Scripture: Luke 3:8 & 17-18 (REB) – “Prove your repentance by the fruit you bear…”  “His winnowing-shovel is ready in his hand, to clear his threshing-floor and gather the wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn on a fire that can never be put out.”

Message: The imagery of how chaff was separated from the wheat grain in pre-mechanized days gives a vivid picture of the impact John the Baptist felt Jesus would have on the lives of those who were prepared to listen to him, Jesus as the farmer tossing the wheat into the air to allow the breeze to blow the chaff away from the fruitful grain.

We are all like the wheat when brought in from the field, a mixture of good grain and chaff which, if we truly open ourselves – warts and all – to the teachings and example of Jesus will expose the chaff within us to the working of the Holy Spirit and purify our lives.  This demands great honesty and courage to reflect on the self-centeredness of our ways of life in comparison to the self-sacrificial life of Jesus and to be prepared to allow our ways of life to be changed.

The question is: are we really ready to be tossed into the air and allow those things in our lives which diminish our fruitfulness before God to be blown away by His purifying Spirit and sacrificed in His name?

Prayer: Loving and generous God, each and every day, give me the courage to be completely honest before You; and allow Your purifying Spirit to cleanse me of my self-centeredness, so that I may follow the Jesus Way ever more closely.  Amen.

Mike Evans
Midsomer Norton Methodist Church
Midsomer Norton, United Kingdom

Revised: February 03, 2025

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