He told them another parable: The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.

Matthew 13:31-32

Though it starts small, it grows large.  Though it is the greatest thing above all creation, it is fully contained within the single seed.

Consider the mustard seed.  It needs no addition, just to grow.  It is self contained, self replicating, and able to endure.  This is what the Kingdom is like.

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Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—

Romans 8:12a

We have, then, an obligation. Don’t let anyone tell you that believing in Jesus all there is to it. No, Jesus was finished when He died, Paul finished his course when he died, and each of us finish ours when we die.

Those who have died in the Lord do rest from their lsbor. They no longer toil, but are with the Lord. But, until that day, we have an obligation, a duty, a requirement.

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1 My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you,
2 turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding—
3 indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding,
4 and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure,
5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

Proverbs 2:1-5 NIV

It is the heart of a good father to want so see their child learn wisdom.  It is the heart of our Father that we do as well.

The great questions I had growing as a Christian were, how exactly were supposed to live, and why do Christian men do evil when 2 Corinthians 5:17 says it is no longer the nature of a true believer to want to.

As I’ve considered this, I have come to understand that this is indeed what Jesus intended to bring.

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Daily also continuing with one accord in the temple, breaking also at every house bread, they were partaking of food in gladness and simplicity of heart,

Acts 2:26 YLY

Of all the hindrances to the spiritual live, complexity of heart ranks among them.  Its used to be, when a church offered a fellowship card, the options were married, single, and, sometimes, divorced.  Today, answers can range from single-parent, blended family, or, as it comes, “it’s complicated”.

The simple heart, or, as the King James reads, singleness of heart.

Jesus said, the eye is the lamp of the body.  When the eye is single, the whole body is full of light (Luke 11:34). That word “single” means “without folds”, without layers, and, by extension, without complexity.

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Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.

Mark 10:29-31 NIV

Jesus called us to forsake all (Luke 14:33), and yet promises our needs will be met from above (Matthew 6:33).  This parodox underscores the nature of the Kingdom.  It is not of this world (John 18:36), but it is all sufficient to meet every need (Philippians 4:19). Read more…