One Small Seed Newsletter – Edition #278, June 2024
Greetings and Blessings in Jesus’ name,
Our text says: “For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh”.
Jesus said that out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The heart here is dealing with the spirit, soul, and mind of someone. When I was a child I could communicate with those of my age, but anyone older than me, I let them do the talking. As I got older my communication got bolder, but only to those of my age. The boldness of speech in a youth will sometimes cause them to falsify or tell the truth and after a couple of mistakes I made and received a rebuke for, I became even more quieter. My whole intention that even though telling the truth is the proper thing to do, there is a time and season for everything. Then, I had to learn when to speak and when to be quiet. That is a hard lesson to learn.
As I progressed through life I encountered many chances to learn the hard way, the fast way, and the wiser way. The hard way was through experiences, the fast way was like touching a hot burner or saying something the wrong way to my dad, and the wise way was listening to proper teaching. My dad always said: “a still tongue makes a wise head”, and from listening to some of his family, he had learned this himself.
As I said before, there is a time and a season for everything. As the starting verse says: that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. A good example of this is a person who desires to be a teacher and goes to school for twenty years and absorbs tons of information. Then the time and season makes it’s appearance and they begin to make manifest their knowledge to someone else. The Apostle Paul also gave us an example when he compared Moses to himself. In 2 Corinthians 3:12-13, “seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech; and not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished”.
A good verse that I like to use to define “might be made manifest” of our text is in Colossians 3:17, “And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him”. The Apostle Paul was referring to all aspects of human life , whether in the face of the world or in the face of God. Proper teaching should be to illuminate the human mind with knowledge and emphasizing the positives instead of concentrating on the negatives. The essence of knowledge should be the wisdom obtained from that knowledge and the essence of wisdom should be directed to the gifts and talents of each individual. To say we are a Christian, has no effect unless we make it manifest through word and deed. We must remember everything we do is in the face, or judgment, of God’s truth and we can’t hide. Also, everything we do and say is in the face, or judgment, of the world and one of the worst things to be called by the world is a hypocrite. So saying we are a Christian puts us in the spotlight of judgment by God and the world.
Another thing to consider is what happens when we call ourselves a Christian and then do things that are contrary to God’s will? What happens is, the things we do cast a shadow, or eclipses the truth and the viewer has cause to stumble. On God’s judgment this is evil on our part. I know a lot of people say: but God is longsuffering, patient, and forgiving; but God is not a respecter of person, even though he is just in his judgments, he judges according to the deeds and words. Remember he said, “Be sure your sins will find you out”.
The text says, that the life of Christ might be made manifest and this is directed to those who say they are a Christian. The whole Bible is for those who will divide the right from the wrong, the good from the bad, the knowledge of truth from the knowledge of the world, and the salvation of grace from the slavery of religion. The Christian will search the scriptures and see they are all about the life of God’s truth and his sacrifices for us. They will see that the Law was a schoolmaster and that tribulations are our experiences that draw us closer to Christ and creates the will to be separated from the chaos and manipulation of worldly influences. He is our Savior, our physician, our comforter, and our peacemaker.
According to our lesson, everyone who says they are a Christian must show themselves to be worthy of that calling, by shining the light of the gospel (good news) to every soul. This is the only way that the world will be influenced and our society can be at peace. As the Apostle Paul said, But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. The Key is what Jesus meant when he said, “thou shalt love the Lord your God with all your spirit,
soul, and mind; and your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 10:27). The Apostle John said in 1 John 4:20, “If a man say, I love God and hateth his brother, he is a liar”: that love is directed to the soul that needs the light and not to all ungodly things that he is making manifest through the word and deed. Since we are the Christian that possesses the presence of the Holy Spirit, we are the ones who are manifesting the right decisions in Christ’s name. This is the light of the Gospel. Amen.
Your friend in Christ,
Rodney Roberts