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July 23, 2017 Matthew 13:24-43The Message (MSG) 24-26 He told another story. “God’s kingdom is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. That night, while his hired men were asleep, his enemy sowed thistles all through the wheat and slipped away before dawn. When the first green shoots appeared and the grain began to form, the thistles showed up, too. 27 “The farmhands came to the farmer and said, ‘Master, that was clean seed you planted, wasn’t it? Where did these thistles come from?’ 28 “He answered, ‘Some enemy did this.’ “The farmhands asked, ‘Should we weed out the thistles?’ 29-30 “He said, ‘No, if you weed the thistles, you’ll pull up the wheat, too. Let them grow together until harvest time. Then I’ll instruct the harvesters to pull up the thistles and tie them in bundles for the fire, then gather the wheat and put it in the barn.’” 31-32 Another story. “God’s kingdom is like a pine nut that a farmer plants. It is quite small as seeds go, but in the course of years it grows into a huge pine tree, and eagles build nests in it.” 33 Another story. “God’s kingdom is like yeast that a woman works into the dough for dozens of loaves of barley bread—and waits while the dough rises.” 34-35 All Jesus did that day was tell stories—a long storytelling afternoon. His storytelling fulfilled the prophecy: I will open my mouth and tell stories; I will bring out into the open things hidden since the world’s first day. The Curtain of History 36 Jesus dismissed the congregation and went into the house. His disciples came in and said, “Explain to us that story of the thistles in the field.” 37-39 So he explained. “The farmer who sows the pure seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, the pure seeds are subjects of the kingdom, the thistles are subjects of the Devil, and the enemy who sows them is the Devil. The harvest is the end of the age, the curtain of history. The harvest hands are angels. 40-43 “The picture of thistles pulled up and burned is a scene from the final act. The Son of Man will send his angels, weed out the thistles from his kingdom, pitch them in the trash, and be done with them. They are going to complain to high heaven, but nobody is going to listen. At the same time, ripe, holy lives will mature and adorn the kingdom of their Father. “Are you listening to this? Really listening?

From my viewpoint, evangelization is the work of the Holy Spirit. YMMV.

Paul, when did you adopt this anthropomorpic theistic belief system? This is a strawman so big you could set it on fire in the desert and hold a festival around it. The bible has been translated into almost every known language and Wycliffe is working on the few tribal languages left. Evangelization is getting ready to go interplanetary if necessary. You don't need to take lessons, read traffic laws or a car manual to drive an auto but it will make learning the skill faster, easier and less painful. You can figure it out by yourself if you have to but why not make it safe and easy?

Start with the history of history, Paul. Where and how did writing develop? Literacy has always been related to culture and social dominance. Yes, it took a while for Christianity to find Australia, but we did find it.

Amen!

Matthew 13:1-23 The Message (MSG) A Harvest Story 13 1-3 At about that same time Jesus left the house and sat on the beach. In no time at all a crowd gathered along the shoreline, forcing him to get into a boat. Using the boat as a pulpit, he addressed his congregation, telling stories. 3-8 “What do you make of this? A farmer planted seed. As he scattered the seed, some of it fell on the road, and birds ate it. Some fell in the gravel; it sprouted quickly but didn’t put down roots, so when the sun came up it withered just as quickly. Some fell in the weeds; as it came up, it was strangled by the weeds. Some fell on good earth, and produced a harvest beyond his wildest dreams. 9 “Are you listening to this? Really listening?” Why Tell Stories? 10 The disciples came up and asked, “Why do you tell stories?” 11-15 He replied, “You’ve been given insight into God’s kingdom. You know how it works. Not everybody has this gift, this insight; it hasn’t been given to them. Whenever someone has a ready heart for this, the insights and understandings flow freely. But if there is no readiness, any trace of receptivity soon disappears. That’s why I tell stories: to create readiness, to nudge the people toward receptive insight. In their present state they can stare till doomsday and not see it, listen till they’re blue in the face and not get it. I don’t want Isaiah’s forecast repeated all over again: Your ears are open but you don’t hear a thing. Your eyes are awake but you don’t see a thing. The people are blockheads! They stick their fingers in their ears so they won’t have to listen; They screw their eyes shut so they won’t have to look, so they won’t have to deal with me face-to-face and let me heal them. 16-17 “But you have God-blessed eyes—eyes that see! And God-blessed ears—ears that hear! A lot of people, prophets and humble believers among them, would have given anything to see what you are seeing, to hear what you are hearing, but never had the chance. The Meaning of the Harvest Story 18-19 “Study this story of the farmer planting seed. When anyone hears news of the kingdom and doesn’t take it in, it just remains on the surface, and so the Evil One comes along and plucks it right out of that person’s heart. This is the seed the farmer scatters on the road. 20-21 “The seed cast in the gravel—this is the person who hears and instantly responds with enthusiasm. But there is no soil of character, and so when the emotions wear off and some difficulty arrives, there is nothing to show for it. 22 “The seed cast in the weeds is the person who hears the kingdom news, but weeds of worry and illusions about getting more and wanting everything under the sun strangle what was heard, and nothing comes of it. 23 “The seed cast on good earth is the person who hears and takes in the News, and then produces a harvest beyond his wildest dreams.”

The biblical imagery is God becoming closer or more distant. God approaches as holiness increases and distances himself as it decreases. Never a full stop of communication or complete lack of presence. The imagery changes with Jesus and God exists within humanity. A dramatic qualitative improvement.

I'm asking everybody. I don't want to dominate the conversation. Everybody should take a turn sharing their thoughts.

Radical Christian pacifism is largely a product of the Menno's overreaction to the evil of Müntzer and the German Peasant's War. It's not wrong, but definitely an extremist position. Defense of self and others is not wrong.

Great story, Joseph. These modest, ephemeral revelations seem fairly common to me. I believe they are facilitated by prayer (certainly present here) and a lack of sin (as evidenced by concern for your passengers). Burning bush style revelations are rare, but revelation is pretty common at the 'wake up and smell the coffee' level.

Asking for knowledge of God's will is in the top ten all-time prayer requests. I often pray for evidence of divinity. Not because I am particularly doubtful, but just because it so wonderful when it happens.

There was a good string of posts on this a few months back. We just changed software and I'm not sure how to find it but I'll look. Focused on Christian pacifism and the antitheses.

I have marked the vid to watch later.

I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything other than the fact that Christianity is deeper and more intellectually meaningful than the oversimplified, cartoonish version we teach to children. Christianity integrates faith, reason, science, history, literature, ethics, culture, community and so much more. It is far more than a simple belief system. I think I have earned the right to ask, "How comprehensively does your belief system integrate the various aspects of reality, the unknown, the imagination and the artistic?". Is there any aspect of life your belief system is not concerned with?

Not related to hearing about Jesus or culture first. There was an actual change in mankinds ability to act as a vessel for the divine. In the narrative things happened. Earthquake, thunder, rending of the temple veil, destruction of the second temple. These events, real or symbolic, indicate a universal change. Even the Roman guard was affected. Universal, undeniable change. Definitely not only for cultures related to Hebrew scriptures. That is the point of evangelization. Bringing news of this change to the four corners of the earth. At Pentecost everyone understood everyone else - the confusion of Babel was undone. Kinda like Netflix. Netflix did not always exist, but one day it did. People cannot access it unless somebody tells them it is there and that they now have a new capabilty. A weak simile, but all cultures were enabled. Not all cultures realized that they had been enabled.

Hello, Firedragon. There are a few common chords in our backgrounds. If one feels completely comfortable in a church I think they are in the wrong one. Better to find a church where one is needed.

Ancient Hebrew literature can't address that. You would need to go to the best sources in those cultures and make comparisons. Thormas spoke of literary interpretations of the Tower of Babel myth. One common one is that the tower signifies the imposition of a hierarchical social control structure. It does seem to be factual that when human groups grow to around 250 individuals they must either adopt a hierarchial structure or divide mitoticaly into seperate tribes. The way the top to down pyramidial social structures function requires a surrender of control and individuality and is often referred to as Babylonian. The implementation of those social controls is the first place I would look for parallels.

Happy clapper church lol

Spot on, Thormas. Simply add salt to taste.

The alloy analogy refers to the apostolic conception of Christ as God-man. Not man, not God, not man+God or God in man but a unique being in a completely different category. Compare to bronze which is an alloy of copper, tin, zinc and antimony. The individual elements are not an admixture but are transformed into a new substance with properties very different from the original elements and which cannot be reversed. I think the twist of the key was a restoration of God's earlier relationship with mankind. God typically communicated directly with mankind until the tower of Babel. Moses and Aaron saw the beginning of the Hebrew system of seperating prophets, priests and judges. Then God spoke only through prophets and when God appeared in life it was as the burning bush, pillar of cloud, tabernacular presence, ark of covenant type Shekhinah manifestation. I can't say how to weight how much of this is veridical or is literary license but by the second temple period Israel had in fact degenerated into competing sects with the Pharasaic sect acting as Rome's Vichy government. Humanity had derailed, but Christ put us back on track. And now, time for another type of alloy. A Botanical gin gimlet.

1) The problem here is viewing Jesus through a non-Christian lens. If one is not Christian Jesus was a specific carpenter from Nazareth. The synoptic gospels are written this way forcing the reader to ponder over who or what Jesus is. They do not force an opinion on the reader as many ministers do. To a Christian who sees Jesus as an alloy of Divinity and humanity one must see Jesus in every person. To the Christian Jesus is an aspect of every person regardless of their religion or lack of it. This is what it means to "believe Jesus is divine". One who thinks Jesus refers only to the historical character is not fully Christian. 2) Complicated for a forum post, but the keys are in the book of Hebrews. Jesus essentially turned a cosmic key which enabled God to dwell within humanity for the first time since the Abrahamic priesthood of Melchizedek. The good news (evangelion) is that the duality seperating humanity from God has been pierced and that direct contact with God is now available to everyone. It is not relating the narrative about how that happened or insisting on a particular intellectual conceptualization.

I have a large Spiritualist camp near me and my ex-mother-in-law was training to be a medium. I have been to many services. Spiritualists discern in prayer and interpret visual symbols or hear voices. Once a medium told a neighbor not to use his boat. He examined the boat and found that the bilge had filled with gas. I was told my wife would have curly black hair. She does, but my wife at that time had straight brown hair and was sitting beside me There is something to it all, but it is not reliable and a lot of people think they have this capacity who do not.