Has the gospel taken root in my life? My son poses the question in his sermon last Sunday. He is exegeting and challenging with the parable of the four soils recorded in Luke 8.
I need his words – especially when he speaks of the thorns! The seed is good; the thorns are not.
Ouch; thorns prick and often draw blood; sometimes they even stick in me. Been there; experienced that.
Jesus teaches that the thorns are the worries (cares) and pleasures of this life. I ponder, where am I bleeding; what are my thorns, my worries, the pleasures I'm hanging on to? Is the gospel (the good news; the good seed) taking root in my life?
I answer that question with others: What am I listening to? Am I feeding myself Truth or feeding myself feelings and hurts? Am I meditating or muttering? Am I trusting the Truth? Am I experiencing the Truth?
I can only experience the Truth if I trust the Truth; I can only trust the Truth if I am hearing the Truth; I only hear the Truth if I purpose to feed myself (meditate on) the Truth.
I remind myself that the gospel takes root in my life when I experience the Truth – transforming how I think; transforming what I ponder; transforming me.
After Jesus speaks of the thorns, he speaks of the seed that fell into good soil; it grew; it yielded fruit – that which it is designed to do. The difference was not the seed; the difference was the environment into which the seed was sown.
Eugene Peterson in The Message says of this good soil, “But the seed in the good earth – these are the good-hearts who seize the Word and hold on no matter what sticking with it until there’s a harvest.
God, would you please make me that kind of person – one who seizes the Word and holds on no matter what … amen. Thank you, Jeff, for your words; I needed them!
“Are you listening to this? Really listening?”
Luke 8:8, The Message
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