When Will Joy Come? -- Day 30

It's already day 30 of our joy adventure. I still have at least two more parts to the "my story" mini-series. Thank you for allowing me to share with you. I hope the booklet and the blog have touched your life in a meaningful way. Have you noticed any difference? Maybe you're asking when will I see a difference? When will joy come?

Let's go back to some of the first scriptures we read. It is the parable of the sower and the seed. Go ahead and read the whole parable and Jesus' explanation.

³ “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. ⁴ As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. ⁵ Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. ⁶ But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. ⁷ Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. ⁸ Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, multiplying thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times.”

¹⁴ The farmer sows the word. ¹⁵ Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. ¹⁶ Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. ¹⁷ But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. ¹⁸ Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; ¹⁹ but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. ²⁰ Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown.”  
                                                                                                                            Mark 4:3-8, 14-20

The different types of soil represent the hearts of the people who heard the word. So that is the first place to start when you're looking for results. What is the condition of Footnotes:

1. Mark 4:12 Isaiah 6:9,10

your heart?

In this case, I am the sower. I scattered the joy booklets out to different types of people. Maybe you never picked it up again. Well, that seed won't produce fruit.

Maybe you were like, cool this was a nice little gift, but you don't believe. Again, no fruit.

You could be like the rocky place that the seed falls on. I have a feeling that many of us are dealing with those rocky places and the hard heartedness. I can't seem to get away from writing about it.

 ⁷ So, as the Holy Spirit says:

   “Today, if you hear his voice,
 ⁸ do not harden your hearts
as you did in the rebellion,
   during the time of testing in the desert,     Hebrews 3:7-8 NIV

This was reminding the people of when God first spoke these words to the people He had brought out of slavery in Egypt with Moses. God brought them out with miracles. After all that God had done for them, you know like parting the Red Sea so they could cross it on dry ground. But when they didn't have water they complained and asked why did God bring them there to die. He could help them escape from their enemy but He couldn't feed them? Ummm wrong!. God showed them what He could do and He took care of them. But their hearts were hard because they did not believe God who proved Himself over and over again. So the 12^th verse says,

See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.

As Jesus said, when trouble and persecution came they gave up. Again, no fruit for those who are not trusting God.

Maybe your heart is like the soil with the thorns. The thorns are the worries of this life and then some. Romans 10:17 says faith comes by hearing the word of God. If your heart is rocky or has thorns, faith can't really come. I've experienced this. I read the word, but no faith. I have gotten so worried and worked up that I don't allow the Word to penetrate my heart. In those cases I have to ask God to forgive me and help me. As I keep reading the Word, my heart changes. But worries make the Word unfruitful. If your heart is like this, continue to read the scriptures until all the other things in the world don't bother you so much. See Till Until -- Grab a Plow! Part 2

Finally, your heart may be the good ground. Your heart was prepared, you heard/read the Word and believed it and if you have not already, you will produce the crops. Oh happy day! But you notice some seeds yielded more crops than other. Why? How ready was your heart? Any kind of soil can be prepared for an abundant harvest.

I'm going for 100 times what I've sown and that's not even the limit.

What Do You Want in Your Garden? -- The Story of Joy Part 2

Within the first few days of the new year I was reading a blog post. It's sad to say, but I rarely read a blog that is not food-related. Well, the blog that I was reading has a home and garden section. That day's post caught my eye. The blogger was writing about planning her garden. I do well if I can keep a plant alive for a few months weeks; I have no idea why this post caught and kept my attention.

As I read the post, an idea started forming. I began thinking about how God's word is a seed. For many years one of my favorite passages of scripture is the one I mentioned in a previous post:

²⁶Jesus also said, “The Kingdom of God is like a farmer who scatters seed on the ground. ²⁷ Night and day, while he’s asleep or awake, the seed sprouts and grows, but he does not understand how it happens. ²⁸ The earth produces the crops on its own. First a leaf blade pushes through, then the heads of wheat are formed, and finally the grain ripens. ²⁹ And as soon as the grain is ready, the farmer comes and harvests it with a sickle, for the harvest time has come.”                  Mark 4:26-29 NLT

So I often think about how to apply this scripture. Our pastor had been teaching on investing (planting seeds) as well. This was all fresh in my mind. As I read about planning a garden, I realized that when you plant seeds, you plant them on purpose. You know what you want to grow and what you're going to want to eat, so you only plant those things. This is a simple concept that I have been realizing I can apply to my life. I don't want brussel sprouts so I'm not going to plant brussel sprout seeds. I want spinach sooooo . . . you get the idea. Hmmmm, if the Word is the seed, I can plant a spiritual garden. I can consciously plant what I want. You know, "you reap what you sow." 

 Or as the Message Bible says it,

What a person plants, he will harvest. From Galatians 6:7

Verses 7 and 8 in the New Living Translation says it like this,

⁷ Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. ⁸ Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit.

The Denise version of verse 7 is this: Don't be ridiculous. God has set things in order so that seeds produce one thing and one thing only. There is no way you're going to grow spinach from brussel sprout seeds. You are going to get spinach from spinach seeds.

What do I want in my garden? One thing that I want in my life is more joy. I will plant seeds of joy in my life on purpose.

About a week and a half later, I had to drive to Alton/St. Louis. Driving is good thinking time for me. I was listening to a minister and sometimes when I am in the atmosphere of listening to the Word, I have inspired ideas. That's when the idea came to make the Joy booklets and share them with others. This was no big deal because I have made and shared scripture booklets before. The big deal part was adding the blog to it. I could list reasons why I was not in the least interested in doing the blog portion. But I believe this was a God-inspired idea and I shouldn't argue with Him. :-)

As I am planting seeds in my own life, I felt that I should sow into the lives of others as well. That's how I ended up making Joy booklets and giving them to people who are special in my life and/or those to whom I felt God was leading me to give. I didn't have enough for everyone who is special in my life, though. But I am glad to be able to share with some. That's the thing about seeds . . . you plant one, but more than one fruit comes from it. My expectation? I expect to be able to sow more in others' lives. One seed  . . . much fruit. Pretty cool, huh?