Father, I am coming before You a little earlier today. It is really best that I do so in that I am more with it this time of day and I want to catch everything You have to say to me. Please bless our time together. Amen.
Luke 3:15-18 (<<click to read the passage)
As I read through this portion of Scripture last night, one thing that grabbed my attention was John’s reference to separating the chaff from the wheat. As I thought on that, peanuts came to mind.
We have one restaurant that we frequent that has a galvanized bucket on the table full of peanuts in the shell. Years ago, they encouraged their customers to just throw the empty shells on the floor. They now supply an empty bucket just for those.
My assumption (and that usually gets me in trouble!) was that peanut shells are good only for the trash. I’m wrong on that (if you are curious, check out Uses of Peanut Shells) but for the average individual, we just throw them away. What we are after is that which the shells hold – the peanut!
In God’s Kingdom, He invites all to be used of Him. Nobody is excluded but because He created us, we have a choice. We can choose to live for God and be a “peanut” to be used for His glory. Or we can refuse to live for God and be as the shell with no value in His Kingdom and in the end, we will be discarded into “the never-ending fire” as John makes very clear.
Now many may think that we are “nuts” for giving ourselves over to God by repenting and allowing Him to use us as He sees fit. And even though George Washington Carver invented more than 300 uses for peanuts (but not peanut butter!) God has a far more extensive list of things that we can do and be for His glory! And every single one of them brings fulfillment to our lives that absolutely nothing else will!
So ultimately, in the end, it is our choice to be “nuts” for Jesus or be a “shell” of what we could have been. With the first, we have eternal value and eternal life that will not be wasted. For the latter, we will find no lasting value here and we will have only eternal suffering and separation from God as our reward for rejecting His life-giving offer.
May we choose wisely, for we will have no one to blame but ourselves. Our choice will bring blessing or banishment!

Nov 20th, 2019, Wed, 12:39 pm