Friday 18 May 2012

Seeds







There is someone that is near and dear to me that is approaching her final days in her mortality. When I visited with her recently, I was reading 1 Corinthians and when I got to the above passage, the words it spoke rang out to me so clearly.

This body is only a dying shell, the hull for something the Lord is doing inside of us while we are yet here. It is the outer chrysalis that the caterpillar is being transformed into something different, away from fleshy eyes, that can only be viewed with “the eyes of the spirit” (those who have eyes to see). I often forget that, and place so much importance on the things that are dust and vanishing away.

Verse 37: When you sow (a seed) you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38 But God gives it a body as He has determined, and to each kind of seed He gives its own body.

Just like a butterfly looks nothing like the caterpillar that was before that miraculous transformation, so we too will be nothing like our former selves, which will have died literally and completely. The resurrection body will be a complete redo, not just a makeover. The whole thing will be torn down, and something new will be made with all new materials. The Spirit seed that was planted inside this dying hull will be what causes the transformation.

Verse 58: Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

I remember being very young, looking at a Dutch magazine. There were 9 pictures (very nicely done artworks) of a little girl planting a seed into a terracotta pot filled with rich black earth in the first picture. The next 7 pictures show the child intently gazing at the pot for any sign of growth, and with each succeeding picture she seems to grow more frustrated and impatient, until in the final picture she has dug up the seed, dirt is all over the counter, and the young lady is holding the seed between her dirty thumb and forefinger, examining it for any sign of growth.

That's me.

I am so impatient in regards to my own and other people's spiritual condition, and have an unnecessary impulse to look for any sign of growth or change. God is doing something, He promised He would. It is something that defies our earthly understanding and impulses. It is miraculous and wonderful. It is something I want to see right now, but “digging up the seed” only retards the process. I have to trust, and rest, and rely on Jesus, and know that He will keep all of His promises IN HIS TIME, and all my trying to see how and why and when only causes me to take my gaze off of the WHO.

 Jesus.

He is sufficient, and the rest He has promised to already have taken care of, and will be revealed in His time.

(The verses in this post have all been from the NIV version. It isn't my favorite version, but it is the version of my study Bible that I got when I worked at a Bible bookstore.... and I'll emphasize again that although it isn't my favorite version, this passage seems to come alive for me much more in the NIV than the KJV does.)

8 comments:

  1. This is beautiful, and you're right, it compliments today's post over at TGS. I really like verse 58. Our labor in the Lord is not in vain. Very comforting, except, I wonder how much of our 'hard' work is in vain because we tried to impress God (or really others and ourselves) instead of trusting and obeying Him. Blessings!

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    1. Even when done for the wrong reasons, I take comfort in Romans 8:28, that God can make all things good (even the bad things, or things that were done for all the wrong reasons). I don't think we are ever going to get it right, but we can certainly do our best and commit our labors to the Lord who can make alot out of a little (like He did with the loaves and fishes), but there are definitely added blessings for trusting the Lord and what HE will do. In this world too much emphasis is on what we need to do, and little to none on what Jesus has done, is doing, and will do in the future...it's all about "me" or "us" or "money", ugh.

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  2. Hi Susan, You have shared that you are watching a loved one decline, live out their last chapter, I too am there with my beloved mother. It is tempting to me to wish the process to be finished when I am fatigued with serving her, but then I am brought up with an intense sorrow and fear to lose her at the same time.

    It is truly trying my faith and causing me to
    grow up and accept my mortality to see those loved ones pass on to eternity out of this tedious and trying world full of joys and tears, ups and downs, fears and laughters. I pray for us both to keep our eyes upon Jesus. :)

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    1. Hi Muse,

      I've been thinking about that scene in which Jesus heals the little girl. Before He heals her He rebukes the mourners. I've heard it preached that He rebuked them because in those days they had professional mourners who could wail up a storm... but maybe that wasn't so much the case as Him providing a reminder that all are going to go to a much better place when they die so why all the grieving when there should be rejoicing? In all these things I keep trying to seek the Lord about it. I know we are(she is) is going to a better place, so it's all going to be just fine, so I need to seek and find that place of peace with Him about it, and about everything that causes me angst. Our God is a good God, and He keeps all of His promises. :)

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  3. I really like the image of digging up the seed and looking for growth before it's time. I know I tend to be impatient, too. All flesh is grass...if it is clothed today and then tomorrow thrown in the fire how much more will He clothe us....really clothe us.

    Mortality will put on immorality and corruption incorruption. We have wonderful promises!

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    1. So true, Ma, we have exceedingly wonderful promises! :D

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  4. a beautiful post with so much to think about...
    thank God I am a Christian!

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    1. Hello Annmarie,

      Thank you, so true! "Thank God I am a Christian! "

      I had a dream once in which I had to take a test, and there was only one question: "Who is the One who saves you?" and I was relieved to know the answer: "JESUS" and so I passed the evaluation :D I told my best friend that I know the answer because HE gave it to me, so the test is kinda rigged :) and he said: "True, but some people don't want to believe that, He does provide the correct answer available for anyone to find"....true, some (many) deliberately reject the correct answer. Sad, eh? They bite off their own noses to spite their faces.

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