SCRIPTURE: Luke 13:1-9
There’s an expression that goes something like this: ‘manure happens’.
People were asking Jesus about some crappy situations – they thought only bad people had bad things happen to them.
Jesus says that ‘bad things’ are a reminder to all of us of our need for God.
To repent is to come to your senses, to realize how desperate we are without God, how much we need Him.
This is the fruit that God is looking for in us, as illustrated in the parable.
God knows we can’t get help until we admit we need it.
Everything that happens, everything that we experience, is God’s way of cultivating repentance.
And crap makes the best fertilizer!
He is patient, and He will work on us for a long time… though eventually He will stop.
Those who are too stubborn, too unwilling to change, will eventually get what they want.
Life (and death) without God!
But for now, if you are reading this, God is gardening your life – fertilizing and digging and weeding – to get you to see Your need for Him too.
It can be a painful process, but it’s for the best, really!
What do you sense the Lord saying to you?
PRAYER
Lord, bad things happen to people all around me. Help me not to judge them, but to see in them my own need for humility, repentance and hope in You. Keep digging and fertilizing and weeding.
Observation/Application
Bad things happen to good people.
The gardener expects good fruit.
In the governments of the world, in the agriculture of the world – the governing and the creation – God is in control. There is a time and that time is now when all must come to the Saviour and be His hands and feet in His world. All need to be fruit bearers inHis garden or be taken down – cut down. All will die but some will die in the Lord to live forever. That reminds me of this –
A Christian lives twice but dies once.
A non-christian dies twice and thinks he lives – once.
God continues to be faithful in preparing the soil for His people, giving the water also for growth and His people must as the fig tree – bear fruit. If not, they too will perish and no one knows when the axe will fall upon the tree – you and me.
The time is now to serve Him.
Come to the Savior now,
He gently calleth thee;
In true repentance bow,
Before Him bend the knee;
He waiteth to bestow
Salvation, peace, and love,
True joy on earth below,
A home in Heav’n above.
Come to the Savior now,
Ye who have wandered far;
Renew your solemn vow,
For His by right you are;
Come, like poor wand’ring sheep
Returning to His fold;
His arm will safely keep,
His love will ne’er grow cold.
Come to the Savior, all,
Whate’er your burdens be;
Hear now His loving call,
“Cast all your care on Me.”
Come, and for ev’ry grief
In Jesus you will find
A sure and safe relief,
A loving Friend and kind.