Mark 4:19 And the anxieties of the age and the deceitfulness of riches and the lusts for other things enter in and utterly choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
Why are so many Christians unfruitful? Even the ones on the service of the Lord? Unfruitful, in the sense of bearing fruits, spiritual fruits, subjectively as the inward experience and enjoyment of Christ and objectively as the increase in bringing sinners to salvation. Normally, a Christian, whether serving full time or part time, by virtue of being a Christian must bear fruits. If this does not happen, it is a warning sign to reconsider our lives and livings before man and before God. Most sadly, the greater danger is not realising that one is fruitless even when he is indeed fruitless and having no feeling about it. This is recognizably a dead Christian.
This morning as I was on the Word on the parable of the Sower, the Lord spoke to me on how one can become unfruitful. Three things are mentioned in Mark 4:19.
1. The anxieties of the age
2. The deceitfulness of riches
3. The lust for other things
These entered into a believer and choke the word he has within him as a deposit. These are like worms that eats up whatever a person has eaten of the word. The matter is not in eating or what he has eaten, but in the "worms" that choke the word! Unless the worms are dealt with, however much one eats, all would be nullified.
A particular worm caught my attention, "lust" for other things. Other things, I believe, are things other than Christ as the reality of all food and drink. This lust is particularly specified in 1 John 2:16 as " Because all that is in the world, the 1lust of the flesh and the 1lust of the eyes and the 1vainglory of life, is not of the Father but is of the world."
161 The lust of the flesh is the passionate desire of the body; the lust of the eyes is the passionate desire of the soul through the eyes; and the vainglory of life is the empty pride, boast, and display of material things, of the present life. These are the components of the world.
http://online.recoveryversion.org/FootNotes.asp?FNtsID=8260
These "lusts" are what chokes the word, and they are the very things all men are surrounded with, and the very tools Satan uses as baits to hook mankind.
How does one escape these baits? I find no other solution except in the Lord Jesus Himself, as the life-giving Spirit in our spirit. The moment by moment, daily exercise of the mingled spirit, exercising of our human spirit as in 1 Timothy 4: 7 " But the profane and old-womanish myths refuse, and 4exercise yourself unto godliness."
Lord, keep me in my spirit all the time, exercising myself unto godliness. Save me from all things other then You. Lord, deliver me from "lust" and make me fruitful, enjoying You and much more, bearing remaining fruits. Amen.
Why are so many Christians unfruitful? Even the ones on the service of the Lord? Unfruitful, in the sense of bearing fruits, spiritual fruits, subjectively as the inward experience and enjoyment of Christ and objectively as the increase in bringing sinners to salvation. Normally, a Christian, whether serving full time or part time, by virtue of being a Christian must bear fruits. If this does not happen, it is a warning sign to reconsider our lives and livings before man and before God. Most sadly, the greater danger is not realising that one is fruitless even when he is indeed fruitless and having no feeling about it. This is recognizably a dead Christian.
This morning as I was on the Word on the parable of the Sower, the Lord spoke to me on how one can become unfruitful. Three things are mentioned in Mark 4:19.
1. The anxieties of the age
2. The deceitfulness of riches
3. The lust for other things
These entered into a believer and choke the word he has within him as a deposit. These are like worms that eats up whatever a person has eaten of the word. The matter is not in eating or what he has eaten, but in the "worms" that choke the word! Unless the worms are dealt with, however much one eats, all would be nullified.
A particular worm caught my attention, "lust" for other things. Other things, I believe, are things other than Christ as the reality of all food and drink. This lust is particularly specified in 1 John 2:16 as " Because all that is in the world, the 1lust of the flesh and the 1lust of the eyes and the 1vainglory of life, is not of the Father but is of the world."
161 The lust of the flesh is the passionate desire of the body; the lust of the eyes is the passionate desire of the soul through the eyes; and the vainglory of life is the empty pride, boast, and display of material things, of the present life. These are the components of the world.
http://online.recoveryversion.org/FootNotes.asp?FNtsID=8260
How does one escape these baits? I find no other solution except in the Lord Jesus Himself, as the life-giving Spirit in our spirit. The moment by moment, daily exercise of the mingled spirit, exercising of our human spirit as in 1 Timothy 4: 7 " But the profane and old-womanish myths refuse, and 4exercise yourself unto godliness."
74 As in gymnastics. Unto godliness means with a view to godliness. Godliness is Christ lived out of us to be the manifestation of God (see notes 162 and 163 in ch. 3). Today this very Christ is the Spirit dwelling in our spirit (2 Cor. 3:17; Rom. 8:9-10; 2 Tim. 4:22). Hence, to exercise ourselves unto godliness is to exercise our spirit to live Christ in our daily life. "
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