No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
But let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.
Depending on who
you ask, there are seven or eight parables in this one chapter along with an
explanation for why Jesus used parables.
Now understand the nature of a parable: the teacher uses something his
audience can readily understand to teach a heavenly truth. Here’s the one about the the tares.
Matthew 13: 24-30
NKJV Another parable
He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who
sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed
tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and
produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. So the servants of the owner
came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then
does it have tares?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants
said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No,
lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them.
Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say
to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles
to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.”
The field is the world, the landowner is Jesus, the seed is the Word as well as represent the Christians growing in good earth. The enemy of course is Satan. The tares are also known as darnel which appears like wheat when it is young but has no head or fruit like the wheat. Darnel is a noxious weed that is dangerous to animals. The analogy in our teaching was that the tares are false Christians that will not produce any fruit and may poison good Christians and draw them away or choke the out. God says he knows what is good and bad and will deal with each at the appropriate time. What you need to know is that if you aren’t growing and fruitful you may be bundled with the weeds and burned in the fire.
Do you ever wonder what your barista does other than make your coffee? The answer is, they probably don’t.
Here is Part One of a series I am calling “The Life of Your Barista”
Part I
I wake up at 5:30 AM either by alarm or the sound of my cats screaming for breakfast. I quickly find an outfit that matches our shop’s overall aesthetic and dress code. Think earth tones, neutral tones, or jewel tones. Don’t forget closed-toe shoes. Always dress a step up when in doubt. I walk or bike to work, so I take the forecast into consideration. I try to look like someone you want to see first thing in the morning, while also someone you trust to make your Cortado. I put on a thick layer of Naked deodorant and I pull my hair back in a low ponytail, and most importantly, I complete my outfit with my round, oversized metal rimmed glasses.
Edited by William Byron Forbush This is a book that will never die — one of the great English classics. . . . Reprinted here in its most complete form, it brings to life the days when “a noble army, men and boys, the matron and the maid,” “climbed the steep ascent of heaven, ‘mid peril, toil, and pain.” “After the Bible itself, no book so profoundly influenced early Protestant sentiment as the Book of Martyrs. Even in our time it is still a living force. It is more than a record of persecution. It is an arsenal of controversy, a storehouse of romance, as well as a source of edification.”
Fox’s Book of Martyrs is in the public domain and may be freely used and distributed.
The Rev. Lawrence Saunders
Mr. Saunders, after passing some time in the school of Eaton, was chosen to go to King’s College in Cambridge, where he continued three years, and profited in knowledge and learning very much for that time. Shortly after he quitted the university, and went to his parents, but soon returned to Cambridge again to his study, where he began to add to the knowledge of the Latin, the study of the Greek and Hebrew tongues, and gave himself up to the study of the Holy Scriptures, the better to qualify himself for the office of preacher. In the beginning of King Edward’s reign, when God’s true religion was introduced, after license obtained, he began to preach, and was so well liked of them who then had authority that they appointed him to read a divinity lecture in the College of Forthringham. The College of Fothringham being dissolved he was placed to be a reader in the minster at Litchfield. After a certain space, he departed from Litchfield to a benefice in Leicestershire, called Church-langton, where he held a residence, taught diligently, and kept a liberal house. Thence he was orderly called to take a benefice in the city of London, namely, All-hallows in Bread-street. After this he preached at Northhampton, nothing meddling with the state, but boldly uttering his conscience against the popish doctrines which were likely to spring up again in England, as a just plague for the little love which the English nation then bore to the blessed Word of God, which had been so plentifully offered unto them. The queen’s party who were there, and heard him, were highly displeased with him for his sermon, and for it kept him among them as a prisoner. But partly for love of his brethren and friends, who were chief actors for the queen among them, and partly because there was no law broken by hbis preaching, they dismissed him. Some of his friends, perceiving such fearful menacing, counselled him to fly out of the realm, which he refused to do. But seeing he was with violence kept from doing good in that place, he returned towards London, to visit his flock. In the afternoon of Sunday, October 15, 1554, as he was reading in his church to exhort his people, the bishop of London interrupted him, by sending an officer for him. His treason and sedition the bishop’s charity was content to let slip until another time, but a heretic he meant to prove him, and all those, he said, who taught and believed that the administration of the Sacraments, and all orders of the Church, are the most pure, which come the nearest to the order of the primitive Church. After much talk concerning this matter, the bishop desired him to write what he believed of transubstantiation. Lawrence Saunders did so, saying, “My Lord, you seek my blood, and you shall have it: I pray God that you may be so baptized in it that you may ever after loathe blood-sucking, and become a better man.” Upon being closely charged with contumacy, the severe replies of Mr. Saunders to the bishop, (who had before, to get the favor of Henry VIII written and set forth in print, a book of true obedience, wherein he had openly declared Queen Mary to be a bastard) so irritated him that he exclaimed, “Carry away this frenzied fool to prison.” After this good and faithful martyr had been kept in prison one year and a quarter, the bishops at length called him, as they did his fellow-prisoners, openly to be examined before the queen’s council. His examination being ended, the officers led him out of the place, and stayed until the rest of his fellow-prisoners were likewise examined, that they might lead them all together to prison. After his excommunication and delivery over to the secular power, he was brought by the sheriff of London to the Compter, a prison in his own parish of Bread-street, at which he rejoiced greatly, both because he found there a fellow-prisoner, Mr. Cardmaker, with whom he had much Christian and comfortable discourse; and because out of prison, as before in his pulpit, he might have an opportunity of preaching to his parishioners. On the fourth of February, Bonner, bishop of London, came to the prison to degrade him; the day following, in the morning the sheriff of London delivered him to certain of the queen’s guard, who were appointed to carry him to the city of Coventry, there to be burnt. When they had arrived at Coventry, a poor shoemaker, who used to serve him with shoes, came to him, and said, “O my good master, God strengthen and comfort you.” “Good shoemaker,” Mr. Saunders replied, “I desire thee to pray for me, for I am the most unfit man for this high office, that ever was appointed to it; but my gracious God and dear Father is able to make me strong enough.” The next day, being the eighth of February, 1555, he was led to the place of execution, in the park, without the city. He went in an old gown and a shirt, barefooted, and oftentimes fell flat on the ground, and prayed. When he was come to nigh the place, the officer, appointed to see the execution done, said to Mr. Saunders that he was one of them who marred the queen’s realm, but if he would recant, there was pardon for him. “Not I,” replied the holy martyr, “but such as you have injured the realm. The blessed Gospel of Christ is what I hold; that do I believe, that have I taught, and that will I never revoke!” Mr. Saunders then slowly moved towards the fire, sank to the earth and prayed; he then rose up, embraced the stake, and frequently said, “Welcome, thou cross of Christ! welcome everlasting life!” Fire was then put to the fagots, and, he was overwhelmed by the dreadful flames, and sweetly slept in the Lord Jesus.
‘Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following; which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth Thee?’ (John 21:20).
Our Father, which art in heaven, Thou art infinitely beyond the grasp of our understanding; but in great condescension, Thou hast brought Thyself very near to the grasp of our love, and we trust this morning many of us can say with all sincerity, ‘Thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love Thee.’
O Lord, it has seemed to us impossible not to love Thee; for Thou art so supremely lovable, so full of goodness, so perfect. Thou hast manifested Thyself to us as love, and shall not love go out towards love? Especially this morning do we feel our hearts warmed towards Thee, in the person of Thy dear Son. Surely we cannot see Him made our brother, bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh, sympathising with us, married to us, dead for us and risen again for us — we cannot gaze into His right royal face, without feeling our heart melt at the very sight of Him. O Jesus, we love Thee – we are Thine; and Thou art ours. Thou hast given Thyself to us, as well as for us; and now we cheerfully give ourselves back to Thee, feeling that we are never so much our own, as when we are Thine; that indeed we are not ourselves, until we are lost in Thee; but that then have we found our truest manhood, when it and all else is surrendered to the all-conquering power of Jesus Christ our Lord.
We come a second time to Thee in public worship this morning, with the same prayer with which we commenced — it is the prayer for love. We have expressed our love, but we are ashamed when we have done so, because, after all, what is our love? It is so faint, so cold to Thee, compared with Thy love to us. So we would adore Thee this morning for the love which Thou hast manifested to us. Thou didst love us before the foundation of the world: Thine is no new compassion; for whom Thou didst fore-know,Thou didst predestinate to be conformed unto the image of Thy Son, out of Thine own pure love to them: and because Thou hast loved us with an everlasting love, therefore with lovingkindness hast Thou drawn us, and we feel the drawings now.
Thou didst first pluck us like brands out of the burning. We remember well when Thou didst draw us from a corrupt world, and from our own self-righteousness, and we came to Jesus. But Thou art drawing still: we feel the sacred bands; we yield to them, glad to do so. Lord, draw us this morning upward to Thyself, nearer than ever. May we not be satisfied with those heights of devotion to which we have attained; but may we reach somewhat higher today. Oh, that we might become more completely consecrated! May the image of Christ become more perfect upon us, stamp it deeper into our nature. We trust the image is there; but oh, that it set still deeper into our very selves, that all might see that the seal of the Holy Ghost was upon us, in the likeness of Christ our Lord.
Our Father, wilt Thou be pleased today to fill us with delight because of Thy love. Are we heavy of heart — let Thy sweet love lighten the burden; for what after all can there be to trouble the man whom God loves? Shall we not find even in Thy rod a sweetness, as Jonathan did, when he dipped his rod in the honey? Hast Thou not said, ‘as many as I love I rebuke and chasten’? Shall we not therefore take Thy rebukes and chastenings, and even rejoice in them, because therein the love of God is manifested toward us?
Are Thy dear children poor, or are they sick in body, or are they losing those they love, or is there yet a newly digged grave over which they could shed floods of tears? Oh, sweet love of God, comfort them. Cover all the rocks, O mighty tide of everlasting love, till not a rock is seen, and on that glassy sea may our spirits float above the rocks, which else had wrecked our lives. We do pray Thee give us comfort, but also give us strength as well as consolation.
Lord, we are very weak, and in ourselves we have no desire to be otherwise, because when we are weak, then are we strong; but we are very strong in Thee, and we do wish to have faith to perceive this. Lord, some of Thy children think Thee weak, because they are; and suppose that grace will fail them, because the flesh does: but oh, teach them better, and may they know that it is just in the death of the creature, that they shall find the life of God revealed.
Oh, that our spirit might be always subject to the Divine Spirit; may its earthiness and feebleness only reveal the heavenliness and the strength of the indwelling Spirit of God. And oh, grant us to feel that we have power to overcome sin; that we have power to resist the lusts of the flesh, and to despise the pomp of the world, and the lust of the eyes. Though we groan within ourselves concerning the body of this death, yet sing we also, ‘Thanks be unto God that giveth us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord.’ Help Thy children to take the victory, to rejoice that they do conquer; yea that we are more than conquerors, through Him who hath loved us.
And now that we are asking Thee to let Thy love be revealed to us in all its sweet influences, and now that we ask also that our love to Thee may be fervent, we pray Thee make us useful to our brethren. O Lord, we would not live unto ourselves; make us serviceable in gathering in the lost sheep. Make us wise that we may go after them in their devious wanderings, and discover them.
Lord, help us to speak a word in season to him that is sad of heart. When Thine arrows stick fast in the conscience, may we know how to apply the balm of Jesus’ wounds. Make us ready to tell out the sweet gospel which has been so precious to our own souls; and as men that have newly come ourselves from the presence of a pardoning Saviour — men but newly washed in that dear blood which maketh white as snow, may we go and tell to our fellow-men, all black as they are, how they also can be made whiter than snow.
Lord, make us useful to Thine own children that have backslidden. May we be as Peter was to whom Thou saidst, ‘When Thou art converted strengthen Thy brethren.’ O Lord, make us useful among backsliders -this very day may some of us be enabled to do somewhat toward the fetching up of the rear guard, of those that loiter and linger, that the whole army of Christ may quicken its pace and march to victory.
And now, Lord Jesus, we have a thousand things to ask of Thee, and of Thy Father; but Thou knowest what we have need of before we ask. Give to each one of Thine own that special gift most needed: we may not even know what it is, but according to Thine own wisdom and prudence, deal out of Thy treasury things new and old, for the enrichment and comfort of Thy people.
Bless this our beloved church: keep them still in unity and earnestness of heart. In all fresh advances that we hope to make, be with us and help us.
Bless our dear orphan children, let them all be Thine. Help us in the building of new houses for orphan girls, and provide for our necessities in that matter.
Bless the dear sons of this church, trained at our own side, who go forth to preach the gospel: whether they be in the College, or whether they are preaching outside of it, let the blessing of the Lord be with every one of them.
And all those who go from house to house with books, seeking to speak a word in season to the neglected; do Thou help them, and make this church still to be the fruitful mother of children. Yea, make every one of us useful to Thy glory.
All other churches do Thou remember with even a greater blessing. Let all the churches of Jesus Christ on the continent, as well as in this island, and far away in America and in all our distant colonies, all be revived and refreshed. Yea, and those that speak not our tongue, those advanced posts among the heathen: do Thou remember them favourably, and visit them graciously.
Oh, that the time were come when war shall cease, when drunkenness shall be put away, when all cruelty shall be abolished, when every superstition shall come to an end, and all oppression of man by man. When shall it be, save when He cometh, whose right it is to reign? At the very thought of His coming our spirits begin to glow and burn with lofty hopes. Come quickly; even so, come quickly Lord Jesus. ‘Let the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and Amen.’
SERMON: No. 1539 (23 May 1880).
SCRIPTURE; 1 John 2. The Pastor in Prayer: Being a Choice Selection of C.H. Spurgeon’s Sunday Morning Prayers.
Job 32:8 (NKJV) But there is a spirit in man, And the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding.
Job 32:18 (NKJV) For I am full of words; The spirit within me compels me.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NKJV) All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
#Guam Welcomes All Visitors Enthusiastically (WAVE)
It was an okay but not grand day here on Guam Christian Blog. Here’s the tale of the tape: 121 views, 96 visitors, 47 likes, 260 followers (lost 1, gained 3 new). USA must be back from vacation, they top the list again with 62 views, India is a distant second with 25, Canada at third with 13, Jamaica, Azerbaijan, and South Africa tie fourth with 3 views each.
Good evening, my people up in the chandeliers The wining and dining, the menu is blood, sweat and tears
Everybody ready Raining down confetti Champions are born right now Ain’t about the glamour Click goes the hammer Run when you hear that sound
Heroes never die Gonna make it to the finish line We know we survive Even if we crawl to the finish line I will believe it Underdog dreaming Don’t need no cheers World’s gonna see it Heroes never die Gonna make it to the finish line
Their dreams just keep dripping out of their golden cups I’m starting, I’m starving, leftovers ain’t enough
Ain’t about the royals They do nothing for you All you got is you right now Who is gonna falter Who is gonna conquer Better never count me out
Heroes never die Gonna make it to the finish line We know we survive Even if we crawl to the finish line I will believe it Underdog dreaming Don’t need no cheers World’s gonna see it Heroes never die Gonna make it to the finish line
Gonna make, gonna make Gonna make it to the finish line Every day, every day Gonna make it to the finish line
Gonna make, gonna make Gonna make it to the finish line Every day, every day Gonna make it to the finish line
Heroes never die Gonna make it to the finish line We know we survive Even if we crawl to the finish line I will believe it Underdog dreaming Don’t need no cheers World’s gonna see it Heroes never die Gonna make it to the finish line
Writer(s): john l. cooper, korey cooper, seth mosley
