OT DAY 37 - The Reason of Bearing No Fruit (請按此處收聼廣東話Cantonese podcast click here)

Today's Reading: Genesis 11:8-30

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Please click this link to read Genesis 11:8-30

English(ESV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis 11&version=ESV

Chinese: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=創 世 記 11&version=CUV

Bible Study

     Today's  passage seems an ordinary one but in fact in may give us a clue why churches and Christians have no growth, no small group planting, no church planting and always stay as is. May you have a big, big catch today!  

Let's take a look at what Professor John Goldingay says (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Goldingay) :

    

     It is a neat coincidence that the name Babylon and the verb "babble" are so close to each other, as the equivalent Hebrew words are. (The construction is usually referred to as "the Tower of Babel," but Babel is simply the Hebrew form of the name of the city we usually refer to as Babylon.) Another effect of God's making the people babble on was to push them into scattering from Babylon and thus to accept their role of serving the world on God's behalf by spreading over the whole world. 

John Goldingay. Genesis for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, p.132.

      In order not to listen to God's command of "Be fruitful and multiply", those people decided to "make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth." We can have a clue of why we don't want to bear fruit. If you are able to receive what our Lord Jesus Christ is going to give you today, you will surely be able to be fruitful and multiply. 

Let's have a time to be still and give the Holy Spirit space to speak through the passage we have just read. Offer this time up to Jesus as you listen to him, while listening to "Gabriel's Oboe":  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmax47l2hLU

Spiritual Journal

    The title I heard from Jesus today is: The reason of bearing no fruit

    The message I receive from Jesus today is a big, big catch for me. Jesus gives me a series of passages to think of. Let's get on to that and see if you have a big catch too:

And God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth.” And it was so. 
                                                                                                             Genesis 1: 11


And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”                     Genesis 1: 22

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, "                                             Genesis 1: 28                                                                                       

And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth."                                       Genesis 9: 1                                                                                                  

And you, be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.”                                                     Genesis 9: 7

Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”                                                   Genesis 11: 4

Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.                                                 Genesis 11: 9

And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”                                                                               Mark 4: 8

All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head.29 As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”                                                                          Mark 4: 28-29

And Saul approved of Stephen's execution.

And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.                                                                                Acts 8: 1

      We are being created to be fruitful and multiply and to fill the whole earth. But, those people building up the Tower of Babel decided not to fill all the earth but to build up a city, sin city. God scattered them. 

      Those new Christians in Early Church time did not want to be scattered but to stay in Jerusalem until Stephen was being killed. They were forced to scattered. This is the first missionary movement far earlier before Paul's three missionary journey.

     Have you got that? That means everything need to grow and not stay as is. Ask yourself these questions now:
1.  How many years has your life stay as is without any significant growth?

2.  How many years has your small group stay as is without planting any new groups?

3.  How many years has your church stay as is without planting any church?


     Jesus says in His Parable of the Growing Seed that the seed is the Word of God. If you have the Word of God in you and you will experience that four stages from the stalk, to the head, to the full kernel, to harvest. And, it is thirty, sixty, or even a hundred folds. A hundred folds is 30 zeros behind one, 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000!

Dear Lord Jesus,

Lead us to be willing to become fruitful and multiply.  In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

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