Mullings...

I want to be packing up my scrapbook stuff for our crop this weekend. And yet, here I find myself journaling. The journaling is probably more important, so I’ll continue on.

I’ve been mulling over my BSF lesson from last week and the lecture we had yesterday morning. The passage was Matthew 13:1-30, 36-43 which includes the Parable of the Soils and the Parable of the Weeds. Both of these parables I was familiar with and had heard many times before. What I had NOT heard/noticed before was how Jesus explained why he was speaking in parables.

If you look back at chapter 11, Jesus really gives the people a hard time about their indifference toward him. Then, he begins to speak to them in chapter 13 in parables that he does not explain to the vast majority of them – only his disciples who ask for the meaning receive his explanation. And when asked why he was speaking to the people in parables, one of the verses in his explanation was verse 12, a verse that I’ve never really gotten before.

“Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.” Matthew 13:12

What? It sounds awfully rude and contrary to other teachings when you think of it in human or material terms, which I think is how I always read it. However, this passage finally made sense to me in the context of the rest of the chapter and in light of what Luke has to say. Consider also the “sister” verse in the gospel according to Luke:

“Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken from him.” Luke 8:18

Oh, I see! He’s talking about the revelation of truth from Him.

So, I determined that I need to listen with ears open to what the Holy Spirit has for me. If I’m listening for anything else, then I may hear the wrong thing. Maybe I hear what I want to hear, but maybe that’s not what God really had for me.

But also I need to listen and act. Put the truth that I hear into practice. Otherwise, I am treating him with the same indifference that he chastised the multitudes for in Matthew 11.

One principle that our teaching leader gave us was this: Truth (or understanding) doesn’t become yours until it becomes you. When we are not willing to apply it to our own lives, we become calloused and will not receive more truth, and even what we’ve had could be taken away. I guess it’s kind of a “use it or lose it” kind of thing.

I’ve found myself bewildered and frustrated at times when lectures haven’t made any sense and I’ve felt like I walked away with nothing. Why do you suppose that is? Was I not listening with spiritual ears open to truth from the Holy Spirit? Is it because I have not put into practice other truths and therefore no more was going to be given to me? Hmmm...

So I feel like this week is a test for me. Will I put into practice several truths that have been revealed to me the last couple of weeks. Like daily asking for a new heart. Like making an effort to make Sunday a truly set-apart and holy day. Will I put act on what he has sown in my heart? Or will I treat him with indifference and allow my heart to become so calloused that I don't hear the truth at all?

I choose to act.

And those are my mullings.