When sitting down eating a bowl of cereal or eating a sandwich with bread, most do not stop to think about about how the ingredients of their meal were made. Wheat is one of the world's most common food commodities found in many things to include cereal and bread. How wheat grows and sustains itself is one of God's fascinating creations.
Before wheat in a field can become a slice of bread it must first go through a grueling process. To get the edible part of the wheat plant it must first have it's head cut off, then the head must be beaten down (threshing) to remove the good part, the grains, from the rest of the head (Lamb, 2008; Wikipedia, 2018); after the threshing, the grains are then taken to a mill where they undergo more trauma to be separated into three elements by crushing the grain by either being ground by stones or a machine (Lamb, 2008).
Wheat is a self-sustaining plant, as one plant dies it metaphorically gives birth to a plant embryo which grows up in the same soil to become a new plant; the tools used may have changed, but this wheat growing process has been going on like this for thousands of years (Lamb, 2008). Farmers do everything they can to keep weeds (tares) out of their wheat crops.
The life journey of wheat can be compared to a true follower of Christ.
Just like the wheat plant that must die for its species to continue to exist, Jesus Christ had to die so that those who will believe in Him could live forever as well. (1 Corinthians 15:3-4); and, just like full grown wheat plants must die so they can give birth to other wheat plants, Christians must die to self so that their life can become a harvest to help many others.
Without death there is no proliferation or continuing on because there is no new birth, a person who rejects God and continues to live in sin is a tare, a tare dies but it is not a death to give life to others, but instead it's a death into everlasting destruction and unending pain. (Revelation 21:8, Matthew 25:46).
I do not understand why many who claim they are Christians question God/their faith when bad things happen to them when God tells us in His Word, in 1 Peter 4:12, Acts 14:22, John 16:33, and 2 Timothy 3:12, that believers in Christ will suffer persecution, experience various trials/trouble, and must suffer much while on this earth.
A truth that is lost on so many is that it is through pain and the right kind of death we become the life sustaining and life giving children of God. If we will allow Him, God will use our pain to help untold amounts of other hurting people. This world is the threshing floor of God, the sickle and stones used on us are the trials, tribulations, the abuses, the betrayals, the heartbreaks.
Look a couple of 'wheats' and their threshing processes that gave birth to great harvests:
Karen Hands ministry: https://www.facebook.com/KarenHandsministry/
Karen is an acquaintance of pain, growing up physically, emotionally, verbally abused by husbands, rejected by family, God met her miraculously when she was on the edge of giving up on life, she had been so beaten up by those who were supposed to love her. She could have given to the lies of Satan that her suffering was useless, but she choose to believe God instead and her painful past has now given birth to the saving grace of the homeless and destitute in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
Charles.Mulli: https://www.facebook.com/MullyChildrensFamilyabout/?ref=page_internal
Abandoned by his family when he was just 6 years old, Charles had been brought up in a one bedroom hut in the slums of Kenya. He often went to bed hungry and in terror from witnessing his alcoholic father mercilessly beat his mother to near death. He woke up one morning finding his family gone. At a very young age he was living on the desolate streets, Satan tried to poison his young mind to hate God and people, but during his teenage years, he found Christ at a crusade. Charles' 'death' to self, in giving up any desires for revenge and or bitterness against his parents/God AND he gave up a very lucrative lifestyle, and has allowed God to use his pain to help thousands of children over the past 30 years who have been abandoned/abused on the streets of Kenya. (Jenkins-Moore, 2018; Mully-the Movie).
These are just a few examples of men and women who did not allow their painful pasts to stop them from truly forsaking all to follow Christ which is the charge for all who call themselves Christian.
What does a completely sold-out to Christ Christian receive in return?
Before wheat in a field can become a slice of bread it must first go through a grueling process. To get the edible part of the wheat plant it must first have it's head cut off, then the head must be beaten down (threshing) to remove the good part, the grains, from the rest of the head (Lamb, 2008; Wikipedia, 2018); after the threshing, the grains are then taken to a mill where they undergo more trauma to be separated into three elements by crushing the grain by either being ground by stones or a machine (Lamb, 2008).
Wheat is a self-sustaining plant, as one plant dies it metaphorically gives birth to a plant embryo which grows up in the same soil to become a new plant; the tools used may have changed, but this wheat growing process has been going on like this for thousands of years (Lamb, 2008). Farmers do everything they can to keep weeds (tares) out of their wheat crops.
This world is the wheat field of God, true Christians are the good wheat planted by God, unbelievers are the tares planted by Satan. (Matthew 13:24-30)
The life journey of wheat can be compared to a true follower of Christ.
Just like the wheat plant that must die for its species to continue to exist, Jesus Christ had to die so that those who will believe in Him could live forever as well. (1 Corinthians 15:3-4); and, just like full grown wheat plants must die so they can give birth to other wheat plants, Christians must die to self so that their life can become a harvest to help many others.
Without death there is no proliferation or continuing on because there is no new birth, a person who rejects God and continues to live in sin is a tare, a tare dies but it is not a death to give life to others, but instead it's a death into everlasting destruction and unending pain. (Revelation 21:8, Matthew 25:46).
I do not understand why many who claim they are Christians question God/their faith when bad things happen to them when God tells us in His Word, in 1 Peter 4:12, Acts 14:22, John 16:33, and 2 Timothy 3:12, that believers in Christ will suffer persecution, experience various trials/trouble, and must suffer much while on this earth.
A truth that is lost on so many is that it is through pain and the right kind of death we become the life sustaining and life giving children of God. If we will allow Him, God will use our pain to help untold amounts of other hurting people. This world is the threshing floor of God, the sickle and stones used on us are the trials, tribulations, the abuses, the betrayals, the heartbreaks.
Look a couple of 'wheats' and their threshing processes that gave birth to great harvests:
Karen Hands ministry: https://www.facebook.com/KarenHandsministry/
Karen is an acquaintance of pain, growing up physically, emotionally, verbally abused by husbands, rejected by family, God met her miraculously when she was on the edge of giving up on life, she had been so beaten up by those who were supposed to love her. She could have given to the lies of Satan that her suffering was useless, but she choose to believe God instead and her painful past has now given birth to the saving grace of the homeless and destitute in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
Charles.Mulli: https://www.facebook.com/MullyChildrensFamilyabout/?ref=page_internal
Abandoned by his family when he was just 6 years old, Charles had been brought up in a one bedroom hut in the slums of Kenya. He often went to bed hungry and in terror from witnessing his alcoholic father mercilessly beat his mother to near death. He woke up one morning finding his family gone. At a very young age he was living on the desolate streets, Satan tried to poison his young mind to hate God and people, but during his teenage years, he found Christ at a crusade. Charles' 'death' to self, in giving up any desires for revenge and or bitterness against his parents/God AND he gave up a very lucrative lifestyle, and has allowed God to use his pain to help thousands of children over the past 30 years who have been abandoned/abused on the streets of Kenya. (Jenkins-Moore, 2018; Mully-the Movie).
These are just a few examples of men and women who did not allow their painful pasts to stop them from truly forsaking all to follow Christ which is the charge for all who call themselves Christian.
What does a completely sold-out to Christ Christian receive in return?
God is a redeeming and rewarding God, as seen in another example from the Bible, Joseph knew about the transforming power of pain. He was rejected by his brothers, sold into slavery, falsely accused of rape, spent many years wrongfully in prison, BUT God, never left his side, and Joseph went from slave to 2nd in command of a nation. Joseph demonstrated how to use the power of pain when he forgave his brothers for their wickedness against him when he said this: As for you, what you intended against me for evil, God intended for good, in order to accomplish a day like this-to preserve the lives of many people. Genesis 50:20. Joseph's pain saved a whole nation.
And so many others like- Job, Paul, Ester, Elijah, and the ultimate sufferer Jesus Christ our Lord did not allow the trials of their life to overtake them.
Today we can choose to allow ourselves to despise the grace, mercy, and love of God and harbor anger, bitterness, resentments about what God has allowed to happen to us or we can choose to allow the pain to transform us into mighty agents of God where our deaths give life to many others. The pain we are suffering is making us into the people God means for us to be.
And so many others like- Job, Paul, Ester, Elijah, and the ultimate sufferer Jesus Christ our Lord did not allow the trials of their life to overtake them.
Today we can choose to allow ourselves to despise the grace, mercy, and love of God and harbor anger, bitterness, resentments about what God has allowed to happen to us or we can choose to allow the pain to transform us into mighty agents of God where our deaths give life to many others. The pain we are suffering is making us into the people God means for us to be.
There is power in our pain, I plan to be wheat on this earth until that time of separation comes. The pain we experience will work together for our good, it is never wasted. Praise God! - Brother Jamal Hampton.
There is going to be a Day of Judgment, and God will judge everyone who has ever lived, His wrath is going to poured out on all the wicked and ungodly. The eyes of the unrepentant wicked need to be opened and the ears unplugged so they can see and hear the truth. In order for the children of Satan to become children of God they must believe The Good News , Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, born of a virgin; Jesus lived and died but He rose from Dead, and now offers anyone who will believe in Him Salvation. Salvation is a free gift from God, anyone who will believes in the shed blood of the risen Savior, Jesus, will know and have a real relationship with the true God. You can't work for it or buy because the price has already been paid with the Blood of Jesus Christ and Believing in Jesus gets us into the Kingdom of God and saves us from the righteous wrath of God. But that is not all, He gives us a new heart and mind NOW, and we receive some of His blessing from heaven NOW and are equipped to be able to live a life that is holy and acceptable to Him NOW. (Romans 6:9; 10:9-13, Ephesians 2:8, Isaiah 7:14, 2 Corinthians 5:18-19).
1. Believe in your heart that Jesus Christ is real, He lived and died and rose from the grave. (Romans 10:9-10)
2. Believe that you are a sinner, repent-turn from your sins and realize and accept you need Jesus. (Mark 1:15, Matthew 4:17, Acts 3:19)
3. Confess with your mouth that Jesus is your Lord and God. (Romans 10:9)
4. Find a local Bible preaching church that does obey the commandment for water baptism for the remission of your sins and to identify yourself with Christ. (Acts 16:31)
This is just the first step to a lifelong journey of growing in truth and love with the God who created this earth and everything in it, including every human being that has ever lived.
Bible verses related to this post: 2 Corinthians 4:8-18; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4; Matthew 13:24-30 ; Revelation 21:8, Matthew 25:46; 1 Peter 4:12; Acts 14:22; 2 Timothy 3:12; John 16:33: Luke 18:29-30; Genesis Chapters 37, 39 through 50, and 50:20
References: https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/botany/wheat2.htm
https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/botany/wheat1.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threshing
https://www.facebook.com/KarenHandsministry/
Jenkins, L. June 2018, Father to the Fatherless in the Living Magazine
References: https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/botany/wheat2.htm
https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/botany/wheat1.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threshing
https://www.facebook.com/KarenHandsministry/
Jenkins, L. June 2018, Father to the Fatherless in the Living Magazine
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