“And God said, Let
waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry
land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the
gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good:
And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the
fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the
earth: and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, and herb
yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, who seed was in
itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and
the morning were the third day.” (Gen. 1:9-13)
It is interesting to
note that mainstream and secular scientists claim that all the continents were
once a single land mass at some point in our history, which is what the
scripture actually indicates; (Gen. 1:9) the waters being in one place and
apparently the land being together in one place as well; not being broken up
into different continents and Islands as we presently see today.
Have you ever considered
how much we owe to plants? Besides food, more of the products we use and
depend on for our survival and the advancement of our society and civilization
come from plants than even come from animals: Most of our clothing, medicines,
and wood products. They also purify the atmosphere and add beauty to the
landscape.
What is your life like
to others around you? Is your life likened unto a plant that purifies the
atmosphere and gives out a sweet smelling aroma, or are you likened to
something that gives off a foul odor and defiles the air? Does your
character add beauty to your surroundings, or does it defile the land?
Are the words coming out of your mouth and the manner of how you live your life
compared to a plant that gives nourishment and healing to the body, or is it
compared to a foul taste in the mouth which a man seeks to wash out?
I pray, that as
representatives of Christ, that we all live our lives in a manner comparable to
the plants that purify the atmosphere and give beauty to the landscape as God
designed them to and that the words that come out of our mouth are words that
give nourishment to the soul through the preaching of the Word of God.
The creation is defiled
by man’s sinfulness, the air polluted by spiritual darkness, men’s minds are
poisoned with lies which lead them into eternal damnation and everlasting
torment from which there is no escape except that their minds be enlightened
with the light of God’s truth and that the lies which poison be undone so that
their eyes may be opened to the truth of that very sinful nature within them
that causes them to fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23) no matter how
moral of a life they try to live and no matter how much good they try to do,
for with every good deed always comes a sin, even sins of which we are not
aware.
For God does not judge
just the outward acts but also the inward man as well; his very thoughts are
not pure and the intents of his heart are subject to corruption which is why it
takes the blood of Christ to cleanse them from the filthiness of their sins
which is ever before God except that they place their trust in Christ,
believing that He died upon the cross for their sins and that He rose again
from the grave, and that if they call upon His name, they shall be saved. (Rom.
10:13)
When God created the
plants and the trees, we know that the soil was prepared and ready to receive
and sustain all the various kinds of plants and trees, and just as soil must be
prepared properly for a crop to flourish, so we must also examine the
conditions of a culture and learn as much as we can about what there is that is
keeping men out of the Kingdom of Heaven who might otherwise repent and those
many barriers that stand between potential believers and salvation that we
might know how to pull down those strongholds that imprison men’s souls and
cast down those wicked imaginations that come in the form of cleverly devised
lies and arguments that blind people’s eyes to the truth of the Gospel that
saves, and discredit all that exalts itself against the knowledge of God that
as many souls as can be persuaded may turn from their sins and embrace Jesus
and come to that faith in Him which saves.
In doing so, we will be
able to carry out our God given mission and purpose in rescuing as many souls
as possible from the bondage of darkness and everlasting damnation by bringing
them to a saving and steadfast faith in Christ. So how do we be the
effectual servants of Christ that we are supposed to be?
1. Be in constant touch with Christ through
prayer.
2. Read and study the scriptures daily.
3. Do not forsake the fellowship of the saints.
4. Pursue those very things that Christ has
placed in your hear to pursue
and use the gifts and
talents that He has given you to honor Him.
5. Avoid anything that may interfere with your
relationship with God.
6. Be ready to tell others about Jesus. Those who come to Christ, be ready to
disciple.
7. Maintain the cleanliness of our house—meaning,
we hold one another accountable for our conduct and the doctrines we propagate
to ensure that nothing contrary to what Chris has revealed to us in the
scriptures enters into our ranks.
8. Keep ourselves set apart from the world in
matters of our conduct. We need to be
influencing them for Christ. We are not
to allow ourselves to be influenced by them in a way that takes us from Christ.
And the more rooted in our
own lives the Word of God is, the better able we will be to dispel the darkness
of the adversary with the light of Christ that lives in us, and the better prepared
we will be to undo the lies that blind people to the Gospel of our Lord and
Savior and to soften those hearts that have been hardened towards their Maker
that they may be made ready to receive the message of salvation that might
persuade them to repentance so that their souls may be made alive with a new
spirit and so they, as they are being fed the Words of our Lord, may also grow
into the servants of God that they need to be to effectively represent Him in a
dark world and draw more lost souls to Him.
Scripture references:
1. Genesis 1:9-13
2. Rom. 3:23
3. Rom. 10:13
No comments:
Post a Comment