do not assume you are good soil.

bear with me. this is going to be fragmented.

girls are reading Crazy Love by Francis Chan on sunday nights. last week, the book outlined the profile of a "lukewarm christian" - which is, in all reality, an oxymoron. there will not be any "lukewarm christians" heaven. disturbing to me was how many aspects of the profile i could directly relate to.

this week, the book talked about how we often give leftovers to the God of the universe. God desires all or nothing. Chan went on to give 2 images, that i used to think were exclusively YWAM: the world is a river and we as christians must constantly swim agains the current, or the world is a downward moving escalator and we must constantly run up it.

the underlying notion is this: if you are not making an effort to move towards God, you will slowly (consciously or unconsciously)move away from him. where did we ever get the idea that a mediocre, stand-still faith is okay? where did we ever get the idea that we can comfortably sit in one place?

and then this: the parable of the sower (matt 13). "A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9 He who has ears, let him hear."

this is what Chan says in response: "For years I struggled with the parable of the soils. I wanted to know if the person representing the rocky soil is saved, even though he has no root. I then wondered about the thorny soil: Is this person saved since he does have root? I doubt if people even considered these questions back in Jesus' day! Is this idea of the non-fruit-bearing Christian something we have concocted in order to make Christianity "easier"? So we can follow our own course while still calling ourselves followers of Christ? Jesus' intention in this parable was to compare the only good soil to the ones that were not legitimate alternatives. To Him, there was one option for a true believer." (86-87)

jesus says the 2 things that choke the plants are these: the worries of life, and the deceitfulness of wealth.

it doesn't take much. worries and wealth. and these are 2 things that are in overabundance in American society and, honestly, in the American church. we're like those poor frogs that sit in a pot of water as it begins to boil: they never realize what a tragic situation they're in.

we're filthy rich - and don't realize it. and this wealth is a serious spiritual disadvantage. Jesus exasperatedly declares "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God."

God said of the Israelites "When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me. "

we're stuffed and satisfied, and we're forgetting about the God of the universe.

i guess i don't have a nice way to wrap this all up right now. i'm just thinking about this stuff. how do we overcome it? what does it look like to give Him everything?