small investment

Posted on September 12, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

September 2015 (12)Mark 4:30-34

30 He also said, “What can we compare the kingdom of God to, or which illustration will we use to describe it? 31 It is like a mustard seed, which, when it is being planted in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds in this land;[1] 32 yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the largest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can nest under the shade it makes.” 33 With many such illustrations he used to speak[2] the word to them, as they were able to hear it; 34 he did not speak to them except with illustrations, but he explained it all in private to his own disciples.

small investment

 

A mustard seed hardly looks like a strategy for changing the world. It sits in your hand like a speck of dust — forgettable, unimpressive, almost laughably small. Yet Jesus chose that tiny seed as His illustration for how the kingdom works. The beginning feels insignificant, but the end is astonishing. What starts as a whisper becomes a sheltering tree. What begins as a small act of trust becomes a life that gives shade, refuge, and blessing to others.

Jesus explained these things to His disciples as they walked with Him. They had already made the leap — they had planted their mustard seeds. They had taken their small, ordinary lives and placed them in His hands. And in doing so, they discovered that the kingdom does not depend on the greatness of the seed, but on the greatness of the One who grows it.

The same is true for us. There is very little we can offer Jesus that looks impressive. Even if we gave Him everything — our time, our energy, our dreams, our very lives — the truth is that our lives are not remarkable on their own. But Jesus can make them remarkable. He can take what is small and make it expansive. He can take what is ordinary and make it fruitful. He can take what feels insignificant and weave it into His kingdom’s story.

The real question is whether we are willing to plant ourselves — our small, puny, tiny, seemingly insignificant selves — into His soil. Whether we are willing to surrender our lives to His purposes. From the outside, that surrender may look like a waste. But in the kingdom of God, it is the wisest investment we will ever make. A planted life becomes a fruitful life. A surrendered life becomes a spacious life. A tiny seed becomes a tree.

LORD, here are our lives. We surrender them to You and to Your kingdom. Make something beautiful grow.

[1] not “on the earth” because that is an untrue statement, and would not have been Jesus’ point.

[2] Greek customary imperfect tense.

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automatic discipleship

Posted on September 11, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

September 2015 (11)Mark 4:26-29

26 He also said, “The kingdom of God is like a man who may throw the seed on the ground, 27 then he could sleep and get up night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, but he does not know how. 28 The earth bears fruit automatically,[1] first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. 29 But when the grain is ripe, he sends in his sickle just then, because the crop has arrived.”

automatic discipleship

We tend to imagine discipleship as a long, slow, hands‑on journey — and often it is. Walking with someone through their first steps in Christ, helping them unlearn old patterns, teaching them how to pray, how to read Scripture, how to follow Jesus in the ordinary rhythms of life — that kind of work takes patience, presence, and time. But the kingdom of God also has this surprising, almost quiet way of multiplying itself without our supervision. Sometimes a single conversation, a brief testimony, a written word, or a moment of Spirit‑prompted courage becomes the spark that launches someone into life with Christ… and then they disappear from our sight.

You may never see that person again. You may never know how the seed grew. You may not witness the transformation, the healing, the maturing, the fruit. But the Holy Spirit does not require your ongoing presence to continue the work you began. The kingdom is not limited by your schedule, your geography, or your capacity. God has a whole network of believers, communities, and circumstances ready to nurture what you planted. And even when no human mentor steps in, the Spirit Himself shepherds, teaches, convicts, comforts, and grows the new believer in ways we could never orchestrate.

As the years pass, the Lord may give you glimpses — a chance encounter, a testimony shared, a message from someone you barely remember speaking to. Or He may keep those stories hidden until the day Christ returns and the full harvest is revealed. Either way, nothing sown in faith is wasted. The miracle of “automatic discipleship” — the kingdom growing all by itself, as Jesus described — continues quietly, steadily, beautifully.

Your task is to sow bountifully. God’s task is to bring the harvest in His time.

LORD, show us how to sow generously and joyfully, even when we cannot see the results. Teach us to trust Your Spirit to nurture every seed we scatter, and to look forward with hope to the harvest You are preparing.

[1] αυτομάτη

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hiding what we hear

Posted on September 10, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

September 2015 (10)Mark 4:21-25

21 He said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under the bushel basket, or under the bed, and not on the lampstand? 22 Because there is nothing hidden now, except to be disclosed later; nor is anything secret now, except to come to light later. 23 Let anyone with ears to hear listen!” 24 And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear; the amount you give out will be the amount you get, and still more will be given you. 25 Because to those who have, more will be given; and from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.”

hiding what we hear

Jesus had just finished describing a farmer who scatters seed everywhere — not cautiously, not strategically, but generously, almost recklessly. Now He turns to His disciples and tells them something astonishing: you were the soil, but now you are the farmers. You were once the ones receiving the seed, but now you are the ones entrusted with scattering it. The message you received is too good, too life‑altering, too radiant to be hidden under a basket. Once it gets inside you, it presses outward. It wants to be shared.

And yet we live in a cultural moment that makes this difficult. Our generation has baptized silence as politeness. We are told that sharing spiritual truth is intrusive, that speaking about Jesus is presumptuous, that faith should be kept private — tucked away like a fragile heirloom no one else needs to see. The pressure to keep quiet is real. The temptation to retreat into a private, interior faith is strong. But Jesus’ words cut through that fog. The kingdom doesn’t grow through secrecy. It grows through sowing.

The excellent message is meant to travel. It is meant to move from heart to heart, from home to home, from life to life. It is meant to spill over the edges of our comfort zones and reach the fields around us — the people who share our sidewalks, our workplaces, our neighborhoods, our stories. If we stop passing it on, we don’t just fail others; we begin to lose the vibrancy of what we ourselves have received. A hidden gospel shrinks. A proclaimed gospel expands.

Jesus is not asking us to be loud or abrasive. He is asking us to be faithful. To speak what we have heard. To shine what we have seen. To let the kingdom’s light escape the confines of our private world and illuminate the spaces around us. We have ears to hear — now He invites us to have mouths that proclaim.

LORD, we have ears to listen. Give us mouths to proclaim, courage to speak, and hearts that refuse to hide what You have entrusted to us.

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when they hear

Posted on September 9, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

September 2015 (9)Mark 4:14-20

14 The planter plants the word. 15 These are the ones on the path where the word is planted: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is planted in them. 16 And these are the ones planted on rocky ground: when they hear the word, they immediately receive it with joy. 17 But they have no root, and endure only for a while; then, when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. 18 And others are those planted among the thorns: these are the ones who hear the word, 19 but the cares of the world, and the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and suffocate the word, and it produces nothing. 20 And these are the ones planted on the good soil: they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty and sixty and a hundred times as much.”

when they hear

The striking thing about Jesus’ illustration is not just the variety of soils, but the shared starting point: every soil hears the word. That detail is easy to overlook, yet it carries a weighty reminder for anyone who serves, teaches, or shares the gospel. Before anything else can happen — before growth, before resistance, before joy, before rejection — the word must be spoken. The seed must be sown. Without that, there is no planting at all.

This means our first responsibility is not to manage outcomes but to make sure the message is actually communicated. We cannot control how deeply it sinks in. We cannot control whether it is embraced or ignored. We cannot control whether it produces fruit or gets choked out by competing desires. But we can ensure that people have something to respond to. We can give them a clear, gracious, faithful presentation of the good news. We can scatter the seed widely, generously, confidently, trusting that God knows the soil far better than we do.

And this frees us. It frees us from the pressure to engineer results. It frees us from the anxiety of wondering whether we are persuasive enough. It frees us from the discouragement that comes when someone hears and walks away unchanged. Our calling is not to manipulate the soil but to sow the seed. Our faithfulness is measured not by the visible harvest but by our willingness to keep speaking, keep sharing, keep offering the word of life to those around us.

When we remember that every soil hears, we remember that every person deserves the chance to hear. Families, neighbors, coworkers, communities, nations — all of them need the seed. All of them need the invitation. All of them need the opportunity to respond to the God who is already at work in ways we cannot see.

LORD, help us carry Your excellent message with courage and tenderness. Let it reach our families, our communities, and our nations. Make us faithful sowers, trusting You with the harvest.

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bigger on the inside

Posted on September 8, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

September 2015 (8)Mark 4:9-13

9 And he said, “Let anyone having ears to hear listen!” 10 When he was alone, those who were around him along with the twelve asked him about the illustrations. 11 And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything has to come in illustrations; 12 in order that ‘even though they may see, they still will not see, and may indeed hear, but not hear; so that they may not turn again and be forgiven.'” 13 And he said to them, “Do you not understand this illustration? Then how will you understand any of the illustrations?

bigger on the inside

If you follow modern science fiction, you’ve probably seen that iconic blue box — ordinary on the outside, impossibly vast on the inside. From the street, it looks laughably small, like something you could walk past without a second glance. But step through the door, and suddenly you’re in a world that defies explanation. The inside changes your understanding of the outside. Once you’ve experienced it, you don’t need anyone to convince you it’s real. You’ve been there. You’ve lived in its space.

The kingdom of God works the same way. From the outside, it can look unimpressive, even strange. A handful of parables. A few metaphors. A promise about a future world where God reigns without rival. Outsiders hear the descriptions and think they’re getting technical explanations of something abstract and distant. But for those who have stepped inside — for those who have tasted grace, felt the Spirit’s presence, and begun to live under the reign of Christ — the kingdom is not a theory. It is a reality. It is home.

Once you’re inside, the brief hints Scripture gives are enough. You don’t need diagrams or blueprints. You don’t need someone to prove it exists. You’re already living in its spaciousness. You’ve discovered that life with God is bigger on the inside — deeper, wider, richer than anything the world can measure or explain.

And no, the kingdom is not a time machine. It is another time altogether — God’s future breaking into our present. It is the world as it will be when sin is gone, evil is silenced, and God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven. Those who know this secret live differently now. We carry the future inside us. We walk through ordinary days with an interior world shaped by hope, holiness, and the presence of the King. Our lives look small from the outside, but inside they are vast with purpose and promise.

LORD, draw our friends and neighbors into this spacious life. Let them step through the door of Your grace and discover a world where everything is bigger, brighter, and more alive because You reign within.

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ministry measurement

Posted on September 7, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

September 2015 (7)Mark 4:1-8

1 Again he began to teach beside the sea. Such an extremely large crowd had gathered around him that he stepped into a boat on the sea and sat there, while the whole crowd was beside the sea on the beach. 2 He began to teach them many ideas using illustrations, and in his teaching he said to them: 3 “Listen! A planter went out to plant. 4 And as he planted, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil. 6 And when the sun rose, it was scorched; and since it had no root, it dried up. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it produced no grain. 8 Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and producing thirty and sixty and a hundred times as much.”

ministry measurement

Ministry has a way of humbling us, because it refuses to operate according to the metrics we wish we could use. Jesus’ picture of the soils exposes this with a kind of gentle clarity. You can labor faithfully, prepare well, pray earnestly, and speak the truth with love, and still watch the seed fall on ground that simply will not receive it. The variables are real, and many of them lie far beyond the reach of even the most devoted servant.

You can sow good seed.
You can sow it at the right time.
You can sow it in what seems like the perfect climate.
And still, no harvest appears.

Jesus is not shaming the farmer in the story. He is freeing him. The condition of the soil is not something the farmer can manipulate. The farmer cannot reach into the heart of the earth and rearrange its composition. He cannot force depth where there is only rock, or create focus where thorns have taken over, or protect the seed from the path where it is exposed. He can only sow. He can only be faithful.

And that is the quiet, steady truth about ministry: faithfulness is measured, not fruitfulness. Fruitfulness is beautiful, but it is not the test. Fruitfulness is desired, but it is not the standard. Fruitfulness is prayed for, but it is not the thing God uses to evaluate His servants. When the response is lacking, when the soil is unyielding, when the hearts we long to reach remain closed, the Lord is not asking us to produce results. He is asking us to remain faithful.

This is where the real testing happens. Not when the crowds respond, not when the ministry grows, not when the harvest is obvious, but when the soil is stubborn and the seed seems wasted. In those moments, the temptation is to question ourselves, to question the message, or even to question the One who sent us. But Jesus’ illustration gently redirects our gaze. The seed is good. The message is sound. The calling is real. The soil is simply outside our control.

So we keep sowing.
We keep praying.
We keep trusting.
We keep showing up with the same gospel that has always carried the power of God.

And in the unseen places, in the hidden depths of hearts we cannot reach, God is still at work. He alone prepares the soil. He alone softens the ground. He alone brings forth fruit in His time.

LORD, give us the wisdom and courage to remain steady in our ministry, especially when the response is thin and the soil seems unyielding. Teach us to value faithfulness over visible success, and to trust that You are tending the ground in ways we cannot see.

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clout before the king

Posted on September 6, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

040Mark 3:31-35

31 And his mother and his brothers came, and standing their ground, they sent to him and summoned him. 32 And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.” 33 And he replied to them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” 34 And looking around at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does what God wants, that one is my brother and sister and mother.”

Clout before the king

While serving as a missionary in the Philippines, I has occasion to encounter those who believed in prayer to Mary. They assumed that if one really wanted to get through to Jesus, it made sense to appeal to him through his mother. But this incident shows how ridiculous that notion is. Jesus knew who he was, and he would not be side-tracked on his mission by his family members, or anyone else. The followers who had dedicated themselves to listening to his teaching and obeying it had the real clout before the king.

LORD, forgive us for seeking shortcuts to discipleship. Immerse us in your word, and may our obedience alone give us confidence before you.

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unpardonable

Posted on September 5, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

September 2015 (5)Mark 3:28-30

28 “I am honestly telling you, any sins can potentially be forgiven the children of men, even whatever blasphemies they might proclaim, 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of a permanent sin”- 30 because they had said, “He has an unclean spirit.”

unpardonable

The attacks against Jesus during his earthly ministry may have seemed like ordinary criticism, but Jesus revealed that there was more to them than that. The sinners looked straight into God’s goodness, and said it was from the devil. They viewed Satan’s kingdom being destroyed, and they claimed it was Satan himself behind it. The excellent message Jesus preached was that God was looking upon this world with grace and forgiveness. But those who rejected this gospel message would not experience that grace and forgiveness – not now, not ever.

LORD, teach us to hold our tongues, and accept your ministry without criticism.

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divided family

Posted on September 4, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

September 2015 (4)Mark 3:20-27

20 Then Jesus came into a house, and a crowd came together again, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat bread. 21 And when the ones responsible for him heard about it, they went out to collect him, because they were saying, “He is confused.” 22 And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He has Beelzebub in him,” and ” he is casting out the demons by means of the prince of demons.” 23 So he called them to him and said to them using illustrations,[1] “How can Satan cast out Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot endure. 25 And if a family is divided against itself, that family will not be able to endure. 26 And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot endure, but is coming to an end. 27 But no one can enter a strong man’s house and steal his belongings, until he first subdues the strong man. Then he will be able to rob his house.

divided family

Although Jesus’ ministry by word and power is going strong, Mark tells us that some from his own family have become convinced that he is confused. There is some division even in his own family. And the rumours about him being possessed himself will not die. But in this context, Jesus challenges his listeners to look at what is happening. It is actually Satan’s kingdom which is suffering the most from Jesus’ ministry. The same is true today. Whenever a person or family or nation turns to God and believes the message, there is a kingdom shift.

LORD, give us time to reach our families and communities with your message. Give us courage to try, in spite of the resistance they might put up.

[1] παραβολη (3:23; 4:2, 10f, 13, 30, 33f; 7:17; 12:1, 12; 13:28).

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nicknames

Posted on September 3, 2015 by Jefferson Vann

September 2015 (3)Mark 3:13-19

13 Then he goes up to the mountain, and summons[1] who he wanted, and they went away to him; 14 and he appointed twelve, so that they would be with him, and so that he could send them out to preach, 15 and to have the right to cast out the demons. 16 [And he had appointed the twelve,] and he attached to Simon the nickname Peter;[2] 17 and to James from Zebedee, and John the brother of James, he also attached to them nicknames — Boanerges,[3] in other words, ‘Sons of thunder;’ 18 and Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James from Alpheus, and Thaddeus, and Simon the Canaanite, 19 and Judas Iscariot, who later betrayed him.

nicknames

I have been given a number of nicknames throughout my lifetime. I remember most of them, and some of them I have tried hard to forget. I think nicknames tend to stick when they come from someone close to you, or someone who you consider important. Both reasons rang true for these disciples who were nicknamed by Jesus.

Being close to Jesus was in the job description of the twelve. Also, they were empowered by him to do spiritual warfare the same way he did. But most importantly, they were to preach in all the surrounding villages to accomplish Jesus’ purpose – getting the message out to the masses. I have never felt closer to Jesus than when I was preaching his excellent message.

LORD, bring us close to you, and send us out to preach your word.

[1] προσκαλεω (3:13, 23; 6:7; 7:14; 8:1, 34; 10:42; 12:43; 15:44).

[2] Greek Πέτρος = rock.

[3] probably Aramaic בנירגש

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