not yet…

He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he replied, ‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’” Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen! (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43, NRSV)

How many of us has this happened to? We go out and plant a garden, and there among the good seed we planted, up comes this other stuff!

I mean come on I didn’t plant that stuff. Why are those other plants growing where I sowed my good seed?

And here we would go out and pull the weeds. We want to get rid of the other plants so the seed we planted will get the nutrients, and grow and produce the fruit for which we planted it.

But what is a weed? And how did it get there…

Wally Armbruster in Noodles Du Jour raises this question: “Is a weed a flower that’s the victim of prejudice? (Does God think more of a rose than he does of crab grass?) Are you sure?”

Does God think more of a rose than a thistle?

Why does the master in the parable not have his servants (slaves) pull the weeds? Because in doing so some of the wheat would be pulled up as well, and rather than risk the harvest, you let the weeds grow…

And maybe the weeds are good plants that need more time to mature…

And if we take this to the next level, which are we? Are we wheat or are we weeds?

Yes. The answer is yes! We are both wheat and weeds. As we are both sinner and saint! And if we take out the weeds, we may just be removing us.

You see it is not our job to separate the good from the bad, we are to let it go and be who God has planted us to be, and let the angels sort it out in the end.

So not yet, it’s not time to separate, just be who God has made you to be and go on spreading His love.

prospers

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish. (Psalm 1, ESV)

This psalm is wonderful because it tells us that the tree that feeds off of the life that God gives it will prosper!

Planted by streams of water and feeding off of that it will give fruit in it’s season and be what God created it to be.

This is just like the man who meditates on the law of God day and night. I preached on the text last week and my youngest daughter asked what it meant to meditate.

Meditate means to focus on, to have that be the center of your life. How many of us have God’s law as the center of our lives?

If we do this, we will prosper but if we don’t then we will perish.

So watch were you get your council from, and who you are delighting in. Delight in the Lord and have Him to be the center of your life, and you will be like a tree that prospers!

drink in

Therefore let us go on toward perfection, leaving behind the basic teaching about Christ, and not laying again the foundation: repentance from dead works and faith toward God, instruction about baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And we will do this, if God permits. For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, since on their own they are crucifying again the Son of God and are holding him up to contempt. Ground that drinks up the rain falling on it repeatedly, and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it produces thorns and thistles, it is worthless and on the verge of being cursed; its end is to be burned over. (Hebrews 6:1-8, NRSV)

We can not relay the foundation once it has been laid… And we have this foundation. Now we must drink in the falling rain to grow in maturity…

You see just like the ground drinks in the rain water and the nutrients feed to it, and then it produces a crop useful for those who tend it that is how we must be.

We must drink in the water that Jesus gives, that leads to never thirsting again. We must take in the nutrients of a life lived in the light of God and soaking in the nutrients of His body all around us.

Mature in your christian life and move on from the baby food! God needs you to produce for the kingdom!

laid naked

Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.  And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account. (Hebrews 4:12-13, NRSV)

How many of you have ever had that dream where you are in front of your high school or work or whatever and you realize that you are naked?

We are embarrassed because everyone sees all of us.

And that is exactly how God sees us all the time.

God’s word is sharper than a two edged sword and pierces until it divides should from spirit and joints from marrow. He sees us as we are and we can not hide any part of us from Him. He sees us everywhere we go of every moment of every day.

And the best part to this scariness is He still loves us knowing all He does about us!

The Ministry Machine

Thom Schultz's avatarHoly Soup

In the midst of another hyper-busy day, the rueful Christian leader paused, looked across his desk, and said, “I no longer feel I’m running this organization. It’s running me.”

For many, ministry has become a machine. A big, complex machine that requires constant feeding and maintenance. What began as a tool and a structure to accomplish greater good has become, itself, the focus. Rather than a means to an end, the means has become the end.

This is part of what’s causing the drift of the American church, which has become big, complicated, bureaucratic, expensive and professionalized. Our new documentary film on the state of the church, “When God Left Building,” illustrates this phenomenon. Take a look at this brief clip with Rick Warren and a former megachurch staff member:

Tony Steward, the second man in the clip, said the American church is currently in its own “Industrial Age.” And…

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dead will hear and live

Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life. “Very truly, I tell you, the hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself; and he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not be astonished at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and will come out—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation. (John 5:24-29, NRSV)

The Walking Dead is and will be a reality…

Not as zombies though, sorry if that is what you were expecting.

We are all walking dead if we are walking with out Jesus, and in that we will spend eternity in a resurrection of condemnation.

Jesus tells us here that the dead will hear the voice of Jesus and through that they will live, and all of those who rest in death will hear and will rise to their resurrection, be that to life, or condemnation.

So get ready for the rising of the dead, but not the zombie apocalypse!

how does that happen?

He also said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.” He also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” (Mark 4;26-32, NRSV)

Have you ever wondered how that little seed planted in the soil forms into the vegetable you eat?

I mean sure there is the nutrients in the soil that work with the water and the sun to make the plant grow and produce the fruit of the seed, yet that doesn’t explain how it happens…

Farmers plant seeds, and then rest. They sleep and let nature take its course. Sure they do their work, and water and fertilize, but there are things they just have to trust and know they don’t know about the process.

That is how the kingdom of God is, as if someone scattered seed and then it just sprouted! That is you the seed scatterer and it sprouts with out your help!

You just spread the seed of the kingdom by living a kingdom life in this world that needs the influx of God, and by being who God created you to be, you are spreading the seed of the kingdom and allowing God to work in and through this place and this time!

So keep spreading His love and mercy by being His hands and feet in this world!

Parent to child

If you follow my statutes and keep my commandments and observe them faithfully, I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. Your threshing shall overtake the vintage, and the vintage shall overtake the sowing; you shall eat your bread to the full, and live securely in your land. And I will grant peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and no one shall make you afraid; I will remove dangerous animals from the land, and no sword shall go through your land. You shall give chase to your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. Five of you shall give chase to a hundred, and a hundred of you shall give chase to ten thousand; your enemies shall fall before you by the sword. I will look with favor upon you and make you fruitful and multiply you; and I will maintain my covenant with you. You shall eat old grain long stored, and you shall have to clear out the old to make way for the new. I will place my dwelling in your midst, and I shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you shall be my people. I am the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be their slaves no more; I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect. But if you will not obey me, and do not observe all these commandments, if you spurn my statutes, and abhor my ordinances, so that you will not observe all my commandments, and you break my covenant, I in turn will do this to you: I will bring terror on you; consumption and fever that waste the eyes and cause life to pine away. You shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. I will set my face against you, and you shall be struck down by your enemies; your foes shall rule over you, and you shall flee though no one pursues you. And if in spite of this you will not obey me, I will continue to punish you sevenfold for your sins. I will break your proud glory, and I will make your sky like iron and your earth like copper. Your strength shall be spent to no purpose: your land shall not yield its produce, and the trees of the land shall not yield their fruit. (leviticus 26:3-20, NRSV)

You can almost hear the parental voice coming out here…

If you follow the rules then all will be good, but if you don’t it will not be good for you…

I was raised in a home that was that way. You feared the spanking for not following the rules. You feared the punishment that would come if you stepped out of line, sothe house line was walked…

And yes this is God speaking to us through His word. But much like most of us as parents want our children to fear us, we also want that fear to not be the dominate fealing they have for us.

Fear is a good motivator, but love more often than not gets us much further. So God is speaking to you, just like you would or will or could speak to your child, as one that wants their offspring to live within the guidelines they have set for their lives, know that if they can do that their lives will be good.

So do not fear God, but follow where He is leading knowing it will be better for all of us in the long run!

extravagant risk

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Let anyone with ears listen!” “Hear then the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.” (Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23, NRSV)

How many of us hear this and go, “Yes I know I need to allow God to work in my life to allow His word to better take root in me…”

We hear this parable and think we know what it is about. Yet do we?

We think it is all about soil. And we sing on this day, “Lord let my heart be good soil.” Allow my life to be a good place for your word to take root.

But I think we miss the point of the parable by saying it is about soil. Now don’t get me wrong, soil has a lot to do with it. But the first line of a story usually has impact on the meaning of the story…

Like ATale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.” This tells us about the story.

Or the story of the prodigal son from Luke 15, the first line of this parable of Jesus is, “There was a man who had two sons…” The story is about the father, not the sons. If it were about the younger son, Jesus would have started the parable, “There was a man who had an older brother and his father…”

So how does our parable for today start, “There were different types of soil…” No that is not how it starts.

The parable starts, “A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed…” There was a sower who sowed.

You see the story here is about the risk taking of the sower who extravagantly throws seed everywhere. Wasteful some would say. Yet all of the seed thrown by the sower did something. The first fed the birds, the next broke up rocks, the third fed the vines/thorns and the last produced the fruit of the seed. All of it had impact on the world. And isn’t that just like grace?

I mean God risked giving His grace to you. Shouldn’t He be as extravagant with all of creation?

So be willing to cast His seed far and wide, because that is what God would do, and He needs you to go and do likewise!

confidence

For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall never be shaken. How long will you assail a person, will you batter your victim, all of you, as you would a leaning wall, a tottering fence? Their only plan is to bring down a person of prominence. They take pleasure in falsehood; they bless with their mouths, but inwardly they curse. For God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. On God rests my deliverance and my honor; my mighty rock, my refuge is in God. Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. Those of low estate are but a breath, those of high estate are a delusion; in the balances they go up; they are together lighter than a breath. Put no confidence in extortion, and set no vain hopes on robbery; if riches increase, do not set your heart on them. Once God has spoken; twice have I heard this: that power belongs to God, and steadfast love belongs to you, O Lord. For you repay to all according to their work. (Psalm 62, NRSV)

Have you ever been faced with oppression of power?

Controlled by someone with wealth or power?

The Israelites would sing this psalm to foster their confidence in God as they were faced with oppression from those with wealth or power. They could despair in their situation or follow after the power or wealth. None of these choices are the right choice though. We should always have confidence in God who has promised to always be with us.

Just as the little kitty looks in the mirror and sees a valent lion, God sees us as warriors able to do complete the battle, because He is always with us, and despair, nor powers, nor wealth can take His place. They will only fool us into a state of hope, when the only true hope comes from God.