Of Rice and Walnuts - (Food for Thought)

Last week, while talking to a friend, I was reminded of something I had not thought about for a while; Rice and Walnuts.

We were discussing the amazing faithfulness of God to always be there for us and we concurred about the importance of keeping God, and His Word, at the forefront of our hearts and minds.  Well, while talking, I  remembered a little "object lesson" I had learned from a long time ago that consisted of a little jar filled with a couple of walnuts, still in their shells, and rice.

I kept thinking of that little jar all week and what a great lesson I remembered that being.   Certain that I no longer had that old little jar... though I now remember making several and giving them away as gifts, I decided to make one again.   Here it is.

It  just so happens that I have some whole walnuts left over from the holidays and some rice too.   I also have a neat little jar, too cool to to simple throw away.


While there can be many applications for this object lesson... the best of all is to apply it to the words that Jesus said, "But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." (Matthew 6:33)

What things?  You will have to read in Matthew to get the big picture.... but it is things like food, drink, clothes... all those importance things... even "life" itself.  We re to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.  How do we do that?  We do that  first of all by making God the essential ingredient in our life.

God is represented by the three walnuts.  I have three because Christianity believes in one God, expressed in "three" persons, the Father, the Son and the Comforter... called also the Holy Ghost (or Holy Spirit)

The rice is representative of everything else in your life.

 The jar is you.... your life.  The lesson is how when God is the thing we seek... the thing that is first and foremost in our lives, and we put him in... then everything fits together nicely.  We are made whole, and all is safe ad secure when God is at the forefront of our lives.  When we put him first before all those other things we need and desire and even "do" for God.


God is. . Do you see the hand of God?  Consider the lilies of the field.... how they grow.... they do not toil or spin.  Look at what God does!   He cares for the fowls of the air.  He even cares for all the other animals... more than man can.  Look at nature..This is our God.   Jesus said, "Even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." (Matthew 6)  How true.  This is our God who became man and dwelt among us.. Emmanuel.  Jesus, who lived and died and rose again   It's like, "No wonder!" that Jesus, said, "... before Abraham was, I am." (John 8:58) 

So, to do this lesson you need and empty jar with tight fitting lid, rice and walnuts.  You will also need a paper plate to see the lesson in action.

Put the three walnuts into your jar.

Put the walnuts into the empty jar, noting how God must be first and foremost in your life

The only way to be complete in life is to be found in Him, to have His righteousness, not our own.  Knowing God loves you and sent a savior to die in your place, to give you life...eternal life and a real hope that can never perish, spoil or fade, should indeed help you to want to put God first, to love God and to then live your life with joy and a love for others, because God first loved you.

Now, add rice until that jar is filled to the brim.  Lock the lid on tight.  Note how everything perfectly fits!



PART TWO
Now, pour out the contents of the jar unto an empty paper plate.  remove the walnuts.  Set them aside but do not put them in the jar.  Pick up the paper plate, bending it slightly, and use the plate like a funnel to put the rice back into the jar.  When all the rice from the plate is in the jar, pick up the walnuts and put them in the jar with the rice.  Put on the lid.  You will see that they do not all exactly fit.  

Now my son, when I was demonstrating this object lesson for him, tried to point out that he could force the walnuts into the jar if they were left to the last.

Try it.

When you are done trying, empty the jar again unto the paper plate.  Put the walnuts in first and then the rice.

The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Put on the lid.

I put this label on my jar.  It is a card someone at a party gave me.  They had made it, but I cannot remember who it was that I got this from.  I love it thought.  I will show you at the bottom of this page what this card says when it is turn upside down....

Meanwhile, remember, that in the real world, in your own life, God wants to be first and foremost in our life, and for good reason.  God loves  and cares about me and about you.

 It's true.

When you  "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness," Gods adds all those other things and it all perfectly fits!  We are sealed and safe... complete.  Whole is our life with him, and he will never leave us not forsake us.

 Consider, if God cares for little things like birds and flowers, will not God care also for you?

The world is not perfect, though that is what God desired when he created it.  Something bad happened to God's creation that brought sin and death.  Thank God, he did not leave mankind to simply toil and save up stuff in barns that spoil.  Thank God he did not simply set things in motion and forget.  You know, to let us live life anyway we want to, simply make the best of it, (lemonade) and die. Eat Drink and be Merry... The End.

Nope.  He established forever His Kingdom, which can never end.  He sent Jesus to live and die for that terrible thing that separates us from God and causes death and destruction of all that is good and right and true... SIN.

God, our father in heaven, sent Jesus.  He wants to give you his kingdom and His righteousness.  This is his earth and he redeemed it once and for all in the person of Jesus Christ.  So, Ask questions.  Seek truth.... Seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness.  Ask, God for help and for forgiveness for your sin, and for wisdom.  God is a generous and loving.  God gives to all who ask, generously... without reproach... without tying you up for daring to ask.... or needing to be clothed with His righteousness. (James 1:5)  He has demonstrated his love for us in this man, Jesus, who did not sin, and who willingly laid down his life.  The same, Jesus, is the one whom God raised from death to life.

In Jesus Christ we see  God's love and mercy poured out in his forgiveness for our sin. So... put God first and let Him be the anchor for your life, your heart, your mind and ultimately your soul. .

"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."
Matthew Chapter 6

The wages of sin is death....
Romans 6:23

JOHN 3:3... ROMANS 10:9-10
Food for thought.

In The End

I am in shock about the earthquake in Japan a couple of days ago.


It grieves me to think that a day could suddenly be so turned upside down, but I know it happens.


It's certainly possible.


I just never imagined I would see this.... and I have been seeing photos...

(These are all from google)

 ....and  as you know, this blog IS Four Season Day.
It is inspired by things that change.. variety... but this is a little overwhelming to say the least.  

Anyhow....


Japan is having quite the catastrophe...
in fact, much ofwhat started as a normal day was turned upside down and it didn;t get beeter from there.  People have died unexpectedly, friends and family members are missing, people have no fresh water....roofs over their heads and a lot of debris, toxic in most cases, is everywhere.


I am a little bit surprised that with all the warning systems available, there seemed to be no warning about an earthquake to the people of Japan.  It just hit and caught them by surprise.

Some of the earthquake video showed people in their normal day to day lives... sitting at the computer terminals... sipping tea or coffee, when suddenly the earthquake hit...rooms were shaking... and no one had an idea how big it would be until it shook and shook, never seeming to stop.  Certainly, no one knew how the rest of their day would be from there.

Videos I watched later, after the tsunami, showed how the surging seawater washed cars and houses and planes and railroad cars adrift all over the city.  Cars were rolling in waves being washed over bridges, and people were in despair.  It was all so sobering to watch, and a reminder to value our time here on earth in this day.

A friend of mine, Rick, was in Hawaii  and he took this video of experiencing the small tsunami that hit there after the earthquake....You can view it here.


It is hard to believe the devastation, hunger, pain, cold, upheaval that people are feeling right now in another part of time and space... but as i ponder that, it's that way always.... isn't it? ....Somewhere someone is hurting. Someday it may be you... or me.


Yep, people are in turmoil and me?   I am in my little home typing on my computer, warm fire crackling at my side,  little dog resting by my feet.  It is raining.

 I pray for calm and restoration to the people of Japan.

I  have a special appreciation for things Japanese, and not long ago I picked up a book called The Road of the Tinkling Bell.   The book was haiku, short poems and paintings by a Japanese man.  I didn't know this until I had been reading the book for a while, but the author, Hoshino Tomihiro, had a special ability of painting and writing with a tool in his teeth and that is how he created the paintings in the book, and how he wrote the poems.

Tomihiro was born in Japan in 1946, was an avid gymnast in his youth, even a gymnastic coach until an accident in 1970 left him paralyzed from the neck down.  He spent nine years hospitalized, relearning how to live and how to use the brush in his mouth to write and paint. I also learned that he was a Christian.

I have to say I truly appreciated the personal insights into the Japanese world as well as the  heavenly light he shed in his poetry about his personal journey, which was, to say the least, a long and difficult road.  It was one of persevering in the darkness, one of enduring trauma and great difficulty... one that easily could have left a person in despair.  But He knew Jesus... and he had a hope despite the tragic situation he found himself in.... one he never expected for himself.

I pray this same spirit of comfort, peace and hope.... to all the people of this devastated land tonight as I think of them.  May they come to know Jesus if they do not... and if they do, may they be comforted by Him and the promises we have in Jesus Christ that one day God will right everything that has gone wrong.

The television is on, I can hear it over the hum of my conputer...and I find myself listening to reports of a nuclear meltdown taking place at their nuclear power plant in Japan.  They say radioactive waste is going into the atmosphere...

Watching now, re-runs of the catastophy, over and over there is joy in watching rescues in the turmoil of this event.  It's great to see an awestruck world community triy to figure out how best to render aid.  There is a mother with her baby smiling on the screen, glad they are alive.... a father, being reunited with his daughter.

I love happy endings!

Which reminds me...

When you know the God who raises the dead to life, you cannot help but have a happy ending... no matter how bad or how bleak things get to be.  God knows, the world is full of trials and tribulations,  but God , he is love.... and his ways are not the ways of this world we find ourselves in... every changing and hanging every instant.... with death waiting in the end.  No.  God has "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" (Jeremiah 29:11, NIV). this is his message.... to us, just as it was to those he wrote those words to.

Those who believe on the one whom he sent, will be saved.  He will give us "beauty instead ashes [and] gladness instead of mourning" (Isaiah 61:3, NIV) in the end.

It Is Just A Reasonable Service

PART ONE
He began by reading Rom 11:30 (to the end.)  It reads, "For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:

Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy. For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.  

O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!  For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor?

Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? 

For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen." 

Then the man read on into Romans 12. It says:

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. 

This man's message to the church that had gathered that day in 2009, was about how we must always remember God's mercy and grace towards us, especially in the Christian life. (This will help us extends God's mercy and grace towards others.) He talked about the need for what he called,  "true transformation" (of being "born again")  and how this comes only by submitting ourselves, our minds.. our hearts..our bodies, to God in Christ..  He called it being....becoming ." a living" sacrifice."

Thinking of sacrifices... living sacrifices....

I have a friend (more than one in particular, and friends,both male and female) who sacrifices a lot of herself (himself) to give to others... She (He)  gives so much of herself (himself) that this person is y are always doing things that are "good" for others.  I think this is great.  It is exactly what God, in Jesus Christ, did for us. Some would fault my friend for this, tell her to be more concerned with herself... "take care of number one.."and  encourage her to "stop letting people walk all over her;" but truth is, this sacrifice on her part is not done not out of selfish ambition, but out of love; and because she loves, she makes these sacrifices that she does.  It is just the way it is... her nature.  It is her m"reasonable service," (at least in her... and his, mind.)

There is a problem though.  This is that she is running out of resources and has any problems of her own. Like the woman in John Chapter 4.... she keeps going to the well, but one day because it is only water, the well will be dry.. empty.. there will be nothing she can do to help.  Like the woman at the well, my friend has not yet drunken the living water of the savior... Jesus Christ.  I pray for her.(and for "him" too) I pray for this family,trusting that like the woman at the well, she will meet JEsus and thirst for the water which he gives. 

But I digress....

There is, no doubt, something special  about  "loving others as yourself" loving other people, sharing money with other people, taking care of them and their needs and doing good to help them in their time of need... but what about God.. is there anything we can give to him?  IS there anything we can give him that he has not given to us?  I believe this is what this means about being a living sacrifice to God?  Somethings are just a "reasonable service."  Even hard things are not too great of a burden when we do them out of love. but for us humans, not God, our love has limits, even limits completely out of our own control.

A lot of times we think we are God and can "save" people, and maybe "we can, " but it's only temporal at best AND it's only as long as we have resources that do not run dry on us, (like money) but if our resources to "save them"   run out, we can no longer help them, let alone, help ourselves.  This is when despair can easily set in. The thing about despair is that usually it waits until you are at what you believe is the very end then comes defeat.  Without hope, and without love,  it's easy to stop caring..and looking out only for yourself.

Thank God that despair has a counterbalance... hope.

We as Christians have a greater hope in God our Savior...who redeems our life from the pit and who is our very present help in time of need....   limitless, boundless and all wise and all knowing too.  What a mighty God we serve.... and reasonably so, I might add. a I think it's something only somewhat understood by the saints of God.

The guest speaker, after talking about being born again...explained the importance of hearing from God, not simply to be filled with information, but to become that "living sacrifice," holy and acceptable to God.  He encouraged all the people to actually live out the truth of the information contained in the book  in our daily lives. He said we must be willing to put into practice what we hear and know to be true and right and good. He exhorted the non-Christians there that day to renew their minds and hearts and to be transformed by God's promises, and to Christians by the reading of  his Word, the Bible....listening to God's promises and to be conformed to these things, not to the ways of the world.

Not being conformed to the ways of the world, really does depend on believing God. 

Jesus said, "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me."

(John 14:1)

PART TWO-Some afterthought.:


"Do you believe in God?"

Do you? 

I do.

Think about creation...

Think about the world and life on Earth; how did life begin?  What do you believe?  Why?

Like black and white. the universal yin yang thing, some say it is pure chance circumstance, an accident,others say it was an orderly mindful act of God.  We are all kinda living in the gray... that place where there is a lot of grace and a lot of justice too and injustice too.  The point is that somehow, in some way, life emerged here on planet Earth and we just make our best guess now.... We keep records of things we believe about such things... all down throughout our history of humanity on earth up till this very day.  wondering if things are really that black and white after all.

I joke a little as I say this, but I  figure that it's the Big Bang theory either way.  Either God is God and true, or God is not real, which would mean that there is no such things as miracles.  IF one does not believe in God, then they believe that  there was a big  "BANG," somewhere in some nothingness which collided, from which something never seen anywhere before suddenly emerged (with a "bang" of an arrival and "oops")  there was  an orderly beautiful marvelous and ever-expanding, living, breathing, moving universe which no one or nothing could get credit for but it had suddenly appeared to be seen by human eyes and THIS for no particular rhyme or reason...just merely shear luck and coincidence, if you will.)  In this understanding of how it came to be, once your dead and buried, you can rest assured, life, your life in particular was meaningless  and basically for naught.  

Of course, there is the belief in God....which takes it's many forms, the most reasonable being that once in time... maybe even before time began and there was nothing but eternity, God spoke light into the dark, and created things carefully one by one and with great care and consideration of what it would be like when he was done.  This being the case in point, maybe he said "Bang" and "Whalla!"...it was so.  We read in the Bible how God spent hours, days... almost a whole week, laboring,on the project of setting the stars in the heavens,and creating things like sea and sky and animals, even mankind to inhabit a place called earth.  One way,  or the other....something came from nothing.  Both are, let's say, "big bang" views...( in my humor-ating opinion regarding BANGS and what they be...) and these two views, wildly opposed, cannot both be "true."  One says there is a God who created everything in the beginning and the other says now way, it is merely random chance. 

The Bible says that it was God... who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,who merely spoke the word and things were so.  Not only that, He has made us upright as human beings, with ability to think and reason, to create and procreate,  even to use our miraculous little thumbs!  I note too that we are not human strivings, or human doings.. but human beings.  HE wanted us to "be" with him and be one with him, (not separated, now by sin.... ultimately by death)  to love one another and get along.  After all we were, the Bible says, made in His image...

If you believe in God, you can see and trust that He has endowed mankind with many gifts and abilities...love (and hate)  reason (and mental incapacity,) logic (and stupidity.) We learn right from wrong.. left from right, up from down and then some, trying to live our lives and somehow to make sense of it all. You might say that despite our weaknesses, greed, envy, hate, jealousy, pride, ect...  we have strengths.  

Despite our now fallen nature, we have abilities, and we think even our own abilities to problem sove the problems of our world.  We think we are wise.  But the most important thing God has given mankind is wisdom.... (think of Solomon,)  and we have two kinds of wisdom that speak into our ears... man's and God's. 

God's wisdom,  believe it if you will, has been passed on to us from the apostles and saints and prophets who were used by God to speak true wisdom unto every man.  Yes, these men, understood the wisdom.  They saw and knew the light of God, the light of the world itself and they spoke of the true and living God.... that they knew up-close and personal, for these men got a glimpse when they saw it living and breathing in the face of the man, Jesus, the  Christ.the holy one of God.

Jesus... 

Now, there's a story that has permeated societies and all the world for ages. Jesus is the ultimate and the unlimited  resource we humans need.  He is the true living water for thirsty souls.  It is the salvation that comes by faith in Jesus Christ that give us life... true, good and eternal life. 

 I think about how awesome it is that men and women.who have believed in Jesus down through the centuries of life on earth, have looked to Jesus and how it is that they want to know this person, the things he said and did.  Like sunflowers,

faces following the sun as it passes over the sky their eyes on on Jesus.  But unlike flowers, men walk and move about.... doing the things that men and women do.  It is these SONflowers, as it were, who, in the light of God, bring him glory. Through them they will hear and see and know, the good news of Gods grace and mercy....and promsies to us.

These are those saints of God most high who know him and love him, not because they are so holy in and of themselves.  This is not the gospel.  You see, Christians are sinners... saved by grace.  They love God because he first loved them... and sent his Son as an anotining sacrifice. 

Because of God's love.... these are those who may be troubled on every side, yet not distressed;

       Who may find themselves perplexed, but will not be in despair;

                   They may even be persecuted,
                                             but they know that they will not be forsaken;
                                                                         because Jesus lives...
Because he rose again according to the scriptures...

God is God and as God He keeps his promises. 

Considering God made the earth and everything in it, considering he is so good, so full of love and care that he would die in our place to draw us to him when our earthly lives were through.... trusting God with all of our being, (heart, mind and strength of being....) is, after all, but our reasonable service.

Streams of Living Water Flowing

Freedom

I have a young homeschooling friend who takes a class at the public school, an advanced placement class. We were chatting a bit and I felt like it was a very interesting conversation... he told me several very interesting things, and so I thought I would post some thoughts on that conversation here for consideration. It is about homeschooling, public school and freedom of the mind to actually think.

In this particular class, (note: at this time is had only been about two weeks into the school year) they happened to be studying the Bible as literature. and this young man, a Christian young man, is rather bold in his beliefs. Having the opportunity to give a talk before the class he told them that he was a Christian and that he believed the Bible to be literally true.

Imagine that. He reminded me that this was something the teacher could never do without loosing her job, but as a student it was something he could do. Needless to say, he then continued to tell me about various encounters with people in school and what being in school was like. He said it is oppressive, much like a prison.

He told me how he had been to Russia as a visitor last year and he compared the look and feel of the people there to the look and feel of the people "stuck" in school...

Now I have not been to school recently myself, but I have known people who went to Russia, even the same cities that this boy had been. They saw what he saw in Russia. They explained it the same way. How interesting that he saw this same dynamic in his experience at the school.

Homeschooling is freedom exercised. Freedom to choose the kind of education you have and use... freedom from the clock, freedom in how you spent or do not spend your day, your week, your calendar of things to do. It is also freedom of the mind to think, observe and question, to seek answers and to gain an understanding of the more important things in life, your family, yourself, your world and your creator, the one who loved you and gave his life so that you might live eternally in freedom from sin and death, Jesus Christ, (and you can even talk about him freely.) Public Schools, they are like "a prison." Truth is, if the son sets you free, you are free indeed! Homeschooling in America is the free exercise of many freedoms.

Yet there is school, mandatory school, we are told, a person "has to "get an education.

This all has me curious. What does one learn in school? and...Who exactly runs the classroom?

Is it law? Is it the NEA? The Union? MacGraw Hill or whatever textbook manufacturer has given the US government the lowest common denominator.. I mean, bid? If not the Bible in American schools... then what morals and values are upheld in school who decides? Who manages what is thought... and NOT? What is the "plumbline" or "objective" of public education, concerning morals, stealing... respecting authority... assault... cheating... swearing... and what will happen when you break the rule or fail to learn what IS (or maybe is NOT) being taught? What in a classroom makes right right and makes wrong wrong? Is it the textbook? The teacher?

In this case the textbook just so happened to be the Bible, but they were not looking at it as truth... and the teacher, was not the teacher but the student was giving credence to the book. A homeschooling student, a student on loan to the public school from a local homeschool at that!

This student all his life had not been to a public school. He was homeschooled, where his teachers at home were actually free to teach him things that are true and right, noble and good. Free people in the USA, free to talk about, to believe and teach their son about something better than anything he would ever learn in school, the true and living God.

Amazing.

So he told me too.. (and keep in mind this is a smart young man. He has not only been around the block, but around the world. He knows his history, his knows his English pretty well, he reads and writes and is not afraid to speak out or speak up in a class...) He told me that after he had been in school a couple of days he was called into the principals office.

He was not in trouble or anything. The principal simply asked him, "Who are you?"


It reminded me of this verse:
Phi 2:15 That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world.

Four Season Day

A four-season day is one of those days when you have leftover pizza for breakfast, Chinese noodles for lunch and a taco and and enchilada for dinner. It's a day that turns out to be quite different from what you would expect to happen in a normal day or in a particular season. when you have a four-season day, you know it because it's filled with all sorts of wild variations that you never even imagined to be possible. Have you ever had a four-season day? I find that they are good reminders, that there is to be some "spice" in this thing called life.

It’s spring where I live, and it’s been miraculous to watch with my own eyes as the world around me changed from white to green. The grass has been green for over a week now, but yesterday I woke to an unexpected five inches of snow on the ground!

Most of the city had already put away snow shovels for the season, taken the snow tires off of their cars, and were not only changing out wardrobes in anticipation of warmer weather but many are even starting to think of planting things like flowers and trees. Some places got as much as eight inches of snow on the ground, and some streets, like one we call “Big Sandy” were even closed! After all, the city’s snowplows, much like snow shovels, had already been put away for the season.

Winter had returned quite unexpectantly, and it was cold!

I was certainly happy to make my way into the living room that morning and have a fire burning in the wood stove, that my husband had made. I remember looking out the window to the wondrous whimsical whiteness that sneakily blanketed my world overnight wondering how long it would stay. Fortunately, two hours later I was looking out the same window at the green grass that made up my lawn. It even got so hot in the house that I had to let the fire die and open all the windows, to cool it down. It was a four-season day, for that evening the clouds rolled in and the gray evening had the feel of autumn. A chill was in the air, so we rekindled the fire in the stove, and let it crackle through the night.

I remember another four-season day I had a long time ago. I was about fifteen years old, walking along a busy city street and it was bright and sunny on my side of the street, while on the other side of the road it was pouring down rain. I thought for sure the cloud that loomed above me would soon shower rain on me too, but it did not. The rain stayed on the one side of the road, and the sun on the other. Thankfully the sun continued to shine on the side I was on and it kept on shining the whole time I was walking! There I was, on the edge of a storm, thinking about how it was both a rainy and a sunshine day. When at last, a rainbow filled the sky, I felt like I was having a four-season day!