Monday Message

This week, one of my very dear friends went through something I can only describe as shattering. His precious, 13 day old son, Zethan, died in his mother's arms. Zethan only had a few short days with his parents, but in that time he touched the hearts of an untold number of people. Although most of us only knew Zethan for 13 days, his parents knew him for the 9 months previous; Praying for him and loving him even as he was forming in his mother's womb. More than that though, God knew him from time immemorial. Psalm 139:13-16 You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body     and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!     Your workmanship is marvellous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,     as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born.     Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was lai...

Fear of the unknown; Of discomfort; Of having to give up the things I enjoy. I know I'll be better off if I truly surrender to Him, but I'm a stubborn young man. I want what I have that keeps me comfortable. And I want what God has for me too! Mark 4:3-9 With last week's post , I looked at the parable of the sower, but only the last line. The focus being on hearing and listening. This week I'm going to focus on the parable itself and the explanation that followed. “Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seed. As he scattered it across his field, some of the seed fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate it. Other seed fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seed sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow. But the plant soon wilted under the hot sun, and since it didn’t have deep roots, it died. Other seed fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants so they produced no grain. Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they...

I'm working through a reading plan that will see me read the entire Bible in a year. It's the first time I've done this and it's been an eye opening experience. Sometimes it's a passage I've heard others mention or a saying I didn't realise was in the Bible in the first place. Today's Monday Message is based off a different connection that I occasionally see in my reading. In this case a well known phrase from the New Testament that looks to be linked to the Old Testament. Not an unusual occurrence I'm sure, but one that gone me thinking. Mark 4:9 Then He said "Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand." Matthew 13:9 Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand." Both of these verses directly follow the Parable of the Sower, just in the different Gospels. Jesus uses this phrase to indicate that the meaning is hidden in the parable. Even His disciples have to ask him it's meaning. But why the...