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Chaff or Wheat: 28 Dec 06

Meditations from “Conversations with Jesus” by Calvin Miller (Harvest House Publishing)

I have a few literary heroes. One of them is Calvin Miller. One skill I marvel and attempt to learn from him is the way he goes INTO scripture. This morning's reading was from Matthew 3:12.

“And His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear the threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” (NASB)

He gave a simple exposition and compared the chaff from the wheat. As I was reading it and meditating on it, I also noted that the winnowing fork serves the same function towards the chaff and the wheat. It acts to thresh both wheat and chaff at the same time. The one that gets blown away i.e. chaff will be burnt. The one that stays i.e. wheat will be gathered into the barn. It is the weight, the substance of the chaff or wheat that determines whether it goes or stays. The winnowing fork only stirs. The chaff being without any substance gets blown away, the wheat being weightier with life settles right where the Thresher is .

Who decides who gets blown away? Not the Thresher but the object being threshed. This verse follows immediately after John the Baptist spoke on bringing forth fruits that comes with repentance. The act of repentance itself IS NOT the fruit per se. Fruits of repentance is a change in conduct, not the result of prescribed forms by the religious leaders but a change that reflects the repentance which takes place within a person. Change from the inside out will be permanent instead of being temporal. True repentance that bears fruit does not require supervision from man, is not the result of being pressurized, does not do to impress others. It's a natural respond of what has taken place in our hearts and it's what we are willing to do for God so that He gets the glory.

Bartimaeus followed Christ and praised Him wherever he went
Zeccheus restituted what he had cheated of others
The widow's gift of two mites was the greatest gift of all among many who gave much.

To be a chaff or wheat? We decide. Fruits of repentance is the weight in the wheat. The life in the wheat that is not blown away when the threshing comes. Chaff is an empty shell, one that looks promising but does not deliver.

Lord, I wanna bear fruits of repentance. Help me.

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