The Soil of Your Soul (Thursday)—Matthew 13:24-30

by RobertCummins | Sep 1, 2016 | 35. The Soil of Your Soil

The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away. But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also. The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this!’ The slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them. Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.” (Matthew 13:24-30)

            How then does it have tares? The master’s slaves were troubled to find tares in their master’s field. They knew this field had been sown with good seed. This parable has been traditionally used to depict the ultimate separation of sheep from goats with the field being the earth. No doubt this day shall come but…

I see another interpretation of The Tares Among the Wheat, with the field being the heart of man. The previous Parable of the Seed and Soil Types was definitely about the human heart. The space of our hearts is unique in that it requires our consent for seed to grow and bear fruit. What does this consent look like? It will likely entail a process where we too will ask, how then does my heart have tares?

How did my heart get so messed up? I believe this parable sheds light on our troubling question. Let’s break it down. Jesus tells us the tare-seed was sown by an enemy while the man slept. Why? We presume it was to bring destruction to the Master’s kingdom intentions for man’s heart.

The reactions of the slaves and their master are worth noting. The presence of tares is scandalous to the slaves so they propose a radical idea—yank those weeds out immediately and return the field to purity. The master? He is neither surprised nor threatened by the tares. He is patient, willing to permit them to grow side by side as if His ultimate harvest will be unaffected by them. Even though they are sharing sun, soil, and water with the intended crop, the Master is not devastated by the presence of tares.

What is our application then? Are we to go soft on sin, allowing it to spread because of our passivity? We know better. We need to adopt our Master’s heart, refusing to panic when tares seem to threaten the landscape. When we find ourselves in this place we should avoid hasty scorched-earth reactions. The master knows that focusing directly on our tares is counterproductive.

When we see tares trying to overtake our hearts, we need to understand the enemy’s tactics. He knows sin is crouching at the door of the heart, appealing for our consent. Our reaction here at this threshold is crucial. Our response to tares requires that we live out of a new place. My friend Gene Griffin and I were recently discussing this. He had this to share about this new place…

 We must live out of our new identity—the new reality that Christ is our life. Jesus is not just the hope of our life or the purpose of our life. He is not just the aim of our life or the giver of life. All of these are true, but they are true like a younger, weaker brothers might share a house with a stronger, older brother. Christ is to be our life, not just the giver of life, the hope, the purpose, or the desire of our life. He is not just our protector should we get around to needing Him. And He certainly is not just our co-pilot, taking the controls only when we concede them. We must not link the life-long process of being renewed in the spirit of our minds with the idea of becoming more of a son of God as we mature. We will never be more of a son of God than we were the day we were born again by His spirit. This reality of the Gospel has been largely ignored. We have been more comfortable (as sinners saved by grace), focusing on Jesus who has saved us from our sin than we have been as sons who have discovered Him as our life—that new place from which we must live.

Gene’s point? Being a son and a saint is a superior reality to being a sinner saved by grace. Our identity is now in Christ. Trying to live as faithful servants from convictions about subservient truths will prevent us from becoming sons who have been liberated by the Person who is The Truth. Has it ever occurred to us that the enemy uses good to obscure the best?

While today’s parable reveals that tares were sown while we slept, yesterday’s parable fills out the picture of what is happening as we sleep. The man who casts seed on the soil “goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts and grows-how, he himself does not know. The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. But when the crop permits, he immediately puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

Yes, in Adam we are fallen. “Conceived in iniquity” is how we entered this world, but—news flash–we are no longer in Adam, no matter how much it may feel like it, no matter how much behavior seems to confirm it. We who have been born anew of the Spirit are in Christ. Once the Spirit affirms our identities in Christ, we are able to lay our heads down at night without fear that tares will overtake us. In our new identities we can entrust the seed to the soil, knowing “the soil produces crops by itself (while we sleep); first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head.” We are never going to fully grasp this mystery. Nevertheless, we are going to have to entrust ourselves to it.

The seed will sprout and grow but we will not know. (Mark 4:27)

Father, awaken us to the weaker truths sown while we slept. Strip us of half-truths and lies! May these seeds and the tares, which they have produced, be removed in Your timing and by Your means. Help us to have Your patience with our hearts even when they seem to be overrun by tares. Amen.

The Soil of Your Soul (Wednesday) – Mark 4:30-32

by RobertCummins | Aug 31, 2016 | 35. The Soil of Your Soil

The Soil of Your Soul (Wednesday) – Mark 4:30-32

How shall we picture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil, yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and forms large branches; so that the birds of the air can nest under its shade. 

Once again Jesus is likening the kingdom of God to seed. Seeds and what they produce must be quite important – this is the third seed/kingdom parable in one chapter! On this occasion Jesus highlights the mustard seed which was the smallest seed sown by the Palestinian gardener. The black mustard seed could grow up to 12 feet tall. The largest thing began as the smallest (and most easily overlooked) thing. Another common feature to this parable is the multitude’s failure to understand. The scriptures reveal a most sobering thing about Truth – it is, by design, a narrow passageway through which few will enter. Also shocking – the other, broader path leads to destruction. This is not good news for most.

Warren Buffet has made a radical fortune betting on the values of companies most were overlooking. His counterintuitive decisions have distinguished him from a multitude of investors. This is Jesus’ point; most are inclined to overlook and undervalue His kingdom. He is trying to teach us that the kingdom of God, which is imperceptible to most, will ultimately be all that really mattered. It is troubling that relatively few are going to get this but I want to be among those who do, regardless the cost.

Father, give us ears to hear and hearts to grasp your kingdom. Help us to see our investments in other kingdoms. Help us to examine our hearts to see the small kingdom-seed you planted. Let this tiny overlooked seed grow in us such that we may become a source of healing and refuge for many. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

The Spirit of Truth was sent to us after Jesus’ ascension. Jesus said it was expedient that He leave and the Spirit come. The Spirit of Truth is here to continue the Kingdom which Jesus inaugurated. The Spirit of Truth is still setting men free. These accounts of liberation are bright bursts of light that can in turn liberate others. One of the most powerful accounts of deliverance I have heard came from William Paul Young. While his book The Shack was a runaway best seller, the story behind it upstages the book. While Young’s testimony is twice as long as most sermons, it is a hundred times better. If you can’t click on this link and open it here, just copy and paste it into your search engine. This is the Spirit of Truth at His best.

http://www.tsdowntown.com/sermon-database/message/paul-young-s-testimony

The Soil of Your Soul (Tuesday)—Mark 4:26-29

by RobertCummins | Aug 30, 2016 | 35. The Soil of Your Soil

I have a good friend who retired from what began as The Soil Conservation Service (it has since morphed into the NRCS—the Natural Resource Conservation Service). For 40 years he has served as a faithful steward of soil—a historically undervalued yet essential component of mankind’s ecosystem. To my shame, I have not had a proper understanding or respect for this agency. A book changed this; The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan. It is a gripping account of the Great American Dust Bowl of the 1930’s.

Egan’s prose has stand-alone beauty, but it was not the literary aesthetic itself that drew me. Nor was it the history that was most compelling. It was the moral dimension of this story—a deeply troubling sowing–and-reaping account of the Great American Dustbowl where ambition and folly trumped stewardship, resulting in the worst ecological disaster in U.S. history.

A series of sins against man and against the earth led to a living nightmare lasting a decade. The killing of the buffalo, the eradication of Native Americans, and the misuse of the plow ultimately effected 100 million acres of pristine grasslands and displaced a quarter of a million people. It turned out the soil was not just dirt, it was as an integral component of life. In profound ignorance, man removed the earth’s skin and reaped the whirlwind.

Soil is a fascinating and complex mixture of minerals, organisms, gasses and liquids, which become the medium for plant growth, which in turn sustains animals and humans. Perhaps that is why it also served as Jesus’ go-to metaphor in explaining the kingdom of God:

 The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil; and he goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts and grows-how, he himself does not know. The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. But when the crop permits, he immediately puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come. (Mark 4:26-29)

             The soil produces crops by itself. This parable reveals that Life is in the Soil. It turns out man is a bit-payer. He does nothing more than cast seed. He goes to bed leaving the seed to the soil and the seed sprouts and grows. How does this happen? Man himself does not know. It is a mystery.

Many are looking at Christianity, particularly in the west, and wondering why the gospel of Jesus Christ has had no more effect than it has on culture. With a God like ours, why are we reaping a whirlwind of moral and social decline? Is it possible we too have misunderstood the Soil and undervalued its essential part in the ecosystem of God’s kingdom?

It is difficult to fault the efforts the Church has made in saving souls by way of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The notion that, “the saving of a soul” is an incomplete idea sounds like a sacrilege—a big slap in the face to Billy Graham. But a question remains: Why is our culture blowing away before our eyes? That question leads me to ask another: What happens to people after they walk the aisle and pray the prayer? It seems whatever religion we get at the altar adds to church rolls but fails to transform us. Perhaps there needs to be a new agency created within the Church modeled after the NRSC, which was established because (as their statement of purpose says): “Wastage of soil resources… is a menace to the national welfare.”

It is great that gospel seed is being sown and that souls are being saved, but let’s consider a new agency with a mission to expand the meaning of salvation to include the soul’s transformation. Like the NRSC, it will be hard to launch because most have not come to grips with erosion in the western church. Let’s call this organization the HRCS—The Heart Resource Conservation Service. It should be established because “the wastage of heart resources is a menace to the kingdom of God.”

The HRCS will not only honor Jesus Christ as the Messiah, saving men from hell, it will also honor him as Life itself, equipping man to live. The agency’s motto will be, “Christ is our Life – in him we live and move and have our being.” The agency’s mission will be to train its agents, who will in turn train others in the stewardship of their hearts. Unlike previous efforts at reform, renewal and revival, the HRCS will keep in mind that the soil produces crops by itself… Man himself does not know how this works.

The HRSC, honoring the mystery that Life is in the Soil, will help many discover the treasures of Christ in us and us in Christ. They will show that since the kingdom of God is within us, the harvest is indeed white. They will equip many to enter into intimacy with God, which had previously existed more as a proposition than an experiential reality. The heart-conservation movement will one day see the harvest come and the sickle employed

Perhaps a book will one day be published called The Greatest Hard Time, the gripping account of The Great American Awakening of the 21st Century. It too will be a story of sowing and reaping. Through their stewardship efforts, the HRSC will be credited for their part in reversing the erosive-trends within western Christianity. The book will tell of their efforts in further revealing God’s mystery as the overlooked source of Life. Note: On top of the job I have put in for as Chief Steward of North America’s National Parks, I would also like to volunteer to write this book.

And… perhaps it will be said of us, at the end of our careers, that we too were faithful stewards of the Soil, those who had done their part in the conservation of The Kingdom—God’s ultimate eco-system. Our retirement watches will be engraved with these words: “Stewardship has trumped ambition and folly.”

Father, having left the seed to the Soil, we look forward to waking up to see a harvest. As we read your book, we see an administration, in-Christ, which will be suitable toward these ends. May we listen to you, Holy Spirit, as God’s agent on earth. Have your way with our hearts both individually and corporately. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.

The Soil of Your Soul (Monday) – Mark 4:1-20

by RobertCummins | Aug 29, 2016 | 35. The Soil of Your Soil

This parable tells us that seed will only grow and produce a crop where there is adequate depth of soil. I confess this parable has troubled me. Right after Jesus taught it to a very great multitude, he added that these same people were outsiders who only got “everything in parables in order that while hearing they may not hear and understand lest they return and be forgiven.” Yet to a select group he says, “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God.”

So is soil depth my choice or God’s? Have I been predestined as sandy soil that only grows stickers, or am I a black topsoil type of guy who will produce big crops? At one time, due to some bumper crops of stickers, I viewed myself as shallow soil. In that season I was tempted to throw up my hands and conclude, “I am just an outsider—a part of the great multitude who get inferior revelation— one fated with a shallow weed-grower of a heart.” But Jesus was not finished: “Do you not understand this parable? And, how will you understand all the parables?”

In half the translations I studied, the word “any” is used instead of “all,” implying “The Parable of The Sower” is a key to understanding the rest of Jesus’ parables. That is crucial. I would like to share my experience with this parable and begin by saying that I no longer waste time, as I once did, counting my stickers, pondering the condition of my predestined-to-be-poor soil.

Having worked some with the Gardner, there are two things I believe He has shown me about my heart. First, it was predominated by sin; sin was its constitution. Second, and most importantly, that person is dead; he was buried then resurrected in Christ. So, in keeping with our agri-parable, my soil classification was “Sinner. It is now “Saint.” “Saint” is my new identity. Therefore, my new soil type in Christ is fertile, to say the least.

My new soil classification fundamentally alters how I see stickers. If I sin now (as a saint), producing a sticker, it is not evidence of doomed soil. When I see useless stickers today, I do not, as I once did, lose heart, concluding, “Yes, it is as Jeremiah said, ‘The heart is desperately sick and beyond help’—I am just a poor sinner saved by grace.” No. No! Stickers only prove that an old nature, conditioned for years in the world, is still decomposing. Even in my new heart, weeds will grow, to some degree, alongside the wheat—for a time.  Jesus goes on to say, “Take care what you listen to. By your standard of measure it shall be measured to you; and more shall be given to you besides. For whoever has, to Him more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.”

Recall: in Him, we now live and move and have our being. Jesus explains that, in Him, we are co-workers in this soil. I believe He is saying he himself is now the Soil of our lives; therefore, we have stewardship responsibility as to what we listen to. This understanding will have great bearing on what is produced from our lives. This is why the Blue Book is the heart-steward’s best friend. It has introduced thousands of saints to a community of kindred-spirits who are selective as to what they listen to. In turn, what they say is rich. We cannot live without this community! Some of our mentors are dead, others are living, but abiding in Christ requires we maintain intimate connection to this community.

There is a great divide in Christian theology regarding the soil of our souls. Where we stand in relationship to this chasm will have many consequences. There is one camp, which sees stickers as proof positive that the soil of our hearts is shallow and infertile, corrupt as it is in Adam. When this camp sees stickers (and trust me, they are looking) they get out the big hoe sermons, which they apparently believe can improve Adamic-soil. The point of each stab of the hoe is to break down the soil—making certain we know the degree to which we are fallen. If our souls cannot bend low enough to lay hold of this, they remain strangers to repentance and forgiveness.

I know this camp well, but I no longer live there. While they see stickers as proof positive, I see them, in Christ, as a false positive. I hope you will hang in there with MwM this week. There is much to consider. As the good soil you are, I pray you may soak in this week’s nitrogen-rich scriptural content.

Father, may our hearts grasp what excellent soil type we are in Christ and that we each have authority over a standard of measure. Help us to envision your 90-fold return in our lives. Help us to understand our part in insuring that Your eternal words do not return to You void. May your Word accomplish Christ’s mission in our hearts. Amen.