by RobertCummins | Aug 19, 2015 | 35. The Soil of Your Soil
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.
by RobertCummins | Aug 17, 2015 | 35. The Soil of Your Soil
The Soil of Your Soul – Mark 4:1-20
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 there was a temptation to throw up my hands and conclude, “I am just an outsider – a part of that great multitude who gets inferior revelation – one fated with a shallow weed-grower of a heart. This is what troubled me. 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 large. 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 Master 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.
The implications of this are 30-60-90 huge! 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, loose heart, concluding, “Yes, it is as Jeremiah has said, ‘The heart is desperately sick and beyond help’ – I am just a poor sinner saved by grace.” No. No! 30-60-90 x 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, at least 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 is explaining that, in-Christ, 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-postive 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 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 his mission in our hearts. Amen.
