Treating the Word of God Like Over-Priced Gelatto

Suggested Reading: Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

When we lived closer, my wife and I had a particular restaurant we frequented on date nights, an Italian wood-fire grill. The first time we went, we shared a gourmet pizza and an incredible appetizer and when we were done, we ordered dessert. Normally we share dessert, but this time we each decided to get our own thing. My wife ordered a banana crumble type thing and I simply ordered a cup of gelatto. The gelatto, according to the menu was going to cost me $5, which was a little high, but I figured I could try it once and see whether or not it was worth it. But when they finally brought it out, it was in this itty-bitty cup and didn't have much to it. Don't get me wrong, the gelatto was absolutely delicious. But as I sat there looking at the size of the dessert I simply kept thinking, This is really good, but I'm not going to pay $5 again to get so little gelatto. As good as it was, I just didn't think it was worth the price I had to pay.

As Jesus continued his parable about the reasons the Word of God doesn't always produce results in people's lives, he described the second type of soil/person this way: "[Other seeds] fell on rocky ground, where there wasn’t much soil, and they sprang up quickly since the soil wasn’t deep. But when the sun came up they were scorched, and since they had no root, they withered"(Matthew 13:5-6, HCSB). He then explained the illustration by saying, "And the one sown on rocky ground — this is one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. Yet he has no root in himself, but is short- lived. When pressure or persecution comes because of the word, immediately he stumbles" (Matthew 13:20-21). Essentially, Jesus was saying, sometimes we don't experience the power of the Word of God in our lives because we don't think it is worth it. When trouble comes, we simply don't believe the power of the Word of God is worth the price we will have to pay and so we allow the work God is doing in us to whither and die.

I've seen numerous examples of this. The couple called to the mission field stops Bible school and goes back to a regular 9 to 5 job because they are scared about finances. The high schooler who has always been a leader in his church youth group stops attending church because his girlfriend thinks the Bible is stupid and he doesn't want to lose her. That lady who is up for a promotion stops talking about her faith at work because she thinks it might cost her the position and the raise. The college student includes untruths in his paper because the truth would offend his professor and he needs the grade to keep up his GPA. Over and over again, we decide that the power of the Word of God simply isn't worth the price we will have to pay and we let the work it is doing in our lives whither and die.

But it doesn't have to be that way. I am convinced that, much of the time, we behave this way because we simply aren't thinking about what we are doing, because we haven't thought about it in terms of the work of God in our lives being worth the price we are paying. We delude ourselves into thinking we can have it both ways, that we can experience the full power of God in our lives and still compromise in certain areas so that it doesn't cost us as much. But when we say it aloud, most of us know that simply isn't true. King Jesus requires all our loyalty all the time, no matter the price. Just as he said to the rich man, Jesus says to us, "Sell all you have to benefit someone else. Then come follow me" (Luke 8:22, my paraphrase).

If we haven't experienced the power of the Word of God recently, maybe it's because we have unconsciously decided that it simply wasn't worth the price. Jesus requires everything of us, but he seemed to think it was worth it. Will we believe him or not?

Impressive Frisbee Scars and Unnecessary Distractions

Suggested Reading: Mark 4:1-9, 13-20

The largest scar on my body sits on my right elbow and I got it in a frisbee accident. I was in junior high and several of my friends had come over and we were playing frisbee in the street in front of my house. We had been throwing it back and forth for quite a while and I was probably being cocky about being able to catch anything my friends could throw at me. So one of my friends really launched it. The frisbee zipped over my head and I took off after it. My focus was intense, so intense that I didn't notice the curb that I tripped over until a split-second after snagging the frisbee from the air. The curb had been there all along and it was my street which I had lived on for a dozen years at that point, but I was so focused on the frisbee that I simply didn't see it. Somehow, I managed to hold onto the frisbee as I skidded across the sidewalk, scraping off a section of skin the size of a U.S. quarter. The scab was so big that I was constantly catching it on something and, eventually, it turned into quite an impressive scar.

As Jesus continued explaining why people don't experience results from the Word of God in their lives through the parable of the Sower and the Soil, he described a third type of person/soil, saying, "Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it didn’t produce a crop" (Mark 4:7, HCSB). He then explained that that kind of person "like seed sown among thorns, hears the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful" (Mark 4:18-19, HCSB). If Jesus were explaining it today, I believe he might rephrase this explanation, "These people hear the word and accept it but their lives are so filled with the distractions of daily activities and the pursuit of pleasure and comfort that they have no room left for the Word of God to grow within them."

I firmly believe that one of the biggest problems in our churches today is not that people don't believe the Gospel message is important or urgent but that we are so distracted with work and school and sports and television and books and games that there is simply no room left for the word of God to grow. We fill up our time with so many hobbies, and activities, and creature comforts that we simply don't have any time to hear the Spirit when he speaks to us or to meditate on the scriptures so that they can soak into our souls and fill us up with Godly insight. After all, how many times do we simply think, I would do that if I had a little more time, without thinking about the fact that many of the things we do are not necessary. They may be good. They may be helpful. They might take the stress off or help us forget our worries for a few minutes. But they aren't necessary, at least, not as necessary as leaving room for the Word of God to grow in our lives.

What things are distracting you from God's voice as it speaks into your life? What things have you used to fill up your time until there is no time left for God to speak to you and stretch you, until you are too busy to spend time meditating on God's word? What weeds will you have to remove from your own life so that there is room for God to do what God wants to do in you? What time-killing activities do you need to give up? What television shows or entertainment programs do you need to move down on your priority list so that God's Word shaping your life can move up.

Mandarin Bibles and Bird Seed

Suggested Reading: Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

I love languages. I speak a couple different languages and can read a couple more. But one of the languages I don't speak is Mandarin. I can read a couple symbols (the numbers 1-3 and "turkey") but that's about it. So a few years ago when I was given a Mandarin Bible, I was excited to have a foreign language Bible to add to my collection, but not as excited as I would have been if I could read it. I placed the Mandarin Bible on my foreign language Bible shelf, admired how it looked next to the others and then moved on with the rest of my day. It's nice to look at but my Mandarin Bible doesn't really do me any good because I don't understand it. In order for it to do me any good, I either need to learn Mandarin or have someone else translate it for me.

In Matthew 13, Jesus told the famous Parable of the Sower, a story which illustrates through several different types of soil the different ways in which people receive God's word. The first type of soil Jesus described was a path, maybe gravel, but essentially like a sidewalk, upon which seed was sown only to be picked up and carried off by the birds. Jesus then explained, "When anyone hears the word about the kingdom and doesn’t understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the one sown along the path" (Matthew 13:19, HCSB).

According to the parable, one of the reasons that the Word of God doesn't grow and produce fruit in us is that sometimes we simply don't understand it. Sometimes, that initial reception of the Gospel is thwarted by a lack of understanding. But sometimes after we have received the Gospel, our growth plateaus because we simply don't understand the deeper things in God's Word. We get stuck and grow bored because nothing about our walk with God challenges us. Eventually, at that point, we begin to regress and move backward.

Fortunately for us, a failure to understand is not the end of the road. We can learn from the example of the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts chapter 8 who admitted his lack of understanding to Philip so that Philip could explain the scriptures to him. We can ponder and struggle with those things that we don't understand and seek the council of those who are wiser than we are. We can spend time in prayer asking the Holy Spirit for insight and wisdom. We don't have to be content with our lack of understanding or simply skip over those places in scripture which don't make sense to us.

If we don't understand God's Word, we don't have to admit defeat. We just have to ask for help. Growing in our walk with God is too important to be stalled by something we can overcome.

Choosing to Enjoy Real World Fairy Tales

Suggested Reading: Isaiah 58:10-14

One of my favorite Disney movies from recent years is Enchanted, starring Amy Adams as Gizelle. Gizelle literally lived a fairytale life, cartoon form and all, waiting for her Prince Charming to sweep her off her feet. But when he finally did, the prince's evil step-mother exiled Gizelle to the real world, depositing her on the cruel streets of New York City. One of the reasons I find the movie so enchanting is that Gizelle, even as she learns lessons about the cruelty of life, continues choosing to have a good attitude. She cleans the apartment of the father and daughter who have taken her in, singing and happily directing the real world animals that have answered her call to clean. She adamantly refuses to accept that true love doesn't exist and wills it into existence. Her attitude infects everyone around her and makes the ordinary tasks of life more enjoyable.

One of the problems Jesus faced with the Pharisees, and that we often face in our churches today, is the number of people who go through the motions but lack any real excitement about their walk with the Lord. Things like going to church, attending a Bible study, or making time to serve our neighbors fail to be things we enjoy and become burdensome duties, taking up time we could be using to do other things.  We may go through the motions, but there is no enjoyment, no sense of life.

In Isaiah chapter 58, God was speaking through the prophet, warning His people about the reasons for their current problems. They had been going through the motions of religious life very dutifully, but it affected their day to day walk very little and they were not experiencing God's blessings. So God advised them, "Keep the Sabbath day holy. Don't pursue your own interests on that day, but enjoy the Sabbath and speak of it with delight as the LORD's holy day. Honor the Sabbath in everything you do on that day, and don't follow your own desires or talk idly. Then the LORD will be your delight. I will give you great honor and satisfy you with the inheritance I promised to your ancestor Jacob. I, the LORD, have spoken!" (Isaiah 58:13-14, NLT). The phrase that jumps out at me? Enjoy the Sabbath and speak of it with delight as the LORD's holy day.

God commanded his people, not just to keep the Sabbath, but to enjoy the Sabbath and speak of it with delight. Instead of grumbling about the work they were missing out on or the recreational activity they could enjoy instead, God ordered his people to enjoy it and speak of it with delight. Essentially, he was commanding his people to choose to have a good attitude about the Lord's day and God promised that if they would choose a good attitude, if they would choose to speak of it with delight then the Lord would become their delight. Just as we sometimes rekindle "that old fire" with our spouses by choosing to act as if it is already kindled, we can rekindle our love for God and experience delight in God by speaking and acting as if it is already the case.

Is there an area of your walk with God that has become burdensome or dreary? Do you avoid going to church or engaging in "religious activity" because you would just rather spend your time doing other things? Try choosing a good attitude about those activities. Try speaking of the Lord's Day with delight and, like the passage suggests, throwing yourself into it whole-heartedly, setting everything else aside. Choose to act like the Lord is your delight and, soon, you will feel like the Lord is your delight.

Getting Yourself Killed Over a Real-Estate Deal

Suggested Reading: Acts 4:32-5:6

There is an interesting story in the book of Acts about some people who sold some land. At the end of chapter four, a man named Barnabas sold a piece of property and then brought the proceeds to the disciples to be passed out to those who were in need. That kind of thing was somewhat common in the Church in those days. But there was also a couple, Ananias and Saphira, who had heard about Barnabas' gift and were impressed by it. I mean, who wouldn't be impressed by someone who sold a piece of property and just gave the money to the church, right? Well, Ananias and Saphira, we can only assume, wanted people to be impressed with them as well, but they didn't want to make the same sacrifice. So they came up with a plan. They sold a piece of property, then acted like they were giving all of the proceeds to the church when they were really keeping part of it for themselves. When Ananias came to present their gift to the apostles, Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the proceeds from the field? Wasn’t it yours while you possessed it? And after it was sold, wasn’t it at your disposal? Why is it that you planned this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God!” When he heard these words, Ananias dropped dead, and a great fear came on all who heard (Acts 5:3-5, HCSB).

The story demonstrates how people can sometimes do the very same things for very different reasons and that our motivation really can mean the difference between sin and a good deed. Barnabas brought his gift because he wanted to help the poor within the Church. Ananias and Saphira brought their gift because they wanted to look good, as evidenced by the fact that they wanted everyone to believe they had given everything when they really hadn't. Their problem wasn't that they didn't give all of the proceeds from the sale to the Church; Peter made it very clear that the money was always theirs to do whatever they wanted with it. The problem was that they wanted to convince people (apparently, even God!) that they were better, more generous people than they really were. Barnabas and Ananias both sold property and gave the proceeds to the church but their motives were very different. One was an act of charity. Another was a selfish act of deceit.

How often do we engage in the same kind of behavior as Ananias and Saphira, doing the right thing for the wrong reasons? How often do we volunteer, not in order to help, but so that we look good? How often do we give just to get people to leave us alone or to assuage a guilty conscience rather than because it is right to meet a need? How often do we do things we really don't want to do just to win political points or convince someone of our moral superiority?

God judges us not just by our actions, but by the attitude of our hearts. God alone can always tell when an act of kindness is deceitful or when our generosity is really a photo-op. So don't stop doing the right thing, just make sure you adjust your heart so you're doing it for the right reasons.

Judging Believers More than Bombers

Suggested Reading: 1 Corinthians 5:1-13

The 2013 Boston bombings stirred up a lot of feelings for people. The fact that those bombings were once again committed by Islamic Jihadists upset many people. More than once I heard people lament that, in their opinion, moderate Muslims had not spoken up enough to condemn acts of violence committed in the name of their religion, that their alleged silence not only condoned these heinous acts but encouraged future atrocities. Whether those complaints had much merit or were simply voiced by people who hadn't listened to Muslim condemnations of the violence is a matter that could be debated at length, but the issue itself points to a problem within the Christian community, especially in America.

American society, and much of the American church has taken Jesus' and James' call to refrain from judging people and applied it everywhere but in the appropriate context. Why do I say this? Because of what Paul also has to say in 1 Corinthians 5:9-13: I wrote to you in a letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. I did not mean the immoral people of this world or the greedy and swindlers or idolaters; otherwise you would have to leave the world. But now I am writing you not to associate with anyone who claims to be a believer who is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or verbally abusive, a drunkard or a swindler. Do not even eat with such a person. For what business is it of mine to judge outsiders? Don’t you judge those who are inside? But God judges outsiders. Put away the evil person from among yourselves (HCSB).

Jesus and Paul had two different contexts as Paul makes clear in the opening verses of this passage. We are not supposed to judge the people of this world, no matter how sinful their behavior appears. We cannot hold outsiders to the same standards to which we would hold ourselves. We are supposed to provide loving witnesses to those people so that nothing we do will keep them from coming to God. But for believers, the standard is entirely different. We are supposed to hold believers (or those who claim to be) to a higher standard. When we see them living in ways that are consistently opposed to the teachings of Christ we are to let everyone know that they don't represent us and to have nothing to do with them until they get their acts straight. Not because we are better than them or above them, but because condoning their sinful behavior with our silence and acceptance provides a very bad witness to the people we are trying to reach.

We are not supposed to judge sinners. We are supposed to love them. Sometimes that means loving them enough to condemn the actions of those who should know better so that the damage to the Church's witness is minimized. Remember, even Jesus judged the religious people of his day for their hypocrisy.

From John the Baptizer to John the Doubter

Suggested Reading: Matthew 11:1-15

When Jesus began his ministry, he appeared at the river where John was preaching and baptizing people as they repented of their sins. When Jesus showed up to be baptized, John immediately recognized him and argued with Jesus about who should baptize whom, followed by Jesus' baptism and the opening of the Heavens as a voice proclaimed Jesus to be God's son (Matthew 3:14-17). But shortly afterwards, John was arrested and began to rot in prison while Jesus' ministry began to flourish. John had believed that Jesus was the messiah, but as he sat in prison things began to change. Perhaps John, like everyone else, had a mistaken idea of what the Messiah was supposed to be. Perhaps he expected that the Messiah would free him from prison and was trying to understand why that hadn't happened. Whatever the case, this man who had proclaimed Jesus as the coming Messiah sent a message by his disciples and asked Him, “Are You the One who is to come, or should we expect someone else?” (Matthew 11:2-3, HCSB).

Sometimes, when life gets hard and doesn't go the way we expect it to, we can begin to doubt ourselves and the truths we have learned along the way. Just like John, a man whose birth had been proclaimed by angels, who had recognized the voice of the Messiah's mother from inside the womb, and who began to doubt what he knew to be true, we can begin to doubt ourselves and the things we've learned as well. When our marriage hits a rough patch, we begin to question whether this was really the person God had for us and whether we can really handle it anymore. When tragedy strikes or that new job doesn't last like it was supposed to, we begin to question God's control, or his existence, or both. When people walk out on us and we're left picking up the pieces of a broken life, we can begin to question whether we are really who we thought we were or if we've just been fooling ourselves all along.

When John got discouraged and began to doubt both Jesus and himself, Jesus told John's messengers, “Go and report to John what you hear and see: the blind see, the lame walk, those with skin diseases are healed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor are told the good news. And if anyone is not offended because of Me, he is blessed” (Matthew 11:4-6, HCSB). Because pain and suffering tend to shrink our field of vision Jesus told John to look beyond the circumstances of his prison, beyond the hardships he was currently facing and see the way God was moving around him, to remember that the movement of God was bigger than his own circumstances. Jesus reminded John to, once again, look at the bigger picture and to remember that, even if God is not doing what we expect, God is still active. Jesus reminded John that God blesses those who refuse to give up the faith when God allows them to experience difficulty.

When life is hard and God isn't doing what you think he should, when you feel trapped in difficult circumstances and wonder how you will ever escape, don't give in to the doubts that naturally attack you. Make a point of looking around you and seeing how God is moving beyond your own circumstances. Remember the examples of John, and Job, and all the heroes of the faith who experienced difficulty and hardship but refused to give up the faith.

Difficult times will inevitably bring discouragement and doubt. Don't give in. Keep your head up, watching for the movement of God around you. Don't let go of the truths you've learned because things get hard.