Costs of the Harvest

If I purchase a vehicle, the amount which I pay for it will be stuck in my mind. If I have to then take it to a mechanic for expensive repairs, that fee will be added to the cost in my mind. Jesus, though, did not look at the cost of having us any longer than it took to come […]

Inspecting the Work

Building with wood, hay, and stubble is a simple task. It doesn’t even cost much. Most peoples on the earth began with that if they decided to stop wandering and to like a certain place and stay. Thatch roofs. Log cabins. That’s what makes people build – wanting to stay. Building with rocks is much harder. It means the very […]

Lonely Leaders

Are you ever lonely in your work as a believer? Is what Jesus called you to so different from average that it is hard to find other travelers on the road? Jesus has great advice and comfort for that situation: die, and gain company – “I assure you: Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it […]

Life Jackets or Life Boats

Watchman Nee once said about our salvation that many of us have taken the saving work of Christ as a life jacket – we are no longer sinking in our sin, but we are also still in it. In this place, we are neither living nor dying. What we should be pressing in to receive should look more like a […]

Foolish Farming

Why did Jesus call the guy who had a great harvest a fool? (Luke 12:13-21) Suppose, instead of deciding how he could use the harvest to produce a retirement income, he had started thinking about how many people he could employ, or how many poor widows he could feed? Suppose that after he got this great harvest as income, he […]

Gambling

Some people waste their lives gambling, hoping to hit a jackpot by winning against luck. If Jesus tells you the numbers to play, its no longer gambling. Its provision. He is not likely to tell you to buy a lottery ticket, but living your life without His advice at every turn is like playing the lottery or a slot machine […]

Human Designs

Perhaps you are not old enough to remember 8-track tapes. When they were invented, they were great tech advances because they were portable, compact, easy to encode clear stereo onto, and could be used in some recorders and players for all 8 tracks at once, for mixing master recordings. They were loops, so they never ended – they just kept […]

Map and Compass

If I have a map, having a compass will help me use it. If I don’t know where I am on the map, having a compass is still valuable. I could find my way somewhere simply by staying on a straight course. Having a map with no compass to offer a sense of direction would be like having a Bible […]

Two Non-Kingdom Ditches

Calvinism and Armenianism are both daughters of Roman Mythology. They argue about the destructibility of our eternal lives and our relationships with our Father. Calvinism’s argument is that we cannot become “un-saved” by sinning. Armenianism argues that if we fail to follow God’s rules, He will throw us in hell even if we have been born of Him. One is […]