They will get theirs

We have always craved justice.  However, in recent years, there has been an increasing emphasis on correcting injustices within society – for wrongs committed today as well as those committed in the recent past.  This desire to right the wrongs is noble; however, there have been many ignoble attempts to carry out retribution or exact payment for injustices.  And then we often end up fighting about the ignoble means of handing out noble justice.  Who is supposed to be responsible for administering this justice and how far the punishment is taken have both been hot topics recently.  Accusations of corruption within the judicial branch of government appears in our news feeds frequently.  Stories and rumors of bad behavior are immediately blown up and judged via social media.  Being an election year always seems to put these issues to the forefront of our attention.

But what is a Christian to do with all this?  How can we proclaim a perfect God to a world that is far less than perfect?  We feel the same tensions that non-Christians do – Why do evil people seem to get away with stuff?  I’m glad when the bad guys finally get caught, but what about all those who do the same things and the authorities aren’t even aware of them?  How do we handle inconsistencies for how justice is administered?  What do we do when it appears that justice has not been served and someone “gets away with it” or receives a much lighter punishment than we would have expected?

These are not new questions.  These are concerns that people have always had, as they realized that their governments full of sinful people are trying to corral the actions of sinful people…this is not a formula to bring about perfect justice.  But that seems to be the best we have.  Even Israel’s King David and God’s prophets recognized this tension, and they asked God why injustice happens:

Psalm 94:3-7
Lord, how long will the wicked – how long will the wicked celebrate?
They pour out arrogant words; all the evildoers boast.
Lord, they crush your people; they oppress your heritage.
They kill the widow and the resident alien and murder the fatherless.
They say, “The Lord doesn’t see it.  The God of Jacob doesn’t pay attention.”

Jeremiah 12:1
You will be righteous, Lord, even if I bring a case against you.  Yet, I wish to contend with you:
Why does the way of the wicked prosper?
Why do all the treacherous live at ease?

Habakkuk 1:2-4
How long, Lord, must I call for help and You do not listen
or cry out to you about violence and you do not save?
Why do you force me to look at injustice?
Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?
Oppression and violence are right in front of me.
Strife is ongoing and conflict escalates.

This is why the law is ineffective and justice never emerges.
For the wicked restrict the righteous; therefore, justice comes out perverted.

Paul also dealt with our unfulfilled desire for justice in this manner:

Romans 12:19
Friends, do not avenge yourselves; instead, leave room for God’s wrath, because it is written, “Vengeance belongs to Me, I will repay”, says the Lord.

Paul’s quote goes back to Deuteronomy 32:35, reminding his readers that despite all they are struggling with, God promised long ago to make things right.

Although Paul goes on in his letter (Romans 13), to say that one of the ways God displays His wrath now through the appointed governments to do the work of justice and punishing those who do wrong…we’re still left with a judicial system that doesn’t always get it right.  Our judicial system does not always get all the evidence; it is not is able to understand all aspects of a situation.  Additionally, and sadly, our judicial system can be corrupted so that in some cases, those responsible are never held accountable. 

That is a lot of tension for us to stand in.  And while God’s statement “I will repay” is comforting, it can still feel a bit hollow.  Just like the Old Testament writers, we want to ask God…When?  When will wrongdoing be properly and fully repaid?

It’s likely not as swift as we would want it to be, but God has set a time and place for justice to be finally and fully served.  The apostle John records this moment as the last actions God takes before creating a new heaven and a new earth:

Revelation 20:11-15
Then I saw a great white throne and One seated on it.  Earth and heaven fled from His presence, and no place was found for them.  I also saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened.  Another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged according to their works by what was written in the books.  Then the sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them; each one was judged according to their works.  Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.  This is the second death, the lake of fire.  And anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

Let’s make a significant observation here: there are two sets of books that non-believers will be evaluated by.  The first set is plural – the dead were judged according to their works by what was written in the books – and this the full and just evaluation of their deeds in this life.  The second is singular – anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.  As the text says, it is whether or not their name is in book of life which sends them to the lake of fire, not their bad deeds and neither do their good deeds rescue them from this outcome.

The purpose of being judged according to their works is to determine the level of torment and anguish each person will suffer in the lake of fire.  A garden-variety pagan, who rejected Jesus’ offer of eternal life, will have a very different experience from someone on the level of Hitler, Stalin, or Mao Zedong.  That is true, full, and final justice.  Everything that someone appears to “get away with” now will come to light, and God will properly handle it.

Although this gives us some more comfort just knowing there is a “when”…I know this still leaves us with some unsettled questions.  Take them to God.  He is big enough to handle your questions.  Ask, just like Jeremiah did: You will be righteous, Lord, even if I bring a case against you.  Yet, I wish to contend with you…

This is how justice will be served for those who do not trust in Jesus for eternal life.  They will get theirs.  But, then, what happens to Christians who do terrible things?  Do they get away with it, just because they became a part of God’s family?  We’ll look at those questions next time.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

The Presidential debate - a Christian's response

After watching the train wreck that was supposed to be a Presidential debate, most of America was asking, “What was that?”  Neither candidate was presidential.  Neither man was cordial or kind.  There was no civility or discussion of issues.  Instead, we were presented with two men badgering and interrupting each other for the own short-sighted gains and stroking of egos.  It was a whirlwind of antics typically reserved for young children who have not practiced their communication skills.  And when the allotted time was finally up, the people of America were united in wondering what has become of our government and political process.

As I sat thinking afterwards, trying to process what we all had witnessed, an old Hebrew phrase came to mind: “Israel, to your tents!”.  But to help you understand why, we’re going to have to look back into ancient Israel to understand the context:

Solomon had died and the kingdom of Israel, all 12 tribes, was to pass to his son, Rehoboam.  Although Solomon had been a wise, rich, and successful king…he had also been harsh and driving to get the most out of the people when building up Jerusalem and the temple.  After the people came to Rehoboam to ask for relief under his kingship, he consulted with his advisors.  The elders who had served his father advised him to ease up on the people, to win their favor and gratitude.  The young men who grew up with Rehoboam told him to not look weak, and declare that he would be even tougher on the people than his father had been.  When you read Rehoboam’s answer to the nation’s request, you’ll understand the people’s response:

1 Kings 12:13-14, 16-17
Then the king answered the people harshly.  He rejected the advice the elders had given him and spoke to them according to the young men’s advice: “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with barbed whips.”

When all Israel saw that the king had not listened to them, the people answered him:
              What portion do we have in David?
              We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse.
              Israel, return to your tents;
              David, now look after your own house!

So Israel went to their tents, but Rehoboam reigned over the Israelites living in the cities of Judah.

When the Israelites realized that their government was no longer for them, their cry of rebellion stated that they were better off spending their energies focusing on their own families and communities.  From then on, the nation was split in two: the northern kingdom, with the 10 tribes collectively called “Israel”, and the southern kingdom, with the tribes of Judah and Benjamin collectively referred to as “Judah”.

You may be tempted to imagine that the northern kingdom quickly set up a wonderful government structure that took care of the people and prospered the nation of Israel…but you would be quite wrong to think that.  Instead, in their anger and uprising, they followed a man named Jeroboam.  His selfish ambition and political scheming led Israel into spiritual darkness and idolatry.  That path led to their eventual conquer and exile.

So what does this have to do with the 2020 Presidential election in the USA?  I think the Israelites’ actions can be both an example and a warning to us. 

When presented with dysfunctional political leadership, the people had the right idea…they should make sure their families and communities were taken care of.  However, they quickly put all their hope in the wrong place – another person who was desiring to lead the nation.  Instead, the people should have turned to God for their next steps and protection.

I’m not going to tell you who to vote for.  That’s between you and God.  But after you cast your vote, and regardless of who sits in the Oval Office for the next four years…you need to intentionally take care of your family and your community.  Not just your “Christian community”, but work within your neighborhood, surrounding areas, and the broader population around you.

Two other parts of Scripture come to mind:

Psalm 118:8-9
It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in humanity.
It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in nobles.

Philippians 2:14-16
Do everything without grumbling and arguing, so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world, by holding firm to the word of life.

The person elected as President does not prevent you from loving your neighbor as Jesus has loved you.  If there is going to be good in this country, if issues of race, equality, economic prosperity, and security are going to dealt with and improved in our nation, it will have to come from all of us – being the hands and feet of Jesus.  Our hope is not based on either of the politicians we saw on the debate stage.  The life change we desire to see in ourselves and our nation will not come about by a change in political policy...but only from a change to our heart.  

Keep Pressing,
Ken

You are my proof

I heard the statement recently “The only thing God is building right now on this earth is His church.”  After pondering over this idea for a while, I believe the person saying it was right.  The speaker was driving home an important point: the only things continuing on from this life to the next will be the people who have believed in Jesus for eternal life.  Everything else will be made new (Revelation 21:5).  This doesn’t mean that everything else – careers, homes, sports, buildings, hobbies, etc. – are considered “evil” or “worthless”, because these events are what God uses to develop and grow us.

So this means that the only eternally lasting work we can do is to build up Jesus’ church.  We can accomplish this work through one of two ways: 1) helping unbelievers understand and accept Jesus’ free offer of eternal life, or 2) encourage and develop those who already believe.

There are many ways to accomplish either of those pursuits; however, we also have to recognize that our time on earth is limited…which means we want to make the most of our time, especially when it comes to investing in other believers. 

At times in his letters, Paul expressed concern that he had not invested properly, that those he had shared both the gospel and his life with were not good “proofs” that his time was well spent.  Other times he commended his former pupils on their development after he had invested in them.  Here are just a few examples:

To the believers in Philippi, Paul wrote to encourage their progress in their relationship with God and how well they imitated Jesus to those around them.  He described how their growth was a benefit to them individually and to the further spreading of the gospel…but also to Paul, himself:

Philippians 2:14-16
Do everything without grumbling and arguing, so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world, by holding firm to the word of life.  Then I can boast in the day of Christ that I didn’t run or labor for nothing.

When Paul was correcting the believers in the region of Galatia for becoming confused by false teachers, he didn’t question their salvation, but he was concerned about their fruitfulness:

Galatians 4:11, 5:7
I am fearful for you, that perhaps my labor for you has been wasted…You were running well.  Who prevented you from being persuaded regarding the truth?

When checking up on the believers in Thessalonica, Paul spoke proudly of their progress in faith and love.  He joyfully told them:

1 Thessalonians 2:19-20
For who is our hope or joy or crown of boasting in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming?  Is it not you?  Indeed you are our glory and joy!

When I look at two of Jesus’ most famous parables, The parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30) and The parable of the minas (Luke 19:11-27), I find that Jesus is looking for a good return on His investment of gifts and abilities in each of us.  When we Christians do give an account to Jesus, what else can we give as evidence other than the lives we have ministered to, invested in, and enriched?  After all, Paul was writing to Christians when he said:

2 Corinthians 5:10
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may be repaid for what he has done in the body, whether good or bad.

Just like in The parable of the talents and The parable of the minas, the master will return and He will evaluate what we have done in His absence.  The judgment seat of Christ is only for believers; unbelievers will be judged at a different time.  As such, the judgement seat of Christ is not a place to determine our eternal destiny, instead it will be the time when Jesus determines our eternal rewards and opportunities to serve in His kingdom in the life to come.

I am proof that Joe Rheney did not run in vain.  I am not the only proof of his efforts, but I will be evidence – and I want to be good proof for a man who loved and invested so much in me.  I will also be proof for any Godly investment made by others at various times in my life – my parents, grandparents, teachers, friends.  Similarly, you are my proof that I did not waste my time blogging my Bible study.  It is my hope and prayer that you find good encouragement, a clear explanation of Scripture, and Godly challenges here.  What return on investment (ROI) is there for God if all I have learned and experienced with Him is kept solely for me?  Put simply: If I am not sharing who God has made me into and what God has taught me, then I am not fulfilling Jesus’ Great Commission. 

I know, this is a lot to take in all at once.  And not many churches emphasize this topic.  If this is new to you, or if you are suddenly feeling overwhelmed, here are a few application points to consider:

·       Paul invested in different people for different seasons of life.  Similarly, there will be different seasons when we invest, on God’s behalf, in others.  It’s also likely that we will not always invest in the same way or in the same physical location.
·       If you have children living at home – they are your primary ministry.  Not to say that you can’t or shouldn’t be investing in others, but your children must take priority over all others for this season.
·       The servants in both The parable of the talents and The parable of the minas were responsible for and received rewards based upon how much ROI they had from the master’s initial investment in them.  They were not judged in comparison with each other.  As such, we should not beat ourselves up if we are not “Paul the Apostle” or “Billy Graham”.  Instead, we should focus on being faithful with whatever skills, abilities, finances, and time God has given to us.

Truthfully, this topic can be summed up in just two questions:

Who are you proof for?
and
Who will be your proof that you did not waste God’s investment in you?

Keep Pressing,
Ken

Flashback Favorite - Clarity in a cloud

Clarity in a cloud
originally posted on September 20, 2018

Ever feel like you just gotta get out of the house?  You have no idea where you will go or what you will do, but if you stay indoors much longer, you’re probably going to lose your mind…can you relate?

Well, that happened to me and the Mrs. on Monday evening this week.  We just needed o-u-t, OUT.

Not wanting to waste money or gas, we ended up at a park next to a reservoir, not too far from home.  She sat down in a pavilion to sketch, but I felt like strolling.  I wandered down to a large wooden platform at the water’s edge.  I found that I could sit on the platform and my dangling feet would hover just above the water.  The sun’s rays were warm, the slight breeze was cool, and sound of city traffic was barely above the level of a quiet hum.  That’s when I saw it.

Above the pavilion my wife was sitting under, I saw a large puffy cloud that loosely resembled a bowler hat.  While the breeze at my level was light, you could tell the air at the cloud’s level was moving quickly.  So I watched.

Admittedly, I do not give much thought to clouds – unless they’re going to drop some rain.  And if I happen to think about clouds, I tend to imagine them making their trek across our sky as an unchanging blob, just a fluffy block of moisture.

But as I sat and watched, that’s not what I saw.

What I saw was a mass that was constantly changing shape as it moved.  It wasn’t uniform.  It wasn’t symmetrical.  The cloud, as a whole, was moving in a direction, but it was vigorously forming and reforming as it proceeded across the sky.  In order to really see and understand how it shifted from one movement to the next, I had to focus on one small part of the cloud at a time.  When my eyes moved to a new section – I could only tell that it was different, but I had no understanding of how the cloud made its new edge.  All the while, my previous focus-point continued to roll into new areas of the atmosphere.

What really stood out was the cloud’s depth.  As the cloud would billow and expand, stretching and reshaping, it was obvious there was a lot going on beneath the cloud’s surface that I was not able to see, understand, or predict until the movement happened.

Then it dawned on me…creation was giving me a lesson about our Creator.

God is on the move.
We are privy to the overall direction where God is moving history.
While history is happening, God doesn’t move in ways we expect.
When I try to take in the grandeur of God, I cannot see the beauty in His intricate details.
When I focus on an intricate detail, I am blown away by what He reveals.
While I am focused in, God is still moving in other ways that are outside my vision.
I am unable to keep up with all of God’s details.
There is a depth to God that we are not privy to.
We cannot fully see, understand, or predict how and when God will move, proceed, or pull back.

While even the best of analogies will breakdown (for example – God moves as He pleases, not because He is forced to, like the wind and sun move the clouds), creation can tell us much about our Creator.  Both David and Paul wrote about this:

Psalm 19:1-2
The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the expanse proclaims the work of His hands.
Day after day they pour out speech;
night after night they communicate knowledge.

Romans 1:20
For His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what He has made. As a result, people are without excuse.

In order to have this teachable moment with creation, I had to sit down, be still, and think. After all these realizations had flooded my mind, I was convinced that I had sat there too long and my wife was likely waiting on me to come find her. I looked at my phone to see how long I had been there:

Not even 15 minutes.

In less than 15 minutes of looking up at the sky, God used His creation to remind me of His greatness, His beauty, and His depth. Day after day and night after night, the lesson was there, ready for me to learn – but I wasn’t looking or listening. For certain, I am without excuse.

Will you take 15 minutes today to look at creation…and see His eternal power and divine nature?

The heavens declare the glory of God, so let’s take just a few moments…and look up.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

Flashback Favorite - The greatest reward possible

The greatest reward possible
Originally posted on September 26, 2019

Assuming you had the necessary skills and the opportunity, what is the biggest earthly prize you would aspire to?

Maybe it’s directing the highest grossing movie of all time…or Quarterbacking your favorite team to a Super Bowl victory…or building a business up from your garage into a global empire…or perhaps you are content to win the lottery and retire to a private island.  What would be “the ultimate prize” for you?

How does thinking about this feel?  Scary?  Overwhelming?  Unrealistic?

As those who believe in Jesus for eternal life, we know this present life will continue on with Him into Eternity Future.  While there are big dreams and opportunities to be had here and now…we should also wonder if there are eternal opportunities that God has made available to us.  In God’s revelation to John, He reveals a big one:

Revelation 22:3-5
The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and His servants will worship Him.  They will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads.  Night will be no more; people will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, because the Lord God will give them light, and they will reign forever and ever.

They will reign.

Those words carry a weight to them, and they should.  To reign means that a person has obtained or has been given the authority to rule, to lead, and to preside over the lives of others.  While we fully expect Jesus to reign in Heaven and over all creation…John tells us that in addition to Jesus, His servants will reign.

Servant Kings.

Those words don’t seem to go together, but it is exactly what Christ taught to His disciples.

At one point, Peter struggled with comparing the life he left behind with his choice to follow Jesus as a disciple.  He could have believed that Jesus was the promised Messiah, continued to work the family business as a fisherman, and still gone to Heaven.  What Peter struggled with was seeing the tangible benefits to accepting Christ’s invitation to intimately follow Him in Discipleship, to living his earthly life learning how to imitate Christ.  Let’s drop into their conversation:

Matthew 19:27-28
Then Peter responded to Him, “See, we have left everything and followed You.  So what will there be for us?”  Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, in the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on His glorious throne, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”

Notice that Jesus does not rebuke Peter for asking this kind of “What’s the reward?” question.  Jesus replies that there is a reward – a reward of authority – to those who have followed him.  Jesus didn’t say that this magnitude of a reward was available to everyone who believes…rather those who will be great at the renewal of all things are those who, after believing, have spent their earthly lives learning how to imitate Christ.

Learning to imitate Christ, the greatest example of a Servant King, is what will qualify His servants to reign forever and ever.

You and I have the necessary skills and the opportunity to do the same.  Will we follow Christ now so that we, too, can become Servant Kings in eternity future?

Keep Pressing,
Ken

The MVP - good ground

We’re looking into The parable of the sower.  It was this parable that Jesus referred to as the “key” to understanding all His parables (Mark 4:13).  As such, I’m calling it: The Most Valuable Parable – The MVP.  All three of the synoptic gospel writers included this parable.  It can be found in Matthew 13:1-23, Mark 4:1-20, and Luke 8:4-15.  So far, we have looked at the sower, the soil of the path, the rocky soil, and the thorny soil.  We’ve also observed that the word of God produced new life in the rocky soil, the thorny soil, and the good soil.  Now we’re taking a closer look at the good ground:

While we might best identify with the conditions of thorny soil, I think it’s safe to say that we’d all like to be good ground.  The good ground produces good fruit, which pleases God…so why wouldn’t we want that?  And all we have to do in order to be considered good ground is do good things and avoid doing really bad things, right?  Well, that’s not exactly what Jesus said about how good ground believers end up producing abundant fruit.

Luke 8:4-8, 11-15
As a large crowd was gathering, and people were coming to Jesus from every town, He said in a parable:

“A sower went out to sow his seed.  As he sowed, some seed fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the sky devoured it.  Other seed fell on the rock; when it grew up, it withered away, since it lacked moisture.  Other seed fell among thorns; the thorns grew up with it and choked it.  Still other seed fell on good ground; when it grew up it produced fruit: a hundred times what was sown.”  As He said this, He called out, “Let anyone who as ears to hear listen.”

…“This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God.  The seed along the path are those who have heard and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.  And the seed on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy.  Having no root, these believe for a while and fall away in a time of testing.  As for the seed that fell among thorns, these are the ones who, when they have heard, go on their way and are choked with worries, riches, and pleasures of life, and produce no mature fruit.  But the seed in the good ground – these are the ones who, having heard the word with an honest and good heart, hold on to it and by enduring, produce fruit.

There are two big observations about the good ground we need to look at – 1) When did it produce mature, abundant fruit? and 2) How was that fruit accomplished?

The first observation question – When did the good ground produce the mature, abundant fruit?  Jesus says that the fruit came when [the seed’s plant] grew up – not before it had grown up and matured, and not immediately when the new life burst forth from the seed.  God’s word needs time in your life to grow in you.  So don’t berate yourself if you still have stress, struggles, and doubts.  God isn’t tapping His foot and being disappointed that you haven’t yet forced out some fruit growth.  That’s not our job.  Mature fruit is the natural result of the seed being planted in good ground.  Our job is to become that good ground.

How was the ground made “good” and not have the same rock issues and thorn issues that the other soils had?  How can we be made into good ground?  As for me, I can tell you that others have helped pull weeds and thorns from my life.  In one of my favorite song lyrics, the singer states he’s “Still pulling weeds from seeds of yesterday’s scheming”.  We often need help to get rid of those.  Also, I can look back and see that God has removed boulders from my life, so that Godly roots can be laid down, often in that same space where the rocks once were.  Lastly Jesus said that good ground will hear the word with an honest and good heart, putting into practice the lessons God is teaching through His word.  Am I learning and applying His lessons?  In all my examples here, nothing was automatic.  God is willing to take the time for me to grow up and then produce fruit.

However, just because ground is fertile and relatively clean does not automatically mean that mature fruit will be brought forth…there is one more step here, and that involves our second observation question: How was that fruit accomplished?  In a word, by enduring.

We can survive just about anything, but if we are to endure and grow and come out stronger after a trial, we’re going to need to rely on God.  We must trust His path and His leading.  2020 has had more societal disruptions than we’ve seen in the last decade, and it feels like it’s just one crisis/problem after another.  Your persistence in these days matter.  Pursue God.  Seek Him out.  Ask Him to make you like His son.  Cling to the promises of God.  Your efforts in doing so will grow, multiply, and echo in ways your can’t imagine right now.  Don’t just survive; instead, endure these times as training, knowing that your Heavenly Father will produce mature fruit in your life because of it.

Growth takes time.  Enduring takes time.  As much as we want successful, spiritual fruit to happen immediately…all throughout Scripture, we find God taking His time to bring about the results He desires.  So let’s be patient with our growth and trust God as He removes rocks, weeds, and anything else that keeps us from becoming like Jesus.  Let us believe Him with an honest and good heart, holding on to the word of God planted in us…so that we can endure the times set before us…and then, because of God, produce fruit in quantities we could have never imagined.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

The MVP - thorny soil

We’re looking into The parable of the sower.  It was this parable that Jesus referred to as the “key” to understanding all His parables (Mark 4:13).  As such, I’m calling it: The Most Valuable Parable – The MVP.  All three of the synoptic gospel writers included this parable.  It can be found in Matthew 13:1-23, Mark 4:1-20, and Luke 8:4-15.  So far, we have looked at the sower, the soil of the path, and the rocky soil.  We’ve also observed that the word of God produced new life in the rocky soil, the thorny soil, and the good soil.  Now we’re taking a closer look at the thorny soil:

Remember, the fruitfulness of the seed was dependent upon the character of the ground it fell on.  Always the same seed, but never the same soil.  Watch for what happens to the seed that falls among the thorns:

Luke 8:4-8, 11-14
As a large crowd was gathering, and people were coming to Jesus from every town, He said in a parable:

“A sower went out to sow his seed.  As he sowed, some seed fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the sky devoured it.  Other seed fell on the rock; when it grew up, it withered away, since it lacked moisture.  Other seed fell among thorns; the thorns grew up with it and choked it.  Still other seed fell on good ground; when it grew up it produced fruit: a hundred times what was sown.”  As He said this, He called out, “Let anyone who as ears to hear listen.”

…“This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God.  The seed along the path are those who have heard and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.  And the seed on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy.  Having no root, these believe for a while and fall away in a time of testing.  As for the seed that fell among thorns, these are the ones who, when they have heard, go on their way and are choked with worries, riches, and pleasures of life, and produce no mature fruit.

If we’re honest…this is the soil where most of us American believers would see ourselves.  With our basic needs readily met (food on the shelf, water from a faucet, sturdy shelter), ours is an affluent society – one with all sorts of distractions. 

Advertisers are relentless, aren’t they?  Everything is “new”, “improved”, or something you just gotta have.  The media, and especially social media, never stops for us to take a breath.  Seems like everything we want to do or experience costs money.  Our bodies eventually fall apart, no matter how much effort we hedge against it happening.  There’s also “the unknown”, and thinking about that for too long will quickly drive you crazy.  But…rather than paint an entirely negative picture, let’s be honest…there are good things, too.  Lots of good things.  There are so many good things available to us in this life – things that are not bad, in-and-of themselves – that, if allowed to grow unchecked, even those can cause significant issues.

Jesus made a rather interesting metaphor when referred to the worries, riches, and pleasures of life as thorns.  Thorny bushes are inhospitable.  They cover up and obscure beauty.  But the biggest trouble thorns cause is that they absorb resources that should go to the plant.  They are a resource drain, diverting nutrients and water away, which stunts the growth of the seed…and to make matters worse, as the thorns grow up, they physically crowd out anything that tries to grow near them.  Growth from the seed does occur, but useful fruit is unable to be produced.

One last observation from what Jesus initially said about the thorny soil: other seed fell among thorns; the thorns grew up with it and choked it.  Notice that the thorns weren’t full grown at the beginning; instead, they grew up with the seed.  In life, we’re pretty good about recognizing big things that would be a potential problem for us…but we’re not so good at recognizing the potential for little things to divert our resources away from what’s most important to us.

If we do not intentionally seek God’s perspective, then the worries, riches, and pleasures of life will insidiously grow up and take over, choking out the fruitful, mature life God has for us.

The author of Hebrews also recognized this possible dilemma for us.  Thankfully, though, he offered the solution to staying out of the thorns:

Hebrews 12:1-2
Therefore…let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us.  Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

The MVP - rocky soil

We’re looking into The parable of the sower.  It was this parable that Jesus referred to as the “key” to understanding all His parables (Mark 4:13).  As such, I’m calling it: The Most Valuable Parable – The MVP.  All three of the synoptic gospel writers included this parable.  It can be found in Matthew 13:1-23, Mark 4:1-20, and Luke 8:4-15.  So far, we have looked at the sower and the soil of the path.  We’ve also observed that the word of God produced new life in the rocky soil, the thorny soil, and the good soil.  Now we’re taking a closer look at the rocky soil:

Let’s remind ourselves of the setting.  Farmers didn’t have fancy, fast machines to prepare the ground.  Oxen could pull a plow to turn over the soil, so the farmer would do what he could to break up the ground.  The ideal seed depth was 1-3 inches in favorable conditions, but that wasn’t always attainable.  Terrain was often rocky and uneven, sometimes with only a thin layer of top soil.  With scant amount of nutrients and depth, this type of soil presents less than ideal prospects for growth, let alone maturity.

As you read the text, focus on what happens to the seed in the rocky soil:

Luke 8:4-8, 11-13
As a large crowd was gathering, and people were coming to Jesus from every town, He said in a parable:

“A sower went out to sow his seed.  As he sowed, some seed fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the sky devoured it.  Other seed fell on the rock; when it grew up, it withered away, since it lacked moisture.  Other seed fell among thorns; the thorns grew up with it and choked it.  Still other seed fell on good ground; when it grew up it produced fruit: a hundred times what was sown.”  As He said this, He called out, “Let anyone who as ears to hear listen.”

…“This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God.  The seed along the path are those who have heard and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.  And the seed on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy.  Having no root, these believe for a while and fall away in a time of testing. 

As we can see from the rocky soil, a believer can experience the initial joy of salvation…but then fizzle out when life gets hard and their beliefs go through a time of testing.  Jesus said that believers akin to rocky soil lack moisture and have no root.  Their growth has been stunted due to the limited room for resources in their lives.

A key word to look at is the Greek word Jesus uses here for fall away – aphistemi – which means to withdraw, to remove, or desert.  Rocky soil believers joyfully trust God for their eternal salvation, but when times get tough, they don’t trust God with their circumstances.  Their choice leaves them painfully withered; however, there’s no indication that God abandons them.  These believers do not lose their salvation, but they lack the life-giving relationship Christ offers for their current circumstances because they have not developed roots.

But that leave us to wonder…what happens to those believers who fall away?  Many commentators advocate that their “falling” means they either lost their salvation, or they take it as proof that they were not “real believers” in the first place.  However, I don’t think either explanation is accurate.

Later on, in the book of Acts, Luke uses aphistemi again.  And it’s when he uses it that provides us with an interesting example and explanation of Jesus’ use of the word in the parable.  Luke uses the word to describe John Mark’s abandoning of Paul and Barnabas (translated to English this time as deserted):

Acts 15:38
But Paul insisted that they should not take along this man who had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not gone on with them to the work.

John Mark had bailed on Paul’s first missionary journey at about the halfway point.  He abruptly left both the Apostle Paul and his cousin Barnabas, who was an influential member of the first century church.  The first part of their journey saw huge success in preaching Jesus to the island of Cyprus. Afterwards (and Scripture doesn’t say why), John Mark high-tailed it for home.  It’s interesting to note that Paul and Barnabas faced many trials during the second part of their missionary journey, which was the part John Mark avoided when left his companions in the lurch.  John Mark’s story fits the model that Jesus described for a rocky soil believer: when they hear, receive the word with joy.  Having no root, these believe for a while and fall away in a time of testing.

However, John Mark’s falling away didn’t permanently banish him from fellowship with Paul, Barnabas, or the rest of the church.  There’s no indication anywhere in Scripture that other believers questioned John Mark’s salvation.  Instead, Paul considered John Mark unworthy of a later opportunity to partner with him, and Paul rejected John Mark’s inclusion in the mission trip.  Ultimately, it was John Mark’s previous desertion that left him disqualified from the next significant opportunity to serve God (Acts 15:36-41). 

However, the good news is that John Mark’s story does not end there.  After Paul’s rejection, Barnabas took John Mark under his wing and mentored him.  Over the years that followed, John Mark went on to do great things for God: he returned to Cyprus with Barnabas (Acts 15:39), many years later Paul calls him useful in the ministry (2 Timothy 4:11), and he also worked with the Apostle Peter (1 Peter 5:13).  During his time with Peter, John Mark collected Peter’s stories and teaching of Jesus’ time on earth – and we now refer to that collection as The Gospel of Mark.

Left to themselves, rocky soil believers will struggle mightily and not produce a fruitful life in Christ.  They need moisture and help to remove significant boulders from their life.  Purposeful mentoring is necessary for them to grow the roots needed so they can endure a time of testing. 

If you are a rocky soil believer, please find a mentor ASAP.  If you want to know what that looks like, I suggest reading a series of blog posts on Biblical mentoring I wrote beginning in February 2106.

If you are a mature believer, please be on the look out for rocky soil believers.  They need your help, more than they realize.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

The MVP - new life

We’re looking into The parable of the sower.  It was this parable that Jesus referred to as the “key” to understanding all His parables (Mark 4:13), or as I’m calling it, The Most Valuable Parable – The MVP.  All three of the synoptic gospel writers included this parable.  It can be found in Matthew 13:1-23, Mark 4:1-20, and Luke 8:4-15.  So far, we have looked at the sower and the soil of the path.

It’s at this point in the parable that many commentators and preachers have stumbled over what Jesus is saying.  As we read the parable, rather than relying on what others may have told us, we need to approach the text with as little bias as possible.  We must allow the text to speak for itself.  Admittedly…this can be hard to do, especially for veteran Christians or those of us who have been in church since we were little.  The attitude of “oh yeah, that story” or “I already know what the preacher is going to say” is quite dangerous.  That kind of closed mindset can prevent the Holy Spirit from teaching us something new or correcting us on something we have gotten wrong.  Therefore, we need to be careful with our observations. 

We’ll see in verse 11, Jesus tells the disciples, “The seed is the word of God.” So as you read the parable, think about what happens to the seed as it is added to each soil.  Also watch for what’s different between the seed that fell on the path and the seed that fell on the other soils:

Luke 8:4-8, 11-13
As a large crowd was gathering, and people were coming to Jesus from every town, He said in a parable:

“A sower went out to sow his seed.  As he sowed, some seed fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the sky devoured it.  Other seed fell on the rock; when it grew up, it withered away, since it lacked moisture.  Other seed fell among thorns; the thorns grew up with it and choked it.  Still other seed fell on good ground; when it grew up it produced fruit: a hundred times what was sown.”  As He said this, He called out, “Let anyone who as ears to hear listen.”

…“This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God.  The seed along the path are those who have heard and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.  And the seed on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy.  Having no root, these believe for a while and fall away in a time of testing.  As for the seed that fell among thorns, these are the ones who, when they have heard, go on their way and are choked with worries, riches, and pleasures of life, and produce no mature fruit.  But the seed in the good ground – these are the ones who, having heard the word with an honest and good heart, hold on to it and by enduring, produce fruit.”

Do you see the difference in what happened to the word of God?  It was never accepted by the path, and the birds took it away.  Without the seed there, the path-person could not believe and be saved.  From Jesus’ statement, we can see that belief is the only condition for salvation (just like we learned with the Samaritan woman in John 4).

Many preachers and commentators focus on the maturity of the plant to gauge if a person is a believer or not.  By doing so, they miss Jesus’ point – Notice that even in less than ideal soil, the word of God was accepted and new life was born!  This is true for the rocky soil, the thorny soil, and the good soil.  In all three, the word of God brought forth new life, but their individual fruitfulness – their visible productivity – is what varied.

There aren’t different types of believers (“true believers”, “false believers”, etc) among Christians – either you are persuaded that Jesus is the Son of God and you believe in Him for eternal life…or you don’t.  Based on Jesus’ parable of the soils, we find that after the word of God brings forth new life, each believer’s maturity depends on how long they hold to their belief and if they allow their circumstances to influence their growth. 

Over the years, I have observed how easily Christians write-off others as being “not truly saved” because that other person’s behavior doesn’t match up with how they think a “true believer” would act.  They try to judge a person’s justification by how far they have progressed in their sanctification.  Put simply, they fail to distinguish between having eternal life and bearing fruit.  Christians who are focused on judging others like this end up wasting their time trying to pigeonhole other people’s eternal destiny…and worse yet, put themselves in the place of God.

If your natural-born brother or sister was misbehaving or living a lifestyle that was contrary to your family’s ideals…would you question their status as a member of your family?  Of course not.  We say things like this all the time “I love them and they’re still family, but…” Because the relationship is strained due to their maturity/behavior and there are steps that will need to be taken to help them “come back into the fold”.  We’ll get some more insight into these situations as we look at what Jesus had to say about the rocky soil and the thorny soil.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

The MVP - the path

We’re looking into The parable of the sower.  It was this parable that Jesus referred to as the “key” to understanding all His parables (Mark 4:13), or as I’m calling it, The Most Valuable Parable – The MVP.  All three of the synoptic gospel writers included this parable.  It can be found in Matthew 13:1-23, Mark 4:1-20, and Luke 8:4-15.  Since we looked at the sower last time, we’re now ready to look at what happened to the seed that the sower spread to the various types of soils.

We’re going to evaluate the responses of the soils in the order that Jesus taught them.  First up, we’ll focus in on the seed that fell along the path:

Luke 8:4-15
As a large crowd was gathering, and people were coming to Jesus from every town, He said in a parable:
“A sower went out to sow his seed.  As he sowed, some seed fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the sky devoured it.  Other seed fell on the rock; when it grew up, it withered away, since it lacked moisture.  Other seed fell among thorns; the thorns grew up with it and choked it.  Still other seed fell on good ground; when it grew up, it produced fruit: a hundred times what was sown.  As He said this He called out, “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen.”

Then His disciples asked Him, “What does this parable mean?”  So He said, “The secrets of the kingdom of God have been given for you to know, but to the rest it is in parables, so that

Looking they may not see,
and hearing they may not understand.

“This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God.  The seed along the path are those who have heard and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 

The path was a hardened surface because it was well-traveled upon.  And as such, the seed was not accepted by ground; instead, the seed was trampled.  This kind of heart was a roadway for many thoughts/experiences…distracted by its own concerns, its own ideas, and its own ambitions, such a heart became a place where the word of God was trodden down, smothered, and crushed by all the preoccupations that had made the heart their highway.

Then…the seed was stolen by the birds – which Jesus says represents the devil coming and taking the seed away before it can germinate.  From this we see that Satan actively works to prevent people from hearing and believing the gospel.  The devil is skilled and purposeful in his work – he’s had thousands of years of practice and insight into manipulating mankind’s psychology.  He will do whatever he can to confuse/distract the one who hears the word…so they will not believe the simple message that if you believe in Jesus for eternal life, you will be saved and He will give you new life.

With the seed taken away, there is no new life – they cannot believe and be saved unless the seed is present to produce the new life.

When reading this parable, most believers tend to skim over this soil.  They figure that this situation no longer applies to them, so it’s not worth their time to consider.  Or maybe they think of someone they know who fits this description.  Either way, most believers do not stop and think about the path…but…

Perhaps a personal illustration will help us find an application.  For a number of years while I was growing up, my family took in foster care kids.  We did what was called “short-term” foster care, which means you could be called to take in a kid for an hour in the middle of the night or have them as part of your family for up to 6 months while the government and legal processes figured out what was best for everyone involved.  We found that the younger the kid was, the more likely they were to fall in line with our family’s rhythm – “This is what we do.”  The older the kid, the more they had built up hardened layers to shield them from the traumatic stuff they had had to deal with at such young ages.  By the time they were teens, they had been physically hurt, lied to, abused, or emotionally scarred so many times that it was nearly impossible to get them to fully trust our family, let alone open up…and their hearts were already beginning to harden.

When you volunteer in children’s ministries at your church, when you coach a youth sports team, or when you financially support operations like Chestnut Mountain Ranch in Morgantown, WV…your efforts are preventing these kids from becoming like the hardened path.  Your invested time, energy, and money slows down the process of building up that hard outer layer which makes it so difficult for God’s word to impact their lives.  Your presence and love makes them feel supported instead of feeling trampled on, run over, or alone.

So the application for believers isn’t directly for us…instead we need to be aware and willing to help others – especially children – from becoming a hardened, lonely path.  Truett Cathy nailed down this idea in his book, titled It’s Better to Build Boys than Mend Men.  We need to reach the next generation with God’s love – before the world forces them to build self-reliant defenses and emotional walls.  Who knows?  Maybe you’ll also get to be a sower in a child’s life.  Or maybe you’ll help them be ready for when another sower arrives.

When you step into a child’s life, don’t let the thoughts of your potential impact scare you, or make you feel too much pressure.  Instead, know just how eternally important you are in these kids’ lives. 

Keep Pressing,
Ken