A Re-post From Cindy Hess Kasper of Our Daily Bread

Stray Hearts

October 20, 2013 — by Cindy Hess Kasper

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Our Daily Bread Radio is hosted by Les Lamborn

Read: Exodus 32:21-35

These people have committed a great sin, and have made for themselves a god of gold! —Exodus 32:31

Bible in a Year:
Isaiah 59-61; 2 Thessalonians 3

Last fall, an expressway in my city was shut down for several hours because a cattle truck had overturned. The cattle had escaped and were roaming across the highway. Seeing this news story about stray cattle made me think of something I had recently studied in Exodus 32 about the people of God who strayed from Him.
In the divided kingdom of ancient Israel, King Jeroboam erected two golden calves for the people to worship (1 Kings 12:25-32). But the idea of worshiping hunks of gold had not originated with him. Even after escaping brutal slavery and having seen the Lord’s power and glory mightily displayed, the Israelites had quickly allowed their hearts to stray from Him (Ex. 32). While Moses was on Mt. Sinai receiving the law from the Lord, his brother Aaron helped God’s people stray by constructing an idol in the shape of a golden calf. The writer of Hebrews reminds us of God’s anger over this idolatry and those who “go astray in their heart” (Heb. 3:10).
God knows that our hearts have a tendency to stray. His Word makes it clear that He is the Lord and that we are to worship “no other gods” (Ex. 20:2-6).
“The Lord is the great God, and the great King above all gods” (Ps. 95:3). He is the one true God!

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above. —Robinson

As long as you want anything very much, especially more than you want God, it is an idol. —A. B. Simpson

A Re-post From Brent Hackett of Our Daily Bread

Seeds & Soils

October 14, 2013 — by Brent Hackett

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Our Daily Bread Radio is hosted by Les Lamborn

Read: Matthew 13:1-9

Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. —2 Peter 3:18

Bible in a Year:
Isaiah 43-44; 1 Thessalonians 2

If you like growing pumpkins, you have probably heard of Dill’s Atlantic Giant variety of premium pumpkin seeds. Developed on a family farm in Atlantic Canada, the pumpkins grown from these seeds have set records around the world. In 2011, a pumpkin grown in Quebec set a new world record at 1,818.5 pounds (825 kg). That size of pumpkin could yield almost 1,000 pieces of pie!
When news reporters asked how this pumpkin could grow to such a size, the farmer replied that it had to do with the soil. The seeds were of a special large variety, but the soil still had to be right or the pumpkin wouldn’t grow properly.
The Lord Jesus used an illustration in which He compared different types of ground to a person’s response to God’s Word (Matt. 13). Some seeds were eaten by the birds, others started to grow but were choked by the weeds, and some grew up instantly but had no soil to further their growth. But the seeds that fell on the good soil “yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty” (v.8).
Each of us needs to ask, “What kind of soil am I?” The Lord wants to plant His Word in our hearts so we can grow in our knowledge of Him.

More about Jesus let me learn,
More of His holy will discern;
Spirit of God, my teacher be,
Showing the things of Christ to me. —Hewitt

The fruit of the Spirit grows in the soil of obedience.