Unbelief in Matthew 13 and the purpose of this blog

On the surface, this blog post will seem to be a rather strange combination of two very different topics, but we mustn't judge a book by its cover. That being said, this is an atypical example and therefore it IS quite accurate of you to judge a book by its cover: these ARE two completely unrelated topics that wont fit together in any way whatsoever. Lets start with the least important one, the purpose of this blog. In case you want to skip right to the meat and potatoes of this post, I will number these two topics to avoid mass pandemonium. If you want to avoid annoying cliched phrases, you aren't out of the woods yet! You are stuck between a rock and hard place; out of the frying pan and into the fire. Without further ado, lets get this party started.

1. The purpose of this blog from this point on will be twofold. I will continue to answer all of your many questions that are constantly filling up my inbox [/sarcasm], but I will also start posting various "insights" that I have stumbled upon concerning spiritual things. There will be two types of posts now: answers and topical posts. I know what you're all thinking:

"Blogmaster, what will you be posting in these topical posts?"

"Why the change?? I HATE CHANGE!!!!!!111"

"I searched "topical creams" on google and I was brought to your site. Do topical posts have any relation with topical creams?"

To answer your questions: "I'll explain them on the next line, because change was needed, and no."

Topical posts will NOT be answers to questions. I know many of you will turn away in disgust because this is supposed to be a "Christian question and answer blog" but hear me out. I thought these were necessary because there's a lot going on in my mind that I would like to share with the world. The problem is, most people I meet in real life don't want to listen to all of my "insights". I have thus concluded that the internet would be a better medium to share my propaganda errr I mean wisdom. That being said, these topical posts will be somewhat like mini-sermons. Each one will be discussing a topic or section of the Bible and *hopefully* giving helpful insights into the topic/text. If you want a good example of a topical post, read the post directly below this one that is entitled "Spiritual Truths in Jude". That will be the prototype for topical posts.

2. Okay, onwards to Matthew 13. I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I really don't have an incredible amount to say about Matthew 13. It was more of a trick to get you to read #1... There, I confessed! *Phew* I'm glad that's off my chest! Now I can properly share the small amount of insight that I do have about Matthew 13. Matthew 13 has a TON of things to talk about, but I only chose two verses. This could explain why I don't have a whole lot to say...

Turn to Matthew 13 and feast your eyes on verse 58: "He did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief." This has always been a puzzling verse, why would someone's lack of faith affect the frequency of miracles? The short answer is: we don't know. The important thing is that we know that IT DOES. For some reason, God decided that miracles will occur primarily to those that believe. It seems to me that this Nazareth occurrence can be taken as a paradigm for the Christian life. If we believe that Christ CAN and WILL do miracles in our lives, they will happen. The more faith we have, the more God will work in our lives.

Scan the pages BACKWARDS until you get to verse 12. I know that it is rather unorthodox to go backwards in the Bible, so if this is something that you feel conviction about, feel free to close your Bible and reopen it instead. Lets read verse 12 out loud: "For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance;but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him." This is in the same context as verse 58 and one may wonder why they appear in the same chapter. They are found in the same context because they are interconnected. If someone has faith, they "have" and more will be given to them (in this case miracles). If someone doesn't have faith, they "don't have" and even what they have will be taken from them (in this case, they will not see the hand of God at work in there lives). It is worth noting that verse 12 is primary about gaining the Kingdom of Heaven. If we have God on earth, we will attain eternal life with Christ. If we do not have God, even what we have now (physical life) will be stripped from us. The occurrence of miracles are simply a subsequent step of this interpretation.

And there you have it! I hope that you now know all about my blog (there will be a test on that next week) and also have a keen understanding of two verses in Matthew 13. Not enough scripture for you? Get off the internet and go read Matthew 13 in its entirety. Then go tell your friends about this "super awesome blog site you just found". God bless!