Piles of Stones

Joshua directed them, “Cross to the middle of the Jordan and take your place in front of the Chest of God, your God. Each of you heft a stone to your shoulder, a stone for each of the tribes of the People of Israel, so you’ll have something later to mark the occasion. When your children ask you, ‘What are these stones to you?’ you’ll say, ‘The flow of the Jordan was stopped in front of the Chest of the Covenant of God as it crossed the Jordan—stopped in its tracks. These stones are a permanent memorial for the People of Israel.’”



-Joshua 4.5-7 The Message

To the untrained eye, it is just an ordinary pile of stones, lying beside the riverbank. Perhaps a flood deposited the stones there; or perhaps a child playing beside the water. However, the stones are far from meaningless or mute. For those who were in the know, this simple pile of stones served to testify to the great power of the Holy God who acts. For those who knew, this simple pile of stones served to testify to the work of God, who delivered his people. They were stones of hope.

We have a powerful need for altars, piles of stones, in our lives and in the world today. These simple piles of stone are the memories of God at work that serve to show us where God is moving in our day and where He is leading us into our future. Memorials are no mere sentimentalism, they are the living reminders that God is at work in our midst.

The amazing this about the day in which we live, is that WE ARE HIS ALTARS. We don't go around piling up stones where something significant happened in our life, WE testify to the activity and purpose of God in our lives. We become altars that should cause people to ask "What are these stones?" Our lives become the testament to God at work delivering his people, revealing his love, and working in the world. God has designed that we become living altars that point people to his love, his grace and his care.

I am praying today that you live out the love and grace of Jesus Christ in such away that people ask "What is it about you anyway?" Then you can be the living memorial of Christ in His world.

 

--Just my pondering...

 

 

Wheat and Weeds

 

 

God has been speaking into my heart lately about a parable that Jesus taught. The parable is found in Matthew chapter 13. If you turn there you will find a very well-known parable, the Parable of the Seed. This is not the parable that God has been speaking to me about. He has been speaking to me about the lesser known parable that follows, the Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds.

In a nutshell, a farmer planted a field with good wheat seeds; that is seed that had no week seeds in it. Yet, during the night an enemy stole in and planted weed seeds throughout the good crop of wheat. The results are obvious, weeds grew up in the wheat. The temptation for the farmer’s workers was to go and root out the weeds. The farmer, in his wisdom, asked his workers to let the wheat and the weeds grow together so that the wheat would not be damaged by the zealous weeding of the field. Anyone who has ever grown a garden knows how easy it is to damage the crop by ripping up the weeds.

It occurs to me that Jesus is talking about the situation in which we who belong to the church find ourselves. If the church is being the church, we will find that the gospel will produce fruit. Yet, at the same time, we will see those in the church who do not exhibit the fruit of the kingdom in their life. In other words, we find weeds in the church.

Throughout my life time, I have witnessed those who have done their best to tear out the weeds in the church. They do everything in their power to judge their lives, set them on the straight-and-narrow, and protect the body. In their honest attempts to clear the field the poke eyes and tear up the field.

The words of our Savior remind us that it is not our position to “weed the garden,” it is his job. Our job is to fling the seed, the good seed of the gospel and let him worry about the weeds. The kingdom would be better off if we would…

—Just my musings