Posted on Sep 7, 2020 in Devotional | Tags: 2 Timothy 2:1-7, athelete, athlete, devotion, faith, farmer, gospel, Jesus, plant, race, running, seed, soldier, water, witness, word
The Farmer Part 2
Planting the Seed
Once a man has had the soil of his heart tilled by the revelation of God’s truth, he ready for the seed of faith to be planted. Seeding (or Sowing) is a matter of having the courage to sow in the first place. Many Christians are content in their lives, and uncomfortable with the task of sowing. They may find a freshly ploughed field ready, for the introduction of God’s mercy, grace, and forgiveness, yet they will not reach into their bag of seed to plant.
I have found those who have an aversion to planting in others usually lack seed themselves! Christ called us to preach and make disciples. It was his final commandment! Yet when faced with this, many are content to shrug their shoulders and carry on. They are content with their mustard seed, why share?
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Posted on Sep 1, 2020 in Devotional | Tags: 2 Timothy 2:1-7, army of God, blog, devotion, Jesus, marhing, serve, service, suffering, victory
The Soldier
Marching
The Roman soldier was called a legionary. He was typically armed with a sword called a gladius and a shield called a scutum. All of his equipment together weight approximately 45 pounds. Discipline was the order of the day resulting in hours of arduous drills. A legionary could walk up to 20 miles a day in full equipment. He was molded with others in his cohort to be a well oiled machine totally in step with his unit knowing his place in the operation.
This seemingly simple task of marching was the first step for a roman soldier. Before being trained in combat, you first had to learn to march in step with your unit fully equipped. When Paul is commanding endurance, he uses the soldier as his example, and it becomes abundantly clear why. As the soldier marches in step, we are also to keep in step with the Spirit (
Gal. 5:16-25) as He is our spiritual commander.
This leads us to the next point, we need to focus on the commander’s cadence.
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Posted on Apr 20, 2019 in Devotional | Tags: God, Jesus, Matthew 16, Messiah, Savior, Who is Jesus
If Christ was not a liar or a lunatic, then He has to be what He said He was; God. There is no middle ground in this discussion. He could not have been merely a good teacher or prophet because He claimed to be God. If He was lying then He was a horrible person who was merely searching for a following and influence. These are not the earmarks of a good teacher or prophet. Read more…
Posted on Apr 20, 2019 in Devotional | Tags: God, Jesus, liar, lunatic, Messiah, Savior, Who is Jesus
We established in our last entry that Christ could not have been merely a liar. He obviously didn’t claim to be God to avoid trouble and He chose the wrong people to go to if He was looking for power and notoriety. In addition, He had to truly believe that His claims were true in order to suffer the many atrocities that were committed against Him. Remember that no where in recorded history does He ever once reveal that He was a fraud. This includes sources outside the four Gospels, most notably Flavius Josephus who wrote: Read more…
Posted on Apr 20, 2019 in Devotional | Tags: God, Jesus, Lamb of God, liar, lunatic, Mark 14, Matthew 26, Messiah, Savior, Who is Jesus
In the last entry we looked at how the claims of Jesus, that He was God, polarized those who heard Him teach. They either worshiped and accepted Him or completely rejected Him. In addition, we briefly looked at the foundation of Josh McDowell’s book “More Than a Carpenter” that states Christ was a liar, lunatic, or God. In this entry we will look at the first possibility; was Christ a liar? Read more…
