What I am about to say, therefore, may sound like nothing more than sour grapes – except for the fact that I am drawing from Jesus’ teaching and not my own reasoning. I am also indebited to a sermon I heard by Haddon Robinson, to whom I owe much of my spiritual growth and from whom I have learned more than I can describe. Thus, the following is not sour grapes: hopefully, what follows are sweet grapes to a few readers of this blog.

If you were to talk to my clients – whether individuals or couples – and ask them who the most important person is in the counseling process, it is likely that many would say that it is me, the therapist, who is more vital and critical to the process. I am, after all, the one with the special training and the one from whom they seek help: certainly, they might reason, the counselor is the most important person. Of course, they would be wrong: the most important person in counseling is not the counselor: the most important person is the client.

The same, I think, is true of blogs. If you were to consider, for example, the Pyromaniacs – Phil, Frank, Dan, and the rarely seen Pecadillo – you might initially think it was Phil or perhaps Frank or Dan. But, again, you would be wrong: the most important person at that or any other blog is you, the reader.

That, I think, is what Jesus is trying to impress upon His followers in one of His most important parables as found in Lk 8:

4 While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable:
5 ‘A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up.
6 ‘Some fell on rock, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture.
7 ‘Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants.
8 ‘Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.’ When he said this, he called out, ‘He who has ears to hear, let him hear.’
9 His disciples asked him what this parable meant.
10 He said, ‘The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, “though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.”’” – NIV

It is perhaps necessary to say a word about parables in general before looking more deeply at this particular one; thus, let’s begin at the end of this passage to understand why Jesus spoke in parables and what specifically parables were and are.

In short, a parable is a story is taken from everyday life that conveys a different, usually deeper, truth about something. Unlike an allegory, it is not easy to make a one-to-one correspondence between elements of the parable and the underlying truth; unlike an illustration, the parable does not provide an explanation of its meaning. It is up to the hearers of the parable to discover the truth contained in the parable.

For example, if I were reading or listening to a Calvinist or Arminian theologian wax dogmatically on a particular aspect of doctrine, relying on and drawing from the writings of Spurgeon or Wesley to bolster their point, I might say to her, “Even monkeys fall out of trees.” That is a parable: you understand it only if you think about it and ascertain the meaning hidden within it. If you ask for an explanation, as the disciples did in Lk 8, I might say, “Even experts make mistakes.” That, then, would be a parable with an explanation given.

Jesus spoke in parables not to hide His truth and message from others, but to make it understandable only to those who were hungering and thirsting for righteousness. Those who were content with themselves and trusting in their own way of righteousness would not seek to uncover the truth of the parable, but those who are hungry and thirsty would do whatever they could to grasp the truth of what was being said. The aforementioned Calvinist or Arminian would, if hungry and thirsty, stop to consider my words and examine their own belief system for what might be incorrect or inconsistent; those who admit to no errors, however, would not bother.

This seems to be the message of the parable of the sower: the seed was sown but the result was dependent on the state and condition of the soil. In Jesus’ parable, the seed is the word of God, the fruit is salvation and all that follows, and the soil represents the various types of people listening to him. It was not the size of the crowd, He was saying, that is vital but rather the condition or receptivity of the soil that ultimately made the difference.

Or, for us, it is not the number of hits on a blog that matters but whether or not readers hear and are changed as a result of a post. A blog may have a thousand hits and change but one; another blog may have forty hits and change ten. Which, then, is actually more successful?

A quick word on the seed in this parable: There are a great many blogs and posts that quote Scripture and then seek to expound upon it. The seed, being the word of God, is infallible: it is always capable of producing growth and fruit, even if the particular exposition is not accurate. What is sown, then, must be the word of God, not the teachings of Calvin or Wesley, Spurgeon or Swindoll, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones or any other human “authorities.” It is only that teaching or preaching which “rightly handles the word of truth” that is profitable; it is only the word of truth itself that is infallible and cannot “fall out of trees” – unlike Calvin, Wesley, me, the Pyromaniacs, or anyone else. This is not meant to diminish, disparage, or dismiss the writings of any theologian: it is meant to see them and their writings in perspective.

Some soil is trampled and hardened like a well-worn path. These people hear the gospel message but are not able or willing to accept it; the effect of their rejection of the truth, as Jesus explains to the disciples, renders them “so that they may not believe and be saved” (8.12). There is no salvation for those whose soil or hearts are hardened and unwilling to accept the truth. The seed is snatched away and never penetrates the soil of the human heart.

Other soil is shallow: people hear it and enthusiastically accept and embrace it. Underneath, however, is a layer of hard soil that keeps the seed from deveoping deep roots: when adversity comes, they walk, stray, or stay away from the truth. There is little, if any, change in such people because they have not opened themselves sufficiently to receive the truth fully.

The third soil is different still: here the seed is accepted and takes root – perhaps even deep roots – but other things that people allow to take root in their lives crowd the plant and keep it from growing fully and yielding fruit. Such people may have a commitment to the word of God, but they have other, competing loyalties; they are distracted and preoccupied with other things. Sadly, rich soil can yield a bountiful harvest of weeds and thorns as well as spiritual fruit. Those competitors can be good things, such as the study of theology or a devotion to missions, but they take away from the singular pursuit of the Giver of the word of truth. Satan may not be able to keep you from being good soil, but he will try his best to clutter your soil with “good” things that choke the True Vine from bearing as much fruit as it might through us.

The fourth soil, of course, is what we must seek to be: we are to receive the word, yield to it, and allow God to change us, mature us, and produce fruit through us. The good soil is soft and receptive, is deep, is free from thorns and weeds, and hungers for the word of God. Such soil is not something once received and then enjoyed forever: it requires daily maintenance, watering, and fertilizing. The maintenance is being vigilant to keep extraneous things from robbing us; watering is work of the Spirit as He uses the word of God to cause growth, and fertilizer is all the crap hard things in our lives that develop Christlikeness in us.

Whether listening to a sermon, sitting under a teaching, or reading a blog, the most important person in that process is you, the reader. As readers we choose, by the disposition and receptivity of our hearts, whether we will yield to the truth and be changed or be found to be hardened, shallow, or entangled in the world. The growth we enjoy or prevent is up to us and our submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Our constant prayer must be that we will be found to be good soil, receptive to the truth, committed to maturity, and cooperating with the Holy Spirit to facilitate the production of fruit that will be manifested through us.

At any rate, I was reading one of his posts about prayer and was dumbfounded – which is not the same as being “found dumb,” although in some cases it might be – to read the following:

Not too long ago I began to pray that God would teach me to pray. A bit of an odd request, is it not? Obviously I already knew something about prayer if I was praying about it in the first place, but my concern was that despite my prayer habits, which are sometimes good and sometimes bad, I have often felt that I just don’t really understand what prayer is all about. When I pray I’ve often wondered just what the point is.”

I believe God answered my prayer through Bryan Chapell and his book Praying Backwards.” – (failure to link to the book his)

What amazed me is that I have reason to believe that this serious Christ-follower truly believes 2 Tim 3.16-17:

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”

So it amazed me that he would have to go outside the Bible for a lesson on how to pray since Scripture declares it is sufficient to make us adequate and prepared for every good work, of which prayer is certainly one. It is all the more amazing because I’m sure this young man has long known Mt 6.6-9a:

But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.

“Pray, then, in this way:”

What follows that colon is the answer to this man’s question and all that he needs to know. You pray in the manner that Jesus Christ provided for all of His disciples – it is a paradigm of prayer for us.

I have been reading through Scot McKnight’s book The Jesus Creed, the essence of which is that Jesus added to the Shema to reveal the heart of His message:

‘AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.’

“The second is this, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” – Mk 12.30-31

Perhaps Scot covers this in his book (I haven’t completed it) but it seems to me that the so-called “Lord’s Prayer” – which should be called the “Disciple’s Prayer” – is the essence of the Jesus Creed. The first portion of the prayer concerns loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength; the second with loving our neighbors as ourselves.

It’s praying about God and then praying about others – or, better, about God and then about God’s family, which includes ourselves. That’s how you pray. It is that simple. Of course, just because something is simple does not mean it is easy but there is no need to go outside of Scripture to learn how to pray.

If this blogger were actually asking, “Lord, give me a reason to pray,” well, that’s an altogether petition, and a very scary thing to request. God knows how and will provide ample reasons for you to pray.

But as far as knowing how to pray, it’s all right there in front of us in our Bibles. Maybe we need to stop reading and blogging so much about praying and instead start spending more time simply doing it.

Romans has the reputation — well deserved — of being one of the most theological books in the Bible. Unfortunately, this reputation has led many Christians and even some commentators to wonder why Paul bothers with all the practical stuff at the end of the letter. He has finished the theology section at the end of chapter 11. Why say any more?

“Such an attitude betrays a basic misunderstanding of theology and its significance. All theology is practical, and all practice, if it is truly Christian, is theological. Paul’s gospel is deeply theological, but it is also eminently practical. The good news of Jesus Christ is intended to transform a person’s life. Until individual Christians own and live out the theology, the gospel has not accomplished its purpose.” – on Romans 12.1-2, NIV Application Commentary