Whose Life Is It, Anyway?

[dave c]

simpletruth #138ah Revisited 11AUG10 salicart@msn.com

HOSEA 10:12—Part Thirty Four: Whose Life Is It, Anyway?

by rev. dave c

Hosea 10:12, Sow for yourselves righteousness; Reap in mercy; Break up your fallow ground, For it is time to seek the LORD, Till He comes and rains righteousness on you (NKJV).

Fallow ground, that is ground that is unplowed, appears to represent two main ideas within Scripture. Firstly, it is tillable soil that is left fallow every seventh year as “a year of rest” so that it can be utilized/enjoyed by the poor and by wild animals (Ex 23:10-12). This context reflects God’s more expansive command to set aside a “Sabbath” each week as a day to celebrate life in His presence and in fellowship with family, friends, and neighbors. Secondly, as in our verse from Hosea, fallow ground can represent the material, rational, and spiritual aspects of our lives that are left untended. These are the fields of our existence yet to be cultivated by practicing what we preach. Within this context we are repeatedly commanded to get off our backsides; set aside our pride, our lusts, and our routines; then put our hand to the plow and never look back (Lu 9:62).

Isaiah 28:23 Listen and hear my voice; pay attention and hear what I say. 24 When a farmer plows for planting, does he plow continually? Does he keep on breaking up and harrowing the soil? 25 When he has leveled the surface, does he not sow caraway and scatter cummin? Does he not plant wheat in its place, barley in its plot, and spelt in its field? 26 His God instructs him and teaches him the right way (NIV). Perhaps God is telling us in these verses from Isaiah that we are too preoccupied with our day-to-day lives (Mt 13:22) and that we are failing to cultivate “fruit that will last” (Jn 15:16). I can become so busy just “plowing” through each day that I repeatedly miss the myriad opportunities He sends my way to plant and water the seeds of the Gospel of Jesus Christ (1Co 3:6-9). This is not only possible for individuals and for families, entire fellowships can become so wrapped up in “People, Property, and Programs” that we lose track of Christ’s mandated mission statement to His Church (the “great commission”—Mt 28:18-20, Mk 16:15&16, & Lu 16:15&16).

...His God instructs him and teaches him the right way. In Psalm 32:8&9 God admonishes us: I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you. Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you (NIV). I suspect that God becomes angry with me not just when I overtly compromise His Word by disobeying the “Thou Shalts and Thou Shalt Nots” of Scripture—but also when I fail to listen to the Holy Spirit as He tells me to turn left at the next corner...or when I refuse to speak to that rather unappealing stranger to whom I am being divinely directed...or when God urges me to turn off the TV and open The Bible and pray. I live as though it is my life lived in my world and within my terms. And that includes my involvement within my church.

The Church of Jesus Christ is His Church…His Bride and His Body. Do I forget whose Church it is? In my heart, head, and hands do I regard it as my church? Or, as is somewhat better, is it our church where we use our gifts as we minister to each other and to our community as the out working of our salvation? Listen for what is being stated in First Corinthians Twelve beginning with verse 4: There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men (NIV). The Apostle Paul is making it clear that—while we each have different kinds of gifts, ministries, and workings—there is the same God the Spirit who distributes those gifts (He 2:4), the same God the Son who governs those services (Ep 4:11-16), and the same God the Father who administrates all that occurs within all of the history of all of mankind (1Pe 1:1&2).

Paul asks us, ...Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price (1Co 6:19&20; NIV). Doctor Luke tells us in his gospel the nature and extent of the price that was paid for you and for me: Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood (Ac 20:28; NIV). The truth be told, we are never “our own”. We are either slaves to sin...or we are voluntary slaves (doulos) to righteousness.

Again, listen to the words of Paul, this time in Romans Six beginning with verse 16 Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey--whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. 19 I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. 20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (NIV). Amen.