The Kingdom of God starts small.....like a seed.

I have this idea that has been developing from hearing the parables about the mustard seed, the seed planted in the ground in Matthew 13, and also about yeast and dough.
There are two different veins/versions I hear in that passage.
One is that the seed is the Truth of the Kingdom, being planted in me, it starts off as a small seed, but then when time and the secret hidden things happen, it becomes a large Tree in which shade is given the birds, it is a refuge, a mystery, and something that was utterly hidden from people...that the smallest most insignificant things could become the things that are the greatest. This follows the principle of the Kingdom that the small things will shame the wise, the things that are meek will inherit the earth, that the Lord exalts the humble, but brings low the prideful.

Second, the seed of the Kingdom (truths) are like yeast in dough, a little bit of yeast is needed, to work through the dough, and with the right amount of heat, the dough rises to become the bread. Without the yeast, it stays flat and does not become the bread it was meant to become. This can also be compared to being brought to maturity and completeness. A little bit of truth will work throughout all my parts if I allow myself to let it process in me and let it work in me. TIME makes the bread rise...time and the Word, the word is the yeast. I am the dough. I am being made into bread that others can eat and get the truths.

Also, you can see it this way:  I am the Mustard seed that is made into the largest of garden plants so that the birds can perch in my shade. The kingdom is the truth which is like the water, sun, and soil that I am in...and I am the seed, but I am the tree growing that brings the reality of the Kingdom to others by what it's done in me, to transform me from the small dead seed into something truly glorious.
David, Joseph, Moses, Jacob, etc were a lot like this, started off small and then because of what God did in them were like the Mustard tree that was large and able to protect, give refuge, and give comfort to the birds and those around it.
The greatest things seem to always happen over time. When Looking back, you see the process was worth it, but it takes time to unfold...like Joseph becoming ruler of Egypt after he had a dream that he would rule his brothers.
The small things shame the wise and confound them.

Man looks at the outside, but God sees the heart. If I allow the word to shape my life and give the Lord time to do it, I will become like the tree in the garden that grew to great stature and was able to give to others out of the shade, protection, and refuge that was built into it. Like the Giving Tree...fruit and life for others.

The Kingdom is like a small unsuspecting seed, but God knows the inside make up of that seed and he sees the seed as it will be. He calls the things that are not as if they were. A seed is dead and yet when planted, it gives life. this is a profound mystery, that to give life, a seed must first die.

WOW. The kingdom is about dying first, then life happening after we surrender, then the seed can grow in the soil, being watered by God and coming up into the things that he has for us. He causes us to grow, to be strengthened through the wind and weather and things that would only make us stronger so that when we are big, there would be no weakness that would cause us to fall. This is how we grow...we grow slowly, but with persistence, with patience, knowing that what God works in us is eternal and will not be taken or removed from us, this is eternal glory.

1 John 3:1-33

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. ² Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears,^[a] we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. ³ All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, for what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

The Kingdom of God must be valuable and treasured in order to see the harvest and the crop of righteousness. If you didnt' value the small seed, you will never see the big tree, if you do not value the small amount of yeast and the potency of what it can do, you will have flat bread. If you do not see the potential in the seed, you will never have the fruit, the harvest, the big things that come out of seeing into the invisible realm. The seed is the Kingdom, it is about faith. without faith, you will not see the result. Jesus is saying that the Kingdom is great if you see it with faith when it is just a small seed in your life, meaning that the Lord is doing great things with the smallest most insignificant situations, people, etc. When we treasure the potential that the seed brings, then we will see the Kingdom take place in our lives and in others. Without eyes to see the seeds as great things, we will never plant them, and then we will miss out on the Kingdom of God. God uses the small things to confound the wise. He uses the day of small things to bring great things. Things start small in the Kingdom, but they end Big, things in the world have to start big, but they end small. I have to change the way I think. Remember, that the hidden things will be revealed and brought out on display. t he secret things and hidden things and things that are unseen are being brought out with glory and honor. Jesus is bringing out his hidden ones to be the Oak trees of Righteousness, the slow growing trees that are glorious, like Cedars of Lebanon, like the Palm trees in Psalm 92, like the mustard trees, like the redwoods. TIME AND FAITH MAKE THE SEED GROW.

I just made a big change in my daily routine.  I woke up this morning and worked out at the gym for the first time since my weight lifting class from 2005.  It feels so good to move and be active.  Kenda Mullert rocks!
I feel inspired, energized, and more hopeful than I have in months.  The benefits of having someone else help motivate me are so worth paying for. 

I am excited to see what the next few weeks feels like.  Today, my legs feel like Jello, but I'll take that as a great sign of the strength and conditioning that is in my future.

Thank you Jesus for morning Coffee.

KG

Heaven is For Real


I just turned the last page of "Heaven is for Real".  I finished this book in a day and a half and have been thinking non-stop about Heaven.  In reading about Colton's experiences of being in Heaven, I have been more hungry to search the scriptures and learn more about what Jesus really looks like and what Heaven is like.  Todd Burpo, the author and father of Colton, said he found out about a young girl named Akiane, who also at age 4, had a visitation and also saw Heaven.  Her paintings are unbelievably mature for her age.  Whenever Todd saw pictures of Jesus, would ask Colton, "what's wrong with this one?"  When Todd showed Colton Akiane's painting of Jesus (which she completed at age 8), Colton replied, "Dad, this one is right".  

I am struck by this paragraph, "Markers, Daddy...Jesus has markers (nail pierced hands and feet).  And he has brown hair and he has hair on his face," he said, running his tiny palm around on his chin.  I guessed that he didn't know the word beard.  "And his eyes....oh, Dad, his eyes are so pretty!"

"Well, what did God's throne look like?" "It was big, Dad....really, really big, because God is the biggest one there is.  And he really, really loves us, Dad.  You can't belieeeve how much he loves us!"  When he said this, a contrast struck me:  Colton, a little guy, was talking about being so big- but in the next breath, he was talking about love.  

After putting the book down, I am left with the hunger to look into the eyes of Jesus and to discover more about the love that Colton described.  I am also left with the desire to return to simple Childlike Faith.  This book has left me with the realization that Jesus does indeed love children!  Children are pure in heart,"...in Heaven, their angels always see the face of God."  I want to be someone without guile, without an agenda, without fear.  I want to possess an un-self-conscious honesty, the humility to accept reality for what it is even when it is hard.  I want to abandon the pursuit of acquiring knowledge and facts about God in exchange for the simple wonder of learning about Jesus as a child would learn...by being with him, hearing his words, sitting on his lap, and gazing into those beautiful eyes.  

I want to experience Heaven!

Akiane's Jesus

A wise woman told me this yesterday:

"When you look at nature (God), you see time.  Time makes all things beautiful.  Beauty is Love, therefore God is love."

I have decided to surrender to the process.  I can't measure my growth in days or even weeks, sometimes not even in years.  I have to let time work it's magic, the process of being patient and waiting.  I can look back and see the growth if I'm not trying to rush the process.  I've been rushing trying to make the fruit happen and putting pressure on myself to make a million decisions.  I cannot rush any process if I want it to become beautiful.  Like Revekah said, "Time makes all things beautiful."

"The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed...though it is the smallest of all your seeds, when it grows it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree."  Matthew13:31-32

"Who despises the day of small things?"  Zechariah 4:10


Thank you Revekah for sharing life's simple truths with me in a profound way.

"Healing in his Wings"


Malachi 4:2
"But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings.  and you will go out and leap like calves released from the stall."


I am thinking about the healing power of God's wings and thought of another verse about the woman who touched the hem of his garment and was instantly healed.  "If I just reach out and touch his garment, I will be healed."  


I started to review the word "wings" in Hebrew today from a few verses in the OT and discovered that the word wings means the following from Malachi 4:2


Wings:  from Kanaph #3671
Corner, Covering, Edge, Ends, Folds, Garment, Skirts, Winged; Wingspan


Psalm 91 talks about the refuge of resting in the shadow of his wings.  The whole chapter is about the one who finds refuge in God in when enemies are all around.  God says that for the man who rests in his protection, no harm will befall him and no harm will be able to touch him, even though he may see the destruction all around him.  I am greatly encouraged today to realize that the feeling I have of being in a dark place is actually not at all a bad place to be, because God has his wings over my life to bring healing.  His wings are healing, and if I rest under his wings, I am going to be healed and delivered.  When I am under his wings, he is VERY close to me.  I may not be able to see, but I feel him, I am protected, and I am safe.  It's kind of like being in a cocoon; the more you rest (trust), the more you are transformed, so that eventually you emerge a butterfly. 


In this season, God is calling me to Rest and Contentment, but I have not responded to that call in quite the way I should have.  I feel as if I've been wrestling with God and fighting him rather than just receiving what he wants to do in me.  It's been so hard for me to just surrender to love and rest.  In my heart I want to rest, but my soul has tried to work hard to earn and work and strive to get the freedom and healing I want.  All along, God has been trying to give me the easy route, and I've chosen the hard route.  It's like a light bulb went on today and realized that the only thing that can set me free is the Love of God, and his love his found in his wings through rest and trust. 


I had two pictures today that describe what seems to be going on:  


One is that I feel like I'm in Noah's ark, a dark place, a waiting place, with no view of what is going on outside.  Yet, God is with me and is changing the land as I wait in the ark, trusting he is in control.  There will be a time in which the suddenlies happen and the healing comes quickly...the breakthrough that I'm looking for in which he leads me out into a new land filled with his promises.  


The second picture was one of a bunker.  A bunker is for safety in warfare.  According to wikipedia, "A military bunker is a hardened shelter, often buried partly or fully underground, designed to protect the inhabitants from falling bombs or other attacks."  


Zechariah 9:12 "Return to your fortress, O Prisoners of Hope; even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you."  God promises that when we rest in the fortress...aka, his wings, shelter, etc, He will fight for us and deliver us!  He will restore us and even give us a double portion!


I feel as God calls all of us in seasons to rest and wait under the protection of his wings.  God is saying that even in the attacks and warfare that there is rest and security if we are willing to wait in his dwelling.   We may not be able to see what's going on outside, or understand the circumstances, but there is a time in which He will make all things new.   


So, the lesson for me today is learning to rest content and to wait for him to move on my behalf, "But I have stilled and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child with its mother is my soul within me" Psalm 130:2.  I learn to wait, even in darkness, when I don't know where he is leading me or understand what's happening around me.  "Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God."  Isaiah 50:10


So many verses come to mind, but this one sums it up well:  "Though I look for him, I do not find him, but he knows the way I take and when he has tested me, I will come forth like gold".