The
BIBLICAL
MESSENGER

ANYONE CAN COUNT THE SEEDS IN AN APPLE

Cut open an Apple.
Now count the seeds.
How many did you find there? Three? Eight? Ten? More?
That was easy! Even most kindergartners can count the seeds in an apple.
Now for something a little more challenging.
Since you know how many seeds are in the apple, go back and count the number of apples in each seed.
How did you do this time? Probably laughed at the assignment and didn't even attempt it.
You see, it's easy to count the number of seeds in an apple, but only God can count the number of apples in a seed. The some holds true concerning every kind act or dollar given out of a spirit of generosity to benefit another person. It is easy to count seeds or tabulate amounts; impossible to know the good either does. Impossible, too, to know how far reaching any act of kindness or gift, large or small, will be. Or, how long either will travel through time, affecting others and multiplying as it moves.

INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY

       God's word is very clear. When we stand before Him on the day of judgment, we will be judged individually. We will be judged by what we have done "in the body" (II Cor. 5:10) not "out of the body."

       The one talent man of Matthew 25 was lost eternally because he himself did not use what God had given him.

        The attitude of many Americans is blame someone else for your own problems and mistakes. No one wants to blame himself. After all, who wants to face up to his own failures? It is human nature to blame someone else. Eve blamed the serpent, Adam blamed Eve. It is easier to fix the blame on heredity, environment, circumstances, handicaps, and other people. A poor golfer will blame the course, bad clubs, bad balls, the wind, the sand traps, etc. No one wants to declare, "I am a bad golfer."

       Shakespeare, a truly great student of human nature, makes Cassius say: "the fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.

       William M. Elliott, Jr. has said, "There is no point in blaming something else or somebody else when all the while we are to blame. Such procedure is both unrealistic and futile. It is time we considered the possibility that we ourselves are the real culprits. Some of us would take a long step toward personal recovery if we only had the courage to look into a mirror and say. 'Thou art the man!'"

       As we read and study the Bible, God wants us to take an honest evaluation of ourselves (II Cor. 13:4: Romans 12:3). When David was confronted with his sin, he said "I have sinned."

       Let us all be open to our own individual responsibilities. Let us seek to be faithful in fulfilling what we must do.

       May God Bless you.

In Christian Love,                           
John Hobbs