Seeds just grow

He also said, "This is what the kingdom of God is like". A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come."

The Kingdom of God is like a planted seed that grows. I live in beautiful Santa Clara County, where farming used to be a good size industry. Although we spent many nights trying to stir up some "action", one could say that after 2100 hours things were quiet except for a few cars passing by, and the all familiar sound of farmers trying to coax seeds to grow. Breaking through the silence, one could hear, "come on you can do it, please grow, I will be sure to pull weeds tomorrow if you could just grow a little bit now." We will never plant another seed in you if you don't hurry and grow. a tractor comes by spreading chemicals to support the growth.

The truth is we don't have to coax, plead with, or beg seeds to grow. Seeds grow because that is what they do. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. Plant seeds of the Kingdom and it will grow.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

A friend said....

A friend of mine named Kevin was about twenty years old when he wrote the following in 2005:America has always been the antithesis of the Kingdom of God. I have been studying the book of Daniel lately with some friends at the workplace (don't worry, I'm not in a church service, LOL). In Daniel chapter 2 we read about a dream that King Nebuchadnezzar had, of an image with a head of gold, shoulders of silver, loins of bronze, and legs of iron, feet of iron mixed with clay. These, according to Daniel, represented the coming world empires, of which King Nebuchadnezzar's Babylon was the first. The empires that have followed have all been part and parcel of that original Babylonian structure. America is Babylon. Just as Rome was Babylon, Christendom was Babylon, etc. Babylon has dominated world history since the time of Daniel and will until Allah sends his son, Jesus, to destroy the kingdoms of the this world and set up his kingdom.

The Kingdom of God is not a re-structured human government. It is human anarchy, divine rule. Trying to reform human governments does not give us something "closer" to the Kingdom of God. The only "closer" there is is the "closer" contained in our own spirits, for, in this time when Babylon still reigns on the slaves and feasts on the martyrs, Jesus' words are truer than ever before. Luke 17:21 - the kingdom of God is within us. We can release this kingdom in our own personal sphere of influence, by thanking God for every moment that we live in, by accepting each breath as a gift. Then our inner peace will flow out and transform our own lives and our own spheres of influence.

I have been amazed to see this happen in my own home. Since my wife and I have lived on our own in our own house, we have become "Crazy Pet People." We have a dog, three cats, and three fish. And you would have to see it to believe it, but the literal Kingdom of God rules the interactions of these animals. They are full of peace towards us and towards each other. In our backyard the wild animals want to be near us, and especially near the altar I have set up where I observe the nature of the God I love and the signs of the stars and the moon which He made for us. I work at a youth center, where I just had a co-worker tell me that I "create heaven on earth" for our patients, and that the way my own personal atmosphere is, is "the way the whole world is supposed to be." I don't say these things to lift myself up, merely to encourage anyone who doesn't know to get a hold of the Kingdom of God that Jesus imparted to us, separate yourself from anything anti-Kingdom, and watch peace on earth become reality, if not in the rest of the world, at least in your backyard.

And as for the rest of the world: support the human rights of all, the rights of workers, and peace, justice, life, and health. Don't put any hope in any individual nation or party. But I do believe in using this current order against its own self to liberate as many as possible from the bondage of wealth, politics, and religion which emanate from the same statue that Nebuchadnezzar erected in Daniel 3. Ever asked yourself if the statue in Daniel 3 was modelled after the image in Nebuchadnezzar's dream in Daniel 2?
-Kevin X

How big is your big

I heard someone  say that one of the problems men have is that they don't think big enough. Maybe it is fear of pride or just laziness, what ever the cause, it could be true, we simply don't dream big enough.

With today's go big mentality, it is hard to talk about a few, or a "small" crowd. When I was a practicing evangelist, a "small" crowd, or group, had a way of determining my self-worth for the next, how ever long it took me to get over myself.  Well it could be that going small in a go big society is the right thing to do, in fact sometimes quality control is out of control when we go big!

For all of my friends who feel the pressure is on, things are winding down, the end is near, may I say that a mustard seed is still small.  Many times in the world of producing goods and services the need becomes so big that all we require is more product, and in the act of "going fast", we loose quality. Look at the typical congregation. The Kingdom of God is a for sure deal that starts as the smallest but steadily grows into large, the key is steady, and sure.  A man plants a seed and then goes to bed, while he is sleeping the seed is growing, the seed can grow without 24/7 attention, because that is what seeds do, they grow.