How Homesteading off the grid made my day today... Thank you Kevin
Amazing Confirmation today from one of my favorite YouTube Subscriptions
title: Homesteading off the grid
title: Homesteading off the grid
Side Note: You gotta see how to get rid of an annoying neighbor with a crayon: (My personal favorite)
This veteran is a very special man who provides daily nuggets of his evolving pragmatism in the rough yet fulfilling and fascinating life of homesteading and a man who truly loves and cares for his family and property.
Today I checked out what's going on with Kevin and to my amazement he did trees and birds the same day. Please note this really caught my attention since both trees and birds are significant in the Bible especially in reference to eschatology and especially when used together.
What's especially interesting is currently I'm working on my MANUSCRIPT of why I don't go to church, a 50 plus year testimony of how today's churches are building the kingdom of the Antichrist.
For reference material I was reading Dr. Andy Woods', book "The Coming Kingdom". I had been going over details of Matthew 13 Kingdom parables, and was wondering about using the 3rd kingdom parable of Matthew 13 (trees and birds). Today I happened to watch the following new Homesteading videos below - trees and birds both on the same day today - Coincidence? No Sir!
Thank you Kevin for showing the world about focusing on the tasks at hand and being thankful for and caring for that which God has provided. Thank you for showing me that in caring for our tasks at hand, the most important things are the eternal which are unseen. And for showing us that God does indeed have a sense of humor and that he answers all of our prayers in one way or another. I really needed this confirmation.
Thank you again sir.
Andrew Sheets
Quote from The Coming Kingdom pages 114-118 by Dr. Andrew Woods: "The Parable of the Mustard Seed The Parable of the Mustard Seed is found in Matthew 13:31–32, which says, “He presented another parable to them, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field; and this is smaller than all other seeds, but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that THE BIRDS OF THE AIR come and NEST IN ITS BRANCHES.’” This parable is popularly interpreted as a prediction of the inevitable expansion of God’s kingdom throughout the world in the present age. Pink introduces four points that demonstrate why such an interpretation is found wanting: The popular and current explanation of these parables is that they were meant to announce the glorious success of the Gospel. Thus, that of the mustard-seed is regarded as portraying the rapid extension of Christianity and the expansion of the Church of Christ. Beginning insignificantly and obscurely, its proportions have increased immensely, until ultimately it shall cover the earth. Let us first show how untenable and impossible this interpretation is: First, it must be steadily borne in mind that these seven parables form part of one connected and complete discourse whose teaching must necessarily be consistent and harmonious throughout. Therefore, it is obvious that this third one cannot conflict with the teaching of the first two. In the first parable, instead of drawing a picture of a field in which the good Seed took root and flourished in every part of it, our Lord pointed out that most of its soil was unfavorable, and that only a fractional proportion bore an increase. Moreover, instead of promising that the good-ground section of the field would yield greater and greater returns, He announced that there would be a decreasing harvest—“some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” In the second parable, our Lord revealed the field as over-sown with “tares,” and declared that these should continue until the harvest-time, which He defined as “the end of the age.” This fixes beyond all doubt the evil consequences of the Enemy’s work, and positively forbids the expectation of a world won to Christ during this present dispensation, Christ plainly warned us that the evil effects of the Devil’s labors at the beginning of the age would never be repaired. The crop as a whole is spoiled! Thus this third parable cannot teach that the failure of things in the hands of men will be removed and reversed. Second, the figure here selected by Christ should at once expose the fallacy of the popular interpretation. Surely our Lord would never have taken a mustard-seed, which afterwards became a “tree,” ever rooting itself deeper and deeper in the earth, to portray that people whose calling, hope, citizenship, and destiny is heavenly. Again and again He affirmed that His people were “not of the world.” Again, a great tree with its towering branches speaks of prominence and loftiness, but lowliness and suffering, not prominence and exaltation, are the present portion of the New Testament saints. The more any church of Christ climbs the ladder of worldly fame the more it sinks spiritually. That which is represented by this “tree” is not a people who are “strangers and pilgrims” down here, but a system whose roots lie deeply in the earth and which aims at greatness and expansion in the world. Third, that which Christ here describes is a monstrosity. We are aware that this is denied by some, but our Lord’s own words are final. He tells us that when this mustard-seed is grown it is the “greatest among herbs, and becomes a tree” (v. 32). “Herbs” are an entirely different specie from trees. That which distinguished them is that their stems never develop woody tissue, but live only long enough for the development of flowers and seeds. But this “herb” became a “tree;” that is to say, it developed into something entirely foreign to its very nature and constitution. How strange that sober men should have deemed this unnatural growth, this abnormal production, a fitting symbol of the saints of God in their corporate form! . . . Clearly the “field,” all through Matthew 13, is the world. Is, then, “the world” a favorable place for the growth of that kingdom which Christ solemnly and expressly said was “not of this world” (John 18:36)? Is this world, where the flesh and the Devil unite in opposing all that concerns Christ and His interests, a congenial soil for Christianity? Either the world must cease to be what it is—“the enemy of God”—or the Seed must change its character, before the one will be favorable to the other. And this is just what our parable does teach: the “herb” becomes a “tree.” Fourth, the “birds” lodging in the branches of this tree makes altogether against the current interpretation. If Scripture be compared with Scripture it will be found that these “birds” symbolize Satan and his agents. Let not the reader be turned aside by the fact that the “dove,” and in some passages the “eagle,” represents that which is good. That which we must now attempt to define is the actual word “birds,” or better, “fowls”—as the Greek word is rendered in verse 4. In Genesis 15:11 we are told that the “fowls came down upon the carcasses” (the bodies of the sacrifices) and that “Abram drove them away.” . . . Again, in Deuteronomy 28, where we have the curses which were to come upon Israel for their disobedience, we are told, “And thy carcass shall be meat unto all fowls of the air” (v. 26). The last time the term occurs in Scripture is in Revelation 18:2, where we are told that fallen Babylon becomes the “habitation of demons, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.” But we do not have to go outside of Matthew 13 itself to discover what Christ referred to under the figure of these “birds.” The Greek word in verse 32 is precisely the same as that which is rendered “fowls” in verse 4, which are explained in verse 19 as “the wicked.” How, then, can this great “tree” represent the true Church of Christ, while its branches afford shelter for the Devil and his emissaries? . . . if we let Scripture interpret Scripture, the great “tree” is easily identified in Daniel 4:10–12. . . . In Daniel 4:20–22 we have the inspired interpretation of the vision. . . . Thus, the “tree” was a figure of a mighty earthly kingdom or empire. Again, in Ezekiel 31 we have the same figure used. . . . Thus a “tree,” whose wide-spreading branches afforded lodgment for birds, was a familiar Old Testament figure for a mighty kingdom which gave shelter to the nations. So it is in our parable. The “tree” symbolizes earthly greatness, worldly prominence, giving shelter to the nations. The history of Christendom clearly confirms this. At the beginning, those who bore the name of Christ were but a despised handful. . . . Finding that force was of no avail, the Enemy changed his tactics. Failing to intimidate as the roaring lion, he now sought to insinuate as the subtle serpent. Ceasing to attack from without, he now worked from within. In the first parable the assault was from without—the fowls of the air catching away the Seed. In the second parable his activities were from within—he sowed his tares among the wheat. In the third parable we are shown the effects of this. Satan now moved worldly men to seek membership in the churches of God. These soon caused the Truth to be watered down, discipline to be relaxed, that which repelled the world to be kept in the background, and what would appeal to the carnal mind to be made prominent. Instead of affections being set upon things above, they were fixed on things below. Soon Christianity ceased to be hated by the unregenerate: the gulf between the world and the “Church” was bridged. Persecution ceased, and the professed cause of the despised and rejected Savior became popular. The distinctive truths of Christianity were abandoned, the Gospel was adulterated, the pilgrim character of professing saints ceased. . . . The lowly upper room had long been forsaken, and the honors of kings’ courts coveted. And God granted their fleshly desire—just as long before He had given Saul to apostate Israel when they forsook the path of separation and wished to be like the surrounding nations. . . . Thus we may discern in the first three parables of Matthew 13 a striking and sad forecast of the development of evil. In the first, the Devil caught away part of the good Seed. In the second, he is seen engaged in the work of imitation. Here, in the third, we are shown a corrupted Christianity affording him shelter.12 So far from communicating the expansion of the kingdom, the parable of the mustard seed actually teaches that the final form of Christendom will represent an apostate form of truth at great variance from its biblically pure origins..." End Quote
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