Psalm 61, 62; Wisdom 10:1-21; Rom. 12:1-21; Luke 8:1-15
Solomon recounts the work of the Holy Spirit in the persona of wisdom in the history of the covenant people. He sees the Spirit at work in Adam, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and powerfully among the people. Truly it is wisdom to see such things as the work of God rather than the work of men or some impersonal force called luck, chance or fortune. Solomon rightly ascribes all these things to divine providence but that providence is a person force that wills and works to fulfill that which He wills. The Spirit of God is active in bringing about the will of God and that is comforting to know that He works for us to establish us in God’s will and to defeat our enemy and thwart his will. In the end, we know that God’s will indeed will be done and we believe that even now, in the midst of struggle and strife, that it is being done by the power of the Holy Spirit. God has not abandoned the world to its own devices and He is not simply watching us from a distance, He is in the thick of it all through the indwelling Spirit in His people.
It seems that the devil has many ways of destroying the work of God based on Jesus’ parable. Some is simply eaten by the birds, some choked out by weeds, some not taking root because of the hardening of the heart. It also seems that God has very little chance to actually see His will done but from experience I will say that soil that is rocky or weed infested doesn’t always remain so. In my life I have seen God improve the ground of my heart in order to make it receptive to His Word in order that it might take root and grow and bear fruit. Just because soil isn’t fertile today doesn’t mean it won’t be fertile when the time comes. I recently ran into a friend who I thought would never accept the Gospel because he was too “intellectual” but God used the painful circumstances of his life to enable him to hear the gracious goodness of Jesus. Let us pray for those who have rejected the Gospel and ask the Lord to work the soil so that they can hear.
In this passage Paul gives us a glorious picture of a person in whom Christ is fully formed. He says that we are to be people whose lives are filled with joy and thanksgiving but most of all with love for God and love for one another. We are to be a people who indeed live out the Sermon on the Mount, who live as Jesus lived and who love as Jesus loved. We are to be people characterized by a different way of life and a different outlook on life, to be a peculiar people and in that we show that we don’t belong here completely, that we have some idea that this world isn’t all there is so we don’t have to scrape and scrap, we can lay aside grievances and simply live without guile. He is right, it is transformation that begins with the renewing of the mind, we have to think about everything in a new way if we are to overcome the way of the world that we have learned from birth.
Thou flowing water, pure and clear,
Make music for thy Lord to hear,
O praise Him! Alleluia!
Thou fire so masterful and bright,
That givest man both warmth and light.
O praise Him! O praise Him!
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
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