A Beautiful Strategy, but…
Matthew 13:23 “But what about the seed that fell on the good ground? That is like the people who hear the teaching and understand it. They grow and produce a good crop, sometimes 100 times more, sometimes 60 times more, and sometimes 30 times more.”
Westminster Abbey in London has been the site of every British coronation since 1066. Amazing. Of course, much of this architectural masterpiece was built subsequently, but it’s beginnings have been around for almost a thousand years.
Since then, how many more amazing cathedrals have been built, one grander than the next? These days of course, we instead build megachurches with sophisticated management structures, grand strategies and clever marketing tools.
Now there’s nothing wrong per se with any of that. Nor is there anything wrong with you or me making plans to do this or that for God. But as Winston Churchill once said, “However beautiful the strategy, one should occasionally look at the results”.
You may be familiar with the parable of the sower, where Jesus showed how our good intentions in following Him could either succeed or fail. In some, the Word of God falls on hard ground and never takes root. For others, it falls in shallow soil, sprouting only to die in the heat of the day. Some are killed by weeds and thorns – the cares of this world. And then He tells us what’s meant to happen:
Matthew 13:23 But what about the seed that fell on the good ground? That is like the people who hear the teaching and understand it. They grow and produce a good crop, sometimes 100 times more, sometimes 60 times more, and sometimes 30 times more.
In other words, when God’s Word takes root in our hearts, it’s meant to produce fruit. We’re meant to make a difference in this world. It’s great to have grand plans, but following Jesus isn’t so much about having a beautiful strategy as it is about producing results – a good crop.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh… for you… today.
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Darryl Rose
G’day Bernei,I pray for you and your ministry, and share the devotions with others.I have Parkinson’s and I ...
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G’day Bernei,I pray for you and your ministry, and share the devotions with others.I have Parkinson’s and I pray for peace when I am having severe tremors.I know that Jesus is there with me and he has the power to reach out and give me peace,but my earnest pleadings are heard and ít seems,ignored.Tonight,I was in tears pleading and asking Jesus to ask his Father to take me to Heaven because the tremors were so severe,but instead I went to bed and woke up still in this world and overdosed on medication and setteled down for a while.I emailed my neuraligist’s nurse and asked her to forward it.asking for a Deep Brain Stimulation operation,to hopefully stop the tremors and give me a more normal life.Please pray for me. Thankyou prayer team.