Here is another story Jesus told: "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. 25 But that night as everyone slept, his enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat. 26 When the crop began to grow and produce grain, the weeds also grew. 27 The farmer's servants came and told him, 'Sir, the field where you planted that good seed is full of weeds!' 28 "'An enemy has done it!'...

Jesus lays down a principle for the world to ponder when He describes the Kingdom of Heaven as seeds.

All of us know that all seeds start small and then grow into enormous plants, sometimes thousands of times larger that than that which was sown.

A principle is a benchmark or standard by which others lessons can be taught. This principle is key to living for God, it is a key to the development of habits and the key to changing them when we need to. In short, it is a key principle of living really free.

The application of this principle begins when we know that almost everything in our lives begins in some form of seed, that seed is nurtured and then that, like all seeds, begins to produce fruit in our lives.

Some fruit is exactly the kind that we need in our lives. Other fruit that has grown from what we have sown is troublesome and intimidating for many.

So it is of utmost importance to know that who we are today and what is being produced in our lives is most likely a result of what we have sown, nurtured and allowed to mature in our lives.

Jesus stated in John 15 that if we had been grafted into Him as our life source and that from that source of life we WOULD produce much fruit.

So it should be stated that God intends for us to produce fruit.

Seeds are all very small and do not usually look like they will ever influence much in their state as a seed. As a result it becomes difficult to determine which seed has the potential to produce bad fruit and which will produce the fruit that God desires for me to have.

For instance, the fruit of our actions usually started in seed form in our thought life. It is within our thought life that we either nurture the seed of bad or evil thoughts or we nurture thoughts of righteousness. It is what we are contributing to the seeds at the time they are planted that matters most to their development and fruit that comes from their maturation.

Someone once told me that words have more power than thoughts. The thoughts that present themselves as those that would draw us away from the Will of God for our lives must be addressed and not permitted to find the soil of our souls. They must be uprooted early with the words of our mouth!

More to come soon...

We love you all...Be God's.

The letter to Rome that Paul wrote has a portion in it around chapter 12:1,2 where it says the following:

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice – the kind he will accept. When you think of what he has done for you, is this too much to ask? 2 Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is.

Sacrifice? A living sacrifice? Such a harsh and ugly word to the one who either will not or can not control the flesh (sin nature).

As we stated in our last devote, that the purpose of a fast is two fold in its nature. One is to control that part of our nature that did not get born again and wants to rule, the other is to make ourselves more sensitive to the Spirit of God.

As we become more sensitive to His Spirit we put ourselves in the position of hearing His voice and recognizing His leadership in our lives more keenly.

But putting ourselves in this position requires constant maintenance over the flesh or sin nature. This is one reason it must be disciplined (1 Cor. 9:27) and it must be sacrificed like today's verse challenges us to do.

To sacrifice anything means that something somewhere is going to die. The very word sacrifice indicates that it will cost something.

This is where a fast can benefit the one doing the fasting. To sacrifice a meal or a fleshly pleasure ( and I'm not just talking about sex and chocolate) is to say that the Voice and direction of God is worth the price of a desire of my flesh.

It's important to note that the flesh generally has 3 main appetites.

1) The appetite for food

2) The appetite for sleep

3) The appetite for sex

All of the above are to be enjoyed by we as humans and the children of God, but as we all know, that all of these appetites can be, and often are, abused. And not only abused, but abused to the point where control of the flesh is lost and habits are formed and destruction of some sort is introduced to our lives.

Again, this is where sacrifice comes in...but not just any sacrifice, but a LIVING sacrifice. Why a living sacrifice? Because a living sacrifice remains alive for the purpose of knowing the will of God!

Let's think about it for a moment...sacrifices are offered, they go up to God but die in the process, rendering anything from God coming back down to the sacrifice useless.

We get to bring a portion of ourselves to die but have the privilege of a portion of us to remain alive for the purpose of the Will of God coming back to us! What a rich truth.

So sacrifice...God is trying to get His will to you!

Be God's,

Joseph