Monday, November 30

Jesus Story Teller - Part 5

Intro:
Dog in Raybans: The galaxy is here!

Agent K: What do you mean ''here''? Galaxy's millions of stars and planets. How's it here?

Dog in Raybans: You humans! When will you learn size doesn't matter? Just because something's important, doesn't mean it's not very small.

Agent K: How small?

Dog in Raybans: Tiny. Like a marble or a jewel. If you'll excuse me, I gotta be walked before my flight.

Wisdom from a Dog in Raybans!

Read:
Matthew 13:31-33

31 He told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. 32 Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches."

33 He told them still another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough."

Think:
Just because something is important doesn't mean it is not very small! Jesus, the story teller, reminds us that the Kingdom of heaven is something that might well begin very small. How small? Well, small enough to be easily overlooked.

Sometimes the smallest things can have a greatest impact.

We might say that a car key is small compared to the Porsche 911 it starts ... but the power it creates cannot be ignored. A mustard seed may be small but the end result isn't. Yeast may be small but it is the catalyst that works its way throughout and makes dough rise.

Sometimes the smallest things can have a greatest impact.

The kingdom of God could be easily overlooked, misunderstood or maligned but it is a powerful thing in our human story. How do you measure the impact of a seed that goes into the ground and dies? You measure it by what comes up from the ground later.

So, how do you measure the impact of the Seed that was ignored, spat upon, mocked, rejected, murdered and put into the ground? You measure it by what comes up out of the ground 3 days later!!! You measure it by the impact that Life has on all the other lives it touches!

Sometimes the smallest things can have a greatest impact.

Think of how it started in your life. It started with accepting Christ as Savior. It grew by allowing Him to operate as Lord. He moved with grace from one untidy room in our lives to the next. Like a skillful surgeon He cuts and cleans and heals. Relentless. This Kingdom that started out as an invitation to salvation is pretty invasive!

Think of what God wants to do with our lives. Jesus seeks to work His kingdom into our world through us. That is a pretty overwhelming task. Fortunately it only takes a mustard seed and dying to ourselves ... He does the rest! Are you qualified for this task? No ... but God is in the business of using the weak and the "nobodies".
While Jews clamor for miraculous demonstrations and Greeks go in for philosophical wisdom, we go right on proclaiming Christ, the Crucified. Jews treat this like an anti-miracle—and Greeks pass it off as absurd. But to us who are personally called by God himself—both Jews and Greeks—Christ is God's ultimate miracle and wisdom all wrapped up in one. Human wisdom is so tinny, so impotent, next to the seeming absurdity of God. Human strength can't begin to compete with God's "weakness."

Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don't see many of "the brightest and the best" among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn't it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose these "nobodies" to expose the hollow pretensions of the "somebodies"? That makes it quite clear that none of you can get by with blowing your own horn before God. Everything that we have—right thinking and right living, a clean slate and a fresh start—comes from God by way of Jesus Christ. That's why we have the saying, "If you're going to blow a horn, blow a trumpet for God.

1 Corinthians 1:22-31 from The Message
Sometimes the smallest things can have a greatest impact.

Do
:
How encouraging to know that God uses weaklings and nobodies. How encouraging to know that God can take the smallest seed of trust and work His Kingdom into our lives and the lives of those around us. It isn’t about us … never has been … never will be. This is about God and His Kingdom.

Remember what we pray, “Thy Kingdom come”? There’s a reason for that. Maybe another prayer could be: “Lord I believe, help my unbelief. Take what little faith I have and do amazing things with it. I will die to myself that you might live through me. Expand your Kingdom through my life today. Amen ”

DevoLink: Devotions to help you Link with God.

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