Are You Good Soil?

Most people who go to Church have heard Jesus’ parable of the Sower and the Seed. This is the one where Jesus predicts that roughly three quarters of those who make a commitment for Jesus will sooner or later fall away, give up, quit the cause. This must be disappointing for guys like John Loftus who think that there is something marvellously independent and rational and courageous about them for quitting Christianity when Jesus knew they would do it all along. In fact, people like Loftus aren’t the exception; they’re the norm! A dull, dreary and tragic norm.

According to Jesus’ story, some seed falls on gravel and dies. Some falls in shallow soil and dies. Some falls among thorns and is choked to death and dies. And some, the one quarter who fall on good soil are the ones who Jesus nurtures and tends and uses to produce a bountiful crop. "For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose." Philippians 2:19.

As the apostle Paul said, “I’ve finished the race. I’ve fought the good fight. I’ve kept the faith.” He, as I also hope to be one day, is the exception.

Here’s what I wonder.

What percentage of those of us who attend Church etc. believe that we are the good soil? How many of us believe that we are the one's through whom God "works out everything in conformioty with the purpose of His will" Ephesians 1:11, producing a bountiful crop with the Word that God has given us?

What percentage of us think that there aren’t any thorns choking out our love for Jesus?

Do we recognise busyness as thorns?

Do we recognise “Jesus plus works = salvation” as something depleting our ability for growth?

How about the amount of time we devote to sports or other hobbies?

How about the way we strive for more material “blessings”?

I work with a lot of Christians who don’t even recognise cherished sins as something that is choking out their love for Jesus. One woman, one “Christian” woman said to me last week with a big smirk, “Well, if lust is wrong then I guess there are a lot of us doing stuff wrong.” Are you surprised that she and her husband are separated and she’s living with another man?

Do you assume that you are good soil in which the Word of Jesus flourishes?

Does your relationship with Jesus actually make a difference in how you live?

Or are you like the proverbial frog being slowly boiled to death by the society in which you’re immersed?