Smallest Seed

Birds love to frolic on our front porch in the early morning, have fun there and sing. Jesus once explained how God wants exactly that for humans, too. Anyway, I like watching birds, being enthralled by their melodious chirps, while I sip coffee and get inspiration for my blog. I think they believe they have a rightful share of my porch, and it seems they see me as a fellow bird 🙌. They use my porch confidently while I'm there sitting quietly. A rightful share. Photo by David Clode on Unsplash . Birds Show God's Design for Daily Life We ought to learn from birds. And Jesus meant it. His parables are not just idle stories to entertain his audience. They help us see how Kingdom principles should easily work in ordinary daily life. In fact, they're so easy we doubt if they'd really work, or if they're all just idle stories. So we play safe and confine his parables to sermon illustrations. Nice examples. Nothing serious.  But mind you, his Word on birds and the grass

Frans Van Heerden Don't just love everybody. Love needs wisdom. This means we sometimes have to be distant, as sometimes we also have to be near. And there's a love that should mix with anger and even judgment. Why do I say all this? Because it's how God is. We should be imitators of God as dearly beloved children, says Apostle Paul. God's love is the best. Man's love is problematic. When God seems distant, it's his love for us. Himself being love , everything God does is love, even when he judges or condemns us. His anger and punishment is love. We have to understand this to apply correct love with others. We don't just love everybody in the way the world suggests we should. The world's idea of love is prone to abuse. And church is sometimes carried away by it. Especially unconditional love. God loves us "unconditionally," but that doesn't mean he lets us off the hook for every bad thing we do. Yeah, he loves us unconditionall

Ricardo Esquivel They scorn rich preachers, but they marvel at riches. I always see church people who honor pastors with big congregations and nice church facilities. And it actually all starts there. Pastors with big churches and large memberships get nice cars and houses because they get fat pay checks and get extra respect and honor compared to those who don't. Picture above from  Ricardo Esquivel. The culture and mindset of corruption starts there--when you get respect for your riches, when people bow down to your being materially well off. Material blessings are good--posh house and car, big pays and perks--but everything goes wrong the moment people respect you for them and not for your GOD. If church people respect ministers because of their GOD, then all ministers, small or big, great or common, get equal respect. I've seen how some churches gave unpopular pastors (and who looked cheap in their old clothes) only P500 as honorarium or "love gift" for spea

Lukas Good leadership is when things get done. Common sense tells you that--that is, the world's common sense. But not the Kingdom's. Good leadership is not just efficient. You can be a good leader though you don't look efficient--at first. Things looked bad in Jesus' leadership initially--people rejected him, the religious leaders said he was a fake, his own disciples ran from him and some even denied him and betrayed him. Was that good leadership? Nope, not by the world's standards. To nonbelievers at the time, it was a sorry failure. Resurrection proved that his leadership was right all along, but the world didn't see how Jesus was resurrected in glory. They even thought it was a scam. Even the disciples didn't believe it at first. You cannot judge leadership until God reveals its real standing. Many "poor" church leadership today will probably be judged faithful by God come Judgment Day, and those approved and rewarded by men judged unfai

Kristin Vogt When will suffering end? I watched a video on FB about a "senior" blind dog rescued by dog lovers. At once they did everything to put an end to the dog's suffering. They couldn't bear to see him like that--blind, too weak to eat, infected by disease, dying within days. So they lost no time and rescued him, treated him and did everything to make him feel well. I smiled, happy for the dog and grateful to the rescuers, though I didn't know them. I thanked God for them and then wondered--wouldn't God do the same thing if you're suffering? Won't it also break his heart to see you suffering and too weak to do anything? Will he not also act immediately--like how the rescuers did--or even faster? Why do I see many people just suffering continuously? Can God just stand there and watch them? I believe he has all the power to help them, but they just go on suffering. Jesus healed all the sick and showed compassion for them. Yet, today, why do c