Thursday, November 17, 2011

Hitch Up That Mule and Plow

I am a country boy...
Or at least I use to be.
I am a community boy er....man now.
But when I lived at home, plowing, planting and growing our own food was part of the daily grind.
It was hard work, but the meals my Momma would fix (that's prepare to those not from the South) were incredible.
Fresh green beans....
Onions and tomatoes....
Fried Potatoes....
Peppers....
Okra and Squash....
Them's some good vittle's (translated: good food).
It was no surprise that if we planted beans, when the time came, we'd pick beans.
We never planted one thing and harvested another. Just didn't work that way.

Funny how that works out.
I came across this verse while doing my study this morning.
Job 4:8 -  As I have observed, those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it
In other words, our actions produced results.
Those results, good or bad, or determined by the choices we've made.

If I want to live outside the will of God........I can do that.
But I need to fully understand that the bad consequences that come to me are not the result of God punishing me nor are they an attack from the devil. I am simply harvesting what I planted.
You cannot sow sin and hope to reap righteousness.
You cannot sow from the flesh and hope to reap from the spirit.
I come in contact with a lot of people who haven't quite latched on to this thought before.
They are living with another person, outside of marriage.
They have a sexual history with this person.
They show no signs of a relationship with Jesus.
Yet they talk about God.............
They talk about church......
They have all the trappings of Christianity, yet show no evidence of an actual, on going relationship with Jesus.
They are mad because life is miserable...
They aren't seeing any blessing from God....
They don't understand that because of the sin they are plowing, without confession and repentance which should lead to being saved, all they will every harvest is misery and pain...guilt and shame....

Hosea 10:12 reads: Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up the unplowed ground. For it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers righteousness on you.
So what are sowing and reaping today?
Destruction because of sin...
Or righteousness because of salvation?

God on you....

mb

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