A Seed in Good Soil

I read the Parable of the Sower (Luke 8) this morning and made a few observations about what it means to be a seed in good soil.

And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. (Luke 8:14)

• Choked--cut off from the life source (God)
• By cares and riches--People who are burdened by worries and preoccupations of this world, losing sight of the eternal perspective.  In our minds, we let our circumstances overcome the power of God.
• Pleasures of life--By definition, pleasure is something enjoyable.  Otherwise, if it was easy to deny, give up, or not do, it wouldn't be a sacrifice.  Even if it feels good to us, we have to trust that God knows best and wait for His purposes and His timing.
• Fruit does not mature--There is fruit, but it stays at an immature state.  The fruit is not brought to full maturity and completion.  It has started, but has stopped growing.

As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an 

honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience. (Luke 8:15)

• Hearing the word--(I'm not sure what tense the original Greek is, but...) hearing is not past tense, so we need to continually hear the Word.
• Hold it fast--we need to cling to the Word.  So often, our lives will not make sense or we'll feel like God is not near.  We need to cling to the Word because it is the truth and our feelings and emotions are not.
• Honest and good heart--We need to make our hearts places receptive to God.  We need to uproot the bitterness and rage in our hearts so that the Word can take root in our hearts.  We need to provide the right environment so that God can do His growing work in our hearts.
• Bear fruit--not only do we bear fruit in our own lives, but cause others to bear fruit too as we share the Good News with others
• Patience--when we share God with others, it takes time and lots of patience.  The same with bearing good fruit in our lives, it takes time to rid ourselves of our old selves and put on our new selves.

Mercy

I've previously had a hard time figuring out the place of mercy ministry in evangelism.  I always leaned more towards the actual act of sharing the gospel being more important than taking part in mercy ministry.  Though I still have a lot more to learn about the place of mercy ministry, I've realized a few reasons as to why Christians need to participate in mercy ministry:

• Oftentimes we need to meet people's felt needs before they will be more receptive to delving into their core needs, including their need to draw near to Christ.  Felt needs are "the door to core needs."  While sharing the gospel is the most important in terms of eternal significance, that does not necessarily mean that it must always come first. 
• We perform good deeds to show how the results of sin can be transformed by the gospel.  Sin brought alienation from ourselves, from others, and from God.  As we transcend this alienation, we move towards the world God originally created.
• If people have limited exposure or conception of even what conditional love is, then seeking to understand what God's unconditional love is downright impossible.  When we love others through acts of mercy, it provides them with a tangible glimpse into what God's love is like.

[A lot of these thoughts developed as I worked through a Bible study based on Timothy Keller's Ministries of Mercy:  The Call of the Jericho Road.]

Glorify

John 17:15--My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect him from the evil one.

Whenever I face difficulties, my prayer is almost always that God would take me home so that I wouldn't have to continue to face the struggle. What a selfish request that is! Why should my temporal sufferings be more important than the potential impending eternal suffering of people around me? I must endure here on earth so that more can know Jesus. Afterall, that is the reason I am here on earth, not to feel good, but to glorify God.

Surrender

"...the gift of grace involves the gift of a new heart.  New desires.  New longings.  For the first time, we want God.  We see our need for him, and we love him.  We seek after him, and we find him, and we discover that he is indeed the great reward of our salvation.  We realize that we are saved not just to be forgiven of our sins or to be assured of our eternity in heaven, but we are saved to know God.  So we yearn for him.  We want him so much that we abandon everything else to experience him.  This is the only proper response to the revelation of God in the gospel."  --David Platt (Radical, p. 39)

In his book, Radical, David Platt challenges Christians to extricate our faith from the American Dream.  As I read through the second chapter today, I couldn't help but think about how I've been settling for mediocrity and this life over radical faith and abandonment for the gospel; I've become too comfortable.  As I noticed more recently, my dreams and hopes have become more about what I want rather than what is best for the Kingdom.  In short, I need to surrender.

As I think further about surrender, I can't help but think that if I truly desired to live fully for God's Kingdom, why wouldn't I pursue vocational ministry?  Why wouldn't I pour all my time and efforts into reaching the lost every second of the day?  And yet, I know that God needs people in all sectors of society, as businessmen and women, as teachers, as doctors, as lawyers.  To surrender means to yield my thoughts and dreams, even my ideas of what would be best for the Kingdom and instead, to trust in God's wisdom.  I might think that my best contribution to furthering God's Kingdom is by pursuing full-time vocational ministry, but God, in His infinite wisdom, has called me (I think) to be a missionary in my workplace as a teacher, at least for the time being.  Surrender means being ready to go wherever God is calling me to do whatever God is calling me, whenever God is calling me.  It is saying, "Here am I, send me."

Questions for myself:  Am I fully surrendered to God?  How can I do more?  How can I give more?

Self-Seeking

Jesus Foretells His Death and Resurrection

21From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. 22And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord!^e This shall never happen to you.” 23But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance^f to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

Take Up Your Cross and Follow Jesus

24Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25For whoever would save his life^g will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? 27For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. 28Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

When Peter rebukes Jesus and says that his suffering will never happen, it may seem that Jesus' response is especially harsh.  After all, Peter was in line with the prevailing school of thought at that time, that Messiah need not suffer.  But upon closer examination, perhaps Jesus' response was necessarily frank.

"Jesus' memorable rebuke seems mercilessly severe.  But the fact that He identified Satan as the source of Peter's words describes precisely and appropriate the character of the advice Peter tried to give:  'Save yourself at all costs.  Sacrifice duty to self-interest, the cause of Christ to personal convenience.'  Peter's advice was satanic in principle for Satan's primary aim is to promote self-interest as the chief end of man."

--p. 33, The Bondage Breaker  (Neil T. Anderson)

It is completely in line with the world's ways to value safety, comfort, and life above all else, even God's plans.  At the heart of Satan's plan is to trick us into thinking that life is all about us.  How will my needs be met?  Why is my life so hard?  What will be best for me?

"Satan has deceived [many Christians] into thinking they are serving themselves when in fact they are serving the world, the flesh, and the devil."

--p. 33, The Bondage Breaker (Neil T. Anderson)

After this response, Jesus moves to weed out faulty theology by reminding the disciples that it is not about them.  In verse 24, Jesus tells his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take his cross and follow me."  In other words, if you want to live for God, you cannot live for yourself; you cannot serve two masters (Matthew 6:24).  If we live for ourselves, then ultimately, we are living in line with Satan's purposes which are at odds with God's purposes.  We cannot--it is impossible to--live for ourselves and live for God.

In verse 25, Jesus continues, saying, "For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."  Who can save himself?  We may try living good lives, hoping to earn salvation.  We may try seeking every new spiritual fad, hoping to reach God.  We may try accumulating worldly pleasures and material things, in hopes that we'll achieve salvation on earth.  But ultimately, who can safe himself?  No one.  There are two paths that we can take:  (1) We try saving our lives on our own, apart from the work of Christ.  Since it is impossible, we fail and lose our lives anyways.  Or, (2) We yield and lose the claim to our temporal earthly life, and find eternal life, the life we were created to experience.

Jesus then poses the final question of this section, "For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?  Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?" (verse 26).  What will all the world--with all its temporal riches, pleasures, power--mean without God?  What would these transient riches mean if one is eternally separated from God and from everything that God is?  And what on this earth could ever be equivalent to the price of a man's soul--a soul that is precious, made in God's image, and made to be fulfilled by God and God alone?  

How could we ever give our hearts and our souls to anything or anyone less worthy?