1 Corinthians 8:9-13 "Should Christians Drink Alcohol?" SEEK FIRST

(S)cripture: 
Matthew 13:24-30 (NLT) "Here is another story Jesus told: The Kingdom of Heaven is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. But that night as the workers slept, his enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat, then slipped away. When the crop began to grow and produce grain, the weeds also grew. The farmers workers went to him and said, sir, the field where you planted that good seed is full of weeds! Where did they come from? 'An enemy has done this! the farmer exclaimed. Should we pull out the weeds? they asked. No, he replied, you'll uproot the wheat if you do. Let both grow together until the harvest. Then i will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds, tie them into bundles, and burn them, and to put the wheat in the barn"




(O)bservation: 

There are so many secrets in this parable, it is going to be hard to cover them all, but i believe this story very subtly answers the question "Why Do Bad Things Happen?"
If you remember, in the beginning, when God created everything, the Bible quotes in Genesis 1:31 "then God looked over all He had made, and He saw that it was very GOOD". 


The farmer in the parable also planted "GOOD" seed in his field. Then, the enemy came and deceived Adam into eating from the forbidden tree which immediately introduced a virus into the system called "sin"...the same thing happened in the parable, that night as the workers slept, his enemy came and planted weeds (sin) among the wheat, then slipped away. 

If you notice, the weeds didn't show up immediately, just like Adam & Eve didn't die immediately (physically). But the farmer had a big decision to make, his workers asked "should we pull out the weeds?" and he said No, because it would affect the wheat. In other words, the situation was already bad, but it could have been much worse if they tried to fix it by removing the weeds. 


The farmer said, let both the good and bad grow together so that we can ultimately preserve the good when harvest comes. You see, when we start to see things from Gods perspective, it helps shift our focus and gives us the wisdom we need to deal with situations we do not understand. Nobody understands it when a close relative dies, or when a hurricane kills and displaces thousands of people, or when someone goes into a church and kills people...but if we can tune into the frequency of Heaven, with the belief that all things are working together for the preservation of our "Good", we'll have the patience, hope and perseverance we need to go through difficult situations when bad things do happen. 



Check out this awesome side note that explains this parable in my "Jesus Centred Bible"

"Here, Jesus describes our life's reality: God created a world full of goodness, but humankind has allowed sin to enter into that beautiful world and produce bad things (weeds) that grow up side-by-side with good things (wheat). Jesus tells us that bad things will surround us naturally, because he has decided to allow them to grow in the midst of the good things. The reason: if we try to "pull out the weeds" ourselves, we will damage and destroy the "wheat" he has planted. Instead of focusing on the weeds, Jesus says, trust him to separate the ugly from the beautiful, and to save the beautiful for us. We cannot escape a world that produces bad things in our lives, but we can trust God to protect the beauty he has planted in our lives, and to nourish us with it"


Keyword here for me was "FOCUS", we have been guaranteed bad things will happen in our lives, but we've also been guaranteed good things will also happen, the question is "which one will you focus on?"

Bad things will happen because we have greed in our world, the gun control policy in America only exists to keep some people wealthy, this is a man-made disaster, we cannot deny God exists and then blame Him for every bad thing that happens! We need to take more responsibilities as human beings and make better decisions.





(A)pplication: 


Expect, But Don't Focus!!!

I once heard that the best way to deal with change is to expect it, if you think about it, the most successful people in the stock markets are those who expect fluctuations and recessions. Warren Buffet gets excited when most people are panicking and selling their shares for cheap, he then buys them up because he expects the market will pick up eventually, and that is how he has remained one of the wealthiest men in the world. 

Focus on the good things happening around you. Bad things will always come, we should Expect, but not Focus on them!!! Remember, they have come to preserve the Good in us...



(P)rayer: 


Heavenly Father, i just thank You for Your Love and Wisdom. Thank You for allowing the weeds grow alongside the wheat in my life just so You can preserve me. I ask for the Grace to focus on the good you have allowed grow in me, i understand the bad also has to be there so it doesn't destroy the good you've given me, but help me keep the right perspective at all times when they come in Jesus Name!!! And i ask that for anyone reading this going through a bad situation, or has received bad news, i pray that You give them a new perspective on that situation in Jesus Name!!! Amen



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1 Corinthians 8:9-13 "Should Christians Drink Alcohol?" SEEK FIRST