60IN60 Day 36 - Mon Aug 7

It's Day 36 and we're in Matthew 13.

A little reminder from James 1:22 - "Do not merely listen to the Word and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says!" 

Where God Spoke To Me:
- Verse 23 - I want to see that overflowing fruitfulness in my life.

Help:
- Verse 12 - Isn't that unfair? It sounds a little that way, but you've got to read it with the idea that the larger passage in mind. The idea that's being shared here is something like this: "To the one that grabs onto what God is trying to show them, more insight and more opportunities to go deeper will be given. To the one who ignores what God is trying to show them, even what little insight they have will fade away."
- Verses 13-16 - This is a hard passage to understand. The most important thing to grasp it is to know that this is not God saying what He hopes will happen: "I hope they don't grasp it and their eyes are blinded so they won't turn to Me." This is God saying what the people are doing: "My people hear with their ears but not with their hearts because they don't want Me. If they would turn to Me, I would eagerly heal them."
- Verse 52 - As Jesus taught, He both shared old truths in an instructive and revealing way as well as sharing new things that helped people toward God.

If you want to read the chapter online, here's a link.

If you have a question or comment, email me at butcher@ymail.com.

Your Comments and Questions:

- "Your comments on blasphemy in [yesterday]'s 60in60. I've always thought, although I never researched the word, the meaning of blasphemy was speaking evil or saying profane words against the Holy Spirit. Please give examples of your description. Thank you." - My comments yesterday were: "The blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is not something that accidentally happens. It comes from the deliberate and repeated choice to ignore the leading of God and to ascribe what God is doing to other sources." I think that "speaking evil or saying profane words against the Holy Spirit" are definitely two of the consequences of this phenomenon. The larger point that I was making is that the origin of the sin of blasphemy of the Holy Spirit was likely to be was a heart attitude that chose to ignore the obvious movement of God and ascribe that to Satan. What you commented about would be the end results of that heart attitude.