How do you understand the Parables your take?

[Justmerach]

Which Parables do you use in your life the most. We can be drawn to different things. Saying this you have obviously have some understanding of it yourself.

Some people do struggle to understand some of the Parables in the Bible.
I thought in this thread using the Bible as our guide we can say how we see the Parables in our own words.. This may help as well some people to understand them and to help you as well think about them again in perhaps new ways guided by others. Some good things in my life happened to me after writing this, I went questioning my talents which led to some new openings for me with the power of God. So it helped me and that basis I am posting to share if any of this may help you. My take on the Speck and the Log parable was just me.

Attempt to explain any Parables as well that you use yourself so much, but you may think others could struggle with understanding them as well.

In peace as always

The Parable of the Lampstand

This is the Parable of the Lampstand. This appears in the Gospels in Matthew 5-14, Mark 4:21-25 and Luke 19:11-27. The Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30) is also mentioned as well.

The meaning of the lampstand for me is quite clear and it says to me, if you have a natural talent or spiritual gift try and harness it and use them as well to bring light to the world.

If you wanted to there are different ways to bring light to the world such as writing your account of your faith and storing it permanently online like on a blog or other ways you may come up with yourself. We all are very unique. If you are not able to do so God surely knows as well what are able to do and not able to do.

If though you are a writer I would advise do as what was said to me at 17 note down my experiences with my faith as I am going through it and I am glad I did. Writing my account of my faith journey gave me the best feeling.

There are many ways to attempt to bring light to world as well.

It is sad state affairs to me that many may even get to adulthood and have no idea of what their natural talents are and it may be even a luxury for them to even think about it as well. I was not encouraged to develop my natural talents fully in childhood so unpicking them later can be challenging.

A natural talent can be like being a gifted musician so may be engaging in your gift and sharing your talent with others on Facebook for etc can be one way of sharing with others as someone I know is a gifted pianist and they share on Facebook and play music at their church on a Sunday bringing light to everyone Sometimes when such gifted musicians in such craft, I cannot but think they are used by the Holy Spirit as well. Even some with severe disabilities can write the most beautiful profound poetry as a testimony to God and they share their gift of writing with the world as well.

I have a waterfall project on Youtube for my interests and using my natural talents. I do not allow personal comments. Someone caught me though on one I never turned the comments off on and they said they were glad they stumbled on my video as it was good for their depression. In all the many videos I had that was the first comment. I looked and said ok I was taken and if just one person has appreciated this then it is worth for me and was blown over and it rolled it back to private and this was enough for me to hear.

Getting back to the scripture. I think scripture on this is easy to understand, but it appears three times in the Gospels the Parable of the Lampstand. I have quoted one and referenced the other two entries. Then the Parable of the Talents also appears to support the Parable of the Lampstand. I said to my dad yesterday, dad if you are say happy with what you have in your life already why do you have to go and collect a lot more talents just for the purposes sakes, when you are happy with what you have and working with it well. My dad reminded me as well, that there was in fact the talent of five but also of one as well, which however though went unsued and Jesus was not happy as the person had the ability to do more. There may be cases were you cannot do more and simply loving God is your limits and God knows this. However, the moral of The Parable of the Talents is that with your at least one talent if you are able to, try and make use of them.

Matthew 5-14

14 “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
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I will end this with a bit of me, what I like to listen to wake me up a bit and give me a jolt at times. Let me just listen to that now lol. I wish you well. The song is called This little light of mine and it is about using the gifts that have been given to you and you sharing them with the world.

Parable of the speck and the log-

Do not go around judging another ones one. Do not go go around judging people’s problems, them or their situation, for you yourself may have bigger and more worthy issues of being pulled up on for correction. You have got to be perfect before you go around judging another. The problems found in your eye if we look close enough is the bigger thing -plank/beam/log etc that will be in your eye when we look close enough and lets us not judge you by yours...At that point you would going go running and not say a word...most would.

You can disagree with an action say someone going into a bad temper, but try not judge the person.

(Parable of the Sower)

Well, I think any sensible Christian would want their seeds to be sown to fall on good ground to harvest and avoid the pitfalls like the stony ground and produce fruitful results. Obviously this is Kingdom work right her. I do think that as human beings we all have different capabilities. One may find that they are attempting to serve God in any way with a limited condition that they may have to take a different course to achieve their goal through it. I think people should not really reveal their deepest aims to anyone but God. We can though look at this more generally for sure.

Really as well we have to do our offering to God in the best way that we can with the gifts that we have and involve Jesus at the centre of it. Really as well God is only to judge how ones offering and effort has impacted them in their life. Something not outwardly looking difficult may have caused that person consequences and suffering in some way as well.

Now if I choose to set about to do anything to serve my faith I immediately offer it up to God and don’t claim anything for it wasn’t me who gave it to me and it was just my hands that performed it the free gift given to me. There is nowt about me and everything great about God. For isn’t it God that gave it to me.

I will tell you a bit from my personal life. I am diagnosed with autism and have a few Level 2 areas and other conditions. In my offering to God I wrote about and reached the area I have been called to do. My story was given to me and it was my pleasure, but I think we all have our strengths and need to arrive how we can utilise them best.

I think if someone was inclined to want to do something for their faith, pray about it and go for it if you think it is right. Even a sharing of a link to someone can be helpful. Keep being that Christian solider.

Vine and the Branches

Jesus is the vine. We are the branches. Our dependency as Christians rests on Jesus as the vine and we the branches rests on him for the Church.

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I had not looked up what a vine was before, it makes me of something American and in the UK we do not use terms so much. So a vine could a stem and the branches do not explaining.

Over to you

There was a typo there- I meant

Attempt to explain any Parables as well that you don't use yourself so much, but you may think others could struggle with understanding them as well.

The parables are such a beautiful gift from Jesus. Especially to children. My son (6yo) loves the lost sheep, but many of the parables seem to speak to him in a really meaningful way. They make so many Christian ideas really easy for him to understand.

Glad to your son loves the parables purplesparlydinosaur my take on that parable of the Lost Sheep was simple that I didn't post it here. It is very easy to understand. I posted a picture of sheep in the Christian art thread and one of the things I had in mind was the parable of the Lost Sheep as well when I posted it.

I saw this story about the Holy Spirit supporting a man with their natural talent of art and I really liked it and it links to the Parable of Talents and the Lampstand so I thought I would paste the story here.

Hope you are well. I mentioned before in a earlier post how the Holy Spirit most probably can support people with their talents and fill them in with the Holy Spirit when they are doing work for God especially. I liked this story as it is about the Holy Spirit supporting people with their natural talents in their everyday life and in born talents as well to highlight God outside of the Gifts of the Holy Spirit.

I have pasted it in case you cannot read it without subscribing. If you play around the website you can download it if you grab it in minutes say on Microsoft Edge.
https://www.premierchristianity.com/tes ... 48.article

‘My art is a miracle - it’s inspired by the Holy Spirit’
By Kate OrsonKate Orson24 October 2023 3 min read

Maxmillian Ciccone has been widely lauded for his unique style. But having had no formal training, the Italian artist insists his talent and anointing comes from the Holy Spirit. A new renaissance is coming, he says

Maxmillian

When God thought about me, he thought about an artist. I believe my artistic gift is from him.

When I was young I drew a lot but never thought of making it a career. At age 21, I was wild, really extreme. I drank and took drugs and had started doing things that were really wrong. I was always with different women.

A supernatural encounter
Like most Italian families, ours was Catholic in name only. Then, one day, a Christian friend shared the gospel with me. I immediately perceived that it was the truth. At the invitation of my friend, I started going to prayer meetings. Normally I’d be under the influence of drugs or alcohol, but strangely, whenever I went to a prayer meeting, the effect of the substances I had taken completely vanished. Instead, I always felt a sense of peace and lightness. It was supernatural. The sense of peace would accompany me the whole night so I thought: Maybe this really is God.

After that, I started reading the Bible and going to church. I also immediately started to preach the gospel, even though I knew very little. My radical nature, which had previously been used for self-destruction, was now used for God’s purposes instead.

Around the same time, I tried to go to art school, but always found closed doors. At first, I thought God might call me to be a pastor or an evangelist. But then the Holy Spirit started revealing that art was a spiritual calling for me. Over time, I understood that my art is a miracle. It doesn’t come from human teaching, but from the grace of God.

Restoration
God showed me that I needed to develop my skills to the very best they could be, and also have an understanding of the history of art. I began painting between eight and 15 hours every day. God showed me how this would initiate a new movement of the restoration of true art, not modern art. This would be a pioneering artistic movement, a new way to see and do art.

The critics can’t understand my style because God put an anointing on my life

God’s calling on my life bore witness in my heart. Since God is creative, he gives us creative ideas which then become reality. God has imparted an anointing on me, giving me the ability to paint like the masters of the 19th century.

Now, when art critics and historians come to view my work, they ask me: “What time period are you from? Where did you study?’’ They were used to recognising where a painter had studied. The critics can’t understand my style because God put an anointing on my life. I haven’t done any formal study.

When I first got engaged to my wife, Ada, God began to speak to me about moving to Florence, in Tuscany. I was born and raised in the south of Italy and had no interest in these places. But when God calls, it’s because he has a project in mind. We put everything in our car and drove. We had no money, only that guarantee from God.

There was a monk, Savonarola, who was martyred in 1498 because he stood against the corruption of the Catholic Church. He prophesied: “You will be the Florence that will reform all of Italy. Here will begin a renaissance that will spread everywhere. Florence needs to become the new Jerusalem, a lighthouse. A point of reference of which you can look at. To begin the purification of the whole world.”

Savonarola didn’t have complete understanding of the vision at the time. He destroyed a lot of valuable art and that was wrong. But Savonarola was saying God would send a spiritual, or artistic, revival. God’s purpose is to bring a new renaissance. This is not the renaissance of the Medicis (the wealthy bankers and popes who helped fund the Renaissance). This rebirth is built by God. It’s incredible, and its prophecy is coming true.

We moved to Montevarchi, near Florence, 17 years ago. I now teach at the largest art school in this part of the country. People have moved to Florence to study my techniques. God is causing this revival with young artists. I’ve met people with double degrees, really amazing careers, and they’ve left everything to come and dedicate themselves to art. Their lives have been completely turned upside down by God.

Last summer, I opened my own studio and gallery. It brought a lot of curious people because it says: “ingresso libero/free entrance” on the door. People come in and they’re like: “Wow! This is what I’ve been looking for.” It was God’s strategy to do it this way. God’s presence is in this place. The Holy Spirit has reached many people who’ve walked through the doors.

Right now, I have a small studio. But I believe it’s God’s plan to give me a larger structure; an art academy with a gallery that the public can visit. We have spent four years fasting and praying, trying to find the right place in Florence. Everywhere was too expensive or just not right. We have finally found an apartment in the Basilica Di San Lorenzo, a renaissance church. Our apartment happens to be located over the tombs where the Medici family are buried. God has a great sense of humour!

Before the end of time, God wants to restore all things. This restoration will be used to bring more people into the kingdom. With my gift, I can reach people in the artistic world. These are people that, for example, a singer will never reach. God needs his children to wake up in different fields of society – art, politics, finances, film – so that the gospel can arrive in that field, too.

Maxmillian Ciccone was speaking to Kate Orson. Find out more at maxmiliancicconefineartstudio.it

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I thought I would post this video as well. This woman who is diagnosed with autism is actually talking about her being supported with natural talents as well and speaks that the Holy Spirit is leading her to do so.