Devotions based on Scot McKnight’s book, One.Life

What does it mean to follow Jesus if we take His life and teachings seriously?  Jesus told many parables and they are more than simple illustrations. They are opportunities for God’s grace to enter into our lives to transform us.

They may rattle our hearts if we listen carefully to them, and they may call us into giving our One Life to His kingdom. Take the parable of the man who scatters seed on the ground and it grows and produces grain and he harvests it.
Jesus wants us to see that His kingdom is at work in the ordinariness of our everyday life. God is at work in the most ordinary things we do, even when we are making a cup of coffee or doing an assignment. In the parable of the mustard seed He wants us to see our small actions as significant. Even giving someone a cup of cold water or giving someone a word of encouragement, are like little seeds that have large consequences.  In the parable of the wheat and weeds growing together, the farmer was not permitted to rip out the weeds. Do you think He was trying to tell us that the kingdom people and non-kingdom people are to coexist peacefully until the end when He will judge them, not us?!! Or like the pearl of great price hidden in the field, will we sell out to His kingdom, because we’ll discover the greatest treasure of life?  May we follow Him and let His kingdom take root in us and grow!