Seed for Sept 29

The Prodigal son was a story told by the Lord that was full of hidden meanings as well as the meaning found on the surface. If you remember the father had 2 sons and an inheritance. The younger wanted his inheritance now (unwilling to wait for blessing). So the father gave the younger his part and he left for "party town." After spending it all, he found himself feeding pigs (the lowest unclean animal viewed by the Jews), and thought to feed himself with the pig's food. Then youngest son remembered even the servants faired better than his own situation so he decided to go home and be a slave. His father saw him coming a long way off (the Lord is always watching for His to come home), and ran to meet him. The young son repented and they kissed and embraced. The father ordered a fatted calf killed for the son and a celebration made. He also ordered a robe (righteousness), a ring (authority) and sandals (peace) for his son and returned him to the station of son and not slave. The older brother became jealous, because it was too easy for the younger to return with no punishment (grace). This story relates to us God's attitude toward us if we will just repent and return to Him. The best news is, it is freely given and God is watching for our return.

Seed for Sept 26

I guess everyone at one time or another has wished Adam and Eve had not messed up. Wouldn't it be wonderful to live in Paradise forever? Well Adam and Eve had 2 trees, or 2 choices in the garden, Life and Death. We face the exact same 2 choices in our lives, that being Life and Death. Jesus alone has immortality and he that has the Son has life and he that has not the Son has not life. I John 5:12. There is no in between, you either have Life or you have death. That is why the Word of God says to examine yourself to see if you be in the faith. He that has Life will live forever in Paradise. He that has no Life in Him (Jesus) will die. Why will you die? Why not come to Jesus and live? He is the Tree of Life, by living of Him you live forever.

Seed for Sept 25

We wear the Righteousness of God. It is our robe that the Father gave us to wear. It is not something that we earned. Nor is it something that we deserve. As we are like the prodigal who came home and immediately his father prepared a feast, robed him, but sandals on him and a ring on his finger. What did the prodigal deserve? In his own mind, the lowest position of slave, but to his father complete restoration! What a testimony that when our God forgives He restores us! Wow! Now that is grace. Why don't we preach about that!

Seed for Sept 24

Jesus told us to remember Lot's wife, who looking back toward Sodom (her home) she was turned into a pillar of salt. "Looking back" could mean a lot of things, but to me it meant that her heart was there still in that land of Sodom. Her body has left Sodom but her heart longed to return. We have to be careful to not look back at our past life, and long to be back there. Remember Lot's wife. What we left behind in our "BC" days is exactly that, buried and past and forgotten. The Enemy wants us to remember, and feel as though we have not been forgiven, but he is a liar and the father of lies. Having put our hands to the plow (the work of God) let us not look back, but as Paul said, "Forgetting those things behind, I press forward...." We are a new creation and all things have become new. Our past is just that, gone and forgotten, all under the blood. Arise to walk in newness of life.

Seed for Sept 23

Heb 11:13-1613 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own.15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.16 Instead, they were longing for a better country-- a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.(NIV)

This passage is about the Hall of Fame of the Faithful. The point today is the verse saying "if they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return." This is speaking to us spiritually, and talking about the life we left before we knew the Lord. I call them my "BC" (before Christ) days. If I were to spend all my time talking and thinking about the past life of sin I left behind, I would have opportunity to return to that past life.

Ever hear people, who claim to be converted, yet spend all their talking time about their past bad life? They are "mindful" of the country they left and it will not be long until they are longing to return like a fool to his folly.

We have a new hope, and a new mind, and have become a new creation. We may remember out past, but God does not! He will never remember it against us again, so it is best if we forget. Paul said it best, "Forgetting those things that are behind, I press on..."

Remember you are what you think about all the time. Let this same mind be in you that was in Christ.

Seed for Sept 19

Prov 18:2121 The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.(NIV)

What a mighty tool we each possess. The Bible says that from our hearts our mouth speaks. There is a true proverb (though not Bible) that says the tongue has long root that reach to the heart.

Every one of us has the ability to speak life into someone else. We have the Words of Life resident in us. The Bible declared that grace was poured from His lips. That same grace (undeserved unmerited favor) should be poured forth from our lips. The World is hungry to hear some words of life. The World is ready to hear someone speak life into their spirits. There was a valley of dry bones and the Lord asked, "Can these bones live?" The prophet answered, " You know Lord." Then the Lord said, "Speak to these bones." The power of life and death is in our tongues, so speak life and grace and blessings to those that hear you.

Seed for Sept 18

What is the most honorable thing that can be said about a man? "He is a man of his word." In other words what ever he says you can trust to be true. That is exactly what our God is to us. He is a God of His Word. He can never lie or fail. We can take His Word to the bank! Our now, future and eternity hangs on ..."thus says the Lord." Without being able to trust God's Word we would have nothing but sinking sand for our hope. Ever stood on the beach while the water erodes the sand around your feet? Not so with our God. For our feet are firmly placed upon the Rock of His Word. I know in whom I have believed that every word He has spoken will come to pass. The enemy wants you to doubt even one verse, and thus start the eroding of your faith. Don't be tricked, doubting God is a slippery slope.

Seed for Sept 17

He is the Vine and we are the branches. Another way to say and understand that verse is that He is the tree trunk and we are the branches, since we have not spent much time around grape vines. He is the stock and we draw our life from the Source the root thru the vine/trunk. An amazing thing is that we can take a orange tree and graft a branch into the trunk and produce grapefruits off the same tree that produces oranges!

That brings me to the thought of the day. Jesus is the main Vine/trunk and we are grafted in to him, as the wild olive branch the Word says. We are to take our nourishment from the root (God) and produce fruit to Him. Unfortunately we have been able to graft our denominations into the true Vine and produce our denominations over and over again, when God's plan was to produce Jesus. We have a Vine/trunk that was to be full of branches of Jesus, and somehow it is full of Baptist, Methodist, Lutherans, etc. How did that happen?

Seed for Sept 16

"Let your conversation always be seasoned with salt that it might Minister grace to the hearers." That is what the Word has to say about how we speak. If you listen to people thru the day, you will surely hear another form of conversation. Our speech as Christians should give grace to the hearer. We should be the source of undeserved and unmerited favor from our mouths. We need to be self-aware of what we minister to others as we speak. Do we speak life, peace, love, joy, hope, patience, kindness, gentleness? Against these things the Bible says there is not "Law" prohibiting. But the works of the flesh are opposite and contrary to the Spirit. Are we led of the Spirit? Does our conversation (speech and lifestyle) minister life and love? Ask the Lord to allow us to hear what He hears. For out of the mouth the heart speaks. Be blessed.

Seed for Sept 15

Ps 103:10-1210 he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him;12 as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.(NIV)

We do not receive what we deserve, we are not paid our just reward. But He has given us what we did not deserve, instead of guilt and condemnation, He gives loving kindness and tender mercies.

Seeing how the Lord has dealt with us, what manner of men we should be to others? We should show forth the love of God that is within in us. All that is of God is resident in His seed and that seed was planted in us, to produce Him. We are admonished to "grow up into Him." Instead of judgment we got mercy. Instead of condemnation we got forgiveness. Instead of conviction we were declared "not guilty"! Now freely we have received, let's freely give to others what they do not deserve, and let them see and know the living God living in us.

Seed for Sept 14

The Lord will provide: Jehovah provider.

Samaria faced 3 1/2 yrs of drought. No rain on the land meant no food crops, and many began to die. We all face droughts in life. There are times in our lives when prosperity or spirituality seems to run dry. This will be the testing of our faith, and God's faithfulness.

Elijah was God's man. He symbolizes every believer. Elijah was in the midst of the drought same as everyone else. God's people are not immune from the test of life. But the beauty of the story is how God provided for His people in the "lean" season. God told Elijah go and say beside a brook (living water). It is important to note that the drier the season becomes the closer to God we need to stay. Since God never changes position, it us up to us to move nearer to Him. Here comes the miracle, ready? God has ravens bring Elijah meat from the king's table. King Ahab, was Elijah's mortal enemy. Is God limited in the ways that He can feed us in the lean years? No! You may not like the "delivery system" (big black birds), yet God offers to us His plan of provisions. Can you imagine God's divine provision coming from our greatest enemy? The Lord provides! Are we going to complain against God's way? Or marvel that we eat and live and are watered by God's unseen hand?

Seed for Sept 12

Abraham found Him to be the God that provides, when there was a ram caught in the thicket for an offering. Israel found Him to be the God that provides when they were fed with manna for 40 yrs and their clothes did not wear out!

I have found Him a God that provides for over 30 yrs and always being self-employed, we have never gone hungry! He has been more than wonderful to me and mine. Even if there were no resurrection, I would still serve Him, because He cares for me.

Don't think there is anything to hard for Him, He parted the Red Sea. Don't ever think there is not a great concern for you and the things in life you pass thru, for He said He would never leave nor forsake you. Who else has stuck by you all your life? When everyone else turned their back or forgot me, He was always there listening and helping. A present help in time of need. Is there anything too hard for Jesus? No not anything He can't or won't do for those that love Him and call on His name often.

Seed for Sept 11

Some feel that they go to the "right" church, or hold the "right doctrine," or have the "right" standard, or the "right" formula, and none more than Paul. Paul said "A Pharisee of Pharisees, of the Law blameless, but I count it all dung for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ."

If anyone had it all right...it had to be Paul, and yet Paul said it was nothing, he trusted in nothing, he counted is own standard of holiness as nothing, his right religion as nothing, his visions and dreams as nothing...

Reminds me of the song: Not of good that I have done...nothing but the blood of Jesus.

We need to ask ourselves what, exactly, are we trusting in? Something we can do? Something we said? Some place we go? Some membership we hold? Or is it really all about the blood of Jesus?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Seed for Sept 10

What does it mean to be a Christian? Is it just an affirmation that there is/was a Jesus? Does it mean joining a religious sect/denomination? It is just a happy confession of faith? It is shaking a preacher's hand, being baptized, having some religious experience (vision, voice, dream, feeling)?

Ask 100 people and probably get 100 different answers. Being a Christian literally means being a disciple (follower) of Jesus. Jesus said in order to do that, one had to be born again. John 3:3. It is that new birth, the planting of God's seed in us that makes us Christian (a new creature). We then become citizens of that Kingdom, by being born into that spiritual realm. Nothing short of the reality of being born again of His seed can make us Christian.

Being Christian is allowing the Life within to be expressed in this earth (me) as it is in heaven. Being Christian is reckoning ourselves dead, and He alive in us. Being Christian is a living expression of the Life within. Not an act of will worship, or mental conquest of the human nature. We are all sons of Adam by natural birth, and we CAN all become Sons of God by divine birth. We can only become a Son of God if God's life is planted in us. Then it is not us, but He that lives inside that both wills and does in us. Thus it is Him and not I. What a real Christian is, is being a living part of the God-body in the earth.

Seed for Sept 9

"This is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it." Seems like David has made a purposeful decision to praise the Lord. We wake each day with the same opportunity. There is an old saying, "Don't use up today's grace worrying about tomorrow's problems. Tomorrow you get new grace for that day." We can decide to praise Him today. We can decide to praise Him no matter what we are going thru. We can wake each day and decide this is His day and we will rejoice and be glad in it. We can decide to have a positive attitude because of Him and not because of our situations in life. I will rejoice. I will be glad. I will bless the Lord, Oh my soul. David was a man after God's own heart. God loves worship and praise, and when we do love worship and praise Him our own situations change. Bless the Lord!

Seed for Sept 8

I have often told people who are struggling with issues of self-worth that their worth is not based upon their skills, talents, personality, IQ, etc. It is based solely upon the fact that Elohim loves you. And that worth ("value" in your words) is evaluated by the price Elohim was willing to pay to redeem you unto Himself...the blood of His only Son. So, not only do we all have equal value, we have amazing value before Elohim. This comparing of one person against another, Paul said was unwise. It is the foundation of what became known as "The doctrine of the Nicolaitanes." This teaching was responsible for what is called "the clergy and laity split," that the ministers were more holy, and had more access to Elohim than the congregation. In Revelation 2:15, He says he HATES this teaching; and yet, the structure of the entire church (both Catholic and Christian) is based upon this doctrine. Now, though we have equal value, we do not have equal usefulness in the Kingdom; and if we are not of a repentant humble heart; we will go right back to using THAT as a standard for who is more important...back to value comparisons. No, in order for the Kindom to function properly, it is imperative that some perform more useful functions than others. This is the choice of Elohim, however, and not the choice of the believer. He places us in the Body as He chooses, and equips us as He chooses, and gives us gifts as He chooses. So, if He does all the choosing, who then can say one is better than another? I have referred to this as "the Law of Buckets." If we view ourselves as a bucket; and we see that in my bucket He places the giftings to lead many to Messiah; and in your bucket he places the gifts to organize meetings and to take a seat in the background...which one of us is the better? The answer is, we are equal, because we are both just buckets. What is placed in us is not of us. It is of Elohiom. If he places in your bucket to be an apostle or an apostle, and he places in my bucket to be a pastor, which is better? We are still the same; because we are still both just buckets. Grace and peace, Dana

Seed for Sept 7

The Bible says we are not to be respecters of persons. God is no respecter of persons. In other words, God does not favor one person over another. Do you hear that? God respects all men and women alike. There is not a big person in the Kingdom and everyone else is a "little person". We are all the Body of God in the earth, and each and every one of us has the same value to God. Whether we sit on a golden throne or in an alley somewhere, to God we all have the same worth. Man elevates man. Man has respect of persons. Man makes one person high, and others low. Man says this person has value and this one has none/little. Man says this position in life is great and this position is small. Man says this person is closer to God and is a saint, when God says all His children have the same exact value. What is our value to God? We are His sons! Beloved it does not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when we shall see Him we shall be like Him! There will not be high places and low places in the Kingdom of God. The lowest believer in God has the same value as the highest Pope!

Seed for Sept 5

Lam 3:22-23
22 It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
23 They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
(KJV)

His mercies are fresh everyday like the dew. It doesn't matter that I really blew it yesterday, for His mercy is fresh today! The best news I heard in a long long time is that you don't have to sin a little everyday. You sure won't hear that message in most churches. But whom the Son sets free is free indeed. He came to set His people free from sin and the power of sin. "Because of the grace of God should we go on sinning," Paul asked? "NO WAY!", he answers. If you have been crucified with Christ then you are dead and a dead man is freed from sin! That is powerful. If I fall, if I fail, if I slip, I have his fresh mercies day by day. But the power of God is working in me to set me free from "sinning a little everyday." Presenting our bodies a living sacrifice for God to live out His will in us is our whole duty. He has no sin problem and He live in me. Thus I have no sin problem.

A man that says I have to sin a little everyday because no one is perfect, has denied the Word and power of God. Let's hear what the word says, "How can we that are dead sin any longer?" "He that is dead is freed from sin." "I can do all things thru Christ who is my strength." "It He that wills and does in me." "I live yet not I but Christ lives in me."

Seed for Sept 4

We should tell our story every time we get a chance. Paul in the Book of Acts is recorded repeatedly giving his account of his conversion on the road to Damascus. "Let me tell you what happened to me on the way to Damascus". Every one of us should have a story that tells what the Lord has done for us. In this manner we are testifying to the nature of God. Others will be able to relate to what happened to you, and say to themselves "Wow, if He did that for them, what can He do for me?"

We are called to be witnesses. We are to get on the witness stand and tell what we saw and heard. Compare that to Paul's story on the way to Damascus. A witness tells what they saw and heard. Let me tell you what He did for me. I was lost and undone. Bound by drugs and sin, and a slave to my carnal appetites. When I reached the bottom rung of my ladder and found myself in prison and everything of any value taken away from me...I was so low I had only one way to look and that was UP! Then Jesus heard my cry and had mercy on me. Lifted me out of the miry clay and put me on the Rock that was higher than I. With over 30 years in service for the King of Kings, Jesus has never let me down, or left me alone. When all others forsook me, He was there. When no one else would listen, Jesus listened and moved for me. Did He give me everything I asked? NO! But He never let me down, but took me in as His son and led me to peace, joy, and freedom. That is my story of how I was on the road to “destruction” and He heard my cry.

Seed for Sept 3

The goodness of God leads a man to repentance. Too many think that the "terror" of God will lead men to God, but the Bible says the opposite. If that is true, then why do we threaten men with "hell," damnation, burning, torments if they don't serve the Lord? What is the greatest motivation factor, fear or love? That is easy...it is love. That is why we as Christians should always brag on Jesus. We should declare the goodness of the Lord, thus leading men to repentance. Who wouldn't want to serve a great God? Who would want to serve a God that is ready to bust your knuckles every time you mess up? Not me!

Paul every chance he had would tell his story of his conversion. "Let me tell you what happened to me on the road to Damascus." Paul never threatened men with fear of God to get them to know the Lord. Our job is to tell everyone that will listen what a great pleasure it is to serve a living and loving God. You catch more flies with honey than vinegar. With everyone you meet, you can tell your story…how you were converted on the road to “destruction”!

Seed for Sept 2

Gen 11:3-93 They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar.4 Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building.6 The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other."8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.9 That is why it was called Babel-- because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.(NIV)

The world had just been destroyed by a flood, so men decided they would build their own tower of "salvation," and make a "name" for themselves. God confused their efforts, but the spirit of Babylon exist today, where men are still trying to make their own way to heaven, and build up their own names..."religious names" (denominations). There is nothing more confusing (Babel) than all the doctrines of men that permeates the Kingdom of God, each trying to elevate their own name, and building their own towers to heaven, glorifying themselves and living deliciously in the world. Men fleecing the flock of God so that they may live in golden palaces (Rome), built off the back of the poor people. There will be a day of judgment, but we are not to be discouraged in the mean time, knowing that God is faithful. We are to know them that labor among us, and by their fruits we are to know them. We are to judge a righteous judgment and speak the truth in love to every man.