Satisfying our soul's hunger...

Ecclesiastes 6:7 "All the labor of man is for his mouth, And yet the soul is not satisfied."

The pace of life seems way too fast for me. I can't keep up with technology, and it seems my attention is scattered so easily. Every day, I get book deal emails for bargain books to read on my Kindle, and no sooner do I get started with one book when I get distracted with another. The same goes for surfing the internet, I can never seem to get my fill of everything on there that I want to absorb. Then there are movies, most of which I don't see, but if I decided to become a movie buff, I am sure I could devote the rest of my life to it.

Then I think about my interests. I love writing and need to devote time to that. Then I also love quilting and sewing, so much so that the hobby has overtaken my dining room. In fact, my whole house is filled with projects that drew my attention: whether it was a book to be read, or little collections, or even stuff for recipes I was going to make but did not get to yet.

When I homeschooled my kids years ago, I never felt like I could keep up with all I wanted to teach them, and all the new products for homeschoolers coming out on the market. I always felt as if I was a "day late and a dollar short." Yet the verse from Ecclesiastes speaks to the vanity of it all. All the work we do to keep up in the pace of our busy lives and yet our souls are still left hungry.

The longer I live, the shorter the amount of days are left to me. Yet what will I fill them with? If I try to keep up with the pace of technology and the latest and greatest inventions of man, I will only fall further and further behind. But yet, there is something far greater that calls my name, something I can only accomplish in this life, and not in eternity. That is, time to learn about my God and take in as much of His Word as I can.

That is not something that most people are seeking after. How easy even for believers to be distracted from keeping the main thing of our lives to stay the main thing of our lives. The Apostle Paul says in Philippians 3:13-14:

"Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

That is the main point. That is what matters. Everything else pales in light of that one thing. The enemy of our souls doesn't want us to realize that. He uses his many distractions so that we will not pursue that one thing that matters.

Martha wanted to serve the Lord. She was so busy preparing dinner for Him. It seemed to her that He did not care that Mary her sister wasn't helping her. She finally asked Him why Mary could not help her, but Jesus saw that Mary had the one thing that she really needed, and did not rebuke her for sitting at His feet and learning from Him. In the end, Martha was the one who was rebuked.

38 Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard His word. 40 But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.” 41 And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. 42 But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.” Luke 10:38-42

The only time I have to grow in my relationship with Christ is reserved for me in this life. Everything has been decided by the time I reach eternity. How I need to be reminded to number my days, that the Lord would give me a heart of wisdom. (Psalm 90:12)

By knowing this, it helps me to be able to say "no" to some good things, in order to gain the best thing: growing in the grace and knowledge of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (II Peter 3:18) I just read this morning in Matthew 7 that the way is narrow that leads to life. Pastor James Leake once told my husband (who was newly saved) that "the good can be the enemy of the best." In choosing my relationship with God over earthly things, it may seem to be a "narrow" and difficult road to follow. But in giving up my own wants for my life, I find soul rest, the thing that my soul is really craving for. The Psalmist implores us:
"Taste and see that the LORD is good! How blessed is the one who takes shelter in him!" (Psalm 34:8 NET) He alone will satisfy our soul's hunger.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke on you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.For my yoke is easy to bear, and my load is not hard to carry." (Matt. 11:28-30 NET version)

Help me Lord, to choose the "one needful thing" in this life, satisfying my soul hunger and so that I might grow in my capacity for enjoying the next life. Amen.

Three Kinds of Soil- What Kind Do I Have?

I finished putting in my impatiens out front today, although there remain a few left in my flat. The ones that are seen here were placed in a spot that was flowerless for a long time. I thought it was time to bring it some life again. A friend encouraged me to do this very thing, bring my house, my garden beds, back to life.

Maybe at that time, I believed I just couldn't because of a dark and seemingly endless winter. But I was reminded: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me," as it says in Philippians 4: 13.

Now, the Lord is restoring me to good health, vitality and His Joy. Praise Him! The sight of the flowers makes me happy. My gardening will never be elaborate, and my home will never be either. But I like what it says in I Timothy 6: 6-8:

verse 6: Now godliness with contentment is great gain.

verse 7: For we brought nothing into [this] world, [and it is] certain we can carry nothing out.

verse 8: And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.

Pretty flowers on top of all spiritual and material blessings are just an overflowing abundance. Thank you Lord.

Even those flowers exist to glorify Him, as all His Creation does. I think the animals understand this even though people often times don't.

As I was working again, pulling out more weeds and dealing with different soils I again thought about how relative this gardening lesson was to my own life. I found an old rusty nail today. What does rust represent? Corruption. Jesus told us what rust did to treasures:

Matt. 6:19 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 6:20 "but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal."

All the things the world promise us end up being corruption if you follow after them thinking they will bring you happiness. There is only one way to find true happiness, and it is not through fame and fortune. Have you learned that yet? I hope so. It is a deception that will only leave you unfulfilled at the end. But I love this promise from God:

Proverbs 10:22 The blessing of the LORD makes [one] rich, And He adds no sorrow with it.

Let's get back to our parable in Matthew 13 though. According to Jesus in Matthew 13: 5, seed sown in stony soil does not produce fruit because its unable to form roots. When I consider that He meant that the seed is the precious Word of God, I don't won't to have stony soil in my heart so it is unable to receive it. That means I must be searching my heart, as David prayed in Psalm 139: 23-24. He was not afraid to beseech God to do this, because he realized that God already knew with Perfect Knowledge what was in his (David's) heart anyway. We can't hide anything from the Lord, so why not come clean with Him?

Some of the seed also fell among thorns. The definitions of a thorn (akantha) include 1) thorn, bramble and 2) bush, brier, a thorny plant (from http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G173&t=NKJV ) I was pulling out lots of dead grass and weeds today before I could put in some of the new plants. Soon I had a pile of weeds, stones and dead roots and dried out grass. If I hadn't pulled these out, Jesus said in verse 7 they would have choked out my tender new ones. I could definitely see why. You have to make room for the new roots and you can't if the old ones are still in there, fighting for dominance. You can't have room for both. Do we want His thoughts (which lead to the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22) or do we want it our way, leading to carnal death and being an enemy of God? (Philippians 3:18)?

Finally. the last soil spoken of by Jesus is described as being "good." The word is kalos and the first definition given is: ) beautiful, handsome, excellent, eminent, choice, surpassing, precious, useful, suitable, commendable, admirable. http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G2570&t=NKJV Now I sure would like to hear that spoken to me at the Judgment Seat of Christ, but even Paul wasn't sure until the very end of his life that he would be a winnner on That Day.

Matt. 13:8 "But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

Matt. 13:9 "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"

So that is the last word here for this post. I ask myself first, and then I ask anyone who may be reading: Do I have ears to hear? Do you?

I think about that every time I get so stressed that I start forgetting things and realize I am trying to do way too much and remind myself that Mary was the one Jesus commended, not Martha, even though she was running around in a frenzy trying to serve Him. (See Luke 10: 38-42)