Removing the Seeds

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be fruitful, be fruitful and multiply, bringing our Father glory, Christian encouragement, christian journey, christian walk, Christianity, complacency, control, Creator, devotional, devotions, encouragement, family devotions, fruit, fruitfulness, growing, locusts have eaten, organic, seeds

I bought organic bananas the other day. It’s not something I usually try to buy organic, but the “regular” bananas looked so pitiful I couldn’t help myself. Do you know what I discovered? Seeds! Organic bananas still have seeds! I was amazed. I hadn’t seen those black little buddies in quite some time. (I’m especially fond of banana seeds because it reminds me of a Vacation Bible School lesson I had as a youngster. Mrs. Mary Ellen taught a lesson about seeds to a group of kids she probably thought weren’t even listening, but her legacy lives on every time I see a banana seed.)

Those banana seeds reminded me of all the food items I now purchase on a regular basis that have no seeds. This can’t be right, can it? Those little seeds are annoying, I know. I would much rather bite into a piece of fruit without having to deal with the annoying seeds, but the seeds are how God created the fruit to multiply. Genesis 1:11 tells us that God commanded the plants and fruit trees to bear food and “seeds with them.” The seed is how God chose for fruit to reproduce, yet when man makes fruit there are no seeds. We somehow think we are engineering something better than the Creator of the universe.

I can’t help but think about all the ministries today that are failing to reproduce, failing to produce much fruit as stated in John 15:8. Maybe through the years we felt like the seeds that God put in our ministries were too annoying, too bothersome, or too hard to deal with. So, over time, we simply engineered those annoyances to exit quietly. How did we do it? We might have simply made a certain group of people feel unwelcome. We didn’t actually say not to come back, but they got the message and we were relieved. Or, we didn’t financially support a missionary who convicted us we needed to be more involved with missions. We dreaded that slide show, so we avoided them like the plague. Their support diminished. They had to return home due to no financial backing and we are relieved that we no longer have to hear about their calling and be convicted ourselves. Or, we simply could have stopped praying for our pastor, or ministry leader. We don’t like him and we certainly don’t like his family. So, we don’t support anything he does. He’s discouraged, but we don’t care because he should not be concerned with what others think. After all, isn’t he a professional Christian? Over the years, we have just quietly removed the seeds from our ministry and now we sit and wonder why it is no longer producing fruit.

I’m discovering that maybe the problem of unfruitfulness stems back to the fact that we have gotten rid of the seeds, the very thing God meant for us to reproduce.  I don’t know if this hits home with you, or not, but I can tell you that I am sure I have been guilty of removing seeds that God fully intended to bring the greatest growth in my life and ministries. I have stopped praying over a person, or a situation, where I now know God wanted to produce fruit. I have stopped giving in an area where it became too sacrificial for my Americanized wants and I have certainly wished a certain person wouldn’t show up to a meeting. Horrible, but true. That’s why I need God so much. That’s why I need Him to reveal these seedless areas in my life and restore to me the years that the locusts have eaten (Joel 2:25), even the years I welcomed the locusts in. I’m tired of blaming my politicians, my culture and others for the fruitlessness of the ministries I’m involved with. I am ready to ask God to once again place seeds in my life that may be hard to chew on and that need to be nurtured and loved, but are so ready to grow and multiply into much fruit to bring our Father glory.

Will you do the same? Will you ask Him to reveal areas where you have removed the seeds? Will you ask Him to restore the seeds and help you to nurture them as He intended? I pray you will. I pray you will reach out to our great Creator and trust Him to put the seeds where they are needed and allow Him to grow fruit for His glory in every area of your life. In a few years, you will look at the great harvest you had a small part in and remember that it came from an area you thought was shriveled and dead, but God knew was a precious seed ready to sprout once again.

Seeking Peace

Seeking Hearts Ministries

Rebirth in the Lowlands

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all things for good, Christian encouragement, christian journey, christian walk, Christianity, devotions, directions, encouragement, exhaustion, family devotions, fruit, hills, lowlands, mountains, paths, trust, valleys

The other day my husband and I were discussing the Biblical account of Zaccheus. You remember, he’s the “wee, little man” who climbed up in the sycamore tree to see Jesus (Luke 19). As we were talking, he told me about a discovery that he had made recently. He said that the name “sycamore” actually meant “rebirth”. So, when Zaccheus chose to climb that sycamore tree, he was actually choosing to be in a place where rebirth could occur. In those first steps to find Jesus, he was trying to draw nigh to God and we know from James 4:8 that when we draw nigh to God, He’ll draw nigh to us. He just can’t help Himself. It’s who He is.

This discussion led me to look up every time the word sycamore was used in the Bible. What I found was so neat! There are eight occurrences in the Bible regarding sycamore trees and almost every single one refers to where they were grown. They were grown in the land of Judah in a place called Shephelah. It just so happens that Shephelah is in the lowlands, actually it is the term used for the whole region of the lowlands. In First Kings 10:27, it says, “The king made silver as common as stones in Jerusalem, and he made cedars as plentiful as sycamore trees that are in the lowland.” Other references to where they are grown are in First Chronicles 27:28, Second Chronicles 1:15, and Second Chronicles 9:27. The fact that sycamores are grown in the lowlands reminded me that rebirth can only happen when we humble ourselves, when we are willing to seek God’s face in meekness and when we are willing be in the lowlands.

I think that Christians and non-christians alike don’t enjoy being in the lowlands of life. We would just rather not be anywhere that is not a mountain top experience. We all like to be riding high on life. The lowlands? No, thank you. We are fine on the mountain. When we do have a lowland experience, we want to run through it quickly, but we want to meander as slowly as possible when we are on the mountain.

In studying the geography of the lowlands I found that “the Shephelah was a zone of low, rolling foothills separating the high, rugged hill country of Judah from the flat, open coastal plain. The heavy runoff from the western slopes of the hill country flows into a series of six broad, shallow valleys furrowed into the soft limestone of the Shephelah, each of which is a focal point of rich, agricultural life. Historically, the Shephelah as a whole, and its six valleys in particular, has been a buffer zone between the hill country and the coast…” The Rose Then and Now Bible Map goes on to say that people in the Shephelah were more rural and conservative than on either side, but “the Shephelah, a true land between was desired by both.”

Even though the Shephelah was in the lowlands, it was desired because of the agriculture, because of the fruit it was capable of bearing. I pray that is how we begin to look at our lowlands, as places of rich fruit. The mountains are beautiful yes, but its climate is not conducive to growing much of anything. Have you ever seen huge fields of wheat, or a massive grove of fruit trees growing on the side of a mountain? Not usually. But, in the lowlands of the Shephelah there is rich agriculture. Everyone wanted the Shephelah region due to the yield that it was capable of producing. We should desire our lowlands as well knowing that in those places God can till and tend and grow fruit that we never dreamed possible.  John 15:8 tells us, “By this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” If fruit is in the lowlands, that’s where we want to be. When we understand the ministry of the lowlands, we find that they are places of replenishment, of rekindling and a place to develop a deeper level of trust in the Lord. The lowlands can be tough, but they are places of rebirth where everything has the possibility of change. The lowlands provide a feeding of our soul that otherwise would be missed if we were only on the mountains.

An amazing example of fruit in the lowlands are the early Christians in the book of Acts. The word fruit, or fruitful, is only mentioned twice, but these words don’t even have the same meaning as the fruit we are after. The book of Acts doesn’t have to say the word fruit for it to be obvious that a massive harvest was being produced. The Christians in the book of Acts were definitely in the lowlands physically speaking. They were being ridiculed, thrown in jail, beaten and even killed for the cause of Christ, but the fruit they bore was remarkable. In fact, their lowland experience is still bearing fruit today. They took advantage of it and put it to work for the Kingdom of God. Let’s be willing to do the same.

Psalm 25:10 says, “All the paths of the LORD are lovingkindness and truth to those who keep His covenant and His testimonies.” Let’s take God at His Word and be thankful for every path that He leads us to. Let’s not run through our lowlands as quickly as possible, but absorb every moment, every lesson and every opportunity to bear fruit. Before you know it we will be headed to the mountain once again with a bag full of fruit, shallowness of soul gone forever and a richer trust in the Lord than we ever thought possible. So, let’s be thankful for the lowands!

Seeking Hearts Ministries

Lessons in the Blackberry Patch (Part Two)

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Christian encouragement, christian journey, christian walk, Christianity, devotions, encouragement, fields, fields of harvest, fruit, fruit in the field, fruit on the vine, harvest fields, Lord of the harvest, our field of harvest, perspective, salvation, some have watered, souls, sowing seed, surrender, white unto harvest

Last week I blogged about a lesson I was learning while in the blackberry patch behind our house. Something I didn’t explain was that if my husband hadn’t pointed the vines out to me, I would have never seen them. We were trekking along through the field and I was yammering on and on about something and he said, “Hey, look at this.” Lo, and behold, a few blackberries were ripe and sweet and quickly gobbled up. We looked around and realized that a lot more were starting to turn and this began my family’s blackberry journey for the season. If my husband hadn’t said anything, our summer would not have been filled with fruit. It would have just been business as usual.

Throughout the picking season, I have been so grateful to my man for seeing the fruit that I had missed. I never dreamed there were berries to be harvested in a place we had never tended. I didn’t even know where to look. But, he saw the fruit and helped me to see it as well.

As I’ve pondered this over the last week, I realized that our Savior points out the same thing to us in John 4:35. He says, “…Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest.” He is pointing out ripe berries that we would otherwise be oblivious to. This passage in John goes on to say in verses 37 and 38, “For in this case the saying is true, ‘One sows, and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

I didn’t realize there were berries behind our house because I hadn’t planted berries behind our house. I didn’t expect fruit since I had never labored in that field. I wasn’t ready for the harvest simply because I didn’t know the fruit was there. I didn’t see it.  Jesus is telling us that there is fruit to be harvested we just have to realize it and go get it.

Do you remember from last week that it was hard for me to see some of the berries until I was on my knees? I think no matter which lesson I am learning in the blackberry patch, that lesson will always apply. When my perspective is right, when I am on my knees, I see the fruit ready to be harvested. Otherwise, all I will see is briers and weeds. The entanglements of this world will always cloud my vision until I am in full surrender to Him. I need His eyes to see the fields that are ready to receive Him.

I know it’s hard to believe that there is fruit to be gathered from places that we have not labored, but we must realize that others have labored there. Generations have prayed, sowed numerous seeds and watered the fields. All we are being asked to do is bring in the harvest. I realize that the fruit is often hard to see. I realize that when we look into our own back fields, we often only see overgrowth, thorns and unripe fruit. But, when we are in full surrender, the Lord of the Harvest shows us just where to go and what fruit is ready. Let’s not let it die on the vine.

So, this is where I’m at. I’m asking God to help me to see the fields that are white unto harvest. I’m asking for business as usual to stop. I’m asking for laborers to work in those fields (Matthew 9:38).I’m offering myself for the work and I’m praying for others to see the fruit as well. After all, what good is a berry patch, a peach grove, or souls that are ready to accept Christ if there is no one is pick, gather, or lead? God assures us that the harvest is there, we just need to lift up our eyes and see it.

Lessons in the Blackberry Patch (Part One)

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all things for good, bearing fruit, burdens, calling, Christian encouragement, christian journey, christian walk, Christianity, devotions, encouragement, encouragment, exhaustion, faith, focus, fruit, much fruit, perspective, tasks, weary in well doing, work in the fields, worth it

My family has recently found a wild blackberry patch growing in the field behind our home. So, my youngest and I go out about every third day and pick all the blackberries that we can find. Let me tell you, we need jeans and bug spray and heavy shoes, but it is awesome to be able to pick blackberries that we never planted, haven’t been sprayed with pesticides and would cost quite a bit of money at Whole Foods, or Trader Joe’s. It’s some kind of amazing to pick bounty for your belly straight from God Himself.

As we were picking berries this morning, I happened to drop one. I bent to pick it up and ended up on my knees. I looked up and lo and behold there were more beautiful, ripe blackberries in spots I never dreamed. I was amazed that I hadn’t seen them before. If I had still been standing, I would have never realized that they were there! I recognized in that moment that I just needed the right perspective to see all the fruit. I needed to be on my knees, looking up.

Over the years, verses like Matthew 12:33 and John 15:5 and 8 have frustrated me. They say things like, “He who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit.” “By this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” “…for the tree is known by its fruits.” Frustrating stuff because I know I’m a disciple of Christ. I think I’m abiding. I think I want God to receive glory, but where’s the fruit?

As I was kneeling on the ground this morning, I realized the fruit is there. When I am abiding in Christ, when His Spirit has invaded every part of me at my request and when I am seeking His face with every fiber of my being, the fruit is there. I just need the right perspective and the right perspective is not getting distracted with the overgrowth, the thorns, or what fruit is in someone else’s bowl. The right perspective is acquired when I am on my knees, looking up at my Savior. Then, I am able to see the fruit that He has allowed in my life.

Second Thessalonians 3:13 says, “But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary of doing good.” When we don’t readily see the fruit in a situation, we can grow weary. Our tasks become harder when we don’t see results. But, by having the right perspective, we are in a position to better see His fruit in our life. When we are on our knees looking to Him, the thorns aren’t so tangled and the nettles aren’t invading our senses quite so much. We can actually see the fruit and be encouraged.

So, let’s get on our knees each day. Let’s look up and ask God to show us the fruit that He has allowed to grow in our lives. Has that teenager in your life decided that they won’t immediately leave when you enter the room? Will the neighbors let you prayer for them now? Has your spouse decided to give your marriage one more try? Has your youngest quit complaining about going to church? There is fruit. We just need to kneel down to see it.

We also need to remember that when we get to our heavenly home, we will have the best perspective of all. As we are on our knees before our Father, I have no doubt that He will pull away the branches, the thorns and the weeds that were as big as we were in this life, lift our precious faces and say, “Look at all this fruit, sweet one. Look what you allowed Me to grow in your life.” And as we look up with His gentle prodding, I believe our jaws will drop. I believe that our faces will light up and we will be amazed at all the fruit that grew in our lives without our even knowing about it. We will be assured that every task was worth it. Every opportunity did bear fruit. We just needed the right perspective. We needed His.

Hosea 10:12-13

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Christian encouragement, christian journey, christian walk, Christianity, devotions, fallow ground, family devotions, fruit, it's time, loyalty, plowing wickedness, reaping, reaping injustice, resping injustice, seeking, seeking the Lord, sowing, trusting in my own way, view to righteousness

Hosea 10: 12 and 13 says, “Sow with a view to righteousness, reap in accordance with kindness; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the LORD until He comes to rain righteousness on you. You have plowed wickedness, you have reaped injustice, you have eaten the fruit of lies. Because you have trusted in your way, in your numerous warriors.”

I just love these verses. They hold such conviction for me, but there is encouragement with the conviction. Let’s pull it apart and see what we get.

“Sow with a view to righteousness.” When I read this, I find the Spirit of God asking me if I am sowing things in my life right now with His righteousness in mind. What ideas am I allowing to sink deep into my soul? What thoughts am I allowing to run free in my thinking? Am I destroying speculations and every thought that is not God honoring? Am I taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ as Second Corinthians 10:5 says? Is every television show, book, conversation and thought pattern sowing righteousness in my life? If not, why is it there? What I am sowing will not necessarily be perfect at all times, but am I at least making some progress in that direction. In the book “Unglued”, Lysa Terkuerst calls it “Imperfect Progress”. I like that. Am I making at least “imperfect progress” in the right direction? Am I sowing more seeds in view of righteousness today than I did yesterday, last week, or even last year?

The next part of this verse says to “reap in accordance with kindness”. The original translation of the word kindness can also mean loyalty. So, I must ask God’s Spirit to show me if what I am reaping in my life is loyal to those I care most about. Is what I am reaping today (from the seeds sown earlier) showing that I am faithful to Christ, my husband and the priorities that God has called me to in this season of my life? Would someone looking from the outside in know who I love and cherish? Could they easily see my loyalty, or would I have to tell them who matters most? Could they see my devotion to Christ and my husband without a word spoken from me?

“Break up your fallow ground” is the next phrase in this passage. When I think of fallow ground, I think of ground that has been left dormant. Sometimes, ground is left fallow for good reasons, but for me these words represent something that I have given up on. What area of my life have I left dormant due to my lack of faith? What have I ceased to pray for simply because God didn’t move on my time table? What area have I not touched in a while simply because I am discouraged? Where have I ceased to cultivate faithfulness as Psalm 37:3 says?

Fallow ground for me may also represent areas of confusion, hurt, or places in my life that I just don’t want to deal with; areas where I think victory is just not going to happen. Fallow ground could also be an area where dreams and excitement have slipped away, or died out due to neglect. But, this verse tells me it is time to break it up. This verse tells me that the hard places and the dry patches where I would rather not talk about need to be broken before God. I am finding that fallow ground is much better broken than left unattended. Fallow ground is ground that is being underutilized for the Kingdom and God is saying, “It’s been fallow for too long. Now is the time to break it up.”

Oh, that I would allow God to till my hard places. Oh, that He would break up the places in me that pride has kept unfertile and unusable! I pray that my fallow ground would be placed in Him today so that His gentle hands can break it up, His seeds can be planted and His harvest can be produced. I pray that my rigid places of fallowness be turned into great fields of harvest for His Name.

Hosea goes on to say “it is time to seek the LORD.” This verse begs the question, “What am I truly seeking?” Am I only seeking the Lord, or am I seeking anything and everything that I believe will make things more satisfactory in this moment? Am I trying to hear what God says on the matters at hand, or do I seek people’s advice and authors’ interpretations? Hosea is clearly telling me that it is time to seek the Lord and to quit playing with other ideas that are not of God. I need Him and it is time, right now to seek Him. How long do I seek Him? “Until He comes to rain righteousness on you.” This next section of Hosea tells me to never give up, to never settle for less than Christ’s righteousness. I am reminded in Isaiah 64:6 that my righteousness is as filthy rags, so why would I possibly settle for anything other than His righteousness? I need His Spirit to give me the perseverance to keep seeking Him until He rains His righteousness, His grace, His beauty on my life.

The next part of these verse say, “You have plowed wickedness, you have reaped injustice, you have eaten the fruit of lies.” This passage assures me that I have some repenting to do. I must ask the Holy Spirit to show me areas where I am plowing wickedness. Just because I have decided to till the fallow ground doesn’t meant that I am naturally going to sow the right things in the soil of my life. Where am I sowing bad seed? Where am I allowing sin to reign? Where is wickedness playing a role in my life?

This verse also causes me to ask God where injustice has played a role in my relationships lately. Where have I judged people without love? Where have I allowed social biases to go unimpeded? Where have I allowed prejudice to over-ride kindness and grace? I need to listen to His voice and change accordingly.

This verse also causes me to ask myself what lies have I eaten lately? What programs have I watched, or books have I read that has fed me propaganda which I readily ate simply because of the individual who said it? What false teaching have I allowed in my circle simply because I liked what they said and wanted it to be true? What deception of Satan have I allowed in my heart that caused my relationship with God to falter?

Plowing wickedness, reaping injustices and eating the fruit of lies takes a lot of effort. When we sow the wrong things, there’s no time to sow the good things! But, how does this happen? How does a girl who wants all Jesus has for her develop fallow ground, plow wickedness, stop seeking the Lord fully, reap injustice and eat the fruit of lies so readily?

The latter part of this passage in Hosea answers my questions. It says, “Because you have trusted in your way, in your numerous warriors.” Ach! It’s that trust thing again! If I am eating the fruit of lies, its’ a great indicator that I have stopped trusting in the God of the universe that empowers me with the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-24). When I am trusting in the Spirit of God in me, His fruit abounds and I am satisfied. I won’t have room in my spiritual tummy for the fruit of lies. I will be filled with Christ. Jesus tells us in John 10:10 that He came to give us an abundant life; that means a life that is fully satisfied in Him. Psalm 81:10 tells us to open our mouths wide and He will fill them. If we are filling ourselves with anything other than Christ, we are trusting in “other warriors” as the book of Hosea says. Psalm 141:3 says, “Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; Keep watch over the door of my lips.” Verse four goes on to say, “Do not incline my heart to any evil thing, to practice deeds of wickedness with men who do iniquity; and do not let me eat of their delicacies.”

I pray that God will guard my mouth from eating the fruit of lies. I pray that He will break up the fallow spaces in my heart and that He will empower me to seek Him until He rains righteousness on myself, my family and my church. I pray that God will show me the areas where I trust in my own way and not His and that when others see my life they will not guess where my loyalties lie, but will know that I am a Jesus’ girl through and through.

Oh great God, let us only eat of the fruit of Your vine. Break up our fallow ground and help us to seek You until You come and reign over us for all eternity. In the mighty Name of Jesus, I pray, Amen.

Seeking Hearts Ministries