Liberating you from bad ideas about God
It’s 2 am. I just finished my thesis, and will turn it in tomorrow around 10 am (barring any printing problems).
Topic: Honor and Shame Before the Judgment Seat of Christ
Pages: 60
Words: 16,936
Footnotes: 183
My bottom line conclusion: We haven’t scratched the surface of beginning to understand the New Testament. (Isn’t that encouraging?) It’s probably not that bad…but it’s 2 am, and I’m a bit sick of my thesis.
A while back we looked briefly at the Parable of the Four Soils and how it applies to all people.
Ideally, if we are good planters for the Kingdom of God, we want to be planting seeds in the best soil. It is this soil that gives a 3000%, 6000%, or 10,000% return on your investment.
But who is that soil? Which type of person should we focus on for the greatest return in our spiritual investment?
If you look in the average church, we think that the good soil is the rich, powerful, pretty people. Those with seminary degrees, nice hair, and big smiles.
But are these sorts of people really the “good soil”?
I am not so sure.
After all, what makes good soil?
When I was young, my mom had some flower gardens, and every spring, she would go down to the lawn and garden store, and buy bags of “Manure” to put in her gardens. One year I asked her, “Mom, what is manure?” She said, “It’s cow poop.”
What made mom’s garden grow? Poop.
So what makes good soil? Good soil is that which has a lot of nutrients in it. Good soil is that which has a lot of fertilizer.
I am convinced that the “good soil” people are those who have a lot of sh*t in their lives.
Which people are these? The people we would normally think of as “bad people.” Sinners.
And yet in most of our churches, we work hardest to keep these people out. We say “come as you are” but the fine print says “only when you can act like us, talk like us, and look like us.”
But when we look at Jesus, who did He pick to work with, minister to, and pour His life into?
Jesus was friends with tax collectors, sinners, thieves, murderers, prostitutes, and drunkards. Why? He knew a good investment when He saw one.
In bad people, Jesus saw fields upon fields of rich, fertile soil just waiting to be planted. Bad people make good soil for the seeds of the Gospel to take root.
So who are you and your church trying to seek after, love, and embrace?
(P.S. Credit goes to Neil Cole and his book Organic Church for most of this idea. Buy this book and read it!)
I’ve been mulling over the Parables of the Four Soils for several years.
When I stopped pastoring a church in 2006, I was preaching through Luke and had made it as far as Luke 8:3. I did preach a sermon on Luke 8:9-10, but I never did preach on Luke 8:4-15, the Parable of the Four Soils. I was a bit relieved, because at the time, I had no idea what this parable meant.
And the scary thing, Jesus says that the Parable of the Four Soils key to understanding the other parables (Luke 8:10).
But as I have thought more and more about it, the meaning has slowly emerged.
I firmly believe that the Parable of the Four Soils has nothing to do with determining who is a Christian and who is not. This is the way most people read this parable. They see that word “saved” in Luke 8:12 and think that it is referring to how to determine who has eternal life. Since only the fourth soil produces an abundant harvest, some people think that only the fourth, fruitful soil represents a Christian.
An alternative view, held by some who are a bit more gracious, is that the final three soils represent Christians because they at least have life. At least they sprouted and grew a little bit.
However, I don’t hold to either one of these positions.
If you have read my blog for a while, you may know that I always invite people to try to define the word “saved” in the Bible within the surrounding context of where it is used. Why?
Because although most Christians think “saved” means “get forgiveness of sins and receive eternal life so you can escape hell and go to heaven when you die” (or something like that), the truth is that the vast majority (99% or more) of the times the word “saved” is used in the Bible, it has almost nothing to do with such an idea.
Most often (nearly always), the word “saved” in Scripture refers to being delivered from some sort of temporal problem or calamity. Things like physical sickness or death, enemies, drowning, financial ruin, slavery to sin, etc.
And THAT is what the Parable of the Four Soils is about. The Parable of the Four Soils is about the four basic responses people have when they hear what the Bible has to say about how to be delivered from whatever problem is in their life (Luke 8:11).
The context of the Parable of the Four Soils makes this abundantly clear.
Jesus doesn’t just want hearing; He wants obeying (Luke 8:16-21), just as He gets from the wind and the waves (Luke 8:22-25), demons (Luke 8:26-39), and a Jewish leader and a sick woman (Luke 8:40-56). Jesus then sends out the twelve to see how they will do at hearing and obeying, and also to give them some experience at seeing how others respond to the Word (Luke 9:1-6).
The bottom line point of the Parable of the Four Soils is this: Whenever the Word of God is proclaimed, to whomever it is proclaimed, there will be four basic responses. How do you typically respond?
The Parable of the Four Soils goes on to describe the types of things that get in the way of us hearing God’s Word and obeying it. Sometimes, the devil gets in the way, and simply keeps us from hearing and understanding the Word of God (Luke 8:12).
Other times, it is sin and temptation that stifles our growth. We initially hear the Word and believe it, but after a while, we return to our old patterns of sin, and the Word of God fails to take root in our lives (Luke 8:13).
Then there are the times that we truly want to follow God’s instructions in the Bible, but the cares and business of life just get in the way. These things aren’t bad things, they are broken dishwashers, family vacations, bills that need to get paid, and flowers that need to get planted (Luke 8:14).
Ideally, ultimately, we want God’s Word to take root in our lives and product fruit (Luke 8:15).
Looking at the Parable of the Four Soils this way, we can see that any Christian can fall into any of the four categories at any time. In fact, since Scripture contains so many truths about various aspects of life, a single Christian can have all four types of soil in their life at one time! There are some areas in our life where we simply ignore everything the Bible says. Then there are areas where we initially obey the Bible, but then fall back into old sinful patterns. Then there are areas where we want to obey, but life gets in the way. And then there are areas where we are successful and fruitful in following Jesus.
The life of following Jesus then, is to make more and more of our life into the good soil. This is what discipleship is all about.
Ideally, if we are good planters for the Kingdom of God, we want to be planting seeds in the best soil. It is this soil that gives a 3000%, 6000%, or 10,000% return on your investment.
If you look in the average church, we think that the good soil is the rich, powerful, pretty people. You know, those with seminary degrees, big smiles, and nice suits. Is that what good soil looks like?
I don’t think so.
So what makes good soil? When I was young, my mom had some flower gardens, and every spring, she would go down to the lawn and garden store, and buy bags of “Manure” to put in her gardens. One year I asked her, “Mom, what is manure?” She said, “It’s cow poop.” What made mom’s garden grow? Poop.
What makes good soil? Good soil is that which has a lot of nutrients in it. Good soil is that which has a lot of fertilizer. Excuse me for putting it this way, but I am convinced that the good soil people are those who have a lot of sh!t in their lives. Which people are these? The people we would normally think of as “bad people.” The sinners.
And yet in most of our churches, we work hardest to keep these people out. Of course, we’re all sinners, but we try to hide that fact from everyone else. We say “come as you are” but the super fine print says “only when you can act like us, talk like us, and look like us.”
But when we look at Jesus, who did He pick to work with, minister to, and pour His life into? Tax collectors, sinners, thieves, murderers, prostitutes, drunkards. Why? He knew a good investment when He saw one. In bad people, Jesus saw fields upon fields of rich, fertile soil just waiting to be planted. Bad people make good soil.
So are you upset about a particular area of sin in your own life? This may be just the area in which Jesus is about to plant some seed! So watch out! The plants are about to sprout! And you thinking of trying to minister to a certain group of people? Before you do, consider how much sh!t is in their lives… If there is not a lot of fertilizer getting tossed around, you might have trouble finding good fertile ground in which to plant the seed of Scripture.
Have you ever heard this interpretation of the Parable of the Four Soils? If so, where? If not, how does it strike you? Weigh in below!
I read about 70 blogs a day. It takes me about 20 minutes. I do read pretty fast, but the real key is to use a Blog Reader.
I used to use Google Reader, but now I use Feedly.
If you still read the blogs you like by individually going to each one, save yourself some time and use Feedly. It’s simple, easy, and free. To sign up now, just click on the “Bloglines” button in the left column. You can thank me later.
The April-June 2008 issue of Bibliotheca Sacra has an article by Dr. Gordon Johnston about the connections between Genesis 1 and Ancient Egyptian Creation Myths.
I sat under Dr. Johnston while I was in seminary, and along with this information about Genesis 1, he taught seveeral other ideas that challenged some of my traditional theology. I wrote about some of these areas here, which led to me getting fired from a ministry job… Thanks Dr. Johnston! (Ha!)
Anyway, when it comes to Genesis 1, Johnston argues that Moses borrowed heavily from some Egyptian Creation Myths.
Dr. Johnston concludes his article with this statement:
This suggests that Genesis 1 was originally composed, not as a scientific treatise, but as a theological polemic against the ancient Egyptian models of creation which competed against Yahwism for the loyalty of the ancient Israelites.
I agree with Dr. Johnston.
But notice what he is not saying. He is not saying that creation did not occur in six 24-hour periods. He very well may believe that it did. But it seems that there are only two possible ways to believe that Genesis 1 teaches that creation occurred in six 24-hour days while knowing what we now know about the many parallels with Egyptian Creation Myths.
First, it could be argued that creation happened, and the account was passed down by oral tradition through the centuries, being slowly changed over time, until the Egyptians recorded their version. When Moses came on the scene, God revealed to him what really happened, and this is what Moses wrote down. This would partially account for other similarities in other pagan creation myths found around the world.
But even under this understanding, Moses did not write Genesis 1-2 to disprove evolution. No ancient person ever imagined that everything simply came about by chance. Everybody believed that a God or gods created all that was. So to read Genesis 1 as a scientific treatise defending creationism against evolution is nothing short of reading modern issues back into ancient texts (aka eisegesis).
If Dr. Johnston is correct, people who use Genesis 1 to argue against evolution should start admitting that they are using this passage in a way neither Moses nor the original audience would have understood. Only then are we being honest with the text.
Which brings us to the second possible way Genesis 1 could be read in light of the parallels with Egyptian Creation Myths. It is possible, I suppose, that God, as the divine author, could have intended more than Moses, the human author, and the Israelites, the original human audience understood.
It is possible that God, peering down the corridors of time, foresaw that Charles Darwin would invent his theory of evolution and God wanted to show this for the error that it is. And so He had Moses write a “creation account” that kept the Israelites 3500 years ago keep from worshipping Egyptian deities, and keeps Christians today from believing in evolution.
It’s possible.
But again, if that is how you want to view Genesis 1, you need to admit it.
Personally, I think the strongest way to teach Genesis 1 is to teach it with the message Moses originally intended. And what is that message?
Here are a few suggestions:
Our God is more powerful, loving, kind, personal, immanent, and transcendent than any other god there is.
God made humanity the center of His creation. That’s how much He cares for us and wants to relate to us.
We are not here by accident, but He made us and put us here for a reason. You have purpose. You matter to God.
This world was made for you to enjoy, and God wants to enjoy it with you.
Out of the chaos of your life, God creates order, light, and beauty. God fills the voids with meaning and significance.
To me, that is a much greater message than “God created the world in six days and evolution is evil.”
But in my opinion, no matter how you view Genesis 1, it’s nothing to get fired up over…
Churches often struggle with knowing what they are supposed to be doing, and how they are supposed to do whatever it is they are supposed to be doing. As I have argued elsewhere, some of this confusion is due to a poor definition of “church.”
However, most of the nebulous nature of what the church is supposed to be doing and how is a result of not having a clearly defined purpose, mission, values, vision, and strategy. Sounds like a lot of work? It is. But without such things in place, you still do a lot of work in church, and like a hamster on a running wheel, rarely go any place.
One of the best books which can help you understand the what, why, and how of your church’s purpose, mission, values, vision, and strategy is Advanced Strategic Planning by Aubrey Malphurs. He takes you through why these statements are important, and how to write them up for your church.
But here is a basic summary of what each statement should contain:
The purpose is the same for every church. It answers the “Why do we exist?” question. The answer is basic, generic, and broad. The church exists to honor and glorify God (Rom 15:6; 1 Cor 6:20; 10:31). You could (and probably should) use different words to state it for your church.
Like Purpose, every church has the same mission. It answers the “What are we to be doing?” question. Jesus told us that we are to be making disciples of all nations (Matt 28:19-20). Once again, to personalize it for your church, you should redefine the terms to make it more clear. For example, what do you mean by “disciple”? And what do you mean by “all nations”? Can you really reach all nations, or should you, as a individual church, pick a smaller area of the world to focus on? Willow Creek has one of the most famous Mission statements: “The Mission of Willow Creek is to turn irreligious people into fully devoted followers of Christ.” They might be a bit vague on which people they want to help with this, but they do a good job defining what they mean by “disciple.” Aubrey’s book gives great help on defining your mission (chapter 5).
Unlike Purpose and Mission, every church will have a unique set of values. Values help you answer the question, “Why do we do what we do?” It helps clarify your mission statement. If you are going to focus your mission statement on families in your area, that will affect your values.
If you want to focus on college kids, your values will look different. If you want to focus primarily on people who would normally not attend church (e.g., atheists, agnostics, people of other religions) that will effect your values. It is a difficult, long process discovering values, and should be done with the help of other people in the church. Malphurs has some excellent tips and value audit surveys which help churches discover their values. You should probably have no more than ten values.
Vision is your dream for your church. If you close your eyes, and imagine the ideal church, what it would look like, what it would be doing, who would be there, that is your vision. In developing a vision, I find it helpful to follow Martin Luther King Jr.’s pattern, and write my vision by beginning each paragraph with the statement “I have a dream…”
Once you get the vision down on paper, it would be wise to go back and check your vision with your values. Sometimes, the visioning process helps inform and correct your values.
Only once the previous four items are in place can you begin to ask the “How?” question. Developing a strategy tells you how to bring your vision to fruition. But if you don’t have adequately defined mission, values, and vision, you cannot develop a good strategy.
Tragically, strategy is where most churches and pastors begin. This is why they flounder around, and run off in seventeen different directions, and fight over the best way to do things, and how the money should be spent, and who should be the group they focus on, and what kind of music and literature the church should produce, etc. Most of these arguments go away if everybody in the church is on board with the mission, values, and vision.
Many churches think that they don’t need all this planning. But if we are doing the work of building the kingdom, we need a plan. No person, setting out to construct a building, would get a group of people together, hand out a few tools, and simply say “Go!”
No, they sit down and plan what kind of building they need, what it will be used for, what the budget is, what the codes are, and how it will be safe for the people who use it. Then they draw up the plans. Then they begin building. Heavy thinking precedes heavy lifting.
If you want to be part of building Christ’s church, be ready to take part in some heavy thinking.
I did something today which I have never done before in my entire life, and I’m pretty ashamed of myself. And on Easter Sunday of all days! I feel so bad, I don’t think I will ever do it again. Maybe.
So, I figured “Where better to air my dirty laundry than on a public blog?”
What did I do?
I lifted a sermon. Stole it. Yes, I preached someone else’s Easter message.
I’m not going to tell you whose it was, where I got it, or what it was about. But one thing I do know, is that it was by far the worst sermon I have ever preached in my entire life. When I first read it earlier this week, I thought, “Well, that’s creative, interesting, memorable. Nice stories. Nice application. Nice three-point outline.” So I copy-pasted it into Word, made a few tweaks, and voila! my Easter sermon.
But when I got up to preach it today, I was bored out of my mind within five minutes. And I could tell the congregation was too. I have never seen so many people looking back at the clock and checking their watch. I realized that it is impossible for me to preach someone else’s sermon, no matter how good it was when they preached it. I am not them, and cannot preach the way they do, and I have trouble getting excited or passionate about something that I didn’t research and write.
And the worst thing about it is that today was Easter! Attendance was up by about 50%, so there were several people in church who haven’t been there since last Easter. And today, of all days, I decide to preach the worst sermon in the history of the world.
So, I’m ashamed. I’m sorry, church members! I’m sorry, Jesus.
I’m sorry that on this, the most important day of the year, I failed.
I remember when I thought that the most important thing about Good Friday is that it actually happened on a Thursday. Yes, I was one of the freaks of Christianity who got his kicks studying, debating, and teaching the finer points of theology that few people even knew existed, and fewer cared about. (For example, did you know Peter actually denied Christ SIX times? I can prove it!)
So I laughed when I recently read in Vince Antonucci’s new book, I Became a Christian, and All I Got was this Lousy T-Shirt, that one reason he started to investigate Christianity was because of some old guy teaching on television about how research had proven that something actually occurred on Wednesday rather than Tuesday (pp. 11-12). Vince doesn’t remember what the event was, but I bet it had something to do with the Passion week. Scholars are always debating about the order of the events of this week, and what happened on which days. You will even hear some talking about the “missing day” of Jesus’ final week. I used to be one of those people. Of course, I didn’t have a “missing day” in my order of events, because for me, Good Friday happened on Thursday. I think I preached a sermon about this once. These are the things I cared about most.
More than the people in my church. More than my wife or kids.
Recently, I have begun to realize that a change has occurred in me. Much of what I once thought was so important, I now consider to be almost completely irrelevant. I have also found myself crying a lot. Yes, there, I said it. I am a man, and I cry. A lot. Maybe I’m emotionally imbalanced. Maybe I need some testosterone boosters. I don’t know.
These crying bouts have confused and concerned my wife. Three nights ago, as I was crying about something, she tenderly asked, “What is going through your head right now?” Blowing my nose, I sniffled, “I don’t know. This is all so confusing to me as well. I don’t understand it either. I’m not really thinking anything except, ‘Why in the world am I crying?'”
So I started to think more about it, and observed the times when I start to cry, then talk about it with my wife. I noticed I cry when I read or hear stories about people who have experienced great personal pain in life. I cry when I learn about people who lost a loved one, boys who were beaten or neglected by their father, girls who were molested or raped, women who were abandoned by their husband. Last night, when I shared this with Wendy, she said, “I think that while you used to love theology, you now love people.”
I think my wife may be right. I’ve even noticed changes in my reading patterns. It used to be that when I read books, I would underline and scribble all over the theology sections, and skip over or get annoyed at the stories the authors would include as illustrations. I saw such stories as a needless waste of words. Now, as I flip through books I’ve read over the past six months or so, I see that I have underlined and scribbled all over the stories, and left the “theology” portions nearly untouched. I want more stories. I find myself reading and re-reading them. I share them with my wife. I ask myself how I would respond (besides crying) to people who have such pain in their lives. I want to get to know these people whose lives are so full of pain. If possible, I want to soak up some of their pain, and share with them some of the love they so desperately need and which I have been given in abundance.
And I realized today, on Good Friday, that this is why Jesus died. Did He die for the “propitiation for the sins of the world”? Of course. Was it an “unlimited and substitutionary atonement”? Yes. But I believe that more than any of these theological truths, Jesus died to associate with us in our suffering, to understand our loneliness, and to soak up our pain.
His death was not primarily a theological event. It was the greatest act of love that ever occured in the history of the universe. Jesus died because He loves you.
I’m not really a huge Basketball fan. I’m built for it, and my dad was a state champion in high school, but I was never any good at it. I tried playing in Junior High, but wasn’t any good. I tried again as a Sophomore in high school, but when the coach told us that during the season we were not allowed to go skiing, I quit. Nothing comes between me and launching myself off a cliff with two boards strapped to my feet.
But here I am, trying basketball again. Only this time, I’m trying it from the comfort of my office computer and living room couch. Ahhh, much better!
I went and joined two NCAA March Madness Basketball Bracket Challenges. One (with CBS Sportlines) is through Vince Antonucci’s blog and the winner gets a free, autographed copy of his book. The other (with Yahoo Sports) is through Passion 4 Planting which I also learned about through a post on Vince’s blog.
I approached both brackets very differently. With the Yahoo sports bracket, I got expert advice from a friend of mine who is a sports guru. I played against him in two fantasy football leagues this year, and he got first place in both leagues. So he told me who is going to win the various games, and that is how I filled out my bracket. Thanks Ross!
With the CBS Sportsline, I realized that I needed to get God involved, especially since “there is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end, it leads to death.” I know that Ross is an expert, but he’s only human. So with the CBS Sportline bracket, I let God do my picking. Armed with Proverbs 16:33 and flipping a penny, I filled out my bracket and learned that Oral Roberts University is going to win it all! This only made sense because God is, after all, on their side.
So, Calvinists and Arminians take note: The age-old debate about divine sovereignty vs. human reason/free will is about to be solved.
Or, maybe this will just turn out to be an illustration of personal folly.
If there is one thing I have learned in my life as a follower of Jesus is that it is impossible to live like Jesus. I mean, after all, He was God! He lived a perfect life! If He is my standard, I’m throwing in the towel right now.
But thankfully, we aren’t called to live like Jesus. We are called, however, to like Jesus.
That is, God wants us to love Jesus. Loving Jesus leads to obeying Him (John 14:15), which certainly allows us to reflect Him in our lives, but it will never make us exactly like Him (not even in heaven!). I think the best thing we can do is be ourselves for Jesus. So don’t try to be Jesus. Just be yourself for Jesus.
Biblically as well, we are not called to be like Jesus. We are just called to a part of Jesus (1 Corinthians 12-14). None of us can be like Jesus by ourselves. We can only be like Jesus in a community of others who are also trying to be themselves for Jesus. The Bible calls this living as the body of Christ. Those who are toes live like toes for Jesus, letting those who are elbows be elbows. No part should try to be the whole person.
So stop trying to be like Jesus. You can’t do it, and He doesn’t want you to try. There’s only one Jesus, and you are not Him. Instead, just like Jesus by being yourself for Jesus.
