Matthew 13:23 But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”
There was a mailman, John Hand, who rode his mail truck through Los Altos Hills of California on his 50-mile route each day. The route was plain, all brown, and virtually no color. One day he began to throw wildflower seeds out of the window as he drove. Today, if you travel his route in the Los Altos Hills you’ll find beautiful patches of flowers throughout, blossoming in many colors.
We all travel different roads. Sadly, many of us miss wonderful opportunities to change and bring added beauty to our landscapes. In our families, at our jobs, in the world around us, God has given us opportunities to color those landscapes! It’s far easier for us to complain and resign ourselves to settling for those landscapes than it is to be the catalysts of change. From this point on, let’s resolve to stop complaining about the lifelessness around us and do something about it! God has given us the power and anointing to change those landscapes!
Let’s start sowing the seeds of the Gospel, the seeds of salvation and new life. Let’s sow the seeds of love, joy, righteousness, and all the tasty fruits of the Spirit. As we sow them throughout our daily lives, those dull, dry landscapes will begin blossom into something beautiful and we, like that mailman, John Hand, will be remembered as the ones who sowed those seeds.
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]Peter exhibited GREAT faith when he stepped out on the water... but then he allowed his immediate surroundings to hinder his walk! Peter's faith began with a tremendous bold step, but it required a level of focus that he wasn't used to. Follow through.... that was the problem; those pesky waves, and the way he usually thought about and experienced water; (not something that generally supports your feet)...
I read this passage and I wonder how I would react if someone mixed their saliva with some dirt on the ground and put it on my face like this. Ewww! Why didn't Jesus just heal this guy and be done with it? Why the messy prelude?
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