Hey Gang, "To
the extent" is a very important phrase; pay attention to it. I believe it might even be considered a spin
off from what we have learned recently about the word measure. There are many in
American who think all we have to do is "believe" and we are home
free and can do just about anything we want to do. But Jesus debunked that thought when He said,
"By the same measure that you
forgive, judge, and give of your talents and resources, He will reciprocate.” (Gramps rendition)
Paul made this very clear when he wrote, "You are going to reap what you sow". I like the English Bible translation of this verse, “Don’t deceive yourselves; no one can make a
fool of God; whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. He who sows in the lower nature will from
that nature reap a blighted harvest. He who reaps from the Spirit will from the
Spirit reap life eternal. Don’t get
tired of the fine things, for when the proper time comes, we will reap so long
as we don’t relax our efforts” (Gal 6:7-8).
One would think that "reap what you sow" would be a common sense law and one that
would be easy to understand. Drink huge amounts of alcohol equals liver
problems, smoking leads to lung problems, drugs fouls your brain. One does not have to be a rocket scientist to
understand the hazards involved in this kind of seed planting but yet the
numbers involved in these death-defying actions continue to rise each year.
In our parenting classes we always had one or more of what I
termed my "agony and pain club”. These parents were bent on doing things their
own way. We could not convince them of
the correlation between anger in their children and anger demonstrated in their
own lives. The "chip off the old
block" unfortunately carries more truth than we like to think.
Years ago we had a
young man who was doing fabulous in the program. He was exceeding even his own expectations in
school, in the physical program areas and was becoming more involved in Chapel
each day. Then one night he ran away,
stole a car and ended up in jail. When
asked why? He said, "Mr. H., if I turn
my life around I will be the odd ball in my family". A tragic story, but one we heard many times.
Paul gave us the principle "You will reap what you sow". Now turn to Dr. Luke to find out step one in
implementing the principle. Luke 6:38
begins with a power word "give". Now, notice once again, we run into the
"measure principle" -"Give, and it will be given to you". We have learned in our walk with the Lord
that the old adage "You cannot out give God" is oh so true!
Luke goes on and puts legs on God's reciprocating giving
policy: "It shall be given to you,
good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, they will pour
into your lap." And he closes this truth with a promise from the
throne room, "For by your standard
of measure, it will be measured to you in return."
Let me share a neat success story based on this giving
principle. A friend shared that his
daughter was suffering greatly with depression and had left college and moved
home. He shared he had taken her to the
best therapist he could find but after several months the depression seemed to
deepen. I suggested that he pack her up
and take her back to college and allow her to work through the problem. Upon their arrival back at college she found
her roommate bedfast with mono nucleuses. Immediately she became a giver by taking care
of her. The roommate recovered under her
care and the depression took a hike.
Soooo, A study was
done in the Retirement Villages of Florida, a few years back, and they found
when they asked if the senior could impact in a person’s life, would they return to the cold north and do
this. Tragically a very large percentage
said "no" they had no interest in getting involved in the lives of
their kids and grand kids. It is hard
for God to bless in the same measure when we choose not to reach out to our
neighbor. Luke says "Give”.
Paul says, "You will reap what you sow"! Jesus said, "You will be blessed!
Blessings,
Gramps
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