Amy's blog ...
Jesus the Storytelling teacher
When I was younger, I had a really scary teacher called Ms Crook. She has always been old, even when I see her now, she is still old!! She still wears the same old fleece jumpers and has her hair in a bowl cut, wears the round glasses and walks the same. Obviously I'm not scared of her anymore (I promise!!) but I remember one time when I was little, she shouted at me for loosing my little fleece purse that I had spent so long making in class. That was the first time anyone had told me off at school (this is before the biting incident) so it pretty much scared the life out of me.
But from then on, I've had some pretty awesome teachers. Throughout primary and secondary school I have come across people who love their job, which consequently makes a massive difference on the students. I've had great history teachers, one being the lovely Mr Orr, (who all the girls liked) but I liked him because he let us watch a great movie called Dancing with Wolves in class so we could study the Sioux tribe. He also taught me about the Industrial Revolution and the Fire of London. Great! Then I had the veeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrryyyy scary Mr Jordan (cue thunderclap and scary theme tune), but he was incredible. He was so scary that he got my awful science class to shut up for an hour and actually do some work. And then Mr Clohossy, who I bought my amazing car off of, he got me from a E-Fail in math, to a B-C!! In one year!! (mostly because I fancied him…) and then finally, (there are many more) my incredible guitar teacher, Kelvin! He is a legend and we still spend time together jamming. Kelvin's been playing guitar for 35 years and will be pulling these amazing riffs while having a full on conversation with you about something totally different. He is encouraging, inspiring and a great laugh.
Jesus is a great teacher. In fact He is the ultimate teacher.
Lets take a look at Mark 4v3-8
'Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed, some fell along the path and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, great and produced a crop, multiplying thirty, sixty or even a hundred times more."
Jesus uses things that are familiar to the people who are listening. Kat told us last night that many of the people listening would have understood this because of their living as farmers.
I think that the people would not only have understood it, but been affected deeper because the way that Jesus relates His teaching to their environment. It would be like Him teaching us the parables by using stories of people in school or the office. Its not only easy to relate to because we are familiar with the surroundings in the story, but it expresses Jesus' care for the people-the way that He wants people to learn well. Jesus understands how people work (He created us!!) and knows that we will respond to something we can imagine ourselves in.
So what do some of these things mean? Seed, sowing, sun, roots, scorching, random crows, soil……
We came up with these ideas last night:
The sowing of 'seed' is the spreading of God's Word (which is an entity unto itself!) God's Word for them would be totally different in those days….because the Bible wasn't written yet!! Like Sarah said…..they wouldn't just pop home and pick up their new PDA with the NIV on it, or they wouldn't be able to get their Gideon's from the nearest Best Western either! The 'Word' would have been God's Laws, His love and redemption that was talked about from Isaiah, the talk of His Kingdom that Jesus spoke of so often, and the good teaching that Jesus was sharing. See, the Bible would have been passed down by word of mouth mostly, writing didn't really happen just yet, not a lot anyways.
Jesus also talks about hearing in this section, later on in verse nine 'He who has ears….let him hear!'
Anybody have ears around here?
Good - always a handy thing to have those.
So Jesus really means, anyone who is able to listen, then do!! He knew that what He had to say was important and fulfilling. He even repeats what He has to say to the disciples later on in verse 14 through to 20.
The farmer sows the word. Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it and produce a crop, thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown.
Now, if your Mum says something more than once, you know she means it. This doesn't always apply to my Mum because she forgets that she has told me something, and sometimes tells me more than twice in a day!! If someone tells you that need to do something, and says it more than once, you know they really need you to do it. Or if a friend encourages you about something, more than once, you know it really blessed them somehow. God decided to put the Gospels in four times!! Jesus tells this parable more than once and is repeated in other gospels. So He means it. He knows that this stuff is the food for our souls.
We also looked at some of the meanings in this bit of the bible. What does it mean to have no root? What are the thorns? What is good soil?
So, the word goes out, people hear it. Some of it goes to people who don't recognise Satan's schemes in their life, so it gets stolen from them through temptation or persecution. Others hear it, and don't really let it soak into their life, so when hard times come, they give up. Some people in this parable hear God's word but let other worries in this life take over, they let wealth rise up and take God's place. It says that these things 'choke' the good in our lives.
Like we were saying last night, some things in our life aren't bad to have there. But they get bad when we let them take the place before God. So the desires of this life, like career, grades and relationships are all good, only if they stay underneath God's place in your life. Letting God be first in our lives also helps to keep our focus' right. And then some people hear God's word and receive it, they let it soak into their entire lives and they produce a crop!!
But don't worry. You won't sprout crops. It means that if we let God's word soak into us, it will come out again in our actions, in our way that we love others, in our words and in our conversations that we have with others.
So letting God's good stuff permeate into all parts of our lives will produce a crop!! But how do we be good soil in the first place? How do we prepare ourselves?
Well. We make sure that all the stuff we let in our lives is good. The things we watch are monitored, the things we read don't have place over our spiritual reading and our bible reading. Maybe for some of us that means the music we listen to, or the people we listen to. For some of us it may even mean whom we let ourselves be influenced by. It is going to be personal for each of us, but I encourage us to ask God what that is and He will show us.
So lovely ladies. Lets be good soil!! Let's be those that have ears to hear what God has to say into our lives. Lets let some of those practical things we talked about last night take place into our lives. And we can encourage each other in these too.
Have a great week!!
Love
Amy x x x x x
This past month has been filled with anxiety and worry about the stupidest of things. And when I am finally free of the things to worry about, I worry about what to worry about next.
For those of you that know me, I am usually one of the more relaxed people, not worrying when something doesn't work out or when something goes wrong, plans fail or something else comes up. I have usually been the first to think of a solution and try and work things out. I have always loved the verse 'And God works for Good for all those that Love Him'. I have not really ever been concerned about future, moving continents, knowing in my heart of hearts that God has it all under control.
And then BAM. Worry floods me like the Fraser River will probably flood if we get any more of this horrid rain here in British Columbia.
Yahweh is incredible vast and rich. He runs on forever, never ending never getting shallow, never fading. He is forever deep and wide and high. Everything in this life is known by Him. All things miniscule are under His watchful eye that 'never slumbers nor sleeps'. He knows all. He is aware of all things that move and have their being in this life and the next. My God is so much bigger than all the 'light and momentary troubles of this life'. Nothing ever shocks Him, nothing ever ever ever throws Him off His course, He is never worried when I worry, He sees the solution, knows the problem and understands why and how I found myself there.
John 8v12 says 'I am the Light of the World. Those who follow me shall never stumble in darkness have the light that leads to life' Jesus never said 'I am the Light of the world. Now you have me you will never have troubles because I have come to make it easy'. He says that He is the Light of the World. The reason why those of us who know Him and follow Him never 'stumble in darkness' is because we have a Heavenly Illumination. We have the Holy Spirit within us and guiding us. Have you noticed how the darkness alters when you awkwardly fumble around, still drunk with sleep at 2am in the morning, trying desperately to find that switch on the bedside lamp? The darkness abruptly shifts. It doesn't evaporate, just like energy. It never disappears, it just changes to something else. Darkness never goes away, it adjusts with the light. That is why Psalm 23 says 'Even though I walk through the Shadow of the valley of death'. A shadow is fashioned when there is light.
Light and momentary troubles of this life will never end. We will never find solace in this life. There will always be something. But we have the Light to revolutionize our dark times.
And after all this we have another life. Eternity has already started for us that know Jesus. Already we are living out our eternity. We will just shift to another mode when we finally leave, whenever that will be for each of us.
So there is an eternal perspective for all of us. This is not it. This is not the be all and end all. And that somehow makes all things so much simpler. My life will not and shall not end here on earth.
Everything that I do for God's Kingdom has an eternal consequence. And knowing this changes the importance of things in this life. If I slave away over something that really does not have a lot of meaning, what is its worth? If I spend 10 hours on trying to desperately achieve something that doesn't help anyone, inspire anyone, bless God in anyway, then should I be spending copious amounts of time on it at all?
All truth that is vocal, I think, will echo eternally too. Jesus spoke truth always-no matter what He said, it was always truth and life. The kind words He spoke, the harsh words He spoke, they came from Heaven and ricochet into forever. Even though at this time, it is against the rules for us to speak the Gospel to kids in schools, it is never been banned to speak truth over them. Encouraging them, inspiring them, loving them inside and out, I believe, will make more of a difference than telling them something that I have memorised and repeat out.
If I love and love and love , others will see more of Jesus than my words can paint.
Amy Hicks
