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When Our Seeds Only Grow Thorns

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Sometimes we feel like we’re putting in a lot of effort but getting no results from it.  We’re sowing good seeds but not reaping any harvest.  At times, it seems disappointment is our only reward.  Often this can just be the way things are at the time – we’re doing nothing wrong but it’s just not obvious what God is doing at that time.  We don’t need to change anything.  But there may be times where we’re not reaping good things because we’re deceived that what we’re sowing is what we’re supposed to be sowing.

According to the prophet Jeremiah, the nation of Judah had this problem and as a result they ended up in exile.  In the first half of Jeremiah 12:13, the prophet says of Judah:

“They have sown wheat and have reaped thorns;
            they have tired themselves out but profit nothing.”

The nation of Judah thought they were sowing good seeds, but they weren’t and there are several examples in Jeremiah’s book.

First, Judah thought they were on the right side politically, with powerful friends and therefore secure.

The nation of Judah allied itself alternately with Egypt and Assyria, who they thought could protect them from Babylon.  Surely these powerful nations could keep Judah from doom at Babylon’s hands.  However, in Jeremiah 3:36 the prophet says:

“How much you go about,
            changing your way!
You shall be put to shame by Egypt
            as you were put to shame by Assyria.”

Because Judah had trusted these nations, other than God, for their salvation God would put them to shame by His own hand, from which there is no escape.  While there are many good ways to work with others, we should never trust anyone with the help that only God can provide.

Next, Judah thought they had the right cultural heritage.

The people of Judah wouldn’t listen to Jeremiah’s prophesies of doom for the nation because they thought God wouldn’t destroy what they saw as His own nation.  Israel had been taken into captivity by Assyria, but Judah thought it could never happen to them because they were the heirs of Jewish culture.  The people would repeat the phrase, “This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD,” to remind themselves that they were special because they had the temple, but Jeremiah says in Jeremiah 7:4,

“Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.’”

The temple was provided as a way to approach God, but Judah thought of it like a magical talisman that would keep God happy so they could do their own thing.  However, God doesn’t want us to follow a checklist – He wants us.  All cultural and political institutions – including ones provided by God – are useless outside of God’s purpose for them.  What He provides He can take away if we abuse it.  When Judah was taken into captivity by Babylon, the temple was torn down and burned.

Last, Judah thought they had the right religion and were diligently practicing it

Judah’s religious leaders and people were diligent in observing the practices laid out in God’s ceremonial law.  They faithfully made the morning and evening sacrifices, observed the three main Jewish festivals, and followed many other ordinances, but in Jeremiah 7:22-23, the prophet said:

“For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.  But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’”

Because Judah was putting observance above obedience to God, He would therefore discipline them.  The sacrifices were not the objective – the relationship was the objective, but the people made their religion about the sacrifices themselves, not the relationship they were designed to restore.

Do we sometimes practice similar things in the modern church?  Of course we do.

The modern-day equivalent of Judah’s first mistake is when we expect from a political party what only God can give.  Our expectations of them become idolatrous, and we become more likely to compromise God’s principles to support them.  We commit the second mistake when we are convinced our denomination has it all right – the right history, traditions and doctrine – and therefore God will always favor us.  The last mistake happens when we put external religious observances ahead of internal devotion to God.  We may be executing the acts and rituals our religion requires of us, and our peers expect from us, but not giving ourselves fully to God.  We may go to church, but when we leave the church building we don’t take Jesus with us.

Sometimes we think through our political, cultural, and religious activities we should reap wheat, but what is happening when we keep reaping thorns?  Sometimes we need to check that we aren’t repeating Judah’s mistakes.

“They have sown wheat and have reaped thorns;
            they have tired themselves out but profit nothing.
They shall be ashamed of their harvests
            because of the fierce anger of the LORD.”

Zap! The Best Action Figures for Christmas

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Dear fellow travelers,

A hot Christmas gift when I was a kid were G.I. Joe toys.  These “Real American Heroes” were a line of action figures, vehicles and other accessories that fought against the evil Cobra organization which was trying to take over the world (of course).  In 1982, they were even hotter, after Hasbro added “Swivel Arm Battle Grip” to the design to differentiate G.I. Joe from the also-popular Star Wars figures.

Zap looks much better in action than in the box.

The swivel in the middle of the figure’s bicep allowed 360-degree rotation.  The swivel isn’t a shoulder, elbow, or hand, but without it, bazooka soldier (Code Name: Zap) can’t pose as modeled on the package pictured here.  I had “Zap” and tried it for myself.  It took some experimentation, but eventually the way the shoulder, swivel, and elbow were made worked together and Zap looked like Zap should look.

Why so much detail about action figures in a Christian blog?  Because the Christian church is described in the Bible as the body of Christ, and in 1 Corinthians 12:14-16, the apostle Paul assures us that, without every single member of the church participating, the body of Christ is incomplete:

“For the body does not consist of one member but of many.  If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it any less a part of the body.  And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it any less a part of the body.”

Like Zap without “Swivel Arm Battle Grip,” the church will not perform as God intended unless all parts of the body participate, but sometimes it’s not clear to each of us what part of the body of Christ we are.  To some of us, others may clearly look like a shoulder, elbow, or hand, but we don’t know our part.  To some of us, others may look like the “hands and feet of Jesus” (to use a common phrase), but people don’t say the same about us.  Remember that Paul says “that would not make it any less a part of the body.”

Today, let’s return to one of this blog’s key verses, Hebrews 10:24, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works.”  When we don’t clearly know the specifics of our part, maybe we are the “Swivel Arm Battle Grip” – the innovative, new part with a weird name that helps the other parts fit together and work as God intended.  But also, when we do know our part, is the objective any different?

Does Your Church Have an Unclean Spirit?

Todd R 2 Comments

Jesus and the apostles spent a lot of their time preaching and ministering to Jews in synagogues.  Some of us might think of the synagogue as similar to a modern church, just a place where believers meet, but in the Bible’s synagogues it’s amazing the type of people you’d find among the “believers.”  Mark 1:23-24 gives us such an example:

“And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.””

Here, Mark points out that there are unclean spirits even in the synagogue, perhaps in hiding.  There are probably unclean spirits even in our churches!  Like in our times, Jewish people who did not go to synagogue probably rationalized that by saying the synagogue isn’t perfect, but terribly flawed.  Why associate with those people?  Mark’s gospel was targeted at Gentile readers, who were probably more likely to criticize those in the synagogue than the Jews.  But, Mark then tells us in verses 25 and 26:

“But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice, came out of him.”

Who knows how many unclean spirits there were in the synagogue, how long they had been there, and how powerless the Jewish leaders were to do anything about them!  But, if Mark’s Gentile audience knew the synagogue wasn’t perfect, Jesus was saying He has authority and power to make it perfect in ways nobody else could.  Jesus wasn’t trying to draw people to the synagogue, but to Himself!

Photo by Cullan Smith on Unsplash

Coming back to the idea that our churches in some ways are the modern equivalent of synagogues, the world knows there are a lot of bad people going to church, from hypocrites pretending to follow Christ, to people who are just obviously bad.  Jesus, however, knows perfectly who His people are and who are not, but regardless He isn’t trying to draw people to an imperfect church, but to His perfect self!

Every group of people has a mix of good and bad, and possibly even people with “an unclean spirit.”

Therefore, no institution can accurately reflect who Christ is, not even the visible global church, which is made up of a mix of people that can’t be neatly divided into “good” and “bad.”  Everyone there is a sinner in need of forgiveness and salvation.  But Jesus, who cast out the “unclean spirit” in Mark’s gospel, can also cast out all the evil in His people’s hearts to build the one institution that will last forever in eternity.

Jesus, “the Holy One of God,” has come to build a church full of holy people, and He will not fail.  From within and without synagogues and churches with unclean spirits, God will find His people.

Godly Competition

Todd R 1 Comment

For people with competitive personalities, their competitiveness can get out of hand when it leads to boasting or belittling others.  Some people may think the competitiveness itself is to blame and ask, is it ok for Christians to be competitive?  Or is it only bad to be overcompetitive?  Are there better ways to compete?  In Romans 12:10, the apostle Paul gives us one example of where we should be as competitive as we possibly can:

“Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.”

Photo by Meghan Hessler on Unsplash

When Paul says we should “outdo one another” he’s setting up a competition among believers, using a Greek word that means “to lead the way for others”[1]  Paul is saying we should be trying our best to show more honor to others than others do.  It’s a competition where everybody wins but doesn’t require participation trophies.  We aren’t competing in worldly ways, to win honor for ourselves, but to honor others, or to esteem others as being of great value to us.

But also, I think Paul is referring to what came before in the verse: “Love one another with brotherly affection”.  In this phrase, Paul combines two Greek words for love: one that means love for our figurative brothers, or people like us, and another that means love for our literal brothers, or close relatives.  In the context of the church, this means to love other Christians as you love your own blood relatives.  This makes sense because our Christian brothers and sisters are all permanent relations in Christ – maybe more permanent than our actual blood relatives.

Back to the full verse:

“Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.”

Together, these phrases are telling us to do our best to love our fellow Christians as well as we possibly can, competing to do it better than others and to lead by example.  We are to honor them because they are Christ’s, not because we get something in return.

So, yes, its ok to be competitive.  Sometimes it’s even encouraged!  Consider how to outdo others in love and showing honor today.  Do your best to win today.

[1] Strong’s Dictionary

More Than a Tent

Todd R 3 Comments

Long before there was a Temple in Jerusalem, the Israelites built a tabernacle according to instructions given by God to Moses.  This tabernacle from a material perspective was just a big tent, but to the Israelites it was the place where God had chosen to dwell among them, the place where they would learn how He was to be honored and worshipped.  The tabernacle was designed so that it could be torn down and moved with the people to each new location they travelled to during their wilderness wanderings between the exodus from Egypt and their entry into the Promised Land.  To make moving it easier, it was constructed of many pieces, but still the size of the tabernacle was impressive.  For example:

“And all the craftsmen among the workmen made the tabernacle with ten curtains. They were made of fine twined linen and blue and purple and scarlet yarns, with cherubim skillfully worked.  The length of each curtain was twenty-eight cubits, and the breadth of each curtain four cubits. All the curtains were the same size.” – Exodus 36:8-9

I’ve read these verses many times without really thinking about them, but eventually I asked: how much cloth is that exactly?  Consider how hard and time-consuming it would be to make cloth while wandering in the wilderness, particularly cloth with detailed images of cherubim worked into them.  They didn’t have anything close to a modern loom or sewing machine, yet they made 10 curtains that were each 28 cubits by 4 cubits.  But how big is that?

A cubit would be approximately 18 inches today.  So, 28 cubits would be 28 times 18 to get the number of inches, then divided by 12 to get the number of feet.  Do the same math for the 4 cubits of breadth.  The result is that each of these 10 curtains were 42 feet long and 6 feet wide!

Think about how much clothing could be made with that much cloth, and about how people with more than 2 or 3 changes of clothes in those days would be considered rich.  Later when we read in Judges about Samson posing a riddle to his 30 companions, where if they couldn’t solve the riddle they’d have to give Samson “thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes.”[1]  These companions pleaded with Samson’s wife to help them solve the riddle, saying: “Have you invited us here to impoverish us?”[2]  What would impoverish these 30 men?  Having to give Samson one garment and one change of clothes each!  And this was not in the wilderness, but long after Israel had settled in the Promised Land.

I write all of this to say that, looking at only one part of the tabernacle, among many that were made of gold and other precious materials, the sacrifice made by Israel to have a tabernacle was impressive.  They didn’t provide their God with a small tent that didn’t cost them much to build, but they gave their God a tabernacle that cost them much in terms of both materials and labor.  After all, this was the place where God was going to dwell among them.  He deserves it, and more.

What does this mean for us today?  Some say the modern equivalent of the tabernacle is the physical churches that we build to gather in, and so the tabernacle example justifies huge, expensive, elaborate churches.  But I don’t think that’s the right equivalent.  It is the body of Christ Himself – His people – including you and me.  Since the time of Christ, He has chosen to dwell within each of us directly.  The cost of the tabernacle can be compared to the cost of discipleship, or of following Christ.

If that’s so, what do we sacrifice and invest in ourselves as the dwelling place of God?  Do we value other Christians as God’s temples, investing in them?  Do we give enough to God that it takes away from other things we might want to do with our time and resources?  Do we provide God with a basic tent to stay in, or do we put into His dwelling so much that it might “impoverish” us in other areas?

After all, He deserves it, and more!

[1] Judges 14:13
[2] Judges 14:15