May 10 Just an Apple Seed

May 10

It’s Just an Apple Seed

Zec 4:10 For who hath despised the day of small things?...

Her crushed body lay lifeless on the rural French road near the farmhouse where she had spent her entire life. Killed in the prime of life by a U.S. Army convoy that had driven by the farmhouse and hit her when she had tried to cross the road. The farmer had seen her killed and was determined to seek justice for her tragic death.   

The court proceedings that followed revealed she had been a very productive chicken. The farmer was not suing for the loss of the chicken, but for the loss of all the chicken meat he would have gotten from all the eggs she would have laid in the remainder of her life. He was asking for several thousand dollars based on the future tons of chicken meat he would have gotten from that one chicken, and her offspring. He settled for $50.

          I recently read another version of this same idea. You can count the apples on a tree but you cannot count the apples in an apple seed.

         In a world filled with mega-churches, superstars, billionaires and giant corporations, we are tempted to think our meager efforts are so insignificant that we should not even bother. Mega-churches win hundreds to Christ. Big name evangelists harvest souls beyond anything we can do. Why even bother. They win more to Christ in one meeting than we have in our entire life.  

     Some sports stars make more in a week than some of us make in our lifetime. The news is filled with spectacular things people have done, movies show lifestyles of the rich and famous, and we drive by homes that look bigger, more expensive and so far above our homes we wonder where we missed the boat. How can everyone have so much, and we have so little.

     Stop!  Tell the Devil to leave you alone and stop whispering those lies into your mind. That kind of thinking is not from the Holy Spirit.

1Jo 2:16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh,

and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,

is not of the Father, but is of the world.

      No, this is not a pep talk to tell you keep your chin up, think positive, and put a smile on your face and a skip in your walk. It is rather a meditation on how God works wonders with simple things, and uses the insignificant to show His mighty working.  

      Few people remember a Sunday school teacher named Edward Kimball. And why should they? He taught some rowdy boys who paid little attention to what he taught. But he continued to pray for and work with seemingly little results. He even tried to reach those rowdy boys outside of church. One Saturday he went to a shoe store where one of his boys worked. He found him in the back of the storeroom and the result was he led the boy to Christ. The boy was D. L. Moody.

We wonder at how many souls were won because D L Moody had a Sunday school teacher who did the work God had called him to do, even when it seemed so fruitless.

     You also never heard of Frederic Brotherton Meyer, a pastor in a small chapel in England where Moody preached during a visit there.

Meyer became an evangelist and years later on a trip to the United States preached in Northfield, Massachusetts. His preaching resulted in the salvation of J. Wilbur Chapman, who went on to be a dynamic evangelist. A young man who helped Chapman would eventually take over Chapman’s ministry.  

     The young man was Billy Sunday, who won thousands to Christ in Crusades all over America. One group of Christian men who heard Billy Sunday in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1924, were inspired to win their city for Christ. They did not give up and 8 years later were still working on it when they invited an evangelist, Mordechai Ham to speak.

     A teenage boy attended several of the meetings and was so taken by the message of salvation he returned for several nights and finally went forward and was saved. The teenage boy was Billy Graham.

     The meditation for today is to think about Edward Kimball, and his faithfulness, and then wrap our minds around the concept that God does not need your wonderful talents. He just wants your willingness and obedience. He can work out the details.

       If you see your life as insignificant and your efforts for Christ as unfruitful just think how many apples can come from an apple seed.  How much can be done by one person’s willingness and obedience. Only God knows. Let us join with Zachariah and Praise the God of “…the day of small things”!

1Co 1:27 But God hath chosen the foolish things

of the world to confound the wise; and

God hath chosen the weak things of the world

to confound the things which are mighty;

May 9 The movie of Me!

May 9

The Movie of Me

1Th 5:21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.

The attractive receptionist was revealing more than she realized. There was no reason for me to mention it to her and cause her embarrassment.

The form I had just filled out had a line that requested marital status i.e. single, divorced etc.  I had written “happy” and handed the completed form to the receptionist. She glanced over the form, smiled and said. “Oh, you must be divorced!”

As I said she revealed more about herself than she had learned about me. My guess is she interpreted the word “happy” as divorced because she was divorced, and was now happy compared to when she was married.

It is not unusual for people to respond to another person based upon their own life experiences. When college students are shown a picture of several people on a subway train they are asked to write about the people. As you can imagine, the stories are reflections of the writers own life and experiences.

I think the psychological term is transference, but I like to call it playing their life movie onto me. If a person is dishonest, or angry, or timid, or greedy, etc etc,  they assume I am also. My truthful answer to a newspaper reporter was not what she wanted to hear so she accused me of lying.  A man wrongly accused me of an unethical decision he said I had made, because that was what he would have done. There is an abundance of examples of people assuming other people behave like they do.

They use themselves as the standard by which everyone is evaluated. They do not trouble themselves with finding the truth, but based upon their standards (themselves) they declare another as liar, thief, gossip, greedy etc. In so doing they reveal their own ethics and play their life history onto others.

 

Ro 2:1 ¶ Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man,

whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself;

for thou that judgest doest the same things.

This verse is often taken out of context and applied to anyone who sees evil and speaks against it. The first word of this verse is “Therefore” which means it is a conclusion based upon a previous argument. That requires a look at Romans chapter one where Paul lists  sins that range from murder to talking behind someone’s back. Then in Chapter 2:1 he admonishes those people not to judge.

It is wrong to judge others. But we are required to be discerning. These two seemingly opposing principles cause confusion unless both are understood correctly.

1Th 5:21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.

This verse is part of a sentence that starts in verse 17 and ends in verse 23. It starts with “Pray without ceasing …” and ends with “…your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The verses in between give the method by which prayer and good decision making will result in being blameless. (not sinless).

Selecting items in the produce section of a super market requires discernment. Is this item too green or too ripe? Is this head of lettuce firm? Do the berries look too mushy? Knowledge and experience help us select the best produce and avoid the bad. That is exactly what discernment does for us in life choices. And just as selecting produce requires knowledge and experience so does discernment. Here the knowledge comes from the word of God. The experience is gained by applying Biblical truths to life situations.

Experienced shoppers can easily identify and avoid bad produce. The Christian who is experienced in Biblical discernment easily identifies that which is contrary to Biblical ethics. So where is the problem?

The problem occurs when a discerning Christian identifies some “bad fruit” that another Christian does not want to admit exists. Biblical discernment is based on such clear Biblical teachings that it is impossible for the less discerning Christian to avoid being convicted. The only response is to claim they are being judged and Romans says we should not do that. So that makes the discerning Christian’s comments invalid.

“Your judging me. You have no right to do that.”  That response helps stifle feelings of conviction so self-deception permits the person to continue to ignore simple Biblical truths.

It takes great wisdom to discern when there is some spiritual lack of maturity in our brothers and sisters. It requires wisdom and meekness to approach them about their spiritual needs, and do so in a non judgemental way.  But the scriptures require we do so.

Ga 6:1 ¶ Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault,

ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.

2Ti 2:25 In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;   

(Also Rom 14:1, 15:1, 2 Cor 2:15, 2 Thes 3:15, Jam 5:19)

 Before any of us try to help a brother or sister in the Lord, we need to have our own ducks in a row! When you see a lack in another the first question should be, do I also have that fault and is this the way the Holy Spirit is bringing it to my mind, because I am sensitive about this. Here is where the old Negro Spiritual needs to run through our minds.

          “Not my brother, not my sister,

    but it’s me O Lord,

    standing in the need of prayer!

Pr 27:6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend;

but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.