Ahava Love Letter - "Seed That Lives"

Ahava Love Letter

Seed That Lives “Yes, indeed! I tell you that unless a grain of wheat that falls to the ground dies, it stays just a grain; but if it dies, it produces a big harvest.”  (John 12:24 Complete Jewish Bible)

Dear family of friends,

And the next verse says, “He who loves his life loses it, but he who hates his life in this world will keep it safe right on into eternal life!” (John 12:25 CJB)

This doesn’t seem like the way it should be, right? How can you die in order to live? How can you “let go” of what you have, in order to get something even better? Sometimes so much bigger. Even that is hard to imagine or believe. And yet that is what the Lord is calling us to do.

I think it is quite apparent now, all around us, that mankind has missed it. More so than what we used to think, both naturally and spiritually would happen. We thought we basically had it made, particularly as Christians in America. But our economies are hurting. Many families are often separated. Quite a few churches have become a place where people go to be entertained for an hour a week, only to live as the rest of the world for the other 167 hours in between services. It can be quite discouraging at times.

Letting our learned ways die off isn’t easy, and I for one fight against it in ways I sometimes am not even aware of. I know the Lord has said “This is the way,” and then I balk, question, resist, or even oppose the direction I am to go. Sometimes I just don’t see “it”, and still think I have the better way of getting something accomplished. Whatever that “it” is in my life, or yours.

It is not fun to be in a dark, “can’t see the next step” place in life. Buried in the dirt left to die. Like most people, I too want to know the 10 year plan. Or the five year plan. How about just the next week plan? But I am convinced that one day at a time is how He wants to show it to me. Do I have faith for one day, and my daily bread? And so He allows me to die to my own ways, so that I finally choose His. Trust and obey isn’t the easy road to travel. It is becoming the only way.

At my age, I am finally convinced that I don’t have all the answers I thought I did. What I do have is what has died within me, and now has grown. I can offer to others only what 40 years of walking with the Lord has shown me, deep in my spirit. That when I do “die”, then what grows and flourishes is a faith that the rest of the world can’t take away. It is a life that rests on and in Him, not in myself and my abilities.

We are going to need a faith that is built on nothing more, and nothing less, than His commitment to us to accomplish His purposes. I am learning to give up trying to do it my way. I am dying to the way I have known it, so that I can live. Not an easy choice to make. But certainly the only one.

Resurrection life, and the faith to walk it out, will soon mean more to us than good words in the Book. We will know exactly what He has been telling us. It will be a “must way”, rather than just a “suggested way” of life.

Ahava to my family of friends,

Steve Martin

Founder/President

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Ahava Love Letter #23   Date: April 19, in the year of our Lord 2011