Fallowing the Soil

I said, ‘Plant the good seeds of righteousness, and you will harvest a crop of love. Plow up the hard ground of your hearts, for now is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and shower righteousness upon you.’ (Hosea 10:12)

Plant the good seeds of righteousness - harvest a crop of love. Back in the day, there was a song whose lyrics purported, "What the world needs now is love, sweet love...", and that may not have been bad advice back then or right now! The world needs to experience the love of Christ - through us. We take an 'active' role in not only accepting the 'good seeds of righteousness' into our lives, but in sharing (sowing) those seeds into the lives of others.

One of the things we need to do within our own lives is allow God's 'plow' to be applied to the 'soil' of our hearts. Fallow ground is hard. It has been left 'untilled' and 'unplanted' for quite some time. Farmers actually allow entire fields to go 'fallow' for a period of time because it helps to restore the nutrients to the soil that the crops can strip out. It is purposefully left to rest and regenerate. We all need the seasons of rest and regeneration, but if we remain 'at rest' for way too long, the soil of our heart becomes hard and sometimes quite impenetrable.

When ground is allowed to 'fallow', the potassium and phosphorus that is deep beneath the surface begins to gradually rise to the surface once again. When we engage in times of rest and regeneration, something from deep within begins to surface again - the very thing that will bring health and vitality. The commission is to 'plow up' the hard soil of our hearts - it has been allowed to fallow long enough. Now is the time to seek the Lord - so his work can be done in this earth.

Some have rested on their laurels, no longer putting forth any effort to grow in Christ, much less reach a lost world for him. Perhaps it is time for the 'plowing' of that soil, my friends. We aren't going to produce anything of value for the Kingdom of God without putting forth the effort to know him better, grow in the knowledge of his Word, and being in service to him. Just sayin!

A little acid might just do the trick

Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. (Galatians 6:7-8)

We've discussed many times how actions have consequences. We reap one seed and expect some other harvest to come from it. That's just plain silly - a seed is meant to reproduce, but of its 'own kind'. For this very reason, we need to be mindful of the seed we sow. Soil matters, too, for bad soil with good seed is just 'wasted seed'. Good soil and good seed have the potential to produce a 'bumper crop', especially when both are in the hands of God. There are some 'practices' we engage in over and over again that consistently produce good harvests. Things like taking time in his word, worshipping him, and sharing life with others in the faith are never wasted 'seed'. They also serve to keep the 'soil' of our hearts in tip-top condition.

It is never 'fruitless' to engage in activities that help us to grow or that create an environment that actually assists others to grow. We cannot overestimate the value of what we could label as 'spiritual actions' that God commands us to take. In other words, when God says something, we are to act upon it because those actions either prepare the soil or they are the seed that will produce much fruit within our lives. The more we resist these 'actions', the poorer the condition of our heart's soil will become. I live in Arizona and the caliche soil here makes it very difficult to plant fruit-bearing plants or trees. The soil has to go through a lot of 'amendment' or 'conditioning' before it is ready for the plant. In much the same way, the soil of our heart needs 'amending' or 'conditioning' in order to receive the seed.

The 'calcium carbonate' in our soil here actually a good thing in small quantities. It is the effect it has on the silt, sand, gravel and clay in our soil that isn't all that good. It actually works to 'bind' all those together, making the soil rather 'solid' and impenetrable. We have to acidify the soil, add things like mulch, and then work to break it up in order to plant things. Sometimes there is a little 'acid' needed in order to break up the hardness of our heart's soil. Don't be surprised when God goes after 'solidified' areas of your heart - he is doing it because the seed stands no chance until he does! Just sayin...

Until then...

Thomas Fuller reminds us, "In fair weather prepare for foul." We prepare for a life with Christ in eternity by living a life close to him today. We are preparing for whatever may come our way. In living close to Christ today, we are ensuring whatever storm or battle comes next, we are prepared to face it with his assistance. The closeness we develop with Jesus today is something we can count on to be our firm foundation into every tomorrow. 

So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! (2 Corinthians 5:16-17)

Way too often we evaluate others by what we observe on the surface, not really knowing what has been going on inside of their hearts and minds. We 'see' one thing but have no idea what preparation has been going on deep beneath the surface. I have come to realize the outward change we might expect to see in someone isn't always the first thing we will observe, though. The inward has to change, then the outward begins to follow suit. 

The new comes as a result of Christ's work IN us, not so much his work ON us. The moment we realize that God is at work IN an individual, we are able to encourage them to continue the work of 'preparing' for whatever comes next in their lives. Newness has come, but the old is often shed slower than we might like. God is not disappointed by the speed at which we allow the outward change - he is still at work drawing our hearts and minds close to him. 

Allow the work of today to prepare you for tomorrow. Invite the presence of God and the insight of his Word to invade every space of your new life in Christ - making ALL things new by his touch. The outward will eventually follow the inward work - we must be patient with ourselves and others until it does. Remember, the battle we face tomorrow is won by drawing closer to Jesus today. Just sayin!

Take inventory

It was D.L. Moody who reminded us of 'heaven being a prepared place for a prepared people'. Jesus reminds us, “Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be." (Matthew 6:19-21) Heavenly-minded individuals are living today in preparation for heaven. That may look like one thing to me and another thing to you, but the end result is what matters. Are today's actions in accord with the principles taught in scripture? Did we take time to consider others as Jesus always did? Are we leaving behind goodness and kindness wherever we journey? To prepare here, we stay focused on the actions and attitude of Christ in all we do.

Wherever your treasure is... To understand the 'where', we must first define the 'what'. In other words, if we don't know what we 'treasure', we will never really know 'where' we find our focus. Treasures are simply the things we focus on the most - the things we value the greatest. Our treasure could be things, people, dreams or aspirations, or even something we have lost along the way. If Jesus is our treasure, his principles soon become more than our 'guidance' in life - they give us focus and therefore, they give us direction. Anyone who treasures the direction God gives is soon going to realize anything apart from making Christ first in our focus is just not going to bring us as much pleasure or peace. Prepare today for the place prepared for you tomorrow - this is the principle we have to learn well while here on this earth.

How do we prepare? Take inventory. All of life's greatest 'work' begins with 'taking inventory' of what we have, where we are, and where we need to go. We don't know what we have been given in saying 'yes' to Jesus until we begin to take inventory of those things. Peace replaced worry, hope replaced despair, freedom replaced bondage, love replaced rejection. After we know what we have, we begin to focus on where we are right now. An honest appraisal of the choices we have been making, how we make those choices, and what we have been accomplishing by those choices is important. When we know what we have been given, where we are right now, we are ready for Christ to establish where he wants to take us. Just sayin!