Friday, September 2, 2011

The kingdom of God will move forward - Mark 4

In Mark 4 we learn the kingdom of God will grow, sometimes imperceptibly, but constantly as people go about their lives, much like a plant grows:

26 ¶And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground;

27 And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and agrow up, he knoweth not how.

28 For the earth bringeth forth afruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.

29 But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the aharvest is come.

Growing the church takes work and effort, but because the organization is Christ's, it will continue to grow and develop into a great "plant" or amazing organization for all to see. Two comments by the First Presidency remind me of this. One is from President Monson's Biography in which it states something like, "once all the work has been done to the best of our ability, we can have confidence that all will turn out right because God is at the helm."

Second, I heard President Eyring once say to a group of people at BYU that he's told his wife that when he dies she should move to BYU because God is involved in the university. He said that God's hand is a soft hand and he moves things almost imperceptibly, but his hand is there. I think this clearly relates to the church as well as BYU. God occasionally is very involved and makes specific things happen, but he often uses a soft hand to move the kingdom along across the entire world. Then when we look back we are amazed at how it has happened.

I love the church. I know it's God's kingdom on earth. It's growing. It'll grow larger.

Have a great weekend.

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