A Growing Tree - Essay

Another parable put He forth before them, saying, “The Kingdom of Heaven

is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, which indeed is the least of all seeds; but when it is grown it is the greatest among herbs and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and

lodge in the branches thereof,” (Matthew 13:31-33 KJV).

The Kingdom of Heaven is beautiful because her king is good and kind.  Our God is quick to forgive.  He is a loving father who welcomes us with open arms when we come to him. He is a mother hen who gathers her people under the shelter of her wings. Not only do we trust in the omniscient and omnipotent goodness of our Lord, but we also rejoice in his victory.  We know that that the meek shall inherit the earth.  We know that his will will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We know that “he will cause justice to be victorious.And his name will be the hope of all the world,” (Matthew 12:19-21 NLT).

I collect flower seeds, especially zinnias. For the last 3 years, I note which of my zinnias have the biggest and prettiest flowers (I prefer soft gold, deep orange, pink, and violet), I wait till the flower heads are fully dead and dry, then I gather them to save for the following spring.  From fifty or so flowers that I save, I have hundreds if not thousands of seeds. There are zinnias everywhere in my garden: among my vegetables, at my entrance, in pots, in any empty corner. The zinnias have also invaded my daughters’ gardens and some of my friends. In this abundance I remember Jesus’ parable: “the seeds that fell on the good soil represent honest, good-hearted people who hear God’s word, cling to it, and patiently produce a huge harvest,” (Luke 8:15 NLT). What is our harvest? Souls for Christ  and the spreading of the Kingdom of Heaven.  Some of my zinnias produce bad seed. Nothing sprouts from them. Only the good seed multiply and spread in God’s kingdom.

The kingdom of heaven is organic, natural, it grows slowly and steadily.  If the tree produce a wild branch that is not true to its origin, it is chopped off and burned.  The Lord created this whole earth. He reveals himself in nature. Our love of creation is also a love of the creator. In The Book of Revelations, The 24 Elders in heaven who sit on their thrones before God say:

“We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty,

   the One who is and who was,

because you have taken your great power

   and have begun to reign.

The nations were angry,

   and your wrath has come.

The time has come for judging the dead,

   and for rewarding your servants the prophets

and your people who revere your name,

   both great and small—

and for destroying those who destroy the earth,” (Revelations 11:17-19).

The earth is the Lords’. Woe to those who destroy her!  

His followers are also promised a new heaven and a new earth. Everything will be renewed. Paradise will be restored. All of God’s creation and creatures will once again live in harmony. Pollution, greed, cruelty will be none existent.

So what is the problem? Why do people rebel against Eden?

We rebel against having a Lord & King.  We want to be God of our own lives. We do not like seeing ourselves as sinners in need of a savior. We justify our sin and think it part of our personality. When actually sin separates us from God and enslaves us.  We are so sick with sin that we need a holy, perfect, and just man to die for our redemption.

We are also products of our culture. We live comfortable lives in an entertainment soaked world. It is easier to go along with the flow. We choose “free love.” We choose relative morality; we choose “to spend my time having fun because I felt that there was nothing better in all the earth than that a man should eat, drink, and be merry, with the hope that this happiness would stick with him in all the hard work that God gives to mankind everywhere,” (Ecclesiastes 8”14-16 NLT).

However Jesus says  “Heaven can be entered only through the narrow gate! The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide enough for all the multitudes who choose its easy way.  But the Gateway to Life is small, and the road is narrow, and only a few ever find it,” (Matthew 7:12-14).

Seek and find the small Gateway. Seek and find the Gateway to heaven.  Taste the fruit from the Tree of Life and see that the Lord is good. Read the Book of Matthew for yourselves. Then read the Book of Acts which records the deeds of the early church. Find a Godly Christian and ask your questions. Or find a church which is vibrant and filled with friendly people. Enter the community of faith and follow Jesus. The church is filled with sin sick people who have asked the Lord to cleanse them from all sin and to clothe them with the righteousness that only comes from a Holy God.

Glory to His Name.

Ancient Paths - Poem

“Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths,

where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your

souls,” (Jeremiah 6:16 ESV).

To find the ancient ways we must look with more than our eyes. We must turn to guidance from those who still remember..  Who remember the God of the Decalogue: the God who spoke from heaven; Yahweah is his name. The Lord God Almighty.  

To remember the ancient paths, we must turn off the tv and open up the Holy Book, the ancient book, The Word of God. He still speaks today. Yahweah is his name.

We must remember that we are dust, and he is the One who breathed into us; who gave us life; who gave us his word. He who demands our acknowledgement of him, our gratefulness, our obedience.  He is not silent.  

We are commanded to bow before him and not to any other gods. To no one else to do we give our obeisance.

To rewrite the laws of God to curve around our pressing need… our creeping sin… to exchange our worship for him with something that is created… is a graven image sin. A death warrant, stoning sin. A diabolical deceiving sin which wraps around us suffocating, stealing, the breath of life from our very heart and lungs…

Yahweah you alone are great! You alone are worthy to be praised.  You alone are worthy to be named King and Creator.  Yah there is no other god before you.

Thank you for this revelation.
Thank you for calling me to know you.

Thank you for leading me in your ways, for teaching me your truth, for claiming me as your own, for never letting go. For bringing me back to you when my fickle heart strays, for chastising me, for comforting me, for warning me, for rewarding me with your Holy Presence and your Holy Spirit, and with more knowledge of your ancient paths that I may follow you all of the days that you have given me on this dry and weary land, on this lonely dusty road, on this narrow narrow way.  Thank you.

“   when the Lord Jesus appears from heaven. He will come with

his mighty angels, in flaming fire, bringing judgment on those

who don’t know God and on those who refuse to obey the Good

News of our Lord Jesus, (2 Thessalonians 1:7-7 NLT).

The Age of Accountability & The Hardening of the Heart - Essay

The Age of Accountability & The Hardening of the Heart

Since Yahweh “chose us in him before the foundation of the world,” all of our sins will be and are covered by the shed blood of Jesus Christ. So at what age then, did I become accountable for my sins?

When I was young (15-21?) and seeking adventure, I didn’t know what sin was or that I was even a sinner.  Yet even then, I could feel the father’s calling on my life (this began when I was 9).  I prayed to Him, and he would answer me. I often felt him watching over and protecting me.  However, I listened more diligently to the world, the flesh, and the devil getting myself into many bad situations. Until at 24, I became convicted of my sin and realized my need for a savior. I repented for my unbelief and rebellion, became a believer, and was baptized.

Now at 59,  I sin differently but not less grievously than before I became a follower of Christ.  All sin separates us from a holy and pure God. Now I hate sin: I see it's relentless, corrosive, death inducing affect on all creation and her creatures.  So when I fall short of the glory of God, I try to quickly confess and ask forgiveness.

Christians often speak of “an age of accountability” when youth become responsible for their sin.  Supposedly at this point, there is no longer the child’s assurance of salvation. When did I become accountable for my sin? At 13, I became interested in spiritual things (mostly eastern religions). I remember picking up a bible at a hotel my family was staying and trying to read it.  It was like reading a brick wall; it made no sense to me.  Once I became saved at 24, I couldn’t read and study God’s Word enough. Could not the Lord have opened my eyes to his Word when I was 13? Why did he allow me 11 more years to experiment with eastern religions, the new age movement, drugs, sexual immorality, and have 2 children born out of wedlock who have truly suffered for my sins? I was not particularly rebellious at 13. My heart was not hard, on the contrary. My father passed away of lung cancer when I was 12. I was sensitive, open, and grieving. On vacation, I met this long haired philosopher with his model pretty wife on a fishing deck at Gulf shores. He spoke to me of mystical meditative experiences, and I was hooked. Perhaps if I had met some Christians, all would be different.

 I feel like I became more accountable and knowledgeable of my sin, my resistance, and my rebellion against a holy God after I became a Christian. Fortunately we also receive a new heart when we are born again: a heart that wants to please God. God touches our hearts and gives us a desire for him.  Yahweh sees all my sin from the lusts of my youth to the unpleasant attitudes of my middle years. I am at once accountable for all of them and freed from all of them by God's grace and Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.  

There comes a time in our lives that when we reject the Lordship of Christ ("for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" Romans 3:23), and we become more accountable for our sins.  If this refusal continues throughout adulthood,  “The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day,”  (John 12:48).  This hardening of a heart could happen at any age, but the main reason that “little children” enter the kingdom of God is their soft and open hearts.  In my opinion, each individual has to make some explicit refusal or rejection of God or his ordained authority to become accountable.  Not in the unthinking manner of a two year old beating the floor because s/he didn’t get a cookie before dinner, but in the deliberate and calculated manner of a reasoning adult.    This rejection can happen in a number of ways: We steal something we know we shouldn’t take, and we know it is against the law. We are cruel to someone more vulnerable than ourselves, even though our heart condemns us, we continue. We deliberately refuse to obey a righteous rule given to us by our parents for our own protection, despite knowing the unpleasant consequences of rebellion.

There is only one unforgivably sin: denying the sacrifice and Lordship of Jesus Christ to our dying day. That is a hardened heart. Before that there are degrees of rebellion and hardening that only the Lord understands, so we can’t judge another’s person’s heart.  Who in the early church would have believed that Saul would become one of the greatest apostles of the church? From their position, it probably looked like his heart was permanently hardened.  We need to examine our own hearts before the Lord, and then “let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water,” (Hebrews 10:22).  The Love of God is the greatest prevention against the love of sin.

When Don't the Highly Educated Believe in Evolution: the Bible Believers Effect. - News Link

When Don't the Highly Educated Believe in Evolution? the Bible Believers Effect: Among Those Who Believe the Bible Is the Word of God, Those with More Formal Education Are Less Likely to Believe in Human Evolution Than Those with Less Education | 

I knew I wasn't the only one.
A Jewish atheist friend of mine was trying to talk me into going to a Unity or Unitarian church (I don't remember which - I just knew either one was not for me.) a few years ago telling me there were so many smart and educated people who attended. I realized later that she assumed most of the people I went to church with were uneducated buffoons who had somehow bamboozled me.  In fact, in the bible believing churches I have been a part of, people come from many backgrounds. However many of my fellow worshipers are teachers, college instructors, nurses, doctors, successful business people and others with advanced degrees. And guess what, we believe that God created the heavens and the earth and most of us believe it only took six days (he rested on the seventh).

The Skeptical Inquirer article examines why the higher the educational attainment, the less likely Christians believe in evolution and global warming.*  They scratch their heads a bit and attribute the results of this survey came because educated Christians are over confident and have a heightened need for intellectual consistency.  I would guess that most Creationist Christian have probably studied in depth the claims for evolution more than their non-believing counterparts.

*General Social Survey

The Real Mystery - Poem

The Real Mystery

     The real mystery is this: the love we bear for the savior. We have not touched him, yet we have felt his touch; we have not seen, yet we behold. He is our shepherd; we are his sheep. He calls - we follow: often not well or even willingly, yet we are compelled. We can do no other.

     The world scorns and denies him. We see him beautiful - holy. He has breathed on us; we are love sick for this risen God with sin pierced hands. He beckons; we follow. We swallow up his flesh and blood. We long for him to sing his songs over us. We drink the water that he offers. We share communion with our sisters and our brothers: all the other lovers of this Lord of All.

Valerie Horner

April 13, 2015