Tag Archives: hard

A Radical Paradigm Shift

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A RADICAL PARADIGM SHIFT

Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, ‘How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!’ The disciples were amazed at His words. But Jesus said again, ‘Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’

The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, ‘Who then can be saved?’ Jesus looked at them and said, ’With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.’ (Mark 10: 23-27).

That comment got the disciples going! What Jesus had just said flew in the face of their understanding of wealth. They believed that prosperity was an indication of God’s favour and blessing while poverty meant just the opposite. But Jesus was telling them that a rich person had a hard time getting into the kingdom of God? It made no sense to them.

In the company of Jesus they had to “unlearn” many of the ideas they grew up with. They believed, for example, that illness and physical disabilities were a punishment for sin. Hence the question, when they encountered a man born blind (John 9), ‘Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?’  Some of their beliefs almost resembled the idea of karma – a kind of fatalistic outlook on life.

Time and again Jesus had to pull them back to reality. They had just witnessed what money and possessions did to a man who could not let go. Wealth was not a blessing for him. It was the thing that stood between him and eternal life. He chose to trust in his money instead of following Jesus. But what was the problem? Was it wrong to have money? No, money was not his problem; his attitude towards his money was the issue.

Jesus was adamant that no one can serve God and money. He did not say “Have money!” He said, “Serve money.” What’s the difference? Money is a good servant but a terrible master. One of the “thorns” which choked the Word of God was “the deceitfulness of riches”. Why is money deceitful? Because it cannot deliver on what it promises.

Money and possessions cannot buy health, happiness or peace of mind, and certainly not the assurance of eternal life. Money dehumanises people. The more they have, the more they want. “Enough” is always just out of reach. Instead of using their money to serve people, they use people to make more money.

We don’t have to be brilliant to realise that it is money that drives the world. Unfortunately, the love of money is just as real in the church as it is in the world. The same philosophy drives many in the church as it does outside. How many wealthy pastors unashamedly attribute their affluent lifestyle to “God’s blessing” while, in actual fact they mild their congregation through guilt.

In Jesus’s equation, quite the opposite is true. Zacchaeus revealed one of the real evidences of a changed heart – his attitude to his possessions. Was it only because, as a tax collector for Rome, he had extorted money from his fellow Jews to line his own pocket? Perhaps, but he had also become a “new creation” in the presence of Jesus. He changed from being a greedy money-grabber to being will to give away where he saw need, and make restitution for his theft.

His was not an isolated case, either. After Pentecost, when three thousand people came into the kingdom of God in one day, a new spirit prevailed among them. Instead of being “getters” they became givers. They sold their possessions and shared their wealth so that there was equality among them.

Only God can change ah greedy heart. Jesus told Nicodemus that entry into the kingdom of God required a work of God’s Spirit. It was like being “born again”, starting life all over again with a different disposition and perspective. It took a miracle of God’s grace to do that. A good was to discern whether a person, including oneself, is truly a citizen of the heavenly kingdom is to examine his (or your) attitude to money. How willingly do you share with those in need?

But it goes even deeper than that? For some people, giving money away is not the issue. Why they do it is the issue. Is it to get praise from admirers for their generosity like the Pharisees? Is it because they feel sorry for the poor? Is it because they feel good about being benevolent? None of these count for God. There is only one worthy motive for being generous – gratitude to God for His mercy. It’s not about us. It’s about Him! That’s the spirit that reveals where your heart is.

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

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Fruit Or Fruitless

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FRUIT OR FRUITLESS

“As they went from town to town, a lot of people joined in and travelled along. He addressed them, using this story: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. Some of it fell on the road; it was trampled down and the birds ate it. Other seed fell in the gravel; it sprouted but withered because it didn’t have good roots. Other seed fell in the weeds; the weeds grew with it and strangled it. Other seed fell in rich earth and produced a bumper crop. ‘Are you listening to this? Really listening?'” Luke 8:4-8 (The Message).

How many sermons have been preached on this story!

As the crowds joined Jesus, He was aware that all of them represented one or even more of the soil types of which His story spoke. No doubt the scribes and Pharisees were among those whose hearts were so hard that the seed of God’s Word would remain exposed on the surface until the birds came and snatched it away.

What makes hearts so hard that the seed will never take root? Disobedience creates calluses in people’s hearts. God speaks and, because the time is not convenient, or because His instruction seems foolish or cuts across our own wishes or intentions, we do nothing. The next time His speaks, we hear but do nothing again. Eventually we no longer hear Him because our hearts have become deaf to His voice.

Sin dulls our sensitivity to His word. Self-will and the notion that we know better or that we are convinced we are right, like the Pharisees were, shuts us off from the influence of God’s Word until it no longer penetrates our minds and we dismiss it with contempt.

Gravelly soil represents the shallow person who is so caught up with the glitz and glamour of the world and the all the interests and entertainment that it can offer that the delicate roots of the Word of God find no place to anchor themselves. There’s hardness under the surface that resists the truth and the small plant of faith eventually withers and dies.

Ground that is full of weeds is like the person who has a divided heart. Jesus identified the weeds as “the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of riches.” These are interesting concepts. To worry implies that you are split — you are here but your mind is there. You may be in church but your mind is somewhere else, churning over a situation or problem you cannot solve. You are unable to give your attention fully to God’s Word at that moment.

The deceitfulness of riches is equally distracting and you are equally split in your mind. Instead of being content with what you have now, you are continually living in the future — scheming and planning how you can get more money then. “Weeds” rob you of contentment and distract you from living in the present and in the place where you are here and now. Consequently God’s Word is gradually pushed out of your mind as you grapple with your worries and your ambitions.

The person who recognises the value of what God says and applies it diligently to his life, not allowing sin, pride or self-will to prevent its entry into his heart or the glamour, greed or worries of the present life to choke its growth, will receive the Word. apply it and show the fruit of its influence in the way he lives.

There is a little of each type of soil in each of our lives, depending on our attitude to the issues the Word addresses. We may resist what God has to say about any sin we are entertaining; we may be shallow or superficial in our attitude towards something God requires of us that touches our pride or our purses; we may have worries or ambitions that we are not prepared to relinquish to Him, and in those areas we will shut out the Word and become unfruitful.

The fruitfulness of the seed depends entirely on quality of the soil that receives it.

When God looks for fruit in your life, what will He find?