Wonderful Jesus!

Isaiah 50:4- “The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary…”
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    • Relying on Self!

      Posted at 10:00 am by wonderfuljesus8, on November 18, 2020

      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 shall direct your paths. NKJV

      relying-on-self_.mp3

      Have you ever just stopped to think of how amazing we are? Mankind has done some impressive things in this world. I’m old enough to remember the old black rotary telephone, which was pretty wonderful in its day, but now I use a cell phone that I can carry everywhere I go. And what about the television? Yes, I remember when it was black and white, with three channels, and it went off the air at midnight with the Star Spangled Banner playing! Now, we watch television on our phones, computers, iPads, and other electronic devices. We’ve come a long way baby!

      Just yesterday I saw SpaceX being launched to the International Space Station. We’ve surpassed a man walking on the moon to people being launched for a six month stay in space! That’s incredible! And of course, the World Wide Web is something pretty special. This blog is able to be read by people in more countries than I can imagine being able to travel to. Times are changing rapidly around us and man is inventing some great toys for our pleasure and tools to help us. Yet, with all of this head knowledge, the Bible clearly states that we are not to lean on our own understanding.

      The word “lean” in the Hebrew is taken from the word “shâʻan”, a primitive root that means to support one’s self:—lean, rely (on, self). Solomon cautions us in our verse for today that we are not to support ourselves with our own understanding, or we are not to rely on our own understanding.

      Solomon understood better than most what leaning on our own understanding will get us. After having a wonderful encounter with the God of the universe, who gifted him with wisdom, you would think that he would have followed his own advice to not lean on his understanding. But that wasn’t the case.

      Solomon had many wives and concubines. These wives led Solomon’s heart astray from God. He married them for political ties and for building allies; but they ended up being a snare for him, as he built temples for their gods. A man of great wisdom, who didn’t follow his own advice, but leaned on his own understanding in the end.

      There’s nothing wrong with understanding. As a matter of fact the Bible tells us

      …in all your getting, get understanding. Proverbs 4:7 NKJV

      It’s just that when we lean on our understanding, instead of God’s understanding, things can quickly go south! As human beings, we can only see so far. We think we know an individual, or what’s going on in a situation, or even how to do a thing, but that is not always the case. Our knowledge is limited and our understanding can be flawed.

      Have you ever walked in a room and it got quiet, or people started whispering? In your mind, you may think that every one is talking about you, they know your secret, they don’t like you. You know what you see, but you don’t understand what is going on. If you lean on your own understanding, you could potentially embarrass yourself and leave with a wrong impression of the situation.

      Have you ever met someone who you thought was perfect for you? As time went on you found out they were using you for one thing or another. The person was already married with five kids. You had your mind on marriage, they had their mind on their next conquest. They wooed you until you let them move in and they stole all of your possessions. These are the kinds of situations our own understanding will land us in.

      We may be pretty smart, as people go, but we don’t have the inside track that God has. Relying on our own understanding in life is what causes so many of us to end up with issues and extra baggage. Living this life as if we are smart enough to figure things out on our own can result in harsh situations. If we are not careful, some of these things will seem impossible to recover from.

      This is why Solomon encouraged us to trust in the Lord and to lean not on our own understanding. There is no way, when we are trusting in the Lord, relying on Him, that we can also be relying on ourselves. They are polar opposites of one another. When you are trusting Him, you can walk in a room full of people, hear all conversation stop, see whispering, and know that if it’s something you have a need to know, God will let you in on it. You can meet people, be interested in a relationship, but when you are trusting God, He can show you a knuckle head before the first date. You don’t have to try and figure everything out all by yourself! You don’t have to operate on limited knowledge and your own understanding. You can access the unlimited understanding of the Father. And when things happen that you don’t understand, while trusting Him, you understand that He is thinking of your good and will get you through it.

      Don’t sit around trying to figure it all out! Don’t have a continuous conversation in your head about how to work it out, or solve the problem. Don’t call up everyone you know to gain understanding they don’t have. And don’t even think that you have all the answers and know what to do in every situation, because you don’t! Mankind may be pretty smart and capable of inventing some fascinating things, but there is only One who can create, inspire your creations, and give you the understanding that you need in every area of you life! His name is Jesus! Wonderful Jesus!

      Posted in Proverbs 3:5-6, trust in God | 4 Comments | Tagged Dating, encouragement, leaning on self, relationships, rely on self, trust in God, understanding
    • The Sower Sows Seed

      Posted at 9:00 am by wonderfuljesus8, on June 9, 2020

      Matthew 13:3-9 – “Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” NKJV

      The parable is called, “The Parable of the Sower”, but it is really not about the sower. As a matter of fact, the sower could really be anyone, as the sower is not an important part of the parable. I’ll come back to the sower.

      The seed that the sower sowed is the seed of the word, or of the gospel. The seed is important because the sower, whomever that may be, is sowing (teaching or preaching) the Word. That’s important to know to understand this parable.

      The ground is the heart of the individual who hears the word. There are four types, the wayside, stony places, thorny ground, and good ground. Each of these individuals hear the word. We will use each type of hearer, or ground, to learn what Jesus is saying.

      Let’s begin with the seed that falls by the wayside and is eaten by the birds. “And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them.” Jesus tells us in His explanation that when anyone hears the Word and doesn’t understand it, it’s easy for the enemy to steal the word. This is likened to when you hear a sermon, that your mind rejects for whatever reason, and the enemy steals that word from you. If you have an issue with the “tithing” message, when you hear it, it would fall on the wayside of your life, because you didn’t understand it, and that keeps you from believing it and receiving the blessing of tithing. It was wasted seed in your regards. This person is unreceptive to the Word.

      Then we have the seed on stony ground. “Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away.” Jesus said this person also hears the word and receives it with joy, has no root in himself, but endures for a little while. As soon as he is persecuted or have some type of tribulation come upon him because of the word, he is tripped up and the word is null and void in his life. Let’s stay with tithing. In this case, you hear about tithing, you get excited about tithing and as soon as someone in your family start giving you a hard time about it, you decide it’s not that important. The word had no root in you and withered away. This person is shallow, and has no true interest in the word.

      The thorny ground has a little more depth to it. “And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them.” Jesus explains that this person hears the word but allows the cares of the word and the deceitfulness of riches to choke the word. This person has heard the word about tithing. As they are being taught about tithing the enemy reminds them of their bills, of what they could do with that money, or just too preoccupied with the world. And for some reason, that person just can’t seem to bring himself to tithe or to do so faithfully. The word has been choked out of his life. Jesus said, this person is unfruitful.

      Lastly, good ground. “But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” This person not only hears the word, but Jesus said this person understands the word that has been heard. This individual receives the word as truth, believes it is necessary for their life, and acts upon it. This person would be the one who becomes a tither. Faithful, diligent, committed tither, because the word that was heard and understood took root in his heart. This person will have much fruit, in differing degrees of fruitfulness, but will still the reward of being good ground.

      Let’s go back to the sower. The sower is the pastor, the Bible teacher, the Sunday School teacher, the conference speaker, in other words, the deliverer of the word. The sower has the responsibility to sow the word, but every person has the responsibility to have good ground, a heart that is open to the Word. Grant it, some things may be new to you, and you may need to have more clarity before you embrace it, but your ground should be open to receive the word.

      Another point about the sower. The sower sows the word and has no control over the ground the seed will fall upon. In an audience, of any size, there will be all types of soil, but the sower’s responsibility is to sow; and the hearers’ responsibility is to hear and gain understanding in order to bear much fruit.

      Being unreceptive, shallow, or too preoccupied with the world hinders the word of God from taking root in the soil of our hearts. It hinders fruitfulness in our lives. This is why Jesus said it is such an important parable and it helps us to understand the others. What is produced in our lives, depend on how we hear and understand the word that is sown. Wonderful Jesus!

      Posted in Parable of Jesus, the Word of God | 0 Comments | Tagged good ground, hearer of the word, Jesus, parable, seed, sowing, the Word of God, understanding
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