Photosynthesis

It has been clear to me, from the time I was a little girl, that we had a very personal connection with God.  

Or, better said, a connection that God had with us.

As I began to wonder, with you yesterday, this connection is so natural in its very nature.  So very confusingly simple; that it is totally missed in our world of reason and logic.

Seed,

        root,

                vine,

branch,

                             leaf,

flower,

                                          fruit.

                                                         All everyday normal stuff.

If there is anything unclear in the Bible — the New Testament — John 15 is not unclear.

Anyone with a kindergarten through twelfth grade education can, in some way, relate to how the seed grows into something else.

As I wrote yesterday the seed becomes the root which produces a plant, shrub, bush, tree or vine.

We are taught early in our education about how life begins and grows into a healthy and productive vegetation. 

The process is called photosynthesis.  The process by which plants — specifically green plants — use sunlight to synthesize foods from carbon dioxide and water.

John 15 Jesus begins:  I am the vine you are the branches….a part from me you can do nothing.

You and I are part of an eternally divine process from before we were a seed delivered to the soil of our mother’s womb.

Each child born is part of a process of God’s own creation.

All of life — all of it —begins as a tiny seed that has been placed in a place of nourishment and grows into a living thing.

Think about how God uses water, light, and breath throughout scripture.

Every living thing need all three of these ingredients in order to survive.

God is all three of those ingredients.

This all makes so much sense to my simple mind.

It connects all the puzzle pieces.  All the pieces about how God lives and breathes within me and you

Our Life Source

   

The last few weeks two passages have been dancing around in my mind.  One is my personal treasure John 15 and the other is Matthew 13.

These two messages somehow belong together in Jesus’ over all teachings.  At least that what I am thinking right now.

Both messages have to do with a tiny seed; that grows into something larger than its petite-beginnings.

John 15 shares that precious connection of the vine and branched.

Matthew 13 is the parable of the sower that sows seed upon all kinds of earth; and how that seed is accepted by the various places it falls upon.

Remember the blog I wrote on “the fourth” part of the Trinity?  Well, the images that Jesus was trying to create, in our brains, was how this fourth begins.

That is how we, created by the human seed of life, grow into one of God’s human parts.

One, of the many, “fourths” who are grafted to God as we grow from that tiny seed into something more.  Something larger, something that produces something needed — good fruit.

Lets start with growth 101. 

The seed, put into the earth, grows roots.

The roots act like a straw absorbing water and mineral from the soil.  This root helps to anchor the plant so it stay steady above the earth.

As the seed grows, into a human or vegetation, it needs to remain connected to its life source — the root.

This root, in my imagination, is the beginning foundation of our intimate connection — relationship — with God.

What I want you to see, in Matthew thirteen’s message, is that God sows his seed on all sorts of soil.  That is, God doesn’t pick and chose which seed he sows on what soil.  

All God’s seeds are meant to grow into good fruit.

It is the circumstances — the kind of soil — that the seed lands on that effect its growth.  

However God’s seed is shared freely with the earth — all kinds of soil.  

God does not limit the seeds given.  

 All of God’s seeds are meant to grow strong and well in any and all soil.

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.”(Mt. 13)

 Tomorrow:

 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.  5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.(Jn 15)

What Does God Truly Ask of Us?

The timeless questions, that have haunted people down through history, seems to have gone unanswered.  Because they are still asked today.

What is God’s will?

What is it that God wants from us?

Or, how do I do faith correctly; and how do I know what is correct?

In this world of diversity, opposite philosophies, cerebral reasoning and theological differences; it is difficult to know who is right or wrong or otherwise.  

From the earliest of time people have been frustrated as to how to do faith ‘right.’

And yet, from the beginning God has made His will known.

⁶ ‘With what shall I come before the Lord,

   and bow myself before God on high?

Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings,

   with calves a year old? 

⁷ Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,

   with tens of thousands of rivers of oil?

Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,

   the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?’ 

⁸ He has told you, O mortal, what is good;

   and what does the Lord require of you

but to do justice, and to love kindness,

   and to walk humbly with your God? (Mic.2)

Jesus was clear:

27 ‘But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, ²⁸bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. ²⁹If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. ³⁰Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. 27 ‘But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, ²⁸bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. ²⁹If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. ³⁰Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. ³¹Do to others as you would have them do to you. (Lk. 6)

It so simple:   Do to others as you would have them do to you.

And you are thinking:  “But there are so many rules to follow.  How do I know which ones are most important.  How do I know if God really accepts a person like me.  I am told by some that my faith is wrong or not good enough.”

My suggestion to you is to stop listening to the self-made prophets of today and read for yourself what God said while living in Jesus' skin.