know (if I would make it to Heaven), so I would work and work and work at trying to be the best Amish.”

He married and had children, but carried the pharisaical spirit into his roles as husband and father. He went overboard as a disciplinarian and his marriage was strained, he says.

Reflecting on the frustration of his brand of Christianity, Vern pleaded with God: “God, I can’t do this any longer. You’re going to have to help me with this.”

One day he got a job as a tractor driver. That day he listened to a radio preacher expound the doctrines of the simple gospel. It challenged everything he knew about God.

“He was going through a series about faith, about grace, about mercy,” Vern says. “He was telling me things I had never heard in my life. I heard that you can know now that you’re going to Heaven. You don’t have to wait until you die and live in fear.”

He prayed a sinner’s prayer at the end of the broadcast and was flooded by the grace and love of God.

With the Holy Spirit now guiding him as he read the Bible, Vern understood what had been shrouded for years by legalistic interpretations: “The Word of God just leaped out of the pages,” he says. “I would be so excited, I couldn’t contain it.”

Vern felt obliged to leave the Amish community. He shaved his Amish beard and began to dress in contemporary clothing. It was all about Jesus now, not about pleasing the religious folks who stood by and judged everything that was not right, he says.

“I knew that I would follow Jesus, come whatever,” Vern says. “I would follow Jesus (even) if it meant death.”

He’s no longer the stern disciplinarian who criticizes every slipup of his kids. He’s no longer the disapproving husband who was critical of his wife.

“The love of Jesus really softened me,” Vern says. “I don’t have to work to get to Heaven. I work because I know I’m going there and I love pleasing my Master.”

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